PROFESSOR WORKING TO JAZZ UP SDSU PROGRAM

Can one man turn San Diego State University’s fledgling jazz program into one of the biggest and most respected in the nation, on a par with those at North Texas State University, the Berkeley School of Music and Fullerton College?

It’s a lofty goal, but Bill Yeager, the SDSU jazz program’s new director and founder of the celebrated Los Angeles Jazz Workshop, believes he can do it--with a little help from his friends in the school’s music department.

“San Diego is regarded as somewhat of a sleeping giant in the jazz world,” Yeager, 33, said. “There’s a lot of talent down here that previously had to travel up to Los Angeles, so we know we can attract enough students.

“But, beyond that, I want our jazz program to have a national draw, just like the handful of other universities with as complete a program as I’d like to build.”

The first step in accomplishing that, Yeager said, was taken four years ago, when SDSU became one of only a dozen colleges and universities in the country where students can major in jazz.

And the second step, he unabashedly added, came in September, when he was asked to join the school’s music department as its first full-time jazz professor.

Since then, Yeager has expanded the jazz program almost threefold.

Before Yeager’s arrival here, the program consisted of one jazz band, one jazz combo for improvisational study and one jazz theory class.

But now, a semester later, there are three jazz bands, three jazz combos, one jazz theory class and a course in jazz history.

And in the coming year, Yeager added, he plans on expanding the program even further by instituting an advanced jazz theory class and a program in composition.

“I really envision SDSU becoming a national center for the study of jazz music,” Yeager said. “And now that we’ve laid the foundation, we have to continue to build on it by offering more and more courses.

“At the same time, we need to get the word out that the program exists. That’s the toughest part. But the way to do it is to drastically increase our visibility by playing a lot more concerts and jazz festivals around the country than we ever have in the past.”

Yeager’s confidence is buoyed by his belief in the SDSU music department and its emphasis on “comprehensive musicianship.”

“Our theory program, for example, is very up-to-date,” Yeager said. “Our students learn about improvisation and other modern musical concepts as freshmen and sophomores, whereas most music schools are more traditional in their approach and reserve those fields of study for more advanced students.

“And that fits in very well with our jazz program since theory is one of the most important elements of any serious jazz program.”

But just as Yeager is banking on the SDSU music department’s continued support for the jazz program’s success, the consensus among his fellow instructors is that Yeager’s own track record is the key ingredient.

A tenor trombonist since he was 9, Yeager honed his skills in his Seattle high school’s jazz ensemble and won a music scholarship to North Texas State.

While there, he was selected to join the school’s jazz band on a six-week tour of the Soviet Union, arranged by the State Department.

After graduating in 1976 with a master’s degree in music, Yeager moved to Los Angeles, where he quickly established himself as a highly demanded session man and stage musician.

Since then, he’s recorded on more than 100 albums by artists like Ray Charles, Billy May and Steve Spiegel. He’s played on sound tracks for such films as “Rocky III” and “Cannonball Run,” and has appeared on television specials by Bob Hope, Mel Torme and Tony Bennett.

On the concert stage, he has backed such notables as Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Carmen MacRae. And he has conducted jazz clinics at virtually every top music school in the country.

But perhaps Yeager’s most notable accomplishment--and the one that ties in most closely with his new duties at SDSU--is his founding seven years ago of the Los Angeles Jazz Workshop, regarded as one of the most prestigious independent schools of music in the country.

The workshop’s five bands regularly play at some of the biggest jazz festivals in the country. In the last few years, they have released two albums that have garnered respectable air-time on jazz stations nationwide. And a month ago, they were selected to perform at the National Assn. of Jazz Educators Convention, along with Maynard Ferguson and the “Tonight Show” band.

“Right now, though, my first commitment is to build up the SDSU jazz program,” Yeager said. “With this new job, I can pay people to do most of the work I was doing up at the workshop, which consisted mostly of administrative duties.

“As a result, I can do more hands-on teaching myself than I was able to do at the workshop, although I still commute to Los Angeles every Sunday night to conduct one of the band classes.

“And since session work in L.A. is down due to the influx of synthesizers and other electronic gadgetry, this represents the perfect opportunity for me to make a career change. Building a major, national jazz program is a big undertaking, and it deserves my full attention.”