Take the 1 Train
Gavin Harris, CC ’08, came to Columbia looking to pursue his interest in jazz performance. At the time, however, the program was underdeveloped and lacked a strong, supportive guide in the music department. Comprised of just three small four-to five-member performance groups, the semi-semesterly jazz performances on campus were generally poorly attended and did not generate even the slightest degree of publicity.
“We used to perform in the lounge of Philosophy Hall or the basement of Lerner—just a few of us. Basically, no one would ever show up,” says Harris, now lead trumpeter and the head of Columbia’s big band. While the program has made great strides in recent years, there is still much progress to be made toward the end goal of becoming a dominant force in the university’s thriving musical community.
But even this recent jazz resurgence at Columbia does not compare to similarly competitive institutions where jazz performance groups have long been some of the most robust and prestigious programs on their campuses. So what is the problem? An examination of the University’s music-department curricula could help answer that question.
A traditional bias has persisted in the department toward the academic aspect of its programs, namely the study of arrangements, composition, and other training techniques.
In the face of this prominent obstacle for would-be performers at the administrative level, Harris and company realized that if they were to make any sort of difference in the program, they would have to dictate their own changes and act on them. “A couple of the older musicians and I realized that we had to do it ourselves,” Harris says. “If we were to truly gain any sort of presence on campus, we would have to take the initiative.”
Harris and his older counterparts were largely unable to impart any significant changes or gain much recognition during the ’04-’05 school year. The following fall semester, though, the crew was able to re-establish an undergraduate big band, which had disbanded numerous years prior. In reviving the big band, the centerpiece group of any jazz performance program, they made a giant first step toward their goal of attaining a respected and recognizable status in the University’s musical community.
In the wake of these early start-up efforts, a response could be seen in the efforts of certain figures in the jazz studies programs and the music department at large. Most notably, Columbia’s own five-time Grammy-winning professor, Don Sickler, has acted as an important guide and a motivating force for the big band. While preserving and supporting the band members’ desire to take their own initiatives, Sickler has provided the big band with many valuable opportunities. Just last spring, famed jazz trombonist Curtis Fuller came to campus upon Sickler’s invite, to play with the big band at a concert in Miller Theatre. This past November, the group played at Miller Theatre with legendary jazz saxophonist Frank Wess in front of an audience of about 400.
By hosting events of this magnitude, Harris believes that Columbia’s big band is beginning to get the experience and recognition it deserves. As the awareness and depth of the program grows, the music collective here at Columbia will benefit enormously, especially in its interface with the larger New York City community.
“New York City is so steeped in the history of jazz and is a home to many famous jazz clubs and musicians,” Harris says. “I feel that it is important for our jazz performance programs to be able cooperate with and take advantage of the rich jazz culture.”
The Columbia/Harlem Festival of Global Jazz held in September could have been the perfect forum to integrate jazz performance students at Columbia with that “rich jazz culture” of our immediate surroundings—yet none of the student performers were invited to play at the festival. Here, the University may have missed an opportunity to make the most of our location in one of the country’s most vibrant jazz communities by performing in the community and interacting with its residents. Though the academic jazz program insists first and foremost on traditional learning, jazz students believe the actual application of this learning is what makes Columbia training truly worthwhile for the musicians.
Currently, a large number of the big band members are underclassmen, which bodes well for the future of the program. This spring, Columbia will host a number of jazz events, including a still-in-the-works showcase with invites going out to a number of other institutions. They’ll also be performing in Lerner Hall on Feb. 7 as part of Glass House Rocks. For a group that used to meet in the basement, the jazz performance program is moving up in the world—or at least in Lerner.