JAZZ REVIEW : Despite Obstacles, Music Shines Through

Does jazz have a future? The answer from the Golden West College Jazz Festival, held Friday at the college’s Mainstage Theatre, is a resounding yes. Sets from 10 different Orange County high school bands and a combo from Golden West over the course of the daylong event were filled with promise, though polish seemed in lesser supply. The enthusiasm demonstrated by the young musicians is encouraging for the future of America’s native musical form.

But not everything sounded as promising as the young musicians themselves. Backstage, band directors talked of cutbacks in their programs and how the loss of music instruction at the elementary and middle school levels affect their programs. Fund-raisers to pay for instruments, arrangements and trips to perform and compete, they say, are commonplace. One instructor even rehearses his jazz combo on Saturdays at his own house.

Joslynne Blasdel, director of the participating Woodbridge High School Big Band, summed up the feelings of many music instructors: “It seems every year we have less to work with than the year before.”

One of the hosts of the festival, Golden West music instructor Tom Kubis, whose big band closed the festival with an evening concert, agreed, saying that the quality of students he sees has decreased as music programs are cut. “We’re getting beginning level students at the college level now,” Kubis explained. “They’re just not starting soon enough. When we were coming up, all our musical heroes were burnin’ at age 18 or 19. You just don’t see that any more.”

Stephen Rudd, director of the Newport Harbor High School Big Band, said early education is the key. “If they haven’t studied music by the time they get to high school, they aren’t going to. Our students haven’t had instrumental music at the elementary level for a number of years. When they get to us, they’re still at an entry level.”

Still, from the sounds of their bands, the directors are succeeding despite the odds. The festival’s four judges--Cuesta College music instructor Warren Balfour, composer-saxophonist-bandleader Kim Richmond, trombonist Alex Isles (who appeared during the evening concert with the Kubis band) and singer Stephanie Haynes (who later appeared with bassist Jack Prather’s band Bopsicle)--all had kind words for the 11 participating ensembles, including a last-minute combo entry from Golden West. But they also offered extensive suggestions and criticism.

After the Golden West quartet’s set, Isles came on stage to offer some pointers on the relationship between the rhythm section members and offered tips on improvisation. “Get away from looking at the (music) book” he encouraged. “Listening to each other should come first, not looking at the changes in the fake book.” At one point he complimented the guitarist for sounding like the late Count Basie orchestra rhythm guitarist Freddie Green. “Who’s Freddie Green?” the student responded.

Richmond brought his saxophone up to the stage to demonstrate a particular passage from “Night Train” with the Laguna Hills Jazz Combo I. Haynes frequently suggested that students familiarize themselves with swing rhythms and all the judges stressed that students broaden their exposure to jazz. Standouts among the student performers included tenor saxophonist Leo Castro from the Laguna Hills High School Jazz Combo II, the Woodbridge Big Band with vocalist Holiday Kohler (who performed despite having her tonsils out only two weeks before) and director Robin Orr’s Marina (Huntington Beach) High School Big Band.