Youth Jazz Profile

Photo by Andrea Canter

In October 2003 I attended the grand opening party at the new Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis. The appetizers and wine added to the festivities and Bobby Watson provided the night’s headline entertainment. But the very first performer to take the new Dakota stage was a young pianist, still in high school, named Paris Strother. At that time, I was struck by her poise as much as her talent—after all, this was the Dakota, a world renowned jazz club, and this was the opening night. Not a bad gig for a 17-year-old senior who, in between classes at DeLaSalle High School and private jazz studies, was also working on the Dakota’s waitstaff. Over the next two years I’ve had several opportunities to hear this prodigious talent perform with her trio at the Dakota, at Rossi’s Blue Star Room, and at the Freedom Jazz Festival at Minnehaha Park. Paris has chops to burn, speed, power, and artistic inspiration bubbling up from the springs of Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, and Ahmad Jamal. Now in her second year at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Paris Strother seems on the cusp of a distinguished career as a performer, composer, and jazz advocate.

The Early Years

Paris was barely walking and talking when she discovered the piano—her father, Curtis, (whose late brother Percy Strother was a well known area musician) played keyboards and Paris could pick out melodies she heard him play as early as age 2. Sometime around age three or four, she started formal lessons and, according to her mother, she “soon outclassed her dad on the piano.” Helen Strother recalls that even before she touched a piano, Paris was attending to sounds differently than other youngsters, such as pointing out “that cricket is chirping in A-flat.”

With her three siblings (including twin sister Amber, older sister Erin and younger brother Dorian), Paris took Suzuki lessons, eventually playing viola as well as piano. In fact as a middle schooler at Minneapolis’ Ramsey International School of Fine Arts, she intended to try out for the school orchestra only as a violist; when overheard on piano, however, she was recommended to the jazz band led by Tom Wells.

Paris had pursued piano through the Walker West Academy of Music, located in the heart of St. Paul. Over the years, she studied with nearly all of the faculty as well as private lessons in classical piano with several immigrant Russian musicians. In part because she had initially learned to play by ear, Paris did not readily learn to read music; some teachers were more concerned that she could play than read music. And her classical studies never paid off, she said.

First Experiences in Jazz

Paris traces her interest in jazz to playing with Tom Wells’ jazz band at Ramsey in 7^th grade and to her discovery of Bill Evans’ tune, “Midnight Mood,” which she found on a compilation recording. Evans remains her “favorite of all time. He brings me to tears.” Among her mentors, she cites Walker West instructor Felix James as her biggest influence from age fourteen. Even now she squeezes in a lesson or two with James when she is home on break. Mom Helen Strother notes that James opened Paris to a wealth of “real life experiences,” exposing her to a wide variety of opportunities for performance at a young age. Others who have influenced Paris’ development include pianist Nachito Herrera (at the McPhail Center for the Arts) and saxophonist Dean Brewington (of Walker West); in fact it was Brewington who worked with Paris on her music reading skills to help her prepare for Berklee.

Photo by Andrea Canter

One apparently weak link in her education, she feels, was the lack of opportunity afforded by DeLasalle High School. Although offering a strong academic program, there was little encouragement for her to pursue music seriously. Of course that did not stop her—while in high school, Paris participated in the Twin Cities Jazz Workshop and continued her private studies. She formed a trio with fellow Walker West student, Hollis Rhodes, and young bassist Chris Smith. But with the lack of serious music programming at DeLaSalle, Paris often felt a bit isolated, with few fellow students to share her passion for jazz. She was also an enigma as a female jazz musician—one who was not a vocalist. Although being one girl among a raft of boys was “pretty cool,” Paris had to find her own role models and continually face gender stereotyping, even at Berklee. “Everyone assumes I am a vocalist.”

Jazz Goes to College

With a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Paris has made the transition from private student to university music major, and it’s been hard work! Unlike the more performance-oriented fine arts schools of music, Paris found the array of learning opportunities at Berklee to be “scary” in scope—with 12 majors ranging from the business and technology ends of music to composition and of course performance. (Paris is considering contemporary writing and production as areas of concentration.) And without a formal background in music theory, she immediately felt lost in her Harmony class. Further, having never taken music classes in high school, she suddenly found that it was her music that determined her grades. (Apparently Paris adjusted quickly, making the Dean’s List for each of her first two semesters despite a courseload of 11 classes spring semester.) “The dropout rate is astonishing,” she says. “A lot of music students think it will be easy.”

Among established musicians and educators, there is some controversy regarding the value of a formal music education versus the “academy of the streets.” For Paris, Berklee has been a broad education beyond music. “You are exposed to all different people…you learn it [education] is really what you want to make it.” And perhaps unique among the top music colleges, at Berklee performance is not regarded as the end-all for its 3,000+ student body. “It’s not practical for me to just be a performance major,” says Paris. “It’s great for people who just want to play. I want to take it to the next level by learning all the aspects of music in general and Berklee offers great majors that I can expand my horizons with.” And Berklee has given her unique opportunities to explore a wider realm of music beyond jazz, including rock, R&B, and gospel. “I’m learning jazz but also a lot more, like gospel style—a big influence. Now I’m less into the technical aspects and more into how it feels.” One of her key learning experiences has been the opportunities to just hang out, talk and exchange ideas with other musicians, particularly those outside of jazz. “Some criticize Berklee for being a ‘melting pot.’ But that’s what I like about it.”

Right now Paris is interested in pursuing film scoring and composition as well as playing piano and moving into organ and electronic keyboards. Through Berklee she gets plenty of performance opportunities with student projects involving real studio work. So far she has not pursued off-campus gigs, wanting to take this time to study and practice her craft. And she is still enamored with Bill Evans, but also cites Mulgrew Miller as another favorite pianist and saxophonist Donald Harrison as another jazz influence. Beyond jazz, she has always been inspired by Stevie Wonder and has a growing appreciation for how jazz relates to other genres. “Jazz is so broad, there’s Coltrane and Parker, Shorter, but there’s a lot more…”

Jazz Goes to Russia

This past summer, Paris had an unusual opportunity to join several fellow Berklee students in a tour of Russia. When a Russian company sought to sponsor a tour of an American band, one of the Berklee students contacted Paris. Soon the young combo was the surprise center of attention, far different from the usual response that jazz generates among young American audiences. As Paris wrote home to her family, “We just played a show in a huge hall…there was supposed to be a huge teen turnout. There was, and it was funny because our posters are everywhere here in Archangelsk [a small town in the far north of Russia], and a lot of people came to see us. But the crazy part was that there were three bands opening up for us! People are opening for us!” Reflecting on the experience later, Paris noted, “I was exposed to totally new styles and I learned what it’s like to be on tour. It is such a learning experience to have to play nearly every day, and there's only room for improvement. Going to another country not only broadened my horizons musically, but gave me an opportunity to learn more about the people of the world in general. It was just an amazing experience within itself, and I would love to go back.”

Nurturing Jazz Talent

Straddling a fine line between pushing and nurturing is a big challenge for the parent of a young musician, says Helen Strother, not unlike the challenge of supporting any child’s interests and ambitions. “You want to respect and promote their talents without pushing too hard—you need to honor them.” It was clear from a very early age that Paris had a passion for music, not just the ability. And parenting a budding musician is more than promoting the talent, says Helen Strother. The task is also to “make music fun for them. Make the process of learning fun. It has to be a balance of work and play.” Perhaps a bigger challenge has been to find ways to support the unique talents of each of four children, particularly difficult when all four took piano lessons and only one excelled. Paris notes that “some teachers were insensitive” in drawing comparisons among the Strother children, particularly regarding her twin sister Amber. Given a negative message, Amber did not pursue music, yet recently Paris discovered her sister has a wonderful voice and talent for writing and arranging.

Of her family’s support, Paris notes that her father is “a natural musician” but mother “knows nothing about music but she tries to understand it.” And her parents have been unfailing in their encouragement. “When I was being lazy, she [mom] encouraged me. When I wanted to quit, she wouldn’t let me.”

Photo by Andrea Canter

Has the Twin Cities provided a supportive environment for young jazz musicians? Paris notes that this area has a “small town familiarity” with the sort of venues you find in a big city, including venues that are “friendly to youth.” In particular she notes the opportunities to perform at the Dakota and Rossi’s, but her mother also notes how Walker West and particularly Felix James have given young talents such as Paris early exposure to performance. And Helen Strother also cites the incidental learning opportunities that come with performance—such as when Paris played for an Urban League event and got to meet speaker Julian Bond.

Paris also notes the importance of the “J-Train” program, a foundation created through the Dakota (as the Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education) to support jazz education and provide performance opportunities for young musicians. Dakota owner Lowell Pickett has particularly kept a nurturing eye on Paris’ career, ever since he overheard a “skinny 12-year-old kid” harmonizing on the keyboard at Walker West’s annual Jamfest. Through the J-Train and other youth-friendly venues, Paris had early opportunities for live performances and leading her own trio, experiences her mother feels were invaluable in learning about the responsibilities and compromises that come with group leadership.

What about teaching young musicians herself? Although she has had experience teaching young students at Walker West, Paris is hesitant about tackling jazz education as a career. She found work with the youngest students frustrating, as many seemed to be taking lessons to please parents rather than having any personal interest. She remembers her own frustrations, and resistance, with her classical lessons. The teen band she coached was more fun—“those kids really wanted to be there.” She also acknowledges that early lessons did pay off when she was “old enough to appreciate it” at about 11 or 12, when she was able to “play the music I liked.”

Bill Evans and Beyond

Her protests about teaching young children notwithstanding, Paris waxes eloquently when she speaks about the limited opportunities for inner city minority youth, even with the diverse faculty and inner city location of programs such as Walker West. Although once a haven for neighborhood minority youth, the academy’s neighborhood has gentrified and there are now few students of color despite the prevalence of role models on the faculty. “Here the arts are not culturally sensitive relative to Chicago or Philadelphia,” notes Helen Strother. And bringing an interest in jazz to kids in the inner city is a long-term goal for Paris, one that incorporates her passion for Stevie Wonder and her expanding view of the roots and future of jazz.

“My goal is to make jazz the basis of everything. I want to write music so that people can hear where it comes from… I want to make a CD called ‘Bill Evans and Beyond.’”

Many thanks to Paris and Helen Strother for their time in participating in interviews and a lot of e-mails in the preparation of this article. For more on youth jazz, click here.

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