The Luncheon Concert on August 24, 2003, was a great success. The Faculty Center at UCLA was filled beyond capacity. We appreciate the indulgence of those in the patio owerflow section. All attendees enjoyed the wonderful music and spirit as the Friends of Jazz at UCLA honored trumpeter Clark Terry, drummer Louis Bellson, bandleader-composer Gerald Wilson, and the late instrumentalist and composer Benny Carter with the UCLA Duke Ellington Master of Jazz Award. Singer Tony Bennett received the Friends of Jazz at UCLA Humanitarian Award. The presenters included drummer Frankie Capp, singer Dianne Reeves, musician and composer-arranger Quincy Jones, pianist-composer Horace Silver, and singer Tony Bennett. The Friends of Jazz at UCLA Award for outstanding contribution to jazz education was named in honor of Vice Chancellor Claudia Mitchell-Kernan.
Click here to listen to the music from the event: Side A
Trying to Find Their Voice
Thriving jazz program battles L.A. obscurity with frequent performances
By Angela Lu
Daily Bruin
Thursday March 10, 2005
It's funny how the guys of The Deutsch-Marshack Syndicate have every lady in their audience gushing, and yet, busy playing their solos, they don't even seem to know it. The young jazz sextet is performing on a Saturday night on the third-floor terrace of Covel Commons.
It's Casino Night in the dorms, and most people in attendance, busily gambling away fake money, probably aren't even aware that the band is there. But the few people who are watching the dynamic performance look as though they are completely mesmerized by the musicians.
At one point, two giggling girls scamper up to the band and jokingly hand over a fake gambling $100 bill, which is promptly pocketed by the keyboardist. Later, after an audience member requests a bossa nova song, the band plays "The Girl From Ipanema," which instantly puts second-year physiological science student Camille Pacis under a love spell.
"I love this song! What's it called?" Pacis asks immediately, after which she starts singing part of the chorus. "Tall and tan, and ... how does it go again?"
After hearing an impressive sax solo, she promises to make her future son play the sax and suggests going to a jazz club sometime to her friend.
But if UCLA students want to see live jazz, they don't have to travel very far. Jazz is almost always happening on campus, whether it's a performance by jazz students or a concert in Royce Hall through UCLA Live. This year, UCLA Live has featured a balance between newer, up-and-coming names in jazz such as Stefon Harris and several bigger names like Keith Jarrett, who is scheduled to perform in Royce on March 12 and Wayne Shorter, who is scheduled to perform April 9.
"Jazz is a really important part of our program and every year we have at least one major jazz series," said UCLA Live Director David Sefton. "That's how it's always been. Jazz, historically, has been one of the mainstays of the program at Royce Hall."
In fact, Duke Ellington made his American concert-performance debut at Royce in 1937, when he played a four-hour free concert for students.
There are also numerous performances by jazz students on campus. At a recent concert at the Fowler Museum, second-year trombonist Nick DePinna performed his cover in 7/4 meter of Incubus' radio hit "Stellar" with his group the Goodkind-DePinna Collective. The next week, bandmate and fifth-year pianist Jeff Goodkind got students at the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center of Jewish Life at UCLA on Hilgard Avenue up and dancing to the rhythms of his salsa band "Oye."
Consider the fact that there are 32 jazz studies students at UCLA and that each one is involved in multiple bands, many of which perform on campus. DePinna is involved in five different projects, while Deutsch-Marshack Syndicate and fourth-year trumpeter Elliot Deutsch is in 10 and Goodkind simply doesn't keep track.
"If I started counting, I'd probably go crazy," he said.
Also, the jazz studies program itself always presents two concerts at the end of each quarter, one featuring the smaller combo ensembles, and the other featuring the program's two big bands. The Jazz Showcase Concert featuring the combo ensembles is scheduled to perform March 14, and the big-band concert is scheduled to perform the next night. Both are scheduled to be held in Schoenberg Hall and are free and open to the public.
But since these concerts presented by the jazz studies program only occur once each quarter, according to Deutsch, a lot of people don't even know about UCLA's jazz studies program, which jazz great Herbie Hancock once said has the best jazz faculty in the United States.
"A lot of people don't even realize we have a jazz program," Deutsch said. "And (the performing groups of the program) don't really play around campus very often, as much as we should."
Perhaps many people are also unaware of the program since it has always been considerably small and is still relatively new, having been formed in 1997. Still, many jazz students and faculty members are proud of how far the program has come since its inception. Most will note the greater number of applicants that the program now receives. The competition for admission is fiercer and as a result, better jazz students are coming to UCLA.
This is something that Kenny Burrell, jazz studies program director and jazz guitarist, proudly attributes to his faculty of world-renown musicians.
"To me, we've all become better teachers," Burrell said. "All of the jazz faculty. And the reputation of the program has spread. ... We're getting better students."
With his legendary status in the jazz world, Burrell has been able to attract some of the best working jazz musicians in the industry.
"Because it's Kenny Burrell; he has such a marvelous and far-flung relationship with major artists, many of them legends, because he goes back enough," said The Jazz Bakery owner and UCLA jazz vocals Professor Ruth Price. "His whole career spans so much time that he's able to draw on marvelous big names."
Newly appointed jazz ensemble Professor Charley Harrison said what sets the UCLA jazz studies program apart and what really influenced his decision to come to UCLA to teach is the fact that the faculty members are working professionals who have not abandoned their career in music to work as educators.
"L.A. is probably one of the only places where that could happen," Harrison said. "If you were teaching at a university in a more rural area, there wouldn't be the opportunity to work as a professional so much."
Despite the jazz program's world-renown faculty, just how much the UCLA Jazz Studies Program has improved and how it ranks nationally, however, is still debatable.
"Based on what I read about the faculties of other schools, there's none better than ours in terms of their ability as musicians and their standing in the jazz world," Burrell said. "I don't know if we're the best, but I don't think they're any better than ours. So in that sense, we're at the top."
But Price feels the young program still needs time to grow.
"No, I don't think it is (one of the best collegiate jazz programs in the nation), but I think that's because it's a late starter, and I think it's certainly catching up," she said. "(UCLA) was one of the final major schools to come to the realization that it needed a jazz studies program."
Many agree that the program's biggest weakness is a lack of certain jazz-specific courses like jazz composition, jazz arranging and orchestration and jazz music business that they feel is necessary for a complete jazz studies program. The program's biggest challenge then is budget constraints, which have prevented such courses from being formed.
But beyond anything that has to do with the Jazz Studies Program itself, perhaps people at UCLA don't know the jazz program exists because jazz is still not a highly popular musical genre.
"Compared to New York, (the jazz scene in Los Angeles) is subpar," Price said. "This is possibly the worst, the most difficult of all the cities, to get people out to listen to anything like that. Jazz always has a smaller audience than rock or rap or any of the others."
Despite the efforts by UCLA Live and the campus faculty to promote jazz, artists performing at venues throughout Los Angeles often find themselves playing in front of significantly smaller crowds than in other major cities.
"Performers come to (The Jazz Bakery) usually straight from touring," Price said. "They're usually coming from San Francisco, where they can have lines around the block in a rainstorm there, and they get here and will have two dozen people on opening night."
Paying Tribute With Awards and Music
By Don Heckman
Los Angeles Times
Tuesday August 26, 2003
A new Southland jazz support organization made its debut Sunday afternoon with a performance and awards event at the UCLA Faculty Club. The Friends of Jazz at UCLA moved quickly to establish its visibility via presentations to a group of major jazz artists, virtually all of whom were present.
Singer Tony Bennett received the Friends of Jazz at UCLA Humanitarian Award. Trumpeter Clark Terry, drummer Louis Bellson, bandleader-composer Gerald Wilson and the late instrumentalist and composer Benny Carter received UCLA Duke Ellington Master of Jazz Awards. The list of presenters included drummer Frankie Capp, singer Dianne Reeves, musician and mogul Quincy Jones and pianist-composer Horace Silver.
The university’s Claudia Mitchell-Kernan was honored for her “contributions to scholarship and education in the field of jazz.”
Before the awards ceremony, which was hosted by Tommy Hawkins, the overflow crowd was entertained by guitarist Kenny Burrell, head of the university’s jazz studies program, leading a seven-piece ensemble featuring members of the UCLA jazz faculty. The lengthy program was dedicated to selections associated with both the awardees and the presenters, with fine solo contributions from the instrumentalists and a pair of sterling vocals from Barbara Morrison and Michele Weir.
Musicians, faculty jazz it up at fundraising concert Sunday
By Andrew Lee
The Daily Bruin
Monday August 25, 2003
It's hard to deny the history behind the artists that were honored at the Friends of Jazz tribute and luncheon concert Sunday at the Faculty Center. Honorees such as Tony Bennett, Clark Terry and Louie Bellson couldn't help but trade their memories of each other and of past friends such as Duke Ellington and Benny Carter.
But few could forget to acknowledge the impetus behind the event: keeping jazz a vital element of the academic and scholarly setting.
In an afternoon meant to raise money for the jazz studies program, an impressive cast of music artists used the luncheon as a look back, as well as a look forward, into the growth of jazz as a personal and national treasure.
In a series of performances by members of the jazz studies faculty, the group of renowned artists kicked off the event by paying musical tribute to some of the figures in attendance, including Quincy Jones, Horace Silver, Clark Terry and Louie Bellson.
Far from being a rigid lineup, several musicians were invited on stage for separate numbers.
Soon after the ensemble shuffled off stage, though, all eyes and lenses were on Bennett, who was awarded the Friends of Jazz at UCLA Humanitarian Award. He spoke enthusiastically of the art form, which he called the only American tradition besides baseball that ever really "worked."
But he also emphasized the importance of nurturing that tradition.
"I travel all over the world and we have a very magnificent country – but it's very new," Bennett said. "Everywhere in the world they understand jazz a lot more than American citizens do, because it's so similar to some of the arts that (other cultures) have."
Organizers initially planned to honor legendary musician Benny Carter at the event; though he passed away in July, speakers were eager to recall memories they had of the saxophonist, who often came to UCLA as a musician and a lecturer.
But many were also eager to look toward the future and draw attention to the afternoon's importance. When Friends of Jazz president Ralph Ehrenpreis reminded the audience of the recent tuition hikes at UCLA, he elicited low murmurs from the audience members.
According to Friends of Jazz board members, the money raised at the event will go a long way toward supporting the jazz studies program during the financial crunch.
"You'll be seeing more scholarships created, and more resources for graduate programs," said Friends of Jazz board member Claudia Mitchell Kernan, who is also the vice chancellor for graduate studies and the dean of the graduate division at UCLA.
"And there will be new programming which will give students more venues for performing. It's going to be exciting," she continued.
Students have a reason to look forward to the future of Jazz Studies, but judging from the attitudes they flaunted on Sunday, the educators were the ones who wanted to celebrate.
Before and during the luncheon, Prof. Gerald Wilson spoke eagerly of the opportunities that Friends of Jazz could bring.
"I've been teaching jazz in California for 39 years," he said, recalling his path to UCLA. "I went out to replace a young man for six weeks at Cal State Northridge, and I stayed for 13 years. I then went to Cal State L.A. and I stayed there for six years. And then my lucky day came, and I got an offer to come here, to this great institution."
And then, without the slightest trace of irony from a man who once arranged songs for Duke Ellington, he said, "I'm on top now."