After a two-year hiatus, the program is fully funded and adding value for students

NORTHAMPTON—After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Elliot Ross Memorial Jazz Artists in the Schools program has returned to Northampton High School with five guest musicians teaching four sessions to students in the Jazz and Rock Improvisation Workshop.

This visiting musician teaching program is solely funded through donations from family and friends of the late Elliot Ross, a musician and graduate of the high school. Ross died at age 21 in November 2018. By request of the Ross family, the Northampton Jazz Festival established the Jazz Artists in the Schools program at Northampton High School the following year. 

Donations to the program now top $15,000 and make it possible for students of music at the high school to gain insight, tips, and techniques from professional, working musicians. 

Led by band director Paul Kinsman, the program is a collaboration between Kinsman and Northampton Jazz Festival’s Creative Director and Producer Paul Arslanian.

“I am so grateful for all the guest lecturers Paul Arslanian is bringing in, and the Ross family that has kept this program going. It’s really important that we keep jazz in the schools, and this has really helped us come back strong after two years when we were silenced,” said Kinsman.

This spring, five visiting musicians have visited the high school to teach four sessions each of Kinsman’s Jazz and Rock Improvisation Workshop, an elective scheduled during normal academic hours. Each guest musician has led a clinic and workshopped with the students on various topics around the art of improvisation to help hone their skills.

“Jazz as a genre of music is so diverse and so wide that having a different guest musician come in every week has really exposed me to different ideas that I can absorb and then incorporate into my improvisations,” said Ilan Bryant, a pianist and senior at the school. “I have also been surprised by how the diversity of the other student musicians around me has helped me grow in this class.” 

The guest musicians have included Evan Arntzen, a jazz clarinetist and saxophonist who received his master’s from the Jazz Arts program at The Manhattan School of Music this spring; George Kaye, a lifelong professional jazz bassist; Gabe Childs, a guitarist and recent graduate of the Berklee School of Music; Justin Esiason, a professional trumpeter and a graduate in music at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and Dave Haughey, a professional cellist, composer, teacher, and improviser.

“For me, starting out improvising, listening to all of the greats play, it was really frustrating to me because it wasn’t as easy to play as they made it sound,” said Bryant. “So, to actually have seasoned musicians come in and break down improvising in all these different parts makes me appreciate how difficult, how complicated, and how interesting it is, but it has also allowed me to take steps in the right direction to work on my own solo.”

The visiting musicians were given the opportunity to teach students different aspects of improvisation given their own professional experience. Topics included melodic variations in improvisation, harmonic considerations in improvisation, the role of guide tones and voicings in improvisation, and the role of rhythm in improvisation.  

“Each one of the guest musicians is an improviser at a high level and brings his/her own perspective to this very large field of music—improvisation and jazz in general. Having that many different perspectives really benefits the students’ growth,” said Kinsman. 

On April 8, visiting musician Gabe Childs asked each student to play a solo during the song “Sunny” by Bobby Hebb. After their solos, Childs gave each student feedback, the student musicians critiqued their own solos, and then members of the class commented on the solo as well.  

“Hearing what everyone else had to say about that person was so nice, and the things they were saying were so encouraging to each other. It was a beautiful moment,” said Childs. “The fact that they were able to point out the great parts of what each person did was just so nice. That’s the fundamental essence of artistry—being able to point out what is exceptional.”

For more information on the Jazz Artists in the Schools Program visit www.northamptonjazzfest.org/jazz-artists-in-the-schools or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/northamptonjazzfest or email to info@northamptonjazzfest.org.

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Events scheduled throughout downtown Northampton

NORTHAMPTON—After a three-year hiatus, a revival of the Northampton Jazz Festival will kick off on Friday, Oct. 19, with events scheduled through Oct. 21 throughout downtown Northampton.

The headliner for this year’s event is 14-time Grammy Award winning Latin Jazz Master Paquito D’Rivera and his quintet; they will perform Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy of Music.

“This is a rare appearance for Paquito in this area, and it is not to be missed,” said Ruth Griggs, president of the eight-member board that formed to breathe new life into the mostly free popular jazz event.

The Northampton Jazz Festival was founded in 2011 by a group of community leaders who wished to stage an event that brought out the community as the former “Taste of Northampton” once did in the early 2000s.

Griggs said, “We are thrilled to be able to carry forward our great American music tradition of live jazz right in downtown Northampton. In 2018, we will honor this mission in new and meaningful ways. We are renewing the fest with a rich line-up of jazz artists from across the globe and around the region.”

The 2018 Northampton Jazz Festival will begin Friday, Oct. 19 at 5 p.m. with a Jazz Strut in which bars, cafes, restaurants and Pulaski Park will play host to small jazz ensembles—resident artists from the Valley—all evening long. Jazz Strut venues include Sam’s Pizzeria and Cafe, Haymarket Cafe, ConVino Wine Bar, Northampton Brewery, Platform Sports Bar, and Hugo’s. Musicians play for two hours at each location with a staggered start time each half hour, so patrons can enjoy many different bands and establishments all evening long.

Saturday’s music line up starts at 11 a.m. at CLICK Workspace with Miro Sprague on piano playing with vocalist Dominique Eade of Berklee School of Music. The music continues through 7 p.m. at Thornes Marketplace, The Parlor Room, The Unitarian Society and Pulaski Park. Marching bands Expandable Brass Band and Prone to Mischief will lead parades of visitors from one performance location to another.

Sunday, a Jazz Brunch at The Hotel Northampton will be held as a fundraiser for the Davis Financial Group Jazz in the Public Schools Program. Performing will be the Green Street Trio with Steve Davis on trombone and Linda Ransom on vocals, plus a student jazz ensemble from JFK Middle School. Tickets are $40 each and must be purchased in advance online at https://www.northamptonjazzfest.org/jazzbrunch.html.

Find the full festival schedule at www.northamptonjazzfest.org/schedle.html.

The Paquito D’Rivera Academy of Music tickets are $35 premium seating; $25 regular seating; and $10 student seating with ID. Tickets are available at the Academy of Music box office at http://aomtheatre.ticketfly.com/.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Paquito performed at age 10 with the National Theater Orchestra, studied at the Havana Conservatory of Music and, at 17, became a featured soloist with the Cuban National Symphony. As a founding member of the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna, he directed that group for two years, while at the same time playing both the clarinet and saxophone with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra.

Paquito’s numerous recordings include more than 30 solo albums. In 1988, he was a founding member of the United Nation Orchestra, a Grammy winning (1991), 15-piece ensemble organized by Dizzy Gillespie to showcase the fusion of Latin and Caribbean influences with jazz.

Felipe Salles, professor of music at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a 2018 Guggenheim Foundation Composition Fellow, will play with his quartet at the Unitarian Society as will Don Braden, world renowned educator and saxophonist with his “Organix Quartet.”

For the full slate of musicians, visit https://www.northamptonjazzfest.org/musicians-2018-northampton-jazz-festival.html.

Griggs said that the festival board is actively partnering with the Downtown Northampton Association (DNA) directed by Amy Cahillane to help ensure the success of the event.

In addition to Griggs, board members for the Northampton Jazz Festival are: treasurer, Alan Blankenship, of Chicopee; clerk, Kathy Service, of Northampton; and directors, Paul Arslanian, of Northampton; David Picchi, of Holyoke; Carolyn Smith, of Easthampton; and George Kaye, of Hadley.

For more information visit www.northamptonjazzfest.org or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/northamptonjazzfest or email to: info@northamptonjazzfest.org.

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