Jazz Festival Music
10-23-09
Jazz Festival Music
Want to impress students and keep it real? Bring on the music!
Music is a language that we can all speak and a voice that is both historic and timeless. Students in my class absolutely love to listen to music while they are writing and working. Everyone has a favorite genre and style, but students need and rightly deserve to listen to music and to learn about the musical roots of rock, funk, jazz and swing. The history of music is intertwined with the history of our country and it tells a tale of deep sorrow, ecstatic joy and uncompromising hope.
Mainly though, our lives are richer because of music.
The Rehoboth Beach Autumn Jazz Festival brings great musicians to our area and allows our spirits to soar. This was the 20th anniversary of the Jazz festival and the bands and performers did not disappoint the crowds of music lovers who showed up to hear them play. Even though the days were soggy, inside the convention center the jazz was smokin’.
My two favorites were Dave Koz and Brian Culbertson.
It’s no surprise that research revealed that the backgrounds of these two musicians were deeply involved in music from an early age and that music education played a significant part in developing their gifts.
David Koz’s Wikipedia biography states, “From early age, he and his sister took piano lessons.”My mom basically forced my sister and me to play piano from when we were toddlers. I hated piano; I was never any good at it. But I have to thank her now for making me do it, because I write most of my songs on the piano.” Around age nine, he began taking drum lessons, but notes that he was not very good at drums, “I am the world’s worst drummer. I could not keep time to save my life.” At age 13, his brother, Jeff, had a band that Dave wanted to be in, but his brother told him over and over that there was no way he could be in it. Dave eventually wore him down, and his brother told him that the only way he could be in the band was if he could play the saxophone, because their band did not have a saxophonist. That was all he needed to hear. Two years later, he was in the band and working gigs with the band and by himself.”
“Dave attended William Taft High School in Woodland Hills California, performing on saxophone as a member of the school jazz band. He later graduated from UCLA with a degree in mass communication in 1986, and only weeks after his graduation, decided to make a go of becoming a professional musician. Within weeks of that decision, he was recruited as a member of Bobby Caldwell’s tour.” (taken from Wikipedia)
Brian Culbertson grew up with a dad who was a music educator. Brian’s website reveals that he was “inspired by his father, music educator Jim Culbertson. Brian Culbertson was a fast and fierce study of music, gravitating to all styles of dynamic music as long as it was expertly played by artists ranging from Chicago, David Sanborn and Sting to The Brecker Brothers and Maynard Ferguson. Since his 1994 debut Long Night Out, Brian has been credited with bringing a youthful yet no less masterful energy to popular instrumental music with hit albums and singles.”
Both musicians were passionate, skilled and truly masterful. No doubt that learning music from an early age can be the seeds that grow into something spectacular.
