Posted: Nov. 24, 2009

When Reggie Thomas teaches the fundamentals of jazz, the music professor's lesson is more about what is not written on the page than what is.

Soulfulness, the quality Thomas said attracts people to music, is the key to good jazz, he explained during a Nov. 17 clinic with the Wauwatosa East High School jazz band. Soulfulness can't be captured on sheet music.

"It's not about playing perfectly," said Thomas, who teaches at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. "It's about playing with spirit."

Thomas visited Tosa East with fellow SIUE professor Rick Haydon as part of Jazz at Lincoln Center's yearlong Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Program. The organization helps promote jazz and swing music while helping students across the country improve as musicians.

Personalizing the music

Sometimes playing with spirit means taking license and diverging from the printed notes and rhythms to make a piece of music your own. That was the advice Thomas gave one student, a female vocalist, when she sang with the band during Duke Ellington's "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)."

"You're doing well, but you're singing it too much like it's written," Thomas told her, taking the mike himself to demonstrate the syncopation and improvisation he was looking for.

Later, Thomas led the band into a groove, giving a few students the chance to play improvised solos. Afterward, he proselytized about the music.

"It feels good to swing. There is no other feeling in the world for me like swinging," he said, adding that once you find that feeling, you try to get back there every time you play.

Technical aspects important

But in his focus on the intangibles of jazz, Thomas did not ignore the more technical aspects of the music. To improvise well, a performer must still play the music correctly.

"Practice makes what?" he asked the class.

The students began reciting the familiar answer, but Thomas cut them off mid-word: "Permanent," he said.

"Because sometimes, it makes perfectly wrong."

Thomas also stressed the importance of keeping time, staying on rhythm.

"Time is more than a magazine," he warned the students. "Time is more than a relative thing. Hello? Hello."

Guests help students grow

About 20 students attended the clinic for more than three hours after school. Band director Rob Engl said the payoff on that time investment already is evident.

"The learning curve is huge - what they pick up in such a short amount of time spent with the Essentially Ellington clinicians," he said.

Thomas and Haydon are just two of several guest artists who work with Tosa East musicians throughout the school year, said Robin Engl, also an East band director.

Jazz called America's art form

Aside from the musical improvement, Haydon said, he hopes the visit helped promote jazz music as an art form.

"It's not quite hip-hop … but it has something for everyone," he said.

Thomas called jazz one of the truest American art forms.

"It's a large part of the American fabric," he said. "It's what makes this country unique."

The professors' enthusiasm struck the students, some of whom protested when the clinic ended.

Thomas asked the group whether they had learned anything. All said, "yes."

"Will you remember it tomorrow?" he asked. They promised they would.

"Now go forth and swing."

FYI

For information about Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Program, visit jalc.org/essentiallyellington.

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Wauwatosa East High School jazz band performance, open to students and the public

WHERE: the school's learning center, 7500 Milwaukee Ave.

WHEN: 11:45 a.m. Dec. 22

CONTACT: (414) 773-2000