DeKalb may not rank among the world’s jazz hot spots, but don’t tell that to a feisty group of college kids.
Despite the rustic setting and laid-back tempo, DeKalb now is home to what may be the best college jazz band in the country. Two weeks ago, the Northern Illinois University Jazz Ensemble triumphed in New York, playing to a capacity crowd at the International Association of Jazz Educators conference.
Simply being invited to perform at this event stands as an honor, but the hard-swinging unit from NIU shared the stage with no less than trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and reedist Jimmy Heath, as guest soloists. Not surprisingly, the ovations were long and fervent.
But for the NIU band, the best may be yet to come. Assuming it can find sponsorship, the ensemble will tour Europe this summer, playing the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Hague, the Nice Jazz Festival in France and other cosmopolitan stops along the way.
Above all, the credit goes to an inspirational bandleader whose influence increasingly is being felt in Chicago, New York and elsewhere across the United States.
“What I’ve been trying to do with the kids at NIU is teach them not just to play the music but to feel it,” says Ron Carter, who seven years ago took over the jazz studies program at NIU. “They’ve got to understand the historical basis of the music; they’ve got to know where this music comes from if they’re going to do it justice.”
Specifically, Carter has coached these youngsters in the African-American musical culture that is at the root of jazz in general, big-band repertoire in particular. He knows that if his students cannot recognize elements of down-home blues, sanctified church singing and swing-dance rhythm in scores by everyone from Duke Ellington to Thad Jones, the young players cannot hope to meet the stylistic demands of this music.
Seven years ago, when Carter took over the NIU band, his task seemed unenviable, for Carter was assuming a position held for decades by a groundbreaking jazz educator, Ron Modell.
But if Modell put the NIU Jazz Ensemble on the map, Carter took it to the next level, transforming a well-oiled band into a dynamically aggressive one. The muscularity of its sound is now matched by the acuity of its technique; the energy of its rhythms are complemented by the stylistic authenticity of its phrasing, voicing and instrumental coloring.
Moreover, Carter somehow has imbued these talented youngsters with an understanding of musical styles that emerged long before any of them was born.
“Ron Carter is not the kind of leader who counts off the first few beats, then hangs back and lets us play whatever we want,” says drummer DouglassBratt, who has played under Carter for three years. “He’s so rhythmically attuned to what jazz should sound like, especially in music of [Count] Basie and Ellington, that he gets you into that world. And that’s a wonderful style to learn, because it’s the foundation of so much that has happened in jazz.”
Adds band trumpeter Danny Campbell: “I can’t really say enough about what Mr. Carter has done for this band. He’s kind of my idol.
“But still it’s not easy playing in this band. We all have our school studies, but we tour more than three times within a school year. And each tour is at least a week. So it takes a lot of time and commitment to play in this band.”
Indeed, like Modell before him, Carter keeps his young charges on the road playing in front of live audiences rather than in a rehearsal room. The prof understands that no classroom can convey the rigors of traipsing around the country in a bus for hours, then playing a concert at the end of a long and grueling day.
The Carter reign in DeKalb has done more, however, than just polish an already exemplary big band. Under Carter’s tenure, the NIU jazz program has blossomed, with a roster of 40-plus jazz majors where there used to be 10. Equally important, Carter has taken pains to recruit minority players who previously were not finding their way to DeKalb.
To Carter, that may be the single most important reason that jazz culture is flourishing on campus.
“Right now, we’ve got students from Puerto Rico, St. Louis, inner- city Chicago,” says Carter. “That’s crucial, because students can learn so much from each other. There are certain things that I can teach them, but there are so many aspects of jazz that can’t be taught or copied from listening to a recording. Kids transmit information to other kids.
“Let me put it this way,” he adds, warming to the subject. “When I came here, some of the NIU students were afraid of going to the South Side of Chicago, to places like Alexander’s and the New Apartment Lounge, to hear the music the way it’s made in Chicago.
“So I had to convince the cats that you’ve got to go to the South Side, you’ve got to develop a relationship with the music firsthand. And that’s one of the reasons it’s critical to have students from inner-city Chicago studying here — not just to give them the opportunity, but so the other kids can learn from them.”
The artistic success that Carter has been achieving increasingly has made him a nationally recognized figure. When New York-based Jazz at Lincoln Center transformed its Essentially Ellington competition from a local to a national contest, the institution called upon Carter to help run the event. Meanwhile, invitations have been pouring in for the NIU band.
For Carter, the journey to this kind of recognition has been hard-won, for he spent nearly 18 years building the jazz program at Lincoln High School in East St. Louis into one of the best in the country. After winning practically every award that the field of jazz education had to offer, however, the Lincoln High jazz program was dismantled, because of budget constraints.
So Carter moved on to NIU, but even at this sprawling institution, with its vast resources, there are struggles ahead. The program can’t always afford to send its band to the high-profile venues it needs to play, and the burgeoning jazz enrollment has caused growing pains. Despite engaging faculty such as estimable Chicago musicians pianist Willie Pickens, guitarist Fareed Haque and bassist Marlene Rosenberg, the NIU program needs more instructors that it may not be able to afford.
Even so, Carter’s NIU jazz program is bringing honor to the campus and to DeKalb.
More important, the bandleader is changing lives, one at a time.
“I was out on a run this morning, and I got to thinking about our performance in New York,” says Bratt, the young drummer. “And I was remembering playing in New York on stage with Wynton [Marsalis] and in front of all those cheering people, and I felt this second adrenaline rush. That performance is still with me, and I’ll probably never forget it.”
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The Northern Illinois University Jazz Ensemble, with guest bassist Larry Ridley, will play 7 p.m. Thursday at Larkin High School, 1475 Larkin Ave., Elgin; 847-888-5200.
