05/04/2007

Special to the Record-Eagle
Left, Chris Brubeck during his Interlochen days. He was a student at Interlochen Arts Academy from 1965 to 1969. Right, Chris Brubeck now.

All that jazz

Interlochen alumni return to celebrate 40-year tradition

By
Record-Eagle staff writer

Click here for this weekend's lineup

INTERLOCHEN — Dave Sporny still recalls the first jazz group he put together at Interlochen Arts Academy in 1967.

Made up of classical music students eager to experiment in the then-illicit genre, the group met on Monday nights from 6:15 to 7:30 during the "ice cream parlor” period, he said.

"At the time, the place and the administration were very, very conservative,” noted the then-24-year-old instructor of low brass, who went on to found the now-renowned jazz studies program at the school. "The only thing I could do was on the students' free time. We put together a big band and we gave this concert. The whole student body came. It was revolutionary. I was like Osama bin Laden because it was absolutely forbidden.”

From those humble beginnings, the jazz program at Interlochen has developed into one of the top programs in the country, winning Downbeat magazine's "db” award more than a dozen times in the last 20 years and producing an equal number of famous musicians — most notably vocalist Norah Jones.

At least 75 jazz alumni will return this weekend for a series of performances, presentations and social gatherings marking 40 years of jazz at Interlochen, said Bill Sears, director of jazz studies at the school.

Highlights include free concerts today and Saturday in Corson auditorium, led by Sears and featuring the Interlochen Alumni Jazz Ensemble and the Interlochen Arts Academy Jazz Ensemble with guests Chris Brubeck, trombone; Peter Erskine, drums; Walter White, trumpet; Xavier Davis, piano; and Sporny, now 64, trombone. All are well known in international jazz and classical circles.

The concerts are taking place concurrently with the first alumni weekend devoted exclusively to jazz, said Chris Hintz, Interlochen's national marketing and communications manager.

"Once we saw the lineup of artists we had, it became clear we couldn't just keep it to ourselves,” Hintz said. "To see all these guys together is going to be a real treat.”

Erskine, who attended the Academy from 1968-1972 after seeing a Life magazine pictorial about the school, has been back a handful of times to teach and perform. But he said he's looking forward to reconnecting with old friends from what was then called the Studio Orchestra.

"We couldn't call it jazz back then,” said the 52-year-old musician, winner of a 2007 Grammy Award for Best Large Ensemble Jazz Recording. "Jazz was a dirty word in schools during the '60s. They came up with euphemisms like 'stage band' and 'lab band.' At Interlochen, it was Studio Orchestra.

"Whenever we would play, it was really gratifying to look up and see the bouncing and bobbing bald pate of the Hungarian (Academy) orchestra conductor Nicholas Harsanyi. He was a fan of the band. I always sensed a twinkle in his eye when he looked over at me, because I was the 'jazzer.'”

Established in 1962 on the coattails of the successful National Music Camp, Interlochen Arts Academy focused on classical music education, said Sporny, now professor of trombone and jazz studies at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. But when a group of students familiar with his collegiate jazz background at the University of Illinois begged him to start a jazz program at Interlochen, he obliged.

Over the next 15 years, he introduced jazz into the Academy's curriculum, going to battle frequently with the administration and often paying for equipment and bus transportation himself so the program could grow.

Erskine, who was among the earliest crop of jazz students, recalls playing at the Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival in 1969 with the Studio Orchestra — the only high school band invited.

"I remember I threw up before one of the concerts, I was so nervous,” said the drummer, who since has played on more than 400 albums with artists like Pat Metheny, the Bob Mintzer Big Band, the Yellowjackets, Diana Krall, Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan. "But the band literally stopped the show. The place went nuts.”

Eventually, said Sporny, the Academy jazz program was so successful that then-Interlochen president Roger Jacobi asked him to start a program at the summer camp in the early 1970s. When Sporny insisted that part of the students' education should be performances on campus by major jazz artists, Interlochen booked the Stan Kenton Orchestra as the first jazz concert on its Interlochen Arts Festival — with a recently-graduated Erskine on drums.

"More people came to that concert than any other concert. It surpassed the crowd that John Philip Sousa had,” Sporny said, referring to a 1931 concert conducted by the band director that drew an audience of nearly 10,000 people to the campus.

Composer-bassist-pianist-trombonist Chris Brubeck — a member of the Brubeck family jazz dynasty — said one of his great memories is being able to be a part of the Academy jazz program from the start.

"There were some members of the administration that liked the idea and there were definitely more that thought it was heresy,” said Brubeck, a 1969 Interlochen graduate. "Sporny was visionary in knowing that all good orchestra players should know how to do both classical and jazz. Now, 40 years later, there is no snobbism left. Classical players respect the hell out of jazz players who have the chops.”

Since 1987, the jazz program has expanded to include two levels of jazz improvisation, a daily jazz history class, and one combo in addition to the award-winning 17-piece Jazz Ensemble, Sears said. The Ensemble has twice been named a finalist at the Essentially Ellington Competition held at Lincoln Center.

"I feel very fortunate in the battle that Dave Sporny ran ahead of me,” Sears said.

Sears said his goal has been to elevate the awareness and stature of the Jazz Ensemble to the level of other Interlochen groups and to place a greater emphasis on improvisation to give students an opportunity to develop their skills as jazz soloists.

While it's a goal Interlochen founder Joseph Maddy would perhaps never have approved of publicly, eventually he may have come around. Before his distinguished career as a music educator, the violinist played with jazz orchestras in Chicago and even helped get 1920s and '30s dance band leader Isham Jones his first job with an orchestra, said Hintz.

"It just took Interlochen a while to adapt to jazz,” Hintz said. "Certainly now we embrace it.”