Northampton Jazz program returns after a two-year pandemic hiatusDate: 4/26/2022 NORTHAMPTON – After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Elliot Ross Memorial Jazz Artists in the Schools program at Northampton High School (NHS) has officially returned as a way for students to learn about the different aspects of jazz improvisation.
The program, which officially returned during the spring semester, includes five professional guest musicians teaching a total of four sessions to students in the Jazz and Rock Improvisation Workshop.
According to Paul Arslanian, the creative director for the Northampton Jazz Festival and coordinator of the Jazz Artists in the Schools program, this program began about three or four years ago as a way for the Northampton Jazz Festival to branch out and develop community outreach.
With the help of the Davis Financial Group in Hadley, an organization that raised $30,000 in seed money for the first year of the schools program, Arslanian was able to coordinate visits from guest artists – usually from New York – to the John F. Kennedy Middle School to do a “master class” with the school’s band and spend a few minutes playing a song together. The song, according to Arslanian, would eventually be played in front of the whole school at a future assembly, and the guest musicians were usually people Arslanian connected with during Northampton Jazz Workshop sessions.
About a year into the program, former NHS student and aspiring musician Elliot Ross died tragically at the age of 21. As a memorial for him, Ross’s parents – Paula and Hank – wanted to extend this schools’ program up into the high school and honor his name. The program is now known as the Elliot Ross Memorial Jazz Artists in the Schools Program, and according to Arslanian, this particular program is for the high schoolers this spring.
“[Ross’ parents] managed to raise several thousand dollars right away by family and friends contributing to it,” said Arslanian. “We had the same model as JFK for the first year of [the high school program] until the pandemic hit.”
This year, however, the high school program is back and being spearheaded by Arslanian and NHS Band Director Paul Kinsman.
“I am so grateful for all the guest lecturers Paul Arslanian is bringing in, and the Ross family that has kept this program going. It’s really important that we keep jazz in the schools, and this has really helped us come back strong after two years when we were silenced,” said Kinsman, in a statement.
This spring, five visiting musicians are visiting the high school to teach four sessions each of Kinsman’s Jazz and Rock Improvisation workshop, which is an elective scheduled during normal academic hours. The goal of each session is for the guest musicians to offer lessons on the important facets of improvisation to help students hone in on their skills.
“Jazz as a genre of music is so diverse and so wide that having a different guest musician come in every week has really exposed me to different ideas that I can absorb and then incorporate into my improvisations,” said Ilan Bryant, a pianist and senior at the school. “I have also been surprised by how the diversity of the other student musicians around me has helped me grow in this class.”
The high school program in its current form, according to Arslanian, is a totally different model from the program that was offered at JFK. “We hire mostly local educators and professional musicians to come in two times a week for two weeks in a row,” said Arslanian. These guests come in and coach the students, many of which specialize in different instruments, on a particular focus in jazz music.
The guest musicians so far have included Evan Arntzen, a jazz clarinetist and saxophonist who received his master’s from the Jazz Arts program at The Manhattan School of Music this spring; George Kaye, a lifelong professional jazz bassist; Gabe Childs, a guitarist and recent graduate of the Berklee School of Music; Justin Esiason, a professional trumpeter and a graduate in music at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and Dave Haughey, a professional cellist, composer, teacher and improviser.
“The kids are doing great,” said Arslanian. “They’re learning quite a bit and getting stimulated. They are feeding each other information and reaction to what they are learning.”
The visiting musicians were given the opportunity to teach students different aspects of improvisation given their own professional experience. Topics included melodic variations in improvisation, harmonic considerations in improvisation, the role of guide tones and voicings in improvisation and the role of rhythm in improvisation.
“Each one of the guest musicians is an improviser at a high level and brings his/her own perspective to this very large field of music – improvisation and jazz in general. Having that many different perspectives really benefits the students’ growth,” said Kinsman.
According to Arslanian, the JFK-specific program should return in the fall semester.
Donations from the high school program have now topped $15,000. People can learn more about the program and Ross through https://www.northamptonjazzfest.org/in-memory-elliot-ross.html. People can also watch high school band students playing a solo of Bobby Hebb’s “Sunny” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TouoEKj-j0&feature=youtu.be.
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