Looking to improve his drumming, Bonneville High School senior Nathanael Quimby diligently took notes and asked questions at a jam clinic the Salt Lake City Jazz Festival put on Saturday.
SALT LAKE CITY — Some budding musicians learned a few things Saturday about putting the jazz in Utah.
Looking to improve his drumming, Bonneville High School senior Nathanael Quimby diligently took notes and asked questions during a jam clinic at the Salt Lake City Jazz Festival.
Quimby hopes tips from professional drummer Jose « Pepe » Jimenez, who has played with various Las Vegas shows and with the rock band Santana, will help him keep the beat as he joins his school’s jazz band this year.
« Rhythm is key. That’s my big takeaway from all this, » he said.
Quimby was among the young musicians and some not so young to take advantage of the free jazz clinic, also sponsored by Jazz Arts of the Mountain West.
The three-day festival at the Gallivan Center wraps up Saturday night.
Saxophonist Greg Floor, a soloist at the festival, taught a session called « Improvisation: Chains of Freedom. »
« I’m trying to help the young jazz enthusiast who is trying to learn this language do so in a more efficient manner. I realized later in life that my early practice was flawed, » he said.
Improvisation, Floor said, is a skill that takes musicians years and years to develop.
Like Jimenez, he emphasized rhythm « The actual language is not the different notes that you choose but it’s the rhythm that you put them in, » he said.
Lucas Deal, a clarinet performance major at BYU who also plays sax, said it’s a misperception that jazz musicians are free to play however they want. Being disciplined and deliberate comes with the gig.
« To really to be able to improvise freely and express yourself you have to be very diligent and controlled in what you do. It doesn’t actually work to pick up a horn and say, ‘I’m going to play anything,' » he said.
All those attending the clinic — some for learning, some just listening to music — share a love of jazz.
« The great thing about jazz is that it’s always new, » said Deal, who aspires to be a jazz professor.
Floor asked how someone could decide whether Ray Charles’ gruff voice is better than Pavarotti’s perfect vibrato because they’re both unbelievable.
« And that’s what’s great about jazz. We’re saying your voice is your voice. Sound how you sound and let’s talk, » he said.
« It’s a very free, a very American art form that is just an absolute joy. Whatever I have to say, then the drummer answers me back and the bass player says something and you’re having this conversation and hopefully the audience likes it. »
