Trying to Get People Jazzed

Jazz made a powerful move into the spotlight of Los Angeles cultural life last month with the announcement that the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn., under new Executive Vice President and Managing Director Willem Wijnbergen, has established an initiative that “extends the horizons of the association’s activities to include jazz as a permanent part of its mission.”

The immediate consequence of the initiative will be the availability of more jazz at the Hollywood Bowl. Last year’s complement of five Wednesday night, Lexus-sponsored programs has been increased to eight for the 1999 summer schedule.

But Wijnbergen clearly views the initiative as having a considerably farther-reaching impact, and the flash point for that impact is the appointment of the highly regarded composer-bandleader-bassist John Clayton to the position of the association’s creative director of jazz.

The choice has been met with solid approval in the music world. Clayton’s qualifications include extensive work as a bassist with the Count Basie Orchestra, pianist Monty Alexander and numerous groups of his own. But he also has been active in classical music and pop, serving as principal bass with the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, teaching at UCLA and USC, and earning three Grammy nominations.

Obviously, it is far too early to make comparisons between Clayton’s role in Los Angeles and Wynton Marsalis’ well-established position at New York’s Lincoln Center. But Clayton already has received sufficient autonomy to play a similarly authoritative role in enhancing the role of jazz in the community. And he does not view it as a short-term assignment.

“When Willem Wijnbergen approached me,” Clayton says, “I told him that I didn’t want to do this for just a year. I told him I wanted a long-term commitment. And he said, ‘I’m looking at three years, minimum.’ That’s fine with me, because it allows me to go ahead with the big picture in mind.”

The initial element in that picture will have to focus upon the problem that also faces Wijnbergen, Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra conductor John Mauceri: the need to stop the hemorrhaging of attendance at Bowl concerts.

Toward that end, Clayton’s first action has been to place the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra--an ensemble he leads with his brother, alto saxophonist Jeff Clayton, and drummer Jeff Hamilton--at the center of the Hollywood Bowl season. Although the eight scheduled concerts include appearances by Diana Krall, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dr. John, Poncho Sanchez, Ray Brown, Kevin Mahogany and others, Clayton views the CHJO’s presence as the central, unifying element in the programs.

“I want people to leave a Bowl concert,” he explains, “feeling that they’ve been presented a program by the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and say, ‘Oh yes, there were some really cool guests as well.’ Not the other way around. I don’t want to turn us into a backup band.”

Showcasing the CHJO is an understandable move, providing the Philharmonic’s jazz initiative with a high-visibility entity similar to the central roles played by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra at Lincoln Center, and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. But Clayton is quick to identify the CHJO as a unique musical organization.

“There are some common denominators,” he says, “but Wynton’s doing things completely different than I am. Sometimes the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra is more of a repertory orchestra. We won’t be. They don’t really have a personality of sound depending on what they play. One moment they’re playing some ragtime, and the next moment they’re playing some Ellington. We’ll have our own character and our own sound as an ensemble.”

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Even given the CHJO’s “unique character and sound,” however, the question arises why this particular jazz orchestra--and whether the prominent role allocated to it by Clayton has, in effect, self-serving aspects.

Clayton shrugs off the implication, insisting upon his belief that the choice of the CHJO and the structure of the programming represents the best possibility for building a long-term, community-wide jazz audience for the Bowl season and beyond.

Wijnbergen concurs, pointing out that Clayton is “the best man for the job,” and underscoring his confidence in the bassist-bandleader’s determination, from the beginning, to find the budget and the support to make the project work.

“What we’re basically doing,” adds Lindsey Nelson, general manager of summer programs for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, “is expanding the artistic reach of the Los Angeles Philharmonic with a third resident orchestra--the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. We think we have an opportunity with John and with the orchestra to have a unique voice that responds to an audience, without it just being a scattered set of concerts. Instead it becomes an ongoing dialogue with our audiences.”

Nonetheless, Clayton faces the problem of how the CHJO, a relatively unfamiliar group, even in Los Angeles, is going to draw more listeners to the Bowl. Clayton’s solution is a long-range game plan, starting in January, which will take the orchestra into the community on a regular basis between six and 10 times a month.

“We already have a basic audience in place, which will be there because they like the Bowl,” Clayton says. “But we need to get more. So we’ll get out a map and figure out the various communities that we want to involve. Maybe as far as San Pedro and, of course, up to the northern valleys, the West [San Fernando] Valley, South-Central, East L.A. In community centers and schools. Not always with the full orchestra, sometimes with smaller ensembles. But we have enough talented people who do well with workshops and clinics so that we can break it out for different venues.”

Clayton further intends to connect with the community by bringing local groups to the Bowl to perform in the courtyard area prior to the evening’s concerts.

“This will be an opportunity,” he says, “for bands that we can’t include on the big stage to reach an audience, and the more jazz that gets heard, the better it will be for all of us.”

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The next element in Clayton’s “big picture” is presentation.

His method of organization will center around programs he describes as “tailor-made”: unique combinations of music that will frame each program’s guest stars in settings created specifically for the concert.

“They will be one-of-a-kind programs that you won’t hear again, anywhere else,” he explains. “We’re not going to invite, say, a Diana Krall or a Dee Dee Bridgewater and have them just do their thing. Instead, we’re going to incorporate what they do with the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra, and I’m going to write new pieces, and/or arrangements to feature them with the orchestra, as well as in smaller settings.”

It’s an impressive plan, overall--one that Clayton believes will afford jazz a central position in Los Angeles cultural life. And he does not intend for it to be limited to the summer season at the Hollywood Bowl.

“So far as I’m concerned,” he says, “this is going to be a year-round thing. We’ve told the Philharmonic that we don’t just want to play outdoors--that is, at the Hollywood Bowl. And they’ve told us that they’re writing us into the Disney Hall presentations. So we’re going to be giving regular concerts at Disney Hall, as well, when it opens, and at an interim location until then. The bottom line is that we’re here to stay.”