Thanks Letter from the President

Letter from David M.J. Lee - President of TUJF

June 1st 2015, the first jazz festival featuring young musicians had opened up its initiative. With almost no monetary sponsors, no website, no followers on Facebook or Instagram, all we had were 20 of the undergraduate bands, 42 volunteers, 5 masterclasses and 3 JUNO winning artists who believed in us.

With such small yet huge support, this year we just wrapped up another successful year of 4th annual “T.U. Jazz Fest”. Different from our concerns, there was thankfully no rain but many people smiling and laughing while listening to Jazz in the Now.

There were many hiccups and mistakes, but also several strokes of luck. The biggest fortune we have had were our pleasant musicians across North America who understood all the delays and errors, the audience who came to support these young musicians, all sponsors, grants and donors who made our mandates and last but not the least, our volunteers and members who devoted their time and energy not only during the festival days, but throughout the year. A big round of applause not only for the musicians, but also for the members and volunteers as they were the ones working hard to wrap it all up. Truly deserving indeed!

As you have given us lots of love with your comments, next year, we hope to make changes for the better. Maybe not only the size of the festival, venues, stages, staff members or venue map itself but I can promise that it will be better and most importantly, be the starting point of being an international young music festival in jazz.

On behalf of those who believe the future of music, Jazz in the Now, I’d like to give my thanks and also ask you to keep supporting us, following us and believing the fact that your support on this festival will affect the better future in music, arts and culture.

I know there are countless things that need to be changed and improved, but nothing could be done without your interest, consideration and concern about it.

Please stay tuned for our next steps and feel free to give us any feedback whether positive, negative or any sort of personal suggestion of any kind.

Thanks again for this year and we all see you all at T.U. Jazz Fest 2019!

Making a Painting into a Song

It happens all the time: a poem gets turned into a song; a linguist will write a poem or poetic description of a work of art; a painting may even be drawn based on the emotional response an artist had to a piece of music. Although instances of this transformation of one art medium into another has happened frequently throughout history, the debate is open (especially in philosophical circles) whether this transformation is either possible, or worth the effort.

While this entry is not going to debate these philosophical arguments, I did want to present one thinker’s view on the issue.  Leo Tolstoy (yes, the writer of War and Peace), despised the works which were being labeled ‘art’ during his life. He believed that art only entered the “art canon” when it was deemed to be worthy of the label ‘art’ by those grumpy art critics. Perhaps exaggeratedly, Tolstoy even claims that no matter what “insanities” are found in works that come to be critically proclaimed as art, a theory will eventually be developed, post-haste, that stands to justify the work’s place in the art world.

I’m sure we’ve all had an experience like this, even if it was in our youth;  you walk into a room, see something so simple, hideous, or totally outrageous that you are stunned to find out that it is a multi-million dollar work of art. Perhaps you’ve even seen a musical performance that you thought was undeserving of the label ‘music.’ In fact, this is the theory of art critics as taste-makers which can be used when explaining instances like this. 

Let’s look at mega-famous pop artist Andy Warhol’s work — for example, who would ever think that an installation made of soft drink boxes could ever been deemed ‘fine art.’ The same goes for most of Warhol’s other works; even if you love them, the recognition given to his works by the kings and queens of the art world played a major role in bringing his pop art to world audiences. 

I’m sure many of us today may scoff at some of the ‘art’ that society tries to sell us. This may go for visual art, music, poetry, literature, theatre…

However, Tolstoy does offer us a solution, if you scream that all of today’s art is “garbage!” This solution comes to us through didacticism, a concept which in this context refers to the communication of the artist’s or creator’s feelings to the viewer through an art medium. According to Tolstoy, something can only truly be deemed to be ‘art’  when the audience is infected by feelings the author has felt; the audience must gain some awareness or knowledge of the creator’s past life experiences. A great example of this quality would be to look at Van Gogh’s Starry Night, and ask yourself “how does this make me feel?”  The ‘feel’ part is important when thinking about Tolstoy’s didacticism.

A more extreme example of the above would be to look at a self-portrait, such as M. C. Echer’s, and allow the emotion of the piece to wash over us. When looking at a self-portrait, the creator has chosen to represent themselves, and therefore all the moments, joys, and woes leading up to the point the work was created, through an art medium, making for a potentially powerful burst of feelings and awareness. In fact, Tolstoy believed that the more efficient a work is in relaying the feelings and experiences of the creator, the greater the work of art is. For him, the greatest works of art are those which put as little emotional distance as possible between the creator and his audience.

For Tolstoy, at least, it would be difficult to see Warhol’s thoughts, dreams, and humanity in a stack of mass manufactured soft drink boxes.

Now let’s get to the main point; can works of art be transformed from one medium to another? While this may be difficult for a works such as Warhol’s, didacticism teaches us that if we can discover what the creator’s feelings behind the original work were, we may in fact be able to effectively make a poem into a song, a painting into a play, or a symphony into a drawing. This process of transference between mediums may be no simple task, but where human emotions are involved, it seems that this is possible to accomplish, as long as the new work presents the same feelings as the original.

The thing to keep in mind from all of this is to always ask yourself how a work of art or music makes you feel. And they don’t have to be good feelings. Art can represent anger, joy, sorrow, elation. It can show us the inner workings of human consciousness, the aspects that make us all feel human. And, admittedly, perhaps, as could be argued about Warhol’s Brillo Boxes, could make you feel mass-manufactured and unoriginal — although Tolstoy would believe this work to be void of feelings altogether. 

Here are some interesting examples to check out if you want to see this transference between mediums in progress.

Van Gogh’s Starry Night, as performed by Don McLean

Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, as composed by Richard Strauss

Shakespeare’s text O Mistress Mine from Twelfth Night, as performed by Elvis Costello (excerpt)

- Brenden Varty

The Golden Age of Canadian Jazz

The music scene in Toronto and around the world was forever changed in 1968 when valve trombonist Rob McConnell formed his flagship ensemble The Boss Brass. McConnell, a London, Ontario native, gathered some of the top studio musicians from around the city to form what would become one of the most swinging, recognizable, and influential big bands among his contemporaries.

The Boss Brass, recording a total of 27 albums, was most active during the 1970s and 80s, and their legacy includes recordings with such musical giants as Mel Tormé, Phil Woods, and Ed Bickert. Their repertoire consisted mostly of modern swing arrangements of songs from both the Great American Songbook and other works from the jazz repertoire. McConnell’s mastery of big band arranging allowed him to write charts with such mastery and creativity that any one of his arrangements could stand alone as a prime example of big band arranging.

McConnell passed away in 2010, and the band has essentially disbanded (occasionally reforming for reunion shows); however, many of the musicians who gave the band their sound have vibrant careers to this day. Saxophonists such as Alex Dean, Pat Labarbera; trumpeters like John Macleod, Bruce Cassidy, and Guido Basso; rhythm section players Don Thompson, Terry Clarke, and Brian Barlow. Most of these jazzers can still easily be found performing around Canada and the world both as band leaders and highly in-demand sidemen.

Although the musicians listed above still constitutes a who’s who of Canadian jazz, the recognizable sound of The Boss Brass, apart from McConnell’s arrangements, was in no small way catalyzed by the expansive trumpet range of Arnie Chycoski and the original playing style of Guido Basso on the trumpet and flugelhorn. Chycoski’s range allowed higher trumpet parts to be written and included more frequently, and Basso’s somewhat quirky style of playing and mastery of melodic improvisation also contributed to the unique sound of the band.

Of course, during the “Golden Age” of Canadian jazz in the 1970s and 1980s, there were many musicians outside of The Boss Brass who were doing their part to advance jazz music in Canada. Master clarinettist Phil Nimmons (now in his ninety-third year) was playing with his original ensemble Nimmons ’N’ Nine Plus Six, Maynard Ferguson (at that time living in the states) and his bands were touring the world, vibraphonist Peter Appleyard was playing with Frank Sinatra and the Count Basie orchestra… the list goes on and on.

Canadian trombonist/arranger/bandleader Ron Collier also was having international success at this time, with Duke Ellington releasing the album “Collages” in 1973 with Collier and his orchestra (am I the only one who finds it almost too coincidental that two of Canada’s best jazz arrangers were both trombonists?).

Predating the 70s and 80s, it is worth noting that saxophonist Moe Koffman, a long time member with The Boss Brass had a hit with this blues piece “Swinging Shepherd Blues” in 1957, hitting #23 in the Billboard pop chart.  This piece propelled Koffman into being recognized as one of the most influential jazz flautists of his generation.

For anyone interested in listening to recordings of The Boss Brass, I recommend starting off with this recording of “Just Friends”. The band ‘shout chorus’ (the part where the drums and rhythm section drop out), is a prime example of McConnell’s unique treatment of his big band arrangements. On top of this, I’m not sure anything quite swings as hard as this!

Next time, I hope to write about some of the more contemporary jazz musicians who have been expanding the art form in more recent years. 

Until then,
Brenden Varty

Living as a Musician

Making a living as a musician of any breed is not a simple path to embark upon.  Not only do we have the task of making enough money to afford room and board, but we also have a long musical legacy to respect and find our place in.  For this blog entry, I thought I would take the reader through various tenures the ‘jazz’ musician may have found themselves in throughout the history of the genre.  (Jazz-o-philes beware!  This is meant to be a brief overview!)

When thinking about jazz, even for myself, the first things that come to mind are those golden age legends such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Louis Armstrong, as well as the famous dance band set-up made so popular in the 1920s.  As a player in one of these dance bands, you earned your living by playing the same (or at least very similar) sets of music at various dance halls, night clubs, and yes, even the infamous speakeasies of the time (as a side note, Al Capone supposedly played banjo in the Alcatraz inmate band).  Here, the musician’s role was to provide music for the audience to jump and jove to, and for many bands, the only personality that mattered was that of the conductor, who can be thought of like a mascot (think of Cab Calloway and Artie Shaw).

The jazz musician’s role did a complete 180 in the 1940s.  Thanks to legends like saxophonist Charlie Parker, pianist Bud Powell, and guitarist Charlie Christian (who also was a electric guitar pioneer!), a new style of jazz known as bebop came to life.  As a bebop player, audiences came to venues such as Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem to listen to you play, rather than to dance, which was extremely liberating from a creative perspective.  Rather than playing similar sets of music at dance halls across the country, bebop musicians were respected for the personality they were able to put into every note, as well as for playing virtuosic lines never before thought possible.  The increased importance of the ego of the player did alienate some audiences, and making a living as a bebop musician was undoubtedly more difficult than being in a touring dance band.

The prospects for a jazz musician became exponentially more vast in the late 50s to the early 60s.  Cats such as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock (who recently played at the White House for International Jazz Day), and John Coltrane used their creative capacities to expand the boundaries of music, pioneering new concepts, techniques, and song-forms.  The jazz musician now was a mix between performer and artist, and had to be able to play in multiple styles to both make a living and achieve their own personal creative goals.

Herbie and Miles were also originators of jazz-rock fusion (usually shortened to simply ‘fusion’), which meant that the jazz musician now had access to electronic processing, synthesizers, and rock-oriented grooves which they could incorporate into their performances and recordings.  Miles’ fusion period remains controversial to this day (some love it, some…well…), but the genre remains alive, and much music is still released in this style.

Today, jazz musicians find themselves being influenced and drawing inspiration from more sources than ever before.  These include film music, Western art music, Indian and other Eastern classical musics, R&B, soul, post-impressionism, cubism, science fiction, literature, dragons, the fourth dimension, and probably even this tea pot sitting in front of me.  Please don’t misunderstand this list as a mockery of modern jazz music - our influences can seriously reach into esoteric realms.

I should note that none of these styles of music ever really went away.  Bebop did not kill Cab Calloway, and Coltrane didn’t push bebop to the shadows.  Jazz fusion was being performed while dance bands were still playing — although the number of touring dance bands was, admittedly, quite low.  Even today, with the massive plurality of genres the jazz musician can draw from, all genres of jazz are still being performed on one stage or another. 

Although living as a musician is undoubtedly difficult — and I will do anything in my power to dispose of the sometimes-alluring ‘starving artist’ trope — the fact that we are able to play such a vast repertoire of music while continuing to grow personally and creatively throughout our musical careers makes for a beautiful, if sometimes challenging, life.

P.S.  There is a great Lindyhop swing dance that still happens every Saturday night at Dovercourt house in Toronto — top-notch swing music is provided for the dancing enjoyment of all, and I definitely recommend checking it out!

- Brenden Varty

Jazz as a Valid Music Today

It’s difficult to put into words how much jazz musicians have to constantly prove their worth in the music industry. Our validity as modern musicians is an apparently debatable thing in today’s realm of artistic expression and to be brushed off as nothing more than a relic from the swing era is an unfortunately common occurrence. Over and over I have heard the question “why not perhaps consider putting on an event that is less old fashioned?” and the statement “jazz is an extinct genre”. 

It is difficult to really blame people though, because jazz simply isn’t the popular music of the times anymore, regardless of all of the stylistic and technical innovations which are constantly being infused into the music. Many people just don’t typically gain immediate access to the jazz music of today because they don’t actively seek it out, or they think that because they have seen Talladega Knights they can identify all jazz as sounding like Charlie Parker. It also isn’t difficult to discount the fact that the majority of today’s music has been formed or greatly impacted by jazz if one hasn’t taken a glimpse at North America’s musical timeline.

Why does this impact jazz musicians so much? This is because when we step out into the world and try to promote ourselves, many promoters, venues and events place an expired stamp on our heads, potentially jeopardizing our income which we need in order to sustain ourselves off of our craft alone. We are then faced with the obstacle of having to justify the reliability and enjoyability of our music. 

I think that perhaps one of the most overlooked features that jazz musicians have is versatility. I honestly believe that all music has a place in the world and that nobody can establish a particular style or genre as superior to another. Having said this, to completely discount jazz music as, at the very least, a helpful (and sometimes crucial) stepping stone to bettering ones self at music in general is a huge mistake. There is so much to be taken from studying jazz and through knowing people who have studied it (including myself), I can undoubtedly say that it improves the way you hear, see, feel and play music by far. 

Jazz is a highly demanding kind of music to practice and to live by. It commands hours of practice and abstract thinking to come up with different ways to contextualize a melody or a set of chords. It’s one thing to see these concepts and learn them down on paper but with jazz and improvisation you can’t fake that knowledge in practice. This is why we have taken the considerable time and energy to ensure that there is a place here in Toronto for emerging artists to immerse themselves in a professional, educational and welcoming environment where they can network and establish the credit that they require to carry forth into the working music world, regardless if they should continue with jazz as their sole genre or not. 

- Becky Hargreaves