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Bunny M." is a sixteen year old Dallas resident who plays drums, piano
and clarinet. Her passion for jazz and the challenges she faces as
a youthful fan of it is the focus of her Jerry Jazz Musician column, "Accent
on Youth."
Listen to Dinah Washington sing Accent On Youth 
___________________________
Accent on Youth
by
Bunny M.
*
Questions and Answers, Volume 1
My journey along the road of jazz admiration has led
me to meet so many wonderful people of all ages-- jazz fans like myself,
and incredibly talented local musicians. One of the high points of my personal
jazz experience is always meeting fellow young people involved with jazz
-- listening to and performing alike. Meeting a young jazz-lover always leaves
me overjoyed, and curious. I know why I like jazz, but what is this
other young person's reason for liking jazz? This month, I gained some
insight from two young jazz fans. My good fortune of knowing them has
enriched my life and enhanced my experiences with jazz.
________________________
Mitch Monson is a 17-year-old high school senior from Moline, Illinois.
Among other musical projects, Mitch plays trombone with The Bix Beiderbecke
Youth Jazz Band, a group featuring top musicians from Quad City area schools.
I met Mitch at the Bix Beiderbecke 100th Birthday Festival in Davenport,
Iowa, in July of this year, and his friendship has been among the fond memories
I brought back with me.
Bunny Mitch, how were
you first introduced to jazz? Why did it appeal to you? What kind of music
did you listen to before you discovered jazz? What sort of music do your
parents listen to? Had you heard of jazz artists prior to your discovery
of it?
Mitch Playing in a middle
school jazz band on Tuesdays and Thursdays before school. Prior to this I
had no experience with jazz, and my family had never been very music centric,
although growing up listening to the oldies with my mom in the car gave me
a great taste of Motown.
Bunny You discovered jazz
while playing in the school band. What was it about jazz that made
you fall for it-- was it a certain song, swing rhythm, a "riff" or what?
Mitch It was just playing
with kids. I got to play loud and have fun -- I just had fun with it, swinging
and playing music, just like I always had. I've always had a good time
playing music. I'm sure there is more psychology to it than that, but I just
took to swinging.
Bunny So would you say
then it was the swing that brought you in?
Mitch Kind of. See, I
never really played anything in junior high with any merit. I mean,
junior high charts are just like that in nature. I think it was the social
and communication aspects of playing in an ensemble that it really started
from. And the dynamics and fun nature of jazz is what really drove it home.
But swinging too, I was always fascinated by it.
| Bunny What sort of
music do your friends listen to? What are their attitudes towards jazz? Do
they listen to/ know about jazz? Have you ever experienced alienation or
"peer pressure" from your friends for liking jazz?
Mitch I have jazz friends, classical friends,
jam band friends, hardcore friends, pop friends. Everybody really has their
own brand of what they like, and we all disagree with each other. I have
a pretty formidable jazz reputation, but I have always listened to a wide
spectrum of music.
Bunny Who are some of your favorite artists?
Why are they your favorite? As a musician, which artists inspire you?
Mitch I am a big Charles Mingus fan. I listen
extensively to Mingus and Mingus' big band recordings. I also really dig
Al Grey and JJ Johnson, two of my favorite jazz trombonists. JJ really takes
care of business in keeping up with the bop guys on trumpet and sax. JJ's
voice is very light and elegant, and has a real creative twist that always
keeps me on my toes.
Bunny What are some of your favorite recordings,
and why?
Mitch Duke Ellington's Far East Suite,
for countless reasons -- not only a testament to the Duke and his ability
to write, but because it is a really interesting approach to doing a jazz
album. It was inspired by a tour in the Middle East and the music reflects
an outsider's perception of a strange land. Mingus' Ah Um really gets
me going too, and I think it is because it is so full of energy. Ah Um
has this raw, smoky sound that honestly caused me to laugh out loud the
first time I heard it. Finally, The Planets by Gustav Holst is one
of my favorite recordings of all time. I'm a Holst junkie, plain and simple.
Bunny You play in a band. What made you decide
to get involved with public performance, especially of jazz?
Mitch Sooner or later, if you play an instrument,
you're going to end up in front of people. In fact, to this day but especially
in my first few years playing, I get the biggest stage fright around. Since
then I've found ways to get over it, but I used to clam up and shake and
sweat over playing in front of people. I didn't play anything right for those
first few years, but eventually I figured it out and got better at it. And
it has even made me a better person. I don't know anyone who can go
to the mall or a movie alone like I do regularly. Playing live makes you
strong and independent.
Bunny So before you got involved with the
band, were you a "music" kind of person?
Mitch I actually wrote an essay about this;
furthermore, it's actually my college essay: I never really was good at or
stuck with anything -- I sucked at baseball and Boy Scouts. I always sang
to myself and loved music, but I didn't know what I liked and I never really
explored it. In sixth grade after I begged for over a year to play in band
-- especially since being in band meant getting out of class -- I got a trombone,
and I really took to it. |
Ellington: Far East Suite
Isfahan
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Mingus: Ah Um
Open
Letter to Duke
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Holst: The Planets
Mars,
The Bringer of War
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Bunny How do you feel about modern music?
Do you listen to/ enjoy it? How do you think modern music appeals to/ affects
youth?
Mitch I listen to as much modern music as
I do jazz. It's important to pay mind to past, present, and future with music.
While seemingly different than past music such as jazz, I see more similarities
between modern and older music than fans of both would care to admit. What's
most important is that kids rally around and appreciate music even still,
and what was true for jazz fifty years ago is now true for rock, and power
pop, and rap, and indie, and the countless other musical genres around. But
I do think people get too caught up in what they are comfortable with to
appreciate what came before or after what they're used to. Branching out
is important, finding a balance between old and new.
Bunny You said you see similarities between
modern and older music. That's really interesting. Could you
elaborate a bit on that?
Mitch Modern music -- let's say rock and
rock derivatives -- and jazz share a lot of common chord progessions. The
form is also similar, with choruses and bridges and verses. They both use
the same type of scales, and make use of melodic lines, and variation among
them. It's hard to explain from a technical standpoint, but I just see rock
as a variation on jazz where the volume has been turned up -- rap too,
especially. Nobody agrees with me, but rap is exactly like jazz --
it is improvisation, making songs out of other songs, playing over a repeated
or common background. Rap is just jazz with words instead of instruments.
Bunny <<laughs>> That's a really
interesting idea!
Mitch Even the rap guys, they are cocky and
fashionable and do everything the jazz guys did. Instead of wearing sharp
suits, they now wear bling. Honestly when you think about trends in jazz,
they are cocky bastards. Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colussus? Come on.
On all the "-ology" tunes -- "Ornithology," "Doxology," etc -- tell me rappers
don't copy each other like that. They parallel each other really well though.
And back to rock and things like that, it's great live just like jazz is,
and the big thing is just that the focus is to try to pack intensity and
a good time into a song, just like jazz. I wish I could explain it better,
but I see modern music as just repeating the thirties through fifties. On
the surface they sound nothing alike, but a closer look really shows that
one is just derivative of the other.
Bunny I guess the social background of modern
and older music (of the twentieth century) is the same -- namely, every
succeeding generation seeking to distance itself from the previous.
Mitch Exactly, and by doing that they are
really the same.
Bunny How do you think jazz could be made
more appealing to youth today? Especially from a performer's perspective,
what are your thoughts on jazz, and what aspects of it do you think might
appeal to today's youth? Do you think it's possible for older, "classic"
jazz to appeal to youth? What are your thoughts on younger, jazz-oriented
artists, such as Michael Bublé, Peter Cincotti, Harry Connick, Norah
Jones, et al, appearing on the music scene today? Do you think such artists
will help or hinder the introduction of jazz to a wider youth audience?
Mitch The big hump with jazz is images that
get conjured up when you mention it. Jazz, along with everything else from
previous generations, will naturally be rejected by youth because kids are
going to want to migrate away from their parents and tradition, which is
why I think kids should find and be introduced to what they like now and
work backwards from that. It's pretty hard to push Coltrane on a teenager,
but if you go from rock to blues and cross over to funk and hit all the decades
sooner or later you're going to end up in the jazz era. People aren't any
different now than they've ever been, so they have the same capability of
liking jazz as liking classical, as liking rock and roll. It's really just
a matter of linking them all together, going from one stepping stone to the
next. Crossover genres are also very helpful. Jazz-pop and blues-funk, which
have a modern appeal, could be the bridge for someone to bop. A recent trend
in jam bands helps for the jazz cause too. Bands based around improvisation
with elaborate percussion and wind instrumentalists put out records that
all of my friends own. Its a variation on jazz, and its immensely cool that
it's as popular as it is. The bottom line is that just because things arent
the same as they used to be, isn't a reason to discount it. Appreciating
the former and the latter is the real key to getting a full musical diet.
Miles Davis was a fan of Jimi Hendrix and Prince.
Mitch Monson can be emailed at: mitchmonson@mail.com
*
Brandon Seitzler, a native of Plano, Texas, is the drummer for 15th Street
Jazz, a local jazz youth band made up of Bryan Aduddell on guitar; Chris
Casey on tenor and alto sax; and Steve Saverance on bass. I first had the
pleasure of hearing 15th Street Jazz live at a local Christmas Festival in
the historic district of East Plano. The fact that these young musicians
(all high school students at the time) were playing jazz standards with all
the finesse and professionalism of the original musicians, completely blew
me away, and further fueled my ventures into jazz/youth relations. Their
debut album, The First Session was recorded this autumn.
Bunny How were you first introduced to jazz?
Why did it appeal to you?
Brandon I was introduced to jazz by my uncle,
Ken Griffith. Ken is a fellow jazz drummer and one of the greatest I've had
the privilege of knowing and playing with. When I came to the question of
"why does jazz appeal to me?" it made me think. When I listen to jazz, as
silly as it may sound, I can't seem to sit still. There is something in jazz
-- swing-- that makes the body want to move. It's hard to not want to play
music that truly consumes your body.
Bunny What was your attitude toward music
previous to your jazz discovery? Did you listen to it at all, or were you
just like "eh, whatever?" Also, what did you hear growing up around the house?
Oldies? Hard Rock?
Brandon Previous to my jazz discovery my
favorites included Primus and Metalica. Growing up around the house my family
listened to most everything: classical, jazz, country, Vanilla Ice -- seriously
-- pop, but never really much hard rock.
Bunny What sort of music do your friends listen
to? What are their attitudes towards jazz? Do they listen to/ know about
jazz?
Brandon Up until my senior year in high school,
most of my friends listened to a span of music from Hendrix to 50 Cent, but
it wasn't until 15th Street Jazz that my friends started listening to jazz.
We prided ourselves in feeling that we began to almost popularize jazz at
Plano Senior High School. On a daily/ weekly basis we would have students
and teachers coming up to us and asking us when and where they could hear
us play next.
Harry Connick: 30
If
I Were a Bell
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John Coltrane: A Love Supreme
Resolution
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Art Blakey: 3 Blind Mice
Up Jumped Spring
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Bunny Have you ever had a negative experience
related to your liking jazz? Are you able to listen to/ enjoy the music of
your non-jazz loving friends, and vice versa, with room for healthy debate?
Brandon To be honest I've always gotten the
vibe that my friends respect my musical tastes at times more than their own.
I've never been made fun of. I've actually been apologized to a few times
when getting into someone's car that doesn't have any jazz CD's. It's not
uncommon to hear "Sorry dude, I don't have anything good like jazz, I just
have a bunch of rock stuff". I've also had many friends previously not before
exposed to jazz ask my advice in some different CD's to buy.
Bunny Who are some of your favorite artists?
Why are they your favorite?
Brandon My favorite artist is hands down,
Harry Connick Jr. Harry's band swings incredibly hard and plays with great
style. Along with Harry I also love Mike Stern and John Coltrane.
Bunny What are some of your favorite recordings,
and why?
Brandon On the John Coltrane album A Love
Supreme, the second disk is John's live performance of the full movement
recorded in France in 1965. This is one of my favorite recordings, probably
because of my love for live jazz.
Bunny What made you decide to get involved
with public performance, especially of jazz?
Brandon That's simple. Jazz is most definitely
my favorite music to play, period, and to hear live. I can only assume there
are other people who feel the same way.
Bunny What aspects of live performance do
you enjoy most?
Brandon First of all, stage performances
are most certainly my favorite way to play. More so than an intimate club,
bar, or coffeehouse atmosphere, I absolutely love being on a stage. When
performing live you have the opportunity to give the audience more than the
music, you get the opportunity to sell them the music. This is something
15th Street Jazz was great at. Especially on a stage we were able get the
crowd into every song. Just because it's jazz I think a lot of people feel
performances should be relatively subdued. I couldn't disagree more.
Jazz is a type of music that gets people moving and in an upbeat mood. Any
show that 15th Street Jazz played was more like a "rock show" only with jazz
music, and the people loved us for it.
Bunny Who are your influences as a drummer,
and why?
Brandon My biggest influence as a drummer
was always my uncle, Ken Griffith. My teacher Kyle Jenkins has truly refined
my playing and is helping me achieve a new level of playing. More famous
jazz drummers would be Art Blakey. I enjoy Art's busy and interactive style
he plays to accompany the band. For fusion you can't go wrong with Dave Weckl.
I was introduced to Dave through my Uncle Ken. I feel taking fusion ideas
from Dave Weckl has improved my straight-ahead jazz playing.
Bunny How do you feel about modern music?
Do you listen to and enjoy it?
Brandon I enjoy listening to a lot of modern
music. All players must remember there are other very talented musicians
out there that are just playing different styles of music. Some of my favorites
include Dave Matthews Band, Primus, and Morphine.
Bunny What are your thoughts on the more modern
forms of jazz, say of the last twenty years? Do you think modern jazz would
benefit more from experimentation and exploring new musical territory, or
sticking more closely to older jazz tradition?
Brandon I'll simply quote Charlie Parker
in saying, "Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If
you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's
a boundary line to music. But man, there's no boundary line to art." |
Bunny How do you think jazz could be made
more appealing to youth today? Do you think it's possible for older, "classic"
jazz to appeal to youth? What are your thoughts on younger, jazz-oriented
artists appearing on the music scene today?
Brandon After what we did with 15th Street
Jazz in only one year in Plano -- a very cosmopolitan and pop culture-driven
town -- it is obvious that jazz is appealing to the youth of today. The problem
is getting the men and women of the music industry to understand this. 15th
Street Jazz was able to do a lot on our own, but in trying to expand, we're
seeing we need help from the music industry. Some of our fan's favorite songs
were "classics". The youth of today associate well with this music, they
just need young people like 15th Street Jazz to play the tunes and help lead
the way.
Bunny Along with public performance, especially
of young musicians, are there any other methods, in your opinion, that would
help to get today's youth interested in jazz?
Brandon Obviously marketing comes into play
here. Don't get me wrong -- I don't think the music needs to change. 15th
Street Jazz proved that the music is a hit, but I think that if the industry
is trying to reach a younger crowd then they simply need to market towards
a younger crowd. First the music industry needs to recognize the presence
of a young audience that is interested in jazz. There has been about a fifty-five
year time period in which jazz was no longer a young person's music. With
bands like 15th Street Jazz showing that there is this audience of young
people out there interested in jazz, the music industry will catch on and
shift their marketing towards the younger jazz audience.
15th Street Jazz can be contacted via email at: FifteenthStJazz@yahoo.com
Peace is the word,
Bunny
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"Bunny M." is a sixteen year old Dallas resident who plays drums, piano and
clarinet. Her passion for jazz and the challenges she faces as a youthful
fan of it is the focus of her Jerry Jazz Musician column, "Accent
on Youth."
You can contact Bunny at: lotusflower1922@hotmail.com
*
Accent on Youth archive
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