The Jazz Half

Cincinnati's Jazz Showcase

jh:  So Mike, how’s your summer going?

MS:  Its going great, thanks.

jh:  Where are you originally from?

MS:  St. Louis.

jh:  And what’s your major at XU?

MS: Political Science with a Communications Minor.

jh:  You’re entering your Senior year, is that right?

MS: Yeah.

jh:  So we know you play Tenor Sax.  How long have you played in a band?

MS:  I’ve played since the 4th grade.  I play tenor now, but I started with the Alto in the 4th and 5th grades.

jh:  When was your first introduction to Jazz Band?

MS:  I’ve started playing in the jazz band in the 6th grade.  In my Junior and Senior year in High School, I played in an advanced combo which was like, a 4 to 5 person combo rotating in and out… and during that time I also did things like the Jamey Abersold camp, did all my music, learned all my theory and everything.  And then, when I went on to College, playing music wasn’t a big factor in choosing a college; I was more looking at the programs I want to go into.  And I thought well, if I’m good enough, I’ll do it for fun. Then once I got into the jazz band with John, it was just so much fun.  It's such a different environment than I’ve ever been in; because I’ve always been taught, you know, 3 lines of instruments you played straight jazz; you got a lot of improvising.  And this was kinda more, just a rock/fusion group where, I mean, you do a little bit of everything where its not aimed at learning the music as much as performing it and entertaining.  You’ve moved on from where you were just trying to learn the old classics.  Now you’re onto, you’re trying to put together a show, to entertain, and work -professionally. 

jh:  It sounds like the XUJE program makes it come full circle for you from where you started; that’s awesome.  Now, most of the students in the ensemble are taking jazz studies as a minor, right? 

MS:  Yes, a lot of them are involved in the Jazz Program Minor; even the ones that aren’t take a lot of the core classes that evolved around it, which are basic jazz improvisation, and there’s um, Jazz Theory, uh, Writing and Arranging; John’s hope is by the time everyone graduates they’ve all written or at least assisted in writing a song in the group you perform; because pretty much across the board our group depends on writing from John or other people – most every chart we play is written in-house.

jh:  Wow, is that right?  So is that given to just the Juniors and Seniors, or is it everyone? 

MS:  Its kind of everyone.  Some people have more of a knack for doing it than others.  We just had a Senior who graduated who, for 4 years all you heard was how he wanted to write, how he wanted to write.  And all of a sudden last semester he finally got around to it and put 4 or 5 charts together.  There’s been some other students that have gone through starting their Freshman year just loved writing music.  It just falls on where your knack is – is it more on the improvisation side, or more on the writing side.  You can tweak the music a lot more when it’s your own work.

jh: So how big is the XUJE?

MS:  The size of the band rotates in the year depending the classes students have left to take in order to graduate, but it varies between 15 and 20.

jh:  That’s a good size.  We’ve seen the band perform at Edgecliff hall and in the Gallagher Student Center.  What were some of the other performances and venues the band has had in the past academic year?

MS:  We’ve played a bunch of different school functions.  We played for our 175 anniversary where they brought in a bunch of donors and everything.  We’ve been in the recording studio cutting our CD.  It took a lot of time to mix and get everything right.  We had a lot of different parts, and a few little kinks that came up along the way.  It should be coming out very soon. 

jh:  Mike, that’s hot!  We don’t want to ruin the surprise for all the jazz fans in Cincinnati, but will the CD contain different flavours of jazz?

MS:  Yeah, it’s across the board. It’s really a random mix there’s (then Mike goes through some of the titles – again, we don’t want to ruin it for you, Jazz fans!) and the name of the CD is called “Sweet Love”.

jh:  I’m so looking forward to it.  So lets talk about the chemistry.  What is the environment like say, during practice?

MS:  Its always a real weird experience at practice, because the more “in the zone” we are, the sloppier we get (laughs).  When we get in the zone we start really feeling it, the drummer starts switching beats, the bass player follows him, we’re changing tempos to songs – sometimes it great, sometimes John has to reel it in and say like, ‘what are you guys doing?  Come back together’.  But this gives us a good chance to experiment.  And then you know there’s other days we’re approaching finals where everybody’s just… I mean as a student, you’re not just playing music you’re trying to memorize your test the next day you’re like, “It’s 10:30 John (chuckles), we gotta go; I have a 20 page paper due that I haven’t started.  But most of the time once we get into a concert environment, if we’re in rhythm we’re just clicking; everything just comes out great.  Everyone listens, and it’s just so fluid.  It’s a great thing when that happens. 

jh:  I see.  What would you say that’s attributed to?  Is it the length of time everyone has been together, or is it the leadership? 

MS:  You’re familiar with everyone.  You pretty must trust everyone.  A lot of times the personalities in the band – there’s always like, 2 or 3 guys who are just, way out there on the side with crazy ideas, making jokes.  There’s running jokes that just go on and on between the members (laughs).  We get on each other and it’s just a big fun time.  No ones too serious to choke the music to death.  Everyone’s having a good time, relaxing.  Going out with your friends its like, having a beer and playing music is kind of what it feels like. 

jh:  And that’s what Jazz is about, right?  I mean, the focus is on the music, but for an outsider looking in it doesn’t look like it’s the focus because everyone is having a good time.

MS:  That’s right.  The focus is on the music – to a point. but the focus is on entertaining.  We’re clicking together, joking back and forth, that’s when the band is going to be the most entertaining.  There will be people dancing on stage, going around.  That’s makes it more entertaining than having 15 musicians up there just playing straight and stiff. 

jh:  Very true.  In talking with many fans of jazz music in Cincinnati, there is, a sort of “Silent Concern” growing in the jazz community where jazz music, which is mostly celebrated by earlier generations, will not be as acknowledged by younger generations as we become older.  Do you agree with that?  Do you think jazz is becoming a dying breed? 

MS:  I completely believe that, the way Jazz has been, it is a dying breed.  I’d love to sit here and tell you that from my experience that everyone is out there listening, but, for myself, I have one jazz station on my dial – I try to listen to as much jazz as I can, but I do have my own personal library of it, as well as a broad list of other genres.  But what I’ve seen from being in this Jazz Ensemble is, it’s what you consider “Jazz”.  It has evolved so much – like every other form of music, its just gonna keep evolving.  If you look at Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue”, and then you look at “Bitches Brew”,  I mean, there’s a transition that, from kinda straight-forward to being out there, kind of fusion where guitars are being brought in.  And you’re always gonna see jazz relaxed, its just going to be in a form that the purist who believe in jazz won’t necessarily recognize it.  But its still gonna be that idea of musicians going over the chord changes, playing ahead, and improvisation just kind of branching out, and it just might go completely out of there.  You seen those changes through every chord change a beat and a half in Coletrane’s “Giant Steps” and the modular tunes him and Miles Davis put together.  It’s just a shift in Jazz.  While Jazz might not be recognizable to my grandparents, in 10, 20 years, the idea of jazz will still be there, it will be just further advanced.  And people are always going to go back and listen to Miles Davis, Coletrane, Charlie Parker to pick up the roots of jazz.  But you’re going to make it your own. 

jh:  In a conversation we had a couple months ago, there was a time when the program at XU was a little in jeopardy.  And as a lover of the music, you’ve made the executive decision to step forward and be the voice.  Would you mind elaborating on that?

MS:  Basically, how the story goes, the music department needed to add a Music Educator in order to become accredited; which is the ultimate goal of the Music Department, that’s understandable.  In order to make room, they gave one of the ensembles to someone who had studied Music Education; so they would have a whole courseload.  Well, there were several ensembles on the chopping block and the Jazz Ensemble was one of them.  And given our teacher John’s age, and how its not a major program but a minor program, we were all very, very afraid John was going to get cut; and he’s one year away from having a 25th anniversary show.  And so, as members of the Jazz Ensemble we decided to take a step forward and say that John DeFoor has become an institution at Xavier.  He’s played with all the jazz groups in the ‘60’s.  He’s written a lot of jazz music.  He wrote a text book, that’s used at UCLA, and I believe USC.  So we decided to step forward and go to the music department, the President of the College of Arts & Sciences and the President of the University and just put our voice forward that, out of the people they have the option to drop, John is NOT an option.  His name needs to be taken out of this running.  This Jazz program needs to be protected like it is, because if you were to remove John, you would lose a lot of musicians who would want to do it (the program).  It would go to more of a “stumpy” type of jazz that no one would like to play.  We want to keep the jazz band as it is, with everyone together throughout John’s tenure. 

jh:  Now that is deep.  This truly shows the impact John has not only on the music, but the many hearts and lives of the students he’s touched over the years.  An absolute incredible story.  Have you guys kicked around the possibility of more venues throughout the city for next year?

MS:  We’re always kicking around venues, like, the “Picture This” Photo Gallery in Lebanon.  They’re interested in bringing in the whole Jazz Ensemble; then maybe a different month, bringing in a combo of some of the members of the Ensemble.  So yeah, we’re always open to new locations, new venues.  We try to branch out as much as we can – and kick around new ideas for venues.  We always like to do a bus trip – kinda make it like a fun party trip; like when we went down to Maysville for the Rosemary Clooney Jazz Festival in my Freshman year.  And we went to some small town in central Ohio; we played a show there to a packed Gym and it was so much fun!  It was in the middle of nowhere (laughs) but it was a lot of fun. 

jh:  So has the Ensemble released a performance schedule yet? 

MS:  It’s a work in progress – normally until about the first week of school.  But it’s forthcoming, and should be complete by early August. 

jh:  Awesome.  Will you please shoot us an email with those dates and venues?  We’d be more than happy to help get the word out.

MS:  Will do.

jh:  Mike, it’s really been a pleasure.  Thanks again for your time, we really appreciate it.

MS:  Not a problem.

The Jazz Half will publish the XUJE '07-'08 Performance Schedule as soon as it becomes available. Keep checking The Jazz Half for an upcoming gallery of some of the ensemble's past performances, as well as information regarding the release of their CD, "Sweet Love" .