Watts Jazz Camp Aims to Inspire Young Musicians

Ten-year-old Taj Graham has only been playing the cello for two years, but he can now say he has jammed with some of the best jazz musicians in the country.

Granted, Graham only played a few scales when he collaborated Monday with trombonist George Bohanon and bass player Richard Reid. But it was enough to inspire him to become a jazzman.

“I liked it a lot,” said the grinning Watts resident.

Bohanon, Reid and a few other local professional and amateur jazz musicians offered their talents Monday to inspire 12 inner-city youths in the first Youth Summer Jazz Camp at the Watts Tower community center, a weeklong program that began with a small but motivated group of young musicians.

It is a program that Bohanon, his wife, Ramona, and several Watts activists have been trying to organize for nearly seven years, hampered by lack of funding. This year’s camp is supported by volunteer musicians and private donations. Because the program is not the recipient of government grants, organizers say, they may not have the money or volunteers to run it again next year. The program calls for a $50 fee per participant but most of the youngsters paid nothing, thanks to scholarships.

The camp goal is to introduce young musicians--ages 10 to 18--to jazz and teach them the cultural significance of jazz in the African American community. Organizers also want to show how jazz incorporates other musical forms like gospel and blues.

George Bohanon, who plays with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and has played with artists including Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder, began the camp by leading five other musicians in a Miles Davis piece called “Walking.”

As the musicians played, trading off solos and swinging in and out of the melody, the teenagers, some of them wearing baggy shorts, high-top sneakers and football jerseys, watched intently and tapped their toes to keep up with the beat.

Eventually the musicians broke off into several corners of the community center room to work with the teenagers in small groups. The volunteer musicians included three students from the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at USC; drummer Damion Reid, the son of Richard Reid; trombonist Vincent Chandler; and saxophonist Walter Smith.

At the drum set, Damion Reid worked with Ledaris Jones, a 13-year-old aspiring musician from Compton who plays drums with his church band. But Jones found that jazz is much more complicated and difficult to play than a church hymn. Jones and Reid worked on several jazz riffs for nearly an hour until Jones complained that his hands were getting tired.

Reid, who grew up playing jazz with his father, said not enough youngsters are exposed to jazz in the inner city. He said he volunteered to help at the camp to try to change that.

“At this age, teaching them jazz can also keep them out of trouble because they can go home and practice instead of hanging out with their friends and getting into mischief,” Reid said.