Most of you readers are not jazz players, but you probably have friends or members of your family that would like to know more about this educational adventure. I have attended jazz camps since the late 1950’s, when Stan Kenton first started one, called the “Kenton Stage Bands.” At that time, his emphasis was on jazz big bands for college and high school students.

When one thinks of a jazz camp, it might be tempting to visualize a place where high school kids hang out. Actually, jazz camps, or workshops as they are sometimes called, encompass a very broad range of age groups, even including players up to their eighties. They do have mostly college and high school age kids, but a significant percentage of the attendees are non-music professionals (lawyers, doctors, engineers, nurses, etc.) who wish to hone their skills in an area they are really passionate about, the performance of jazz music. Many are music semi-professionals, but pursue it as an avocation rather than a full time career.

These workshops typically last a week, starting on a Sunday and commencing sometime during the following weekend. Sometimes because of their popularity they have to split their sessions into two or more one-week segments. Each July, Jamey Aebersold has two sessions, each one having close to 400 students.

One of Jerry Coker's student combos at the Aebersold Jazz Workshop.

One of the organizers’ main areas of concern is some kind of placement process, i.e. how does one place students with others of like ability? From the standpoint of student satisfaction, it is imperative to place beginner, intermediate or advanced students with others that play at the same skill level. This is done by either a pre-workshop tape submittal, or by an in-person audition at the very start of the camp.

The workshops’ choice and number of faculty members is largely dependent upon their budgetary constraints. The larger workshops, such as those conducted by Centrum in Port Townsend, WA, or Jamey Aebersold’s workshop in Louisville, KY, can afford to bring in the best musicians and educators. For example, last summer Aebersold brought in David Hazeltine (piano), Scott Wendholdt (trumpet), Rich Perry, Jim Snidero (saxes), Conrad Herwig (trombone) from the “big apple” and Jerry Coker (saxes, theory) from Tennessee. These are famous names, but it not sufficient just to be well known. To illustrate: Once, Gerry Mulligan was asked to help with a student big band, so they played one of his charts. One of the instructors asked him to comment about their performance. He thought for a minute, then remarked “Play it better.”

A workshop day typically starts off at 9 AM with music theory classes of several different levels, the placement decided by a written test at the beginning of the week. Then there are the master classes where everyone of a particular instrument congregates with a faculty member specializing on that instrument. Optionally, there may be listening sessions, where a faculty member plays recordings and elicits student discussion about them.

These are followed by the combo rehearsals, where each group consists of those at approximately the same skill level, supervised by a faculty member. If several hours are devoted to rehearsals, the day may be split into two sessions. Finally, at the end of the day are the faculty concerts. Depending upon the size of the faculty, there may be a faculty concert every day, or just one concert near the end of the week. As a highlight of the Aebersold clinic we also had a daily lunchtime concert at Masterson’s, a restaurant located adjacent to the U of Louisville. They had moved in a Hammond B-3 organ from Aebersold’s basement, masterfully played by Bobby Floyd from Cincinatti. He really kicked butt, accompanied by drummers such as Steve Davis or John Riley, with Dave Stryker on guitar.

After the faculty sessions are the improptu student “jams,” where the students congregate on their own. I don’t feel that those accomplish much, because they are totally unsupervised. However, for some students, it’s their only chance to practice what they are learning.

Of all the activities mentioned above, the only one that requires student attendance is the combo rehearsals. They usually consist of a rhythm section with two to five horns. Depending upon student participation level and interest, there also might be a formation of a big band. Last summer at Centrum, there were two, supervised by Jay Thomas and Clarence Acox. They typically play quality charts by Mantooth, Florence, Holman, Barduhn, Sebesky, and Niehaus, to name a few.