Jazz Appreciation

            April is Jazz Appreciation Month. In the past, I have talked about Jazz: its effect on me, the disappointment that it brought, specific groups, groups I am personally involved in, and even jazz improv and theory. Clearly Jazz is important to me, but I don’t know if I’ve talked about how much I appreciate what Jazz has done for me.

            I didn’t really start to love or have as great of an appreciation for Jazz until about 2 months ago. My passion really started to grow when I went to one concert. This concert wasn’t any normal concert, it was with the University of Northern Iowa’s Jazz Panthers and Jazz One. At this concert I got to see what the next step in Jazz involved. I got to see professional musicians; not only the guest artist but the actual jazz bands themselves. It was an amazing concert and my eyes and ears were finally opened, as if I had been blind. After this concert I wanted to go home and spend the next 12 hours practicing, it didn’t happen, sadly.

            What made this concert so great you may be asking? Well, like I said it was professional musicians and seeing pros versus listening to recordings are two incredibly different tasks. It’s just like going to see a professional sports event, a professional Broadway production, a professional, you name it, it’s all the same idea. It’s the experience that inspires and strikes awe into the audience. Let me tell you, this concert was well worth the time and money; the experience was like none I’ve ever had before.

            Details. Right. Like I said before, the Jazz Panthers and Jazz One bands were both playing, but to put the cherry on top of a delicious sundae, a guest artist was brought in. This year the guest artist was Dave Douglas. He is a trumpet player involved in many groups; he has a quartet with Joe Lovano, previously mentioned in my blogs. He has also had many different awards, including Guggenheim Fellowship, an Aaron Copland award, and two Grammy nominations. He has composed many different pieces and highly influenced the jazz improv world. So this was really a treat for me to see and hear him live. Some of the pieces they played were amazing and made me feel energized and unlocked a whole new world in Jazz, I had never known I could feel this way about music. I was truly in awe and inspired after this wonderful experience.

            I walked out a changed man. Before all I had known was high school jazz band, now I know what a real jazz band and what real jazz music can do. The feeling of fear and the unknown had struck me. But along with this fear came an understanding of being fearless and unafraid. I had seen what lies ahead of me and am glad to take on the challenge.

            I finally understand what it means to truly appreciate Jazz. Jazz appreciation month has meant more than it ever has, I can turn on jazz and truly be inspired by the musicians of old, the greats who set the standards. All I have to do is follow their lead. How hard could that be?