April 14, 2000
FEATURES
[Gudmudson speaks on Brevard jazz notes
^BY VICTORIA ZGURA
Imagine working on a cruise
I ship, the open seas, enough food to
ifeed China for a month, beautiful
I men and women lounging in
[swimsuits, beautiful island ports to
go and play on, practicing your
saxophone for hours on end on the
sundeck and then performmg with a
band at night . . . That is what Jon
Gudmundson did during the years
he worked on cruise ships, whilst
saving up to go to graduate school.
“A cruise ship is a very, very easy
gig. . . It was so nice, I mean, you
work only two hours a day and that
leaves you twenty-two to practice,
so I was in good shape. . . sun,
sand, surf, working out, eating
right, reading a lot and practicing
many hours a day — I was in the
best shape ever!”
Within the famous music
department lies an intense jazz
program, and the person in charge
is Dr. Jon Gudmundson, Instructor
of Music and Jazz studies. He had a
I summer job most jazz musicians
^ would kill for, and the time he spent
practicing is primarily a reason for
: wanting the job.
The jazz program at Brevard is
extensive and rigorous, but those
who want to leam can walk away
from It with “gobs of experience,”
i according to Gudmundson.
The good doctor got his start
in Seattle, his home town, at North
Seattle Community College. He
spent two and a half years there,
• then took some time off to play
! with the Harry James Band. After
wards he received his bachelor s
degree from Western Washington
University. During a stint in his
t education, he played for a month
I with Pat Boone and Florence
* Henderson.
“The money was fantastic but
musically it wasn’t that great. It was
good for me though, I had to play a
lot of instruments. . .”
His master’s degree came from
Indiana University, where
Gudmundson studied with David
Baker, who is a trombonist, cellist,
and piano player, but ‘best known
as an educator’. It was before and
during Indiana that Gudmundson
played on cruise ships. He recently
finished his doctorate at the Univer
sity of Northern Colorado, where he
says the lack of pretty scenery cut
down on distractions and fed
directly into his philosophy on
college:
“Colorado you think of as
mountainous and pretty, but this
part of Colorado is flat and stinky.
There were a lot of cows out and it
has like the world’s largest_feed ^
lot.”
Gudmundson’s belief is that
experience, and therefore practic
ing, is the key to becoming a better
player.
“There are two kinds of
learning: there’s the kind of the
“real world” and the kind in school.
And they’re both good and they
both have their purposes.”
Gudmundson traveled from
school to school and took time off
in order to get experience, and one
of the reasons he likes Brevard is
that his students can get experience
here they cannot get at big schools.
“Our music students walk out
of here and they’ve directed,
conducted, composed and arranged;
and not just composed and arranged
for an arranging class but they’ve
composed and arranged and had it
played at live concert in front of
live people. By the time they re
done here they’ve done all the stuff
people from big programs are
waiting to become grad students to
do.”
Cacophony fills the band room
as students warm up their instru
ments. After they are prepared,
Dr. David
Kirby went
to the
Cincinnati
Conserva
tory. Com
pared to
where these
teachers
have stud
ied, things
are “ultra
lax around
here.” So
what does
Gudmundson
expect of
his stu
dents?
“I really don’t want to turn out
Be-Bop nazis where that’s all they
can do, and not very well, like a
bad version of Charlie Parker.’
He doesn’t want musical snobs
either, he wants them to be well
rounded. In Gudmundson s opin
ion “music is enormous,” and
musicians cannot be snobs today
because in order to get a gig one
must be able to play all types of
Photo courtesy of
Jon Gudmundson
The Pertelote.
. . . small and excellent is way
better than big and mediocre,
- Jon Gudmundson
music, or at least
many different
types of music.
The curriculum
for a jazz em
phasis includes
‘basics’; they
(students) will
know Duke
Ellington and
excited chatter takes cacophony’s
place. Enter the conductor. With a
cup of coffee in his hand and
maybe two seconds tardy he is
ready to hear some jazz music. He
pulls out a piece of music entitled
‘Manteca’ and slowly floats it back
and forth so they know which piece
to get out. “So who’s soloing this
time?” Hands go up and the name
of each soloist is called out loud.
“Anybody who won’t be back next
year, this is your last chance.” A
few more hands go up, then Okay,
from the top.” Without hesitation
Jon Creason comes in on his drums.
The music department is a
strict and well disciplined major.
Students rarely have time for
extracurricular activities.
“We work them real hard but
we also understand this is a small
liberal arts college - it’s just not
Indiana, it’s just not Julliard. But we
want our students to be able to go
to those schools.”
Indeed many of the music
faculty went to big name schools
for both undergrad and graduate
study. Ruth Still, trumpet instructor,
not only studied at Julliard with
Ivanovjch but also^studied the
' Paris Conservatoire in France and
Count Basie, Charles Mingus and
Charlie Parker. They will ‘not just
know who they are but know their
music ... by having a chance to
play it.’ Gudmundson believes that
“They need to know the history and
they need to know where this .
(music) is coming from. Then they
need to know the mechanics, they
need to know how to make music.
That means they need to understand
about jazz harmony, and they need
to understand about jazz improv
and the tools that the great impro
visers use.” He wants to educate
and inform his students of all the
music that is within the grasp of
their talent and skill, and believes
“well roundedness is the thing”.
What are major symphonies doing?
‘An Evening At the Pops’, ‘A
Tribute To Duke Ellington’, ‘Movie
Night’, because that’s what pays the
bills. If you show up and say, ‘I can
only do Bach, Beethoven and
Brahms’, then they look at you and
say, ‘Okay, well there’s a line of
about 200 trumpet players behind
you who want this job, and we Ml
ask one of them if they can swing.
SEE YA’! Gudmundson hopes that
his students will finish as prepared
musicians, who e^n^go^Qut in,
community and work,
and do what they
want and do it well.’
The jazz pro
gram is Gudmundson’s
baby. Before he was
hired there was a jazz
band but no program,
students only studied
classical music. Ben
Boone was the con
ductor of that old
band, as well as David
Kirby. There are no
immediate plans to
make the program any
bigger. However,
Gudmundson does
think it would be cool to
have a faculty jazz combo. That would
require more teachers, and he said
he won’t get help until the size of
the program merits help. But does
he want the program to grow? He
thinks that “small and excellent is
way better than big and mediocre’,
but he wouldn’t complain if jazz
grew some.
Jon Gudmundson’s preferred
music is jazz from the Blue Note
period. Blue Note was actually a
record company during the fifties
and sixties. Musicians from this
period include Hank Mobley (tenor
sax), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet),
Wayne Shorter (composer, tenor &
soprano sax), Herbie Hancock
(piano, composer) and Joe
Henderson (tenor sax). It is inter
esting to note, however, that
Gudmundson’s first love was rock ^
‘n’ roll. “ I’ve got so much rock ‘n’
roll ingrained in me it’s unbeliev
able.” So the king of jazz at
Brevard was once a hard-core
rocker. He does very well. All of
his students think highly of him,
even when their playing is being
tom apart.
Dr. Laura Phillips, Instructor of
Percussion, says “He’s a great
colleague and his students love
him. He’s done a lot for jazz here”.
But will he go on to do a lot
for jazz at other schools? Many of
his friends from college who went
on to teach at bigger schools have
to teach stuff they don’t like along
with stuff they do like. They get to
run the jazz band but they also have
to teach ‘beginning music for non
majors, and all these horrible jobs
few people want to do . He says
unless some ‘killer’ job opens up in
the Pacific Northwest where he is
from he plans on staying here.
Gudmundson is very excited to be
at Brevard. He teaches sax, runs the
big band, the jazz combos, jazz
history, jazz improv — “There s not
a single bad thing I have to teach. .
. I can’t believe how good this job^