By Lynda Majarian Article published April 22, 2003
Just over a week before the biggest performance of their lives, Alex Stewart is teaching his students how to make an entrance. A musical entrance, that is.
“Come in stronger,” he instructs the horn players. “It’s like walking in a door. You don’t sneak in — you come in with those horns in full splendor.”
Stewart, an assistant professor of music, is rehearsing the 21-member UVM Jazz Ensemble for a public performance with Cuban jazz musician Paquito D’Rivera. On Saturday, April 26, the ensemble will take the Flynn Theater MainStage with D’Rivera, his quintet and virtuoso trumpeter Diego Urcola for the first half of the show, returning to the stage for a grand finale.
It’s only natural for the students to be a little nervous. They have forgone the pleasures of spending a rare warm Thursday afternoon outdoors, for instance, to rehearse in the cavernous Southwick ballroom.
“Let’s face it,” says junior Gayle Peryea, “none of us will play the Flynn again.”
Learning by playing
But this is not the first brush with musical greatness for Peryea or senior Pam Simays, both music education majors and saxophonists. Last year, master trumpeter Clark Terry rehearsed and performed with the UVM Jazz Ensemble, one of several performing groups in the Department of Music.
“We played in Ira Allen Chapel, and it was free for students,” says Simays. “This time the stakes are higher. People are paying to watch us.”
“I’ve only played in basements and small recital halls before,” admits Chloe Bouscaren, a first-year music minor. “This is much more formal.” Her parents are driving up from Boston for Saturday’s performance at the Flynn.
Steadying the nerves of many student musicians may be the fact that D’Rivera will lead them in a dress rehearsal April 25 at 7 p.m. in the Southwick ballroom. It will be their first, and only, chance to practice with the headliner before their concert at the Flynn.
“It’s music minus one at this point,” Stewart explains as the ensemble launches into the playfully sensual Chan Chan. “The empty spots are where Paquito will come in with the melody.”
D’Rivera was a child prodigy who played clarinet and saxophone with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra at a very early age. He is a founding member of the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna and co-director of the iconoclastic Irakere, whose synthesis of jazz, rock, classical and traditional Cuban music had never been heard before. The recipient of several Grammy Awards, in 1991 D’Rivera received a lifetime achievement award for his contribution to Latin music.
“Getting to play with Paquito D’Rivera is an absolutely incredible opportunity,” says sophomore Audrey Leduc, student program director of the Living and Learning Center’s jazz suite and an accomplished trumpet player.
“His music is intense, very high energy,” says first-year business major David Light, who has been playing saxophone since the fifth grade. Like Leduc, he is familiar with some of D’Rivera’s recordings.
Cuban connection
Other ensemble members were introduced to the lively, infectious rhythms of Cuban jazz more directly. Through Stewart’s “Music of Cuba” class, many visited Havana and Guantanamo for two weeks in January, where they took workshops with professional Cuban musicians, listened to local bands and experimented with unfamiliar rhythm instruments.
“The trip connected us to the folkloric music of Cuba as well as contemporary popular music,” says Chris Gribnau, who plays trumpet in the ensemble.
Alex Toth wasn’t on the Cuba trip, but witnessed its effects on Gribnau. “He feels Latin jazz more and more every day,” says Toth. “I think Cuba had a huge part in putting this music further into his soul.”
“I’ve always loved Latin music, but now [after Cuba] I am more aware and appreciative of its nuances,” says trumpeter Leduc, an environmental science major and amateur salsa dancer. “Half my life is music, and half is science,” she explains.
Although the ensemble is divided between students preparing for professional careers in music and those who play out of passion alone, all seem to share a high opinion of Stewart, whom they describe as “an amazing sax player.”
“He knows how to make the sound happen,” says Bouscaren.
Stewart, a saxophonist and woodwind player, has toured Europe and North America with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and accompanied performers such as Bill Warfield, Dave Stryker and Ray Charles on recordings and/or concerts. Since 1999, his energies have focused on teaching jazz studies at UVM.
“Latin jazz is the one of most exciting things happening in music now, and the students love playing it,” says Stewart. One of his goals is to bring a world-class musician to campus to teach and perform with students every year.
But right now, he has to buoy up those horns.
Tickets to the Paquito D’Rivera concert at the Flynn, April 26 at 8 p.m., are $24, $19 and $14, available at the Flynn Ticket Office at 153 Main St., Burlington, by calling 863-5966, and online at www.flynncenter.org. Students may receive a $5 discounts off the $19 and $24 tickets.
A Latin jazz master class with D’Rivera and the UVM Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble will be held at the Flynn Saturday, April 26, at 2 p.m. The class is full, but observers may attend for a $7 fee at the door.
