Jazz concert culminates one class’s summer of musical education

Saturday night, a local big band will play jazz at Port Plaza.

This band is made up not of veteran musicians but of devoted amateurs learning improvisation and music theory in South Puget Sound Community College’s jazz ensemble class.

The free concert will showcase both a large group and a smaller ensemble playing “Sweet Home Chicago,” Van Morrison’s “Moondance,” the Average White Band’s “Pick Up the Pieces” and Wynton Marsalis’s “Little Red-Haired Girl,” as well as funk and traditional tunes from the 1930s.

The students taking the class this summer are a particularly dedicated group. Most are not full-time students but retirees and working people who just love music. They asked the college to offer the class during summer session for the first time.

“The students wanted to keep the momentum going,” said Richard Lopez, who’s teaching the class this summer and co-teaches it with James Schneider during the regular academic year. “We have many students who return for subsequent quarters. They’ve built a jazz education culture among themselves.”

“We’re doing it because we love the music and want to play,” said Margi Carlson, who’s taken the class multiple times during the past two years. “I played piano when I was younger, and I thought I’d like to come back to it and start learning it again.”

During the regular academic year, the ongoing class attracts a mix of students from the community college and The Evergreen State College, plus community members seeking a musical experience beyond what’s available in solo lessons. The college encourages students who aren’t music majors to sign up, and music educators can earn continuing education credit for the course.

“It’s been a good way to learn piano and playing it in relationship to other musicians,” said Carlson, who also plays melodica and percussion in the Artesian Rumble Arkestra. “If I just took lessons by myself, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to play with other people.

“It’s a very full experience on many levels, and it’s challenging for me.”

She has learned a lot about music theory, and she also appreciates the camaraderie with fellow students and the exposure to a wide range of music.

“It’s like being in a book club,” she said. “Each semester, we get a whole new list of music literature. It’s fun to be exposed to different styles of music and different composers.

“Richard and James are both very supportive,” she added.

The class, which meets two evenings a week in the summer and one evening each week during the regular school year, also studies the history of jazz.

“We stand on the shoulders of others who have come before us,” said Lopez.

“Jazz is an American tradition,” he said. “It a genre that we can be very proud of, and it’s a genre that’s appreciated in virtually every country around the world.”

Lopez, who also teaches privately at Centralia College, said he’s delighted by the progress the students make each quarter as they work together.

“At first, we have to put in a lot of energy and effort to get it off the ground,” he said, “but as we move through the quarter, they take so much ownership.

“They’re making really good music right now, and I’m really excited about this concert.”

The ensemble does one public concert each semester. In the spring, the musicians performed with the Four Freshmen.

“That was tremendous fun,” Carlson said. “The Four Freshmen are fantastic and it was fun to back them on a couple of their songs.”

“We had great attendance,” Lopez said. “It was a very entertaining and dynamic group.

“Part of what we try to do is cross-pollinate with professional musicians,” he added.

The opportunity to mingle with the professional includes Lopez himself, a trombonist who has played with many well-known jazz artists, beginning when he was a college student at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where he did an internship that gave him the chance to play with big-name entertainers performing at the casinos.

This summer’s concert puts the students in the spotlight. It also marks the first time they’ve taken an active role in promotion, putting up posters all over town and doing interviews on local radio stations.

“It’s not just the music that we’re learning about, but also about how to get a band up and off the ground,” Carlson said.

This story was originally published August 18, 2016 at 3:48 AM with the headline "Jazz concert culminates one class’s summer of musical education."