By Luke Willson
Think of jazz, and you probably imagine a dark, smoky club, where the listeners sip quietly on their martinis. But that’s not what it was like at the Jazz Links Jam Session on February 13.
Think of jazz, and you probably imagine a dark, smoky club, where the listeners sip quietly on their martinis. But that’s not what it was like at the Jazz Links Jam Session on February 13.
The MC was hard to hear over the chatter of excited children in the audience. Kids sat at tables in front of the stage, chewing on happy meals and fiddling with their musical instruments. A clarinet tooted as the rhythm section opened up their chops on the first tune.
The jam sessions, produced by the Jazz Institute of Chicago, showcase students from various local public school music programs, in an effort to get young people interested in jazz.
The Institute lined up a stellar backing for the young musicians – David Carroll on bass, Ernie Adams on drums, and Robert Irving III, known for producing two Grammy-nominated albums for Miles Davis in the ‘80s, on keyboard.
“In this country, you only hear jazz in weddings and movies,” said drummer Ernie Adams. “I’m overseas a lot, and young people in places like Europe come out to hear it. Here, it’s thought of as background music, and people talk above it, like tonight.”
The MC was back on stage by the third group, reminding everybody that, with such great jazz artists on stage, they should be “a great jazz audience.” That meant no more talking, and it got pretty quiet. For a while. However, by the end of the evening, the chatter had crescendoed until it was hard to hear the people on stage again.
Diane Ellis, the band director at Arthur Dixon Elementary School, had some trouble keeping her students settled down too. When they started to horse around in the hall outside of the performance space, a flash of anger was enough to silence them. But, for some reason, her claim that the thirty kids with her were “pretty quiet on the bus over here” seemed like an understatement.
“Lil Sax” Ellis, a professional alto saxophone player with her own all-female jazz group, said that every one of the over 800 students in her school has to learn an instrument. Her program is keeping young people involved in the musical style. And she starts them young. Very young.
The Tiny Tots Jazz Combo that she directs is made up of students from first to fourth grade. The group showcased six singers, a drummer, two piano players (on the same piano) and an electric bass player. The drummer, Kenari, was a veritable Chick Webb, though he was only in first grade. He carried the group, taking a long solo and utilizing the entire set. He even played with Ellis’ middle school students.
“I wish I had gotten started that early,” said 16-year-old drummer Charlie Snyder, from Northside College Preparatory School. “I wasn’t that good until seventh grade. I started playing in sixth, but if I had started in first…”
Snyder, and a few of the older kids, played with the flair and control of professionals. The best musicians in the Jazz Links Program get to open for big names this summer at the Jazz Festival, as they have in years past.
Daniel Melnick, the Jazz Institute Programs Manager and Musical Director of the Jazz Links Ensemble, says that even though the program has yet to produce actual professionals, he’s not disappointed. It’s just not old enough, he commented. But, a few former students are at some of the best music schools in the nation, like Juilliard and Oberlin.
Out of tune and unbalanced, not every group was made up of prodigies. But, it was great to hear the kids playing their hearts out.
Jacquese, an 11-year-old alto sax player from Harold Washington Elementary, said that the Jam Session “made you feel like something was really happening.”
Upcoming Jam Sessions are scheduled for March 12, April 9 and May 14 at the Chicago Cultural Center.
