Under the leadership of MacPhail Center for Music jazz studies director and trumpeter Kelly Rossum, with the support of the Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education, and with additional mentoring from guest artist Bobby Watson, the Dakota Combo held its first auditions in fall 2006 and bopped through its first season with performances at the Dakota Jazz Club, Nomad World Pub and 2007 Twin Cities Jazz Festival. All seniors, the first edition participants are now enrolled in various university programs including the Brubeck Institute, Berklee College of Music, Oberlin and Indiana University. The second edition promises at least equal success with an extended year of study and performance planned through summer 2008. With the involvement of acclaimed trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis, the new Dakota Combo launched its performance season on auspicious notes, rehearsing with Marsalis and then performing at a student clinic and prime time gig at the Dakota Jazz Club on December 1st. Not even the first big snowstorm of the winter interfered with the enthusiasm and talent displayed throughout the weekend.

Rehearsal

With Kelly Rossum providing the structure and the strategies, the teen sextet gathered nearly weekly at the MacPhail Annex from October through November to listen to the original recordings, study the form and chord changes of their selected fall repertoire, experiment with improvisation and soloing, and share original compositions. For most of the ensemble, this was not their first experience in a combo setting—tenor saxophonist Stephanie Wieseler leads a small band which at one time or another has included a number of her Combo bandmates; further, all of the musicians have played with the elite state jazz bands during summer camps and residencies, including the Minnesota Institute for Talented Youth Jazz Band (MITY), Minnesota Youth Jazz Band and All-State Jazz Orchestra. Whereas the first edition of the Combo included four (of seven) musicians who played in the same high school program (at St. Paul Central), the new group—representing five area high schools-- had collaborated outside of the school band.

On November 30th, the Combo gathered for a pre-rehearsal lunch at the Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant, meeting guest artist Delfeayo Marsalis and discussing plans for the two-set show the following night. Rehearsal was set for about 1:30, after the lunch crowd had cleared the club space, but talking, not playing, was the first phase of the afternoon. Plans in place, the combo took the stage, running through a few of their chosen tunes before Marsalis—trombone in one hand, latte in the other-- joined in. It was a relaxed but serious interaction, and if the students felt intimidated by Marsalis, they didn’t let on. Yet they listened intently, smiled and nodded when a demonstration or repetition clarified the lesson of the moment, and never showed the resistance, defiance, or impatience that so often describes encounters among adolescents and adults. A few tunes, or more specifically, a few segments, warranted significant attention. Marsalis took advantage of each opportunity to turn any mistake or weak phrase into a respectful, teachable moment. And Rossum? This was Delfeayo’s time and he watched and listened from a table across the room.

Student Clinic

A similar clinic was held last year, although due to a scheduling change, the 2006 clinic with Bobby Watson was held on the morning following the Dakota club performance. Only a small handful of student musicians attended. This time there was a stronger effort to inform area band directors, music teachers and music programs about the clinic. The first carload of students—a middle school band—walked in with their instruments at 10:20 am, dispelling fears that the winter storm would discourage participants. Within about fifteen minutes, the main level of the club space was filled with students, parents, teachers and a few observers, and most of the kids (nearly all middle or high schoolers) had their instruments in hand, ranging from guitars to saxes to (of course) trombones and even a tuba.

There’s no doubt that a performer named Marsalis will draw a crowd, but this was no concert event. Delfeayo is as serious about jazz education as he is about his compositions and his performance. He wasted no time involving the full body of student musicians, inviting everyone to the stage who knew “C Jam Blues.” Right away, it was clear that some students did not really know the tune. Not knowing the tune was not a bad thing, noted Marsalis, but pretending to know it—that will get you into trouble with the rest of the band! Wanting everyone to feel sufficiently confident to try an improvised line, Delfeayo called out “Happy Birthday,” leading to a round-robin of soloing that prompted smiles as well as creativity. “Find a tune you know and embellish it,” Marsalis recommended. Now they were ready to try a tune with chord changes, Miles Davis’ “Donna Lee.” Said Marsalis, “You want to play the changes but not sound like you are on the changes!”

Throughout the 90-minute clinic, Marsalis offered bits of his philosophy of jazz education. “Competition is the key to everything,” he said. “You can compete with yourself or with someone else—it’s how you develop.” Learn to read the music, he said, but “avoid transcriptions—you want to be able to hear the sound, not imitate it….listen, listen, listen.” He cited his own research regarding the efficacy of learning via transcription versus listening versus combining approaches, noting that the group that relied only on listening learned the music more quickly and with greater skill.

The Dakota stage was crowded but no one minded. Everyone got a chance to solo, if only for a single phrase at a time. How often does a 15-year-old get to jam on the stage of one of the most famous jazz clubs in the country, standing next to a trombonist named Marsalis? More lasting than the experience itself, the students—and observers—took away some encouraging ideas. And likely we will see some of these students at the next Combo auditions.

Big Night at the Dakota Jazz Club

The Saturday night show had been sold out although the snowstorm generated a few cancellations. Yet, it seemed like a typical Saturday night with the curtain to the dining room open, doubling the audience space, and nearly every table was filled by showtime, not only with friends and families of the young musicians but also with a contingent of the usual weekenders—those staying downtown for business and those coming into downtown for a classy night out. It was a rare opportunity to hear a musician of Delfeayo Marsalis’ stature for a $12 cover, but even more rare was the opportunity to hear a sextet of teens launch their club careers in such prime surroundings. Marsalis may have been the publicized star, but he played on only half the tunes, giving the Combo the spotlight. It was their gig. He was the guest artist. And Kelly Rossum, confident that the band was ready, watched and applauded from the darkness of the mezzanine, never taking a bow.

The energy from the morning clinic had not dissipated. The Combo tore through set lists which they had (not unexpectedly) reshuffled and reinvented sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday night, such that even Rossum had a few surprises.

And with Kelly Rossum ecstatically nodding his approval from his nearly invisible perch, these very serious teen musicians challenged any notion that “jazz is dead.” The program as a whole was strong; by the second set, everyone seemed relaxed and basking in the warmth of the audience’s reception and Marsalis’ enthusiastic support. Jake Baldwin’s “Sleepytime Down South” –with a knock-em-dead final chorus – was worthy of a musician twice his age. And he was in good company, with Stephanie Wiesler on tenor sax, Jacob Wittenberg on piano, Geoff Lacrone on guitar, Corey Grindberg on bass, and Matt Roberts on drums, the group combined to demonstrate the breadth and depth of jazz talents in the Twin Cities, six voices unfolding the “shape of jazz to come.” Their standards were solid—Wayne Shorter’s “Yes or No,” Clifford Brown’s arrangement of Kern’s “Yesterdays,” the clinic “changes” tune, Miles Davis’s bop anthem, “Donna Lee,” Sonny Rollins’ “Oleo,” and Ellington’s “C Jam Blues.” Lee Morgan’s “Ceora” started as a string duet for bass and guitar, evolving into a splendid solo vehicle for Stephanie Wieseler. The band also honored Kelly Rossum with his composition, “Toxic Fruit,” as well as some of their own—Geoff LaCrone’s “Waltz,” Corey Grindberg’s “Envelopes” (introduced by Delfeayo as a blues that might be followed by “Stamps”), and Jacob Wittenberg’s multilayered “Lullabye of Longing,” featuring a classy give and take between Jake and Delfeayo. At rehearsal, Delfeayo had been skeptical about a trumpet/trombone duet. Tonight it worked.

Tonight, it seemed that everything worked as it had throughout the weekend. Jazz is alive, and will remain vital as long as young musicians, and the programs that support them, thrive.

Learn more about the Dakota Combo at www.dakotacombo.com. Visit the web for more about the programs of the Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education (www.dfje.org) and the MacPhail Center for Music (www.macphail.org). In February 2008, the Dakota Combo will visit area schools and, on May 22nd, perform on the new MacPhail stage. This article first posted at www.jazzink.com