A Low-Key Cultivation of Jazz

It’s a hot Saturday afternoon. Worse than hot, in fact, because it’s one of those rare humid summer days, the air filled with enough residual moisture to make the palms moist and the scalp sweaty.

But inside the converted storefront in Leimert Park that is the World Stage, nobody’s paying much attention to the heat. They’re much more concerned with the insightful commentaries of pianist-educator Barry Harris, who is spending the day conducting a workshop for jazz vocalists, pianists and instrumentalists.

The high-ceilinged, rectangular-shaped World Stage--its walls alive with photos and paintings of Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane and other jazz greats--is filled to overflowing with eager, attentive listeners. Black and white, young and old, male and female, they are captivated by Harris’ insightful commentaries.

“Jazz is about feeling,” he says. “It’s about beauty. It’s about expression. Jazz is a beautiful way of expressing yourself.”

Harris, a veteran sideman with performers such as Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Stitt, Cannonball Adderley, Dexter Gordon and others, has been teaching seminars, master classes and workshops since the early ‘80s, when he established the Jazz Cultural Center in New York. He was awarded an American Jazz Masters Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1989, and was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Assn. of Jazz Educators in recognition of “his dedication to teaching.”

The workshop, which is open to students and professionals, begins at 10 a.m. and continues on well into the afternoon, with nearly 200 participants arriving at various times. The event is typical of the low-profile, low-budget educational and community events that the World Stage has been conducting for eight years.

Despite the heat, despite the crowded venue and the nonstop demands on his attention, Harris’ energy level never drops.

Each of the three segments begins in similar fashion. Concentrating on music fundamentals such as scales, chords and articulation, Harris gradually brings the students along until--almost without their awareness--they are suddenly completely immersed in the music.

“I don’t know how he did it,” says one of the pianists after the segment on that instrument concludes, “but he got me into that music in a way I’d never done before.”

*

When the vocalists fill the room, he starts them off with some work on harmony and chords before taking them through a single song--the lovely ballad “How Do You Keep the Music Playing,” by Michel Legrand and Marilyn and Alan Bergman. It is sung, initially, line by line, phrase by phrase, as Harris attempts to teach both its melody and its meaning.

The vocal students, mostly female, of all ages and races, follow him carefully, some taking copious notes, others capturing his every word with a wide array of recording devices, from mini-cassettes to boomboxes. The song is not easy, and requires many repetitions before Harris finally gets around to having individual singers come on stage for a run-through.

They take the microphone with varying degrees of ability and nervousness. First up is Carolyn Whitaker, a singer with some experience, who does a creditable job with the song. Harris nods approvingly, offering a few constructive comments when she concludes.

“It’s amazing how much he said in so few words,” Whitaker says later. Style, phrasing, technique, tonal quality are all important, and he touched on most of them.”

Harris is equally helpful with other singers, despite their differing levels of skill--from a young woman who has difficulty finding the pitch on two out of three notes--to professional singers such as Heather DeHayward.

“I knew Barry in New York,” DeHayward says. “And he always has something interesting to say. Today, it was about timing and phrasing. And it was really useful listening to all his comments, not just to me, but to other people.”

As the line of singers continues, Harris calls a halt to make a point.

“Some of you people sing louder than you talk,” he says. “When you talk, you don’t talk loud in somebody’s face. And you shouldn’t do that when you sing. Talk it. Tell it. Don’t shout it.”

When the vocal instruction concludes, Harris, seemingly as much for his own relaxation as anything else, says, “OK, now we’re going to play some blues,” and digs into a medium groove. Before the first choruses are concluded, drummer Billy Higgins--the World Stage’s guiding light, now remarkably recovered from liver transplant surgery--grabs a microphone, jumps on stage and begins to scat along with Harris.

The results are electric. Higgins scats with swing, intensity and originality, his lines unfolding with the drive and imagination of a world-class horn player. The audience is captivated, and the room is filled with a mass feeling of communal swing--exactly the kind of feeling Harris has been trying to communicate in his teaching.

With barely a break to allow the vocalists to move out and the instrumentalists to come in, he launches into the next workshop segment. Within minutes, the room is filled with trumpeters, trombonists, saxophonists, even a few guitar players. At the stage area, a baby-faced pianist and an equally youthful-looking guitarist flank a balding, white-bearded tenor saxophonist.

“This is not just about the kids,” says World Stage director Don Muhammad. “There are some guys here who have come back to music because of these workshops. There are a lot of old guys who used to play, put their instruments in the closet and now they’ve rediscovered their music.”

“We’ve been doing this for a long time,” Higgins adds, “and we’re not going to stop now.”

Harris takes the instrumentalists through some basic scales. Rough at first, the notes gradually become smoothed out as he adds some rhythmic emphasis.

Sitting thoughtfully at the edge of the stage, Harris spontaneously adds more scale after another. Finally, when he has accumulated an entire sequence, he stops and notes, “OK. You know what we’ve got here? It’s the tune ‘Sweet Georgia Brown,’ and you’ve now done half of it.”

There is a murmur of reaction in the room, as some of the students, thinking they were simply running one scale after another, realize that Harris has also taught them the changes to a jazz standard.

“That was kind of sneaky, the way he did that,” says a young saxophonist. “But it was cool. And you know I’m never going to forget those changes.”

*

The World Stage has occupied its converted storefront location in the Leimert Park area for eight years, quietly serving the jazz community at a time when far more publicity has gone to events such as the recently announced partnership between the Music Center and the Thelonious Monk Institute. The Saturday afternoon workshops at the World Stage are a particular favorite with young musicians, who have the rare opportunity to experience the teachings of artists such as Harris for a minimal amount of money ($10 for the Harris program).

“I wish we didn’t have to charge anything,” says Muhammad, out on the sidewalk as the teaching continues inside. “But we operate right on the edge most of the time. I have to wear 10 different hats, and we can’t afford to have the staff we should have.”

Even so, the World Stage manages to create a continuing array of educational and entertainment programs.

“Yeah, Billy’s drum workshops on Monday nights are almost always jammed,” Muhammad says. “Then we have poetry night on Tuesday, writers’ night on Wednesday, a jam session on Thursday and music on the weekends.

“We’ve become very good at making things happen, and at involving the community,” he continues. “You tell one kid about what’s happening, and he tells two more, and they tell a few more.

“I just wish we were that good at getting the kind of foundation financial support that we need so much. But none of us came in with those kinds of skills, so we’re just going to have to learn how to do it. Because I think we’ve got the kind of community-active programs here that really warrant foundation support.”

Back inside the performance room, Harris shows no sign of wearing down. His shirt now open in deference to the heat, he continues to drive the instrumentalists through their music.

Singing little chord-based licks, he has them repeat the phrases as he sings them. The players, sweating, keep trying, eager to get Harris’ nod of approval.

Toward the back of the room, a young trumpeter, struggling with the arpeggios, frowns, sets his shoulders and tries even harder. As the exercise ends there is a moment of silence before Harris finally nods and says, “Not bad.”

Beaming smiles fill the room, interrupted only when Harris, anticipating a long afternoon, adds, “But we’ve got a lot more work to do.”

* The World Stage is located at 4344 Degnan Blvd. For information and schedules call (213) 293-2451.