This post is a contribution from David Hollender, a professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has been keeping us updated on the way bluegrass music and traditional acoustic instruments are being presented at the school.
Pete and Joan kicked things off by playing two tunes and then worked with a student band in an open master class format. Students Charlie Worsham, Ashleigh Caudill, Kristen Weber and Joe Walsh, all members of Back Bay Bluegrass, played on stage for Pete, Joan and fellow students.
The extent of Pete”s work with up-and-coming musicians was evidenced by the fact that he had met three of the four band members before and had notes about them going back as far back as ten years ago. By coincidence, Walsh happens to be Joan”s cousin.
Pete and Joan were very complimentary of the band. They offered suggestions and worked with them to fine-tune some fine points of their playing. They spoke about how singers could emphasize the meaning of lyrics and critiqued the arrangements. Along with the specific suggestions Pete and Joan expounded on their personal philosophies of what makes good music and what it takes to reach a large an audience.
Preceding the master class Pete spent time working one-on-one with another student banjo player.
Boston area readers can hear Pete and Joan, Back Bay Bluegrass, The Stringdusters (with Berklee graduates Chris Pandolfi and Andy Hall) play sets Friday night at the Joe Val Festival, which runs Friday through Sunday.
We have posted several times recently about Berklee College Of Music’s acceptance of traditional stringed instruments like banjo and mandolin as principal instruments of study at the school. One of the architects of this change was August Watters, Associate Professor at Berklee, and an accomplished mandolinist outside of his work teaching Ear Training at Berklee. Along with String Department Chair Matt Glaser and Ensemble Professor David Hollender, Watters worked for several years to help convince the administration of the need to embrace these instruments to keep faith with Berklee’s commitment to offer serious college training in all styles of commercial music.
On Wednesday, February 1, August will perform in a faculty recital at Berklee, featuring a mix of bluegrass, swing, jazz, Celtic, klezmer and Brazilian Choro music. Joining him for this concert will be a number of Berklee faculty members and noted northeastern mandolinists in a program largely involving music written and/or arranged by Watters. He tells us that he means for the recital to be at times serious and respectful, and at other times irreverent, playful and fun.
“The concert reflects not only diverse mandolin styles, but also different ways of approaching a mandolin ensemble — from a lead sheet approach where everyone contributes to the arrangement, and nothing is written down, to a completely written-out approach. Most tunes are hybrids of the two extremes: written arrangements with room for improvisation in the solo sections as well as the accompaniments, or lead sheets with most parts improvised, and only a few ensemble figures notated.”
The show will begin with three numbers featuring a bluegrass ensemble composed of Berklee faculty members David Hollender on banjo, John McGann on octave mandolin, Mitch Nelin on bass and August Watters on mandolin.
“All of the players in my bluegrass quartet, which is opening the recital, are deeply rooted in traditional bluegrass. Like all bluegrass musicians, we’ve been listening to the real thing for most of our lives, and regularly play straight-ahead bluegrass gigs and jams. I myself grew up down the road from Bean Blossom, where Bill Monroe made a big impression on me at an impressionable age.”
“We also believe in the bluegrass process: listen deeply and widely to the music of our world, and then combine those ideas into a personal approach. I believe that if I follow Bill Monroe’s process, I’ll likely end up in a different place. So the concert is less about presenting traditional bluegrass sounds than it is about giving a taste of it to young ears, while also contextualizing it with other sounds. I hope the end result will point the way toward new possibilities for young musicians.”
The recital will be held in the David Friend Recital Hall (Genko Uchida Building) at 921 Boylston Street in Boston. It begins at 7:30 p.m., February 1, 2006, is open to the public and there is no admission charge.
In addition to his teaching duties at Berklee, August is deeply involved in bluegrass music education in the Boston area. He heads up youth jam sessions through the Boston Bluegrass Union, where young pickers are taught common jam tunes in a group setting, at no cost to them or their families.
We recorded an interview with August during the 2005 IBMA World Of Bluegrass convention which will be released at a later date on The GrassCast, and we talked about his work at Berklee as well as his efforts spreading bluegrass music to even younger players.
We are very pleased to note that this Globe article has been picked up by The International Herald Tribune, perhaps the most prominent English language newspaper outside the US, where the story is sure to get far wider play.
The article has also been the topic of discussion on some popular bulletin board sites, like Banjo Hangout and Mandolin Cafe.
Take Me Back, the new CD release from canadian singer/fiddler April Verch is slated for a dual track release this month and next. It will be released in Canada on January 17, and then in the United States on February 14.
The 27 year old Verch has been known in her native Ontario for some time, starting out as a youngster, winning both dance and fiddle competitions and releasing a pair of self-produced CDs before graduating from high school. She spent a year as a student at the Berklee College Of Music in Boston, but left after only a year to pursue performing full time. She signed with Rounder Records in 2000, and has two prior releases with them, Verchuosity and From Where I Stand.
No audio up yet on either the Rounder or Verch web sites for Take Me Back, but that is likely to change as the release dates draw nearer.
When we featured Berklee professor David Hollender’s report on The Del McCoury Band’s visit to Berklee this past November, he mentioned to us that a reporter from The Boston Globe was also in attendance that day, and was planning to write a piece about Berklee students using bluegrass instruments for the paper.
That story, written by Sarah Schweitzer, ran on the front page of the December 28 edition of the Globe, and can be accessed via the Globe’s web site, boston.com.
We just received another report from David Hollender, a good friend of Bluegrass Today, and a professor at the prestigious Berklee College Of Music in Boston, MA. He wrote to let us know about a recent performance at the school by The Del McCoury Band, and in particular on the powerful impact they made on both the students and faculty, and at least one member of the Boston media.
Students at Berklee College of Music packed a recital hall for a clinic by The Del McCoury Band on Wednesday, November 9. This is the first time a full bluegrass band has come to give a clinic at the college. Del McCoury, Ronnie McCoury, Rob McCoury, Jason Carter, and Alan Bartram spent over an hour playing, answering questions and talking with the students.
The band played songs from their newest album as well as requests for standards and tunes Del has sung throughout his career. The band obliged a request to play some numbers that student bands were playing this semester so they could watch the band demonstrate the concepts and techniques they have been learning.
Students asked questions about topics ranging from the players” instruments, performing with just one microphone, and how to play backup. Del spoke of his early influences and music that inspired him, as well as how he chooses new material. He spoke about switching from banjo to guitar when Bill Monroe opted to have Bill Keith play banjo. He discussed the importance of strong rhythm guitar playing in a bluegrass band and the relationship between the guitar and bass. He used that opportunity to praise Bartram, the new bass player in the band. Ronnie McCoury responded to questions about how the band records and how he approaches the challenges of producing. When asked to give advice to young players Del advised them to trust their instincts and play the music they love.
There were students in the audience who were already familiar with the band, but for many it was their first exposure to live bluegrass played at this level. The same can be said about some Berklee faculty who happened to be walking by, were drawn in and stayed. They went away sold on the music, and understanding something about its depth and appeal.
A newspaper reporter covering the event was struck by what she saw — an audience of young students who had mostly grown up listening to rock, jazz and pop incredibly excited by what they saw and heard. She wanted to know how this 66-year-old singer, playing music that was probably foreign to most of them could have such an immediate and palpable impact on young students. What came across in peoples’ comments was that the virtuosic playing and singing was one factor, but even more so, it was the depth of feeling that the band put into the music, combined with Del’s charismatic stage presence. People commented about what they perceived as a kind of quiet confidence and self-acceptance that Del exudes about who he is and what he does, and that draws the audience to the music. Listeners who may not have responded the same way to hearing a recording were immediately struck by the skill and depth of what they heard.
In organizing this event I couldn”t help but notice that every person I spoke with who had ever met Del McCoury commented first about his warmth and generosity of spirit. When I approached Del backstage at the Grand Ole Opry last March to ask if he might be willing to come to Berklee when he was in the area there was no hesitation in saying yes. When the chance came, it wouldn”t be enough to just say he was willing. He played an active part by freeing up time to come to spend time with the students. Every member of the band was enthusiastic and showed genuine interest in every student who came up to meet them after the clinic.
A side note: The Del McCoury Band was in the area to play a show at Club Passim, the former Club 47, an historic non-profit club that seats just 125 in a 30′ x 40′ basement in Harvard Square. Club 47 was where a 17-year-old Joan Baez played and introduced Bob Dylan, who played between acts. Opening for them was Abigail Washburn.
In a previous post, we described the recent changes at Berklee to create the Acoustic String Principal (ASP) to allow for serious students of banjo or mandolin to attend the school and pursue a Berklee education, using their chosen instrument as the vehicle for their study. Berklee requires all students to declare a principal instrument, even if they go into Music Business, Film Scoring or Music Technology as their major, and David Hollender (and Strings chair Matt Glaser) have been advocating this ASP for several years.
These photos (below) of Del & The Boys at Berklee were taken by Nick Balkin.
On Tuesday, Bela Fleck’s Trio! (Bela, Stanley Clarke, Jean Luc Ponty) performed in Boston, and they also gave a free clinic for students at the Berklee College of Music in the afternoon. Berklee students were also admitted to the Tuesday evening concert for half price.
Bela gave an hour clinic in the Berklee Performance Center yesterday afternoon with Stanley Clark and Jean Luc Ponty. He stayed around for a while after to talk with students, sign autographs, pose for pictures, etc. It was great to see the huge turnout and to overhear kids still talking today about how excited they were to meet him.
Stanley commented that they called Bela because of his musicianship, not because they were looking for a banjo player. Bela turned to the audience and said, ‘The banjo is the instrument of love,’ and that was why they couldn”t resist.
Bela’s playing with the group uses more single string playing than rolls. His soloing was incredibly inventive rhythmically. Few banjo players get such a wide range of tone and articulations (not with effects, just hands). His fluidity and the wide variety of concepts and ideas he employed made it some of the best improvisation I’ve heard.
UPDATE: I just received these photos of Bela at the Berklee workshop. They were taken by Phil Farnsworth. Just click on any of them to see a larger version.
I just received a very welcome bit of news from my friend, Dave Hollender, a professor at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, announcing their newly established program to accept bluegrass musicians to study and receive a degree from Berklee, using standard bluegrass instruments as their principal focus. The effort to accomplish this change has involved many years of planning and study, and seeing bluegrass instruments recognized in this way by an institution of this caliber is a milestone of no small measure.
Here are the details:
Berklee College of Music, the world’s largest independent music college and the premier institution for the study of contemporary music, who”s alumni reads like a “who”s who” in contemporary music, has announced a new Acoustic String Principal, opening the door to banjo and mandolin players who wish to attend the college in Boston.
At Berklee, even students in the Music Business, Music Technology or Film Scoring programs must declare a Principal instrument, and take at least two years of private instruction on their instrument, along with theory, harmony and ensemble classes, in addition to the course requirements for their major. This is one aspect of the Berklee experience that has set it apart from many other fine music schools, and made a Berklee degree such a high rated credential in the industry for many years.
With this new Acoustic String Principal, banjo and mandolin, which have often been overlooked or dismissed by conservatories and college music programs, will now take their rightful place at Berklee. Students accepted to study banjo or mandolin at Berklee will take lessons in the String Department, chaired by Matt Glaser, with banjo/double bass Professor Dave Hollender and mandolin/guitar Associate Professor John McGann, and will spend four years studying with 3,800 students and 460 faculty members from over 70 countries.
While this addition represents the beginning of what promises to be a major expansion at the college, bluegrass isn”t completely new to Berklee. Graduates with connections to bluegrass include Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Casey Driessen, Rushad Eggleston (the first Berklee student to win a Grammy while still a student), Chris Pandolfi, and Evan Price. Three-time Galax Bluegrass Fiddle champ Nate Leath is presently a student.
The addition of bluegrass bands to the college”s ensemble program four years ago was initiated by Hollender, who responded to a call to add more styles and to expand roots music offerings in the Ensemble Department. Last year McGann added Celtic and early country music ensembles. With the success of these bands Glaser, Hollender and McGann launched an initiative to start the Acoustic String Principal in order to offer banjo and mandolin players the chance to study at the college. Recognizing the importance and value of bluegrass and acoustic string music, President Roger H. Brown, the deans and chairs supported the initiative and approved creation of the program.
This past March Brown went to Nashville for a ceremony in which he conferred an honorary doctorate upon Earl Scruggs and announced the creation of the Earl Scruggs Endowed Residency, which will provide funds to bring country and bluegrass artists to Berklee for clinics and residencies.
Berklee is not the first college to teach bluegrass music, but its approach and objectives will be somewhat different. Unquestionably, developing strong roots and appreciation for the tradition will always be an indispensable part of any musician”s education, and playing straight ahead bluegrass will be part of the curriculum. However, Berklee”s program would not be a good fit for the player who wants to play nothing but traditional banjo styles in a traditional bluegrass band.
Berklee”s curriculum in ear training, harmony/theory, improvisation, music technology and reading have become the model for much of jazz and pop music education. The size of the student population makes it possible to offer the greatest number and variety of elective courses of any music program. As students deepen their musical awareness and augment traditional skills and vocabulary with new techniques and concepts they will have the chance to apply these skills in an unparalleled range of performing ensembles.
The goal is that at the end of the day these students won”t tend to be narrowly defined as banjo players or mandolinists, but simply as musicians.
“You”ve got to keep one foot in the past and one foot in the future.” Jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie
Learn more about Berklee College Of Music on the web.
Find out how to apply at the Admissions web page.
You can email questions about banjo and mandolin at Berklee to David Hollender, John McGann or Matt GlaserA personal aside: My son (John Lawless, III) is currently a student at Berklee, starting his senior year in the Jazz Composition department. Our experience with the school and the quality of the music education which is available there suggests that one would be hard pressed to find a more rigorous or effective program, nor one that more accurately reflects the “real world” of the music business in which graduates will be expected to find work. I add my strong personal recommendation, and suggest that any young bluegrass musician who is currently investigating music colleges (or parents of same), take a close look at this new program at Berklee .
UPDATE: Thanks to Steve Schaaf of Coal Mountain for catching that we had neglected to mention dobro wizard Andy Hall in our listing above of notable Berklee graduates with a strong connection to the bluegrass world.
