Kelly Rossum - "Highlights from 'Minnesota Connection' with Maryann Sullivan"

Maryann: …And that’s the music of Kelly Rossum here on “Minnesota Connection” from his new CD “Party’s Over / Begun.” Kelly Rossum, trumpeter, my guest in the studio today from the MacPhail Center for the Arts. And that tune called Toxic Fruit and Kelly, I think I’ll let you talk about the other folks joining you on that album.

Kelly: Well, on that track you just heard it features Woody Witt, a tenor saxophone player from Houston Texas. He’s actually a very old friend of mine, from Omaha, Nebraska where we both went to high school, and then we both kind of ended up by different paths at the University of North Texas. He was studying jazz saxophone, and I was actually studying classical trumpet. Both of us were getting graduate degrees there. He stayed in Texas, and then I kind of continued around the country and ended up in Minneapolis.

Maryann: How did you end up in Minneapolis from Texas?

Kelly: Well, my family is originally from Minnesota, but I haven’t lived here until I moved here, say, five, six years ago. I was in Nebraska, did by undergraduate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, continued to the University of North Texas, and then kind of played around the country. I played at Bush Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia for a while, and then decided to continue with my university training at the University of Minnesota. And I’m embarrassed to say I’m still working on a doctorate degree at the University of Minnesota (laughing), hopefully it will be finished this year, with Dr. David Baldwin, a wonderful trumpet teacher. And then I had started at MacPhail when I came here to Minneapolis.

Classical / Jazz

Maryann: I have one more question before we talk about the other folks on the album. You said you trained as a classical trumpeter, when did you make the jump over to jazz?

Kelly: Well, all of my university training has actually been in classical music, classical performance. Among the things I currently play, I play natural trumpet, which is the baroque trumpet without any valves, in the Lyra [Concert Baroque] Orchestra, here in the Twin Cities. Jazz has always been kind of a love of mine, and not really a formal training. I’ve picked it up whenever I can, and have listened, obviously, to everybody possible, but I’ve never really made it a formal exercise in my academic life.

Maryann: What do you bring from your classical background to your jazz playing?

Kelly: All classical musicians have extraordinary technique and control of their instrument, to even be able to play what they need to play on a daily basis. And I think that’s invaluable in playing jazz music. You have to have control of your craft, and then you can choose to make whatever art you would like, once you have mastery of your own particular idiom. So I think it’s very, very important for all musicians, jazz, classical, or even rock musicians to really understand their instruments, to understand their tools before they try to play any type of music.

Maryann: Do you have one style of music that you prefer over the others?

Kelly: Oh, that depends on what day it is.

Maryann: Ok. (laughing)

Kelly: I go back and forth so often. Really, there’s too much wonderful music out there to focus on any one type of thing. Bluegrass is really fun, especially on Saturday mornings,…

Maryann: Right, and that bluegrass trumpet…

Kelly: (laughing) I’ve played trumpet [in] just about everything you’ve ever heard a trumpet in. I was a professional polka player for about six months, lederhosen, the whole works.

Maryann: Oh boy, near and dear to our hearts here in Minnesota. You’ve done it all.

Musicians on “Party’s Over / Begun”

Maryann: Let’s talk more about the other folks on the album. Ellen Lease I believe is from the Twin Cities.

Kelly: Yes, the other musicians are also Twin City musicians. Ellen Lease is an absolutely wonderful composer and pianist. She and her husband, Pat Moriarty, have a group that plays quite a bit of free jazz and exploratory music. It’s just – ear opening. Really a pleasure to work with her. Mike O’Brien is the bass player who is probably the busiest bass player I’ve ever met. You turn around, and you look in the back of the band, and there’s Michael O’Brien playing bass. Just a fantastic musician, wonderful, wonderful person. And Edgar Oliveira is the drummer on this recording, who I’ve had a chance to play with over the years in many different groups. We’ve played together with the Vic Volare band, which was very popular for a while. He’s a fantastic drummer, has a wonderful swing feel. Plus he’s been recently playing with Mason Jennings, I think. And he has a great pop sensibility about his playing as well.

Maryann: If someone were wanting to find out more, do you have a website?

Kelly: I do have a website that’s fairly new, it’s www.krossum.com That has all of the information of where I play, information about the album, and there are quite a few sound samples, on the website, from other groups I’ve played in.

Maryann: Terrific.

Teaching at MacPhail

Maryann: Well, let’s talk about some of the things that you’re doing with the MacPhail Center for the Arts in Minneapolis. Do you teach privately there?

Kelly: Yes, I teach trumpet instruction out of a private studio, and that’s still my primary focus. MacPhail is a very unique place in that we take absolutely any level, any age of student. So I have beginning trumpet players who are six years old, and I have beginning trumpet players who are sixty years old. And it’s just a joy to work with all of these different types of people from the community and teach them how to play an instrument.

Maryann: Kind of tough on you though having to adjust your…lesson plan, and…

Kelly: Actually, I think it fits my personality well, because if I do any one thing for too long I do get tired of it and I do get bored. And teaching such a wide range of students, it’s really wonderful, it makes for an enjoyable day. Because in the next half hour you’re dealing with a completely different level of thought, and it’s really interesting. It’s really fun.

Maryann: Just as an aside, in your lessons, where do you find young people coming through, where do they reach that point where, “now I really want to work at this.” You know… you get the ten year old, eleven year old, “oh my Mom’s making me practice and I can’t stand it…”

Kelly: It’s actally very curious that the younger students have a need to learn. They want to learn it. They practice. They are so, so in to playing. And by younger, I mean younger than the school age beginning students. So, say fourth grade, second grade. They have just a hunger to learn, and they are my favorite to work with. And then as you get into school, I would say junior high age, people start to realize that maybe being in band isn’t as cool as they want to be? But it really is. Take my word for it… it’s very cool. So please do that.

Maryann: I know it is. Make life-long friends.

Kelly: But that’s where is starts backing off a little bit.

Maryann: Oh that whole teenage thing. I’m living with that right now. You need say no more. But I always thought it was kind of interesting, teachers that I know that I talk to, just glum on to the students that want to learn. You know, “oh, thank goodness, here’s someone who wants to learn.”

Kelly: After teaching for many years now, my favorite surprise is when a student who’s been kind of just coasting along comes in and, just, you can tell that they have been practicing two, three hours a day all week, and they’re fantastic. Some lightbulb just went on. It is such a joy to see that, and to hear that. That happens frequently enough to expect it. I’m kind of always hoping, “this is the lesson… here they come… ready… and……okay maybe it’s next week.”

MacPhail Jazz Education Center Coordinator

Maryann: Well speaking of the lightbulbs going on, MacPhail has a new program, the Jazz Education Center, you are the coordinator of the Jazz Education Center. How did that come about?

Kelly: Well, we have always had jazz at MacPhail, mostly in the extent of private instruction. It has always been a part of the improvisation aspect of everybody’s teachings. Everybody within the jazz instrumentation, excuse me. And over the years we have had ensembles. It’s difficult to formalize it into a center or into a codified program, because once you have the interested student, it’s often times difficult to retain them over the years, in ensembles, in group performances. So we have had quite a bit of jazz at MacPhail over the years.

Maryann: Why is it hard to keep them?

Kelly: I’m not exactly sure. I think it’s because a lot of the school age students go on, so the recruiting needs to be done at a very young age. And one thing that we have just started at MacPhail, as a matter of fact, it was just recently, I started the jazz for beginners, and the oldest student in that class, I believe is twelve. It’s a group of very talented kids. And they’re really fun to work with, and I’m hoping for some wonderful things from that group. That’s the direction that I’m shooting for, is to develop a nice strong base of jazz young students. And we’re doing this Jazz Education Center, not to replace anything that’s going on in the schools, but to help supplement it. We’re definitely trying to support what the schools are doing, and get some outside help, possibly, for some students, that might not be in a situation, or the school might not be able to provide jazz instruction for them. And there’s a definite need for that right now, so there’s the timing of where the Jazz Education Center has come about.

Maryann: Well, and a lot of… and this is true where my sons attend school, it’s extracurricular. So, the meeting of the jazz ensemble is quite early in the morning (laughing), a couple days a week, because it has to be done outside of class time.

Kelly: Absolutely.

Maryann: And, so, how wonderful to have folks from MacPhail coming and teaching. I mean, this is what happens right… you can have somebody come from MacPhail and talk to the students about improvisation, or ensemble work.

Kelly: That’s an aspect of what we’re doing this year is we’re offering free clinics to schools of our artists. Our teaching artists will actually come out to the schools and do some clinics to help with their jazz band, even for their regular concert band, or choir. Vicky Mountain is our jazz vocal instructor, wonderful, wonderful performer, delightful person, and she can come out and work with the choir in ways that many directors don’t have the resources to. I absolutely applaud the public school directors who make the effort to do jazz in their curriculum, because it has to be extra-curricular. Very few schools allow it, scheduling-wise in the day, so they go up and above the call of duty to have jazz in their programs. Some schools are not able to do that, and we want to be able to help make jazz accessible to all the students, at all the different schools.

Maryann: And if an educator were listening right now, could they just check the MacPhail website for information on how to contact you regarding that?

Kelly: They can check the MacPhail website or they can call me directly, and the phone number for that is (612) 321-0100 ext. 500. And then I will actually get to talk with them and set up, based upon their needs, of what they would like. Whether it will be a bass instructor, percussion, any of the horns. We have, I believe, eighteen different faculty currently teaching jazz at MacPhail - some wonderful faculty. And we’re all able to come out to the schools and do some of these clinic / master class programs.

Maryann: With instruments?

Kelly: With instruments.

Maryann: That’s a wonderful thing for young kids to be able to learn that, and to see people who are practicing the craft. I think it’s so important, and they get a kick out of it too. Because, they’re not sure, exactly what they’re doing, you know, they’re floundering a little bit. So the more people they see… I think they really take a lot of it in, take a lot home from it.

Maryann: Now, as far as the Jazz Education Center, how did you end up as the coordinator? Is this your baby, so to speak?

Kelly: It’s kind of like the recording of Miles Davis, "Birth of the Cool." It’s a group of wonderful musicians, and then basically somebody jumped up and said, “I’m going to call it my album.” (laughing) We have so many talented teachers, instructors, musicians, at MacPhail, somebody, essentially, just had to step forward and kind of take the bull by the horns. And I pretty much stepped forward to do that. It’s a big challenge, but I’m really looking forward to getting out in the community and meeting different teachers, different instructors, different community partners.

Maryann: Now, you have brought with you another CD, of music, with your big band. Talk about that, and we’re going to hear a track from that, but I think a couple of the folks on that album are instructors at MacPhail.

Kelly: Yes, a couple of the musicians are from MacPhail on that. The name of the big band is Exit 50, and I have purposely chosen a name, that breaks the tradition of the “So-and-So Big Band.” I play a lot of classical music, so the brass quintet is a very similar parallel. It’s always the “Blah-blah-blah Brass Quintet.” Well, okay. The “Blah-blah-blah Big Band.” No, that’s a little too old. So I chose a name, Exit 50, which is just pulled out of the air, for a contemporary jazz ensemble. Maria Schneider is actually a former Minnesota graduate, wonderful composer, and she is essentially my hero, right now. I’ve had a chance to talk with her a little bit, and I patterned a lot of my big band writing, my large jazz ensemble writing off of her music. But, from a financial standpoint, the big band is almost impossible to have perform live. The JazzMN Big Band by Doug Snapp has been doing a wonderful job with their series. They had a Stan Kenton [tribute] performance this fall, and it’s fantastic that he’s been able to get that type of thing out and to the public. It’s very difficult, and then you add on top of that, original compositions, by a fairly unknown composer, and you’re out of luck. There’s no real venue to do that.

Maryann: And that’s very sad.

Kelly: It’s very sad, but it’s realistic. That’s kind of the nature of the beast right now. So this recording was basically a need of mine, to record this piece. We had a session essentially for this piece. The title of the piece is Little Mary. It’s on my release “Party’s Over / Begun” as a quintet song. It’s a simple waltz, it’s actually written about a lake here in Minnesota. So it has a very peaceful, tranquil setting to it. The big band orchestration does use some of the MacPhail faculty. It starts off with an acoustic guitar, which is unusual for the big band. And Brent Weaver is one of our classical guitarists at MacPhail. He agreed to come in to record this for me. It was really a pleasure to work with these musicians from all around the Twin Cities area here. There is some fantastic playing, and fortunately, Woody Witt, my friend from Houston, the tenor saxophone player, was in town, and he also played on this recording with the large ensemble. So this recording features tenor sax, Woody Witt, on Little Mary.



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