|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
Course Enhancement Grants Project Pericles - Course Enhancement Grant Assessment
Jon Metzger, Music Department, CB 2800 The Elon University Jazz Ensemble Tour was a tremendous success. As in past years under my direction, the term began with three full days of rehearsals and five days of two-per-day area run-out performances at high schools and middle schools, and ended with the balance of the term spent abroad--this time in Portugal and Spain. To ensure the maximum experiential learning opportunity for each student, all facets of the tour, including scheduling, rehearsals, rooming, call-times, travel, and performances, were organized and conducted as a professional ensemble tour. I wanted my students to know what it felt like to be a "working" musician on the road, and what was required to function successfully as a "pro." Considerable time was spent in advance of the tour readying each student for "doing his job" and understanding what could lead to being "fired." With these responsibilities in place and clearly defined, our class of 20 also enjoyed the advantage of knowing, working, and getting along with each other very well. We had to--we had many concerts to perform. In addition, I asked the students simultaneously to come to terms with an equally important issue, albeit much more difficult to grasp or define. As Americans performing America's only indigenous art form (i.e. jazz music), they needed to articulate their personal view of this part of our culture. In other words, what did it mean to them to be an American performing American music? For this term, the students had a unique vantage point. As they formulated their opinions, they could gauge their reactions both here and overseas, where a very different artistic sensibility rules. I don't mind confessing here that I knew I was playing with a stacked deck, having performed throughout the United States and abroad often enough to know what would happen. I even added to our European cause by loading our performance book with Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, and J.J. Johnson charts. As anticipated, the Europeans loved the students' performances, singing along and heaping a joyful, warm appreciation on the band that was rarely felt during our concerts at home. The total experience provided a lot of fuel for my students; yet, they still needed a European's perspective to round out their understanding. It is here that I used the $1,000 Project Pericles Course Enhancement Grant I received by asking our Portuguese guide, Margarida Ferreira, who accompanied us throughout our time abroad, to augment her normal duties with several discussions of what American jazz music means to her. She appeared to relish the opportunity. Passing by mile after mile of olive trees on rolling hills between Tormolinos and Madrid, Spain, our tour bus became our first classroom and listening station as Margarida began. (She even insisted we change buses for a better stereo system in preparation for what would follow.) I couldn't imagine $1,000 being better spent for what we received--nor could I have predicted how wonderful it would be. Margarida's first discussion was engaging. To make her points, she alternated recordings of Muddy Waters with similarly tinged Portuguese Fado. She juxtaposed John Coltrane's music (and that of his drummer, Elvin Jones) with the polyrhythms of Spanish Flamenco. She played Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto (and helped us with "better" translations of the Portuguese) while helping us with Bossa Nova dance moves--in the bus aisle! And she went as far as demonstrating similarities found in recordings of American Billie Holiday and a Swedish counterpart. Her classes continued when we arrived in Madrid. Seeing and hearing the live Flamenco performances she took us to gave more meaning to the style's swirling, effortlessly changing metric shifts, while the percussive dancing, improvisatory guitar language, and Moorish and Jewish inspired chanting added to its charm. The night at the jazz club under her wing confirmed that the Spanish also absorbed the wide spread of our American style since World War II despite their lack of involvement in the war. And analogies to jazz (particularly from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s) continued during our tour of the Prado, especially at the Picasso and Dali exhibits. As she wove her own fabric around jazz from these various angles, she confirmed her appreciation, admiration, and respect for its influence. (The very fact that she had those recordings in her personal collection spoke volumes, and should have been proof enough.) She also used her talks on jazz as a springboard for displaying her own national pride, particularly through the culture of Fado and Flamenco. Above all else, she confirmed what we have all known for a long time. Music is all-important. Music knows no boundaries. It is the universal language. And Fats Waller and Duke Ellington were right: irregardless of style, it has only two kinds--good and bad. Every student commented positively on Margarida's message in their journals, which served as one vehicle for assessing the impact and effectiveness of the grant. However, the long-lasting, far more meaningful value that each student also expressed and demonstrated to me through their actions, attitudes, conversations, and performances lay in the identity they received--my real wish for the exchange. So far from home and in the midst of a different culture, each of my students took ownership of their American music and developed a sense of national pride not previously apparent. By example, through her own culture and way of being, Margarida gave my students license to do so. The impact of the experience will be a part of every performance of theirs--on and off stage--for the rest of their lives. |
