MY SHOT
I’ve never been into jazz. I dated a jazz drummer in college — once. Out of loyalty to writer Toni Morrison I read ‘Jazz’ but ‘Beloved’ is better. And one year I bought my jazz-loving father-in-law a Coltrane CD for his birthday.
Then along comes Moody’s Jazz Camp. I enroll my kids and I get it. I get jazz. I’m blown away by the collaboration, improvisation, playfulness, subtlety, and vision inherent in jazz.
It’s the sixth year that J.J. Morgan has invited some of the best jazz musicians to Truckee to awaken our kids, free of charge, to jazz.
This camp is a simple jazz composition itself.
The intro: Bring in talent who collaborate with each other and kids; bring in kids, ages 10 to 18, who play an instrument; provide a place to play. The melody: experience — it’s not ‘jazz appreciation’ camp as much as it is ‘be a jazz musician’ camp. The solo: courage.
J.J. invites parents to stay, so I do. I sit in the back-alley of Moody’s under the black mesh tarp flapping in a sky framed by electrical wires. The stage, speakers, parking spaces, dumpster, delivery trucks are set against signature white tablecloths and strewn flutes, trumpets, trombones, saxophones, violins, guitars, drumsticks, melodicas, two tubas, and a stand-up bass.
Into this urban scene each morning ramble brilliant musicians in T-shirts, boxy caps, flip-flops, or K-Swiss. They carry bagels, iced coffees, original compositions. They grin. Eager kids jump to assemble drums, amps, mics. Their teachers are all leaders of their own bands, but here they form one. Hip, kind, funny, they bring the city and music to the kids, whose own ease with jazz varies but whose awe for them is immediate and mutual.
Bare arms draped over their instruments, students watch their teachers play jazz: boogaloo soul, Jamaican-Caribbean, Latin-Afro-Cuban, swing, and New Orleans. They watch them collaborate, crack smiles at each other’s stunning solos, admit occasional failure, create something new. Jazz is always new.
Pianist Peter Apfelbaum, whose next gig is the Paris Jazz Festival, describes jazz as the creation of ideas. In daily breakout sessions, kids learn melodies, practice soloing. Later, gathered on stage, their teachers alongside them, they play. Each student, in turn, solos: blows, bows, strikes, or plucks, trusting him/herself to simultaneously perform and create. Doesn’t matter whether the solo stutters or soars, this year’s camp leader, Adam Theis, nods or knuckles or mouths, ‘You killed it!’
My children know sunlit snow, rocks, lakes. They don’t know the night, which J.J. presents with smooth accessibility. Each evening, kids can enter the lounge, stand by their teachers, brush up against Moody’s red velvet curtain, play under lights before a packed house. Each student is introduced by name, amplified, and applauded.
Moody’s Jazz Camp stays true to what some call the greatest American art form by awakening our children to a new world, new music, and new selves.
~ Submit your My Shot to editor@moonshineink.com. Limit is 600 words.
