Musicians ‘Jazz It Up’ in Shoreline
Published 10:52 am Friday, January 25, 2008
Everyone expects to have outgoing, in-your-face presenters talk it up when attending a benefit for a good cause. What about jazz musicians? They are about as pulled in as it gets. How do jazz musicians “Jazz It Up”?
The answer appeared at Shorecrest Performing Arts Center last weekend. Featured tenor-sax player Pete Christlieb spearheaded a fundraiser to benefit Shoreline-LFP Art’s Council’s Education and Scholarship programs.
The event came as another in the “Arts in Culture” series and included: KPLU Radio’s Jim Wilke, emcee; alto saxophonist, Bill Ramsay; music educator, Ken Noreen; trumpet notable, Cuong Vu, who conducted on this occasion; Shoreline Middle and High School All Star Bands; and the Faculty and Friends All Star Big Band.
Clean shaved and hair combed as much as today’s do’s can be combed, kids from both Shoreline School District bands grabbed attention making their impressive way through some jazz favorites.
Elements of the Big Band sound, swing and blues came off practiced and accomplished, the way teens on their best behavior can. What you couldn’t miss if you looked closely was rambunctiousness, a kind of eagerness to bust loose and show what they could do.
The link between the school kids and the Faculty and Friends All Star Big Band enhanced by Christlieb and Ramsay was the relationship between mentors and protégés. The grownups lighted up the path the kids can’t wait to trail blaze.
A true love affair with pure musical expression thundered, dreamed, moaned, whined, screamed, laughed and cried as pros and amateurs showed themselves and those of us they played for what jazz is about.
A little Fats Waller dragged you down. A little Johnny Mercer lifted you up, got you not to take life too seriously. Michael Asher’s “Another Evening” put you in the mood for romance. Steve Huffsteter’s “Mr. Nat’ral” lays out what it is to be cool in any generation’s lingo. Jeff Bunnell’s “Mr. Christlieb I Presume” was one musician’s salute to another.
There was syncopation, musically, and heavy emphasis, none of it intellectual, on emotion. Most of all, there was improvisation, that freedom of expression that comes from mastering something so that it is as much a part of you as breathing.
These guys played together for awhile, and then went off on their own while the others listened. The impression was that of loners putting one another at ease, enough to say or not say whatever was on their mind, except they said it with a trumpet or drums or bass or trombone.
In a way, “Jazz It Up” raised money the same way extroverts do: by talking.
Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at grayghost7@comcast.net or entopinion@heraldnet.com.
