By Tod Smith
Pick any Saturday morning to visit the Mid-City Music, Dance, Drama, Arts & Crafts Workshop and what you'll find is a celebration of the arts expressed through dance, drama and music. But at 1:00 in the afternoon, it's jazz that takes center stage as director Stephen Foster transforms a mid-town New Orleans church hall into a music studio preserving and advancing the study of America's contribution to the world's musical portfolio.
To the sixteen members of the jazz studies class who are practicing this fall Saturday afternoon, Mr. Foster's tutelage offers a serious look into some serious music. Foster says, "One of the things I encourage is that it is a study. We don't call it the Mid-City Jazz Band; we don't call it the Mid-City Jazz Rehearsal. We call it the Mid-City Jazz Study, for a reason."
That reason is to provide promising young musicians an opportunity to explore the intricacies of jazz, while giving them the experience of being part of an ensemble. Founded over seven years ago by Foster and his wife Joycelyn, the jazz studies class started out as an offshoot of Foster's successful career as a music educator.
"Originally it was just supposed to be an instrumental music workshop for my private students that I was teaching - to the tune of about 80 of them every week," Foster reflects. "But I said, Johnny only gets to see Sam, who comes after him and the only time we all really get to see each other is at the recital. So I said, we need to do something - there's too many different instruments I'm teaching. There's too much variety here, we need to figure out a way to get these kids together at least one day a week."
Starting out on Saturdays, with music and dance, the workshop has added drama, arts and crafts and services about 85 to 120 children per week. The jazz studies group developed in response to numerous requests for members of the workshop to perform around town. With appearances ranging from the Louisiana Children's Museum to an annual appearance at New OrleansÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Jazz and Heritage Festival, the jazz studies group has grown both in numbers and in ability.
"When we put together this music and dance thing, I said okay, it's time to put together a little ambassador unit to go out and play, because we were getting calls - the popularity was growing from year one," Foster said recently. " So I just sought of chose the best of the kids we had that year and I said we're going to call you all the Mid-City Jazz RamblersÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ
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From playing traditional and simple tunes, the group has progressed to more difficult pieces. According to Foster, "ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ
we decided to let them go out and be the ambassadors and I'd teach them little songs like, Saints Go Marching In and it was cute - but they could play! So they have just kind of grown with me over the years. And then a vision was sent to me that said, 'forget about the local stuff.' It's time for us to start thinking national and keeping that in mind; I started looking for some competitions. So this Ellington thing just sounded like one that I thought would be a great challenge."
The Ellington thing Foster speaks of is the annual Lincoln Center ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂEssential EllingtonÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ competition to be held in February 2002. Each year over 1800 jazz ensembles from across the United States enter this contest with ambitions to win. Foster's group competed this year and gained some valuable experience to help prepare them for the coming year.
"Last year Ron Carter the bassist, personally judged our tape. And he had some good things to say about our group and he had some strange things of course, things that I always knew we needed work on."
He continued, "I had about 40 kids in this church practicing, but the music stipulated a certain number of kids. So when the man came to do the CD, we did the CD at the church, I just said okay, everybody play. So we sent a tape in with about 15 trumpets - but anyone in their right mind knew that it wasn't according to the requirements. But the look on their faces - you can't tell these kids no, so we had a great time."
As the group prepares for the coming competition, they understand that this year will be different. Foster plans on following the rules and hopefully making a more serious run at the top fifteen finishers. "They understand from the first lesson, first rehearsal, I can only have one alto, one first, one second, one tenor, you know and everybody else is going to have to lay out. So they understand that. It's a team effort and one thing we try to instill in them is that this is a joint, family effort - no stars and we're all going to do what we have to do to make it work."
Many of Foster's earliest students continue their music after their time with the group. Today, the youngest member is in the seventh grade and the oldest three are in their first year at local universities, all studying music. This embodies FosterÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs simple rewards.
"The fulfillment I get out of this is seeing them grow and then get something out of it; something they can say that it was well worth the effort. So what's going to happen if I keep that attitude and continue to grow? There must be something out there greater for me to have musically."
And there is definitely something out there for us to look forward to in the coming years.
To find out more about the Mid-City Music, Dance, Drama, Arts & Crafts Workshop, go to www.thefosterfamilyprograms.org.
Until next time, see you 'Round About New Orleans.
