JazzED-ucation in Action: From Connections Class to Jazz Jams
/“When I first heard jazz, it just clicked for me. Hearing Sonny Rollins play the saxophone. Hearing J.J. Johnson play the trombone. It just clicked; it was something I wanted to do.”
Eighth grader Saire is in his second year of participating in the Connections program at Seattle JazzED. Geared towards strengthening improvisation and instrumentation skills among middle school musicians, Connections is a yearlong program with two sections for grades 5-8 and is open to all instruments.
With little to no sheet music in sight, Saire is one of many students learning how to play together as a group, leaning on their ears and the aural traditions of jazz to build their creative music experience. Through theatrical games, collective improvised pieces, and rhythmic grooves of traditional jazz standards, the instrumentalists are nurturing an environment where they feel comfortable experimenting with their melodic self-expression.
“I play in the jazz band in my school, so this stuff is helping me with that,” Saire shares. “I think the stuff we do here, like solos and blues progressions will help me later. I have all this knowledge in my head from this class, and I learn different stuff in school, and they connect, which is cool.”
A trombonist and percussionist in his school jazz band, since starting in Connections, the young musician has since picked up one more instrument. “I wanted to try something new and so I’ve been learning piano parts and chords.” He credits his teacher for encouraging him to experiment with different instruments in the class.
“Steve is a really good teacher. There are some band directors that are all talk and very strict, but Steve’s is engaged and informational and still mellow and chill.
Director Steve Treseler was instrumental in the development of the curriculum for the class. A saxophonist, composer, teaching artist, and author, he recognized the need for middle school level programming that prepared musicians for the jam session experience. “Most jazz programs in schools are playing tunes, reading your parts, but not a lot of room for expression.” In Connections, he hopes musicians walk away feeling confident in their ability to be exploratory and expressive on their instruments. “I’d like them to be ready to go to a jazz jam session and know a couple tunes! They should be able to get up there without music and play the theme and improvise on them.”
On the importance of the community-based jam experience in the world of jazz, “it’s a real creative music experience rather than what many kids are doing in their traditional jazz bands. Jazz is such social music.”
Currently in its winter session, the Connections class meets weekly each Saturday afternoon at the Seattle JazzED SLU site at 380 Boren Ave N. As with all JazzED offerings, to increase accessibility to music education in the community, the program operates on a sliding scale tuition model where every family selects the price that works for them.
