What
a month it has been!  The Texas Music
Educators Convention, working with a total of about 40 school bands of all
levels and grades, 8 concerts, and about 2000 miles driven in my rental car.  (It was a KIA Soul.  I was really impressed with this little car.
Lots of room inside. Very comfortable. Peppy – and about 30 miles per gallon.)

These
trips are very tiring, but also VERY gratifying.  I love working with the students and
hopefully I am not only supporting what their teachers say every day, but maybe
helping instill a love of “good” music and a desire to practice and improve on
their instruments.  We talk a lot about
the “dreaded P word.”  Kids today just
don’t practice their instruments nearly as much as they should.  I try to let them know that practicing a
musical instrument is -eventually go into.

Let’s
see, here are the cities I visited: San Antonio, TX; Ft. Worth, TX; Tulsa, OK;
Ft. Smith, AR; Tyler, TX; Pine Bluff, AR; Monticello, AR; Monroe, LA;
Nachitoches. LA; and back to San Antonio.
Also many other cities that were suburbs of these bigger cities.  I worked with some wonderful Getzen
dealers.  Saied Music in Tulsa and Ft.
Smith, The Band House from Shreveport, and American Music in Tyler.

Everywhere
I went, the treated me “like royalty.”
Of course one of the things that happen on these trips – especially one
this long – is that you get taken to really fantastic local restaurants.  So – it will be back on a diet the minute I
get back home!!

It
seems like after 47 years on the road I should be used to being away from home
– and I guess I am.  I do find these days
that I miss Peggy even more when I am away.
Her joke has always been, when asked how we have been married so long
when I am gone literally half the time – that my travel is the reason we have
stayed married this long.  I have been
very lucky to be married to a spouse with her own great career and who is also
very patient with all my antics and quirks.
I am more thankful for her all the time.
And – I am so proud of what she accomplished in her career and also how
active she is in her retirement.

Now
– what do I say about Clark and Gwen Terry?
Clark has been my mentor and friend and inspiration for over 40
years.  Between he and Stan Kenton, they
instilled a love and a dedication in me for working with young people and
“passing the torch” of Jazz Music.  The
two of them were probably the most dedicated teachers I have ever known.  Clark’s spirit and love for music and people
has permeated his being for all of his 91 years.  Most people could not and would not have been
able to live through his medical challenges for most of his life.  Between chronic back problems and Diabetes
and its horrible side effects, he has been living with pain and discomfort for
50 years.  I remember on our European
tour in 1978 with his Big Bad Band, there were many nights that Peggy would
give him a shoulder rub and try to alleviate his pain.  Through all of this, he has remained positive
and warm and giving to everyone around him.
Especially the musicians he has worked with and the students that he has
encouraged.

It
was bittersweet to visit this time in the hospital after the amputation of his
second leg.  He was still joking with all
of us and taking phone calls from all over the world from people who were
wishing him well.  It is so sad to see
someone who has given so much to so many people, have to go through this in his
twilight years.  He is one of the real
inspirations in my life.

Now
I have to get back home to work on Kenton Alumni Band touring, the Prescott
Jazz Summit, more clinic promotion, and getting ready for many more road trips
this spring.

Mike Vax
vaxtrpts@aol.com
www.mikevax.net
www.bigbandjazz.net
www.prescottjazz.com
www.getzen.com

Mike Vax

This blog stuff is very interesting.  When one is working 14-16 hour days, it is hard to find time to write my stories and feelings, but I will try to keep up better in the future.  It seems like the best place to work on this is on airplanes.

“Working on my Blog”

(No other distractions and no Internet to get in the way!)  So I am writing this on the beginning of a month-long clinic tour that starts with the Texas Music Educators Convention in San Antonio.  Then it’s off on the road with a rental car for about 1800 miles in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.  (More on this trip soon.)

Now that I have given an overview, I guess I should do a more in depth report on the trip that Peggy and I took to Louisville, KY for the Jazz Education Network Convention.

As I said before we took a red-eye flight to get there, as it was the only way to
be there in time for the President’s reception for the Founding Members.  Peggy has decided that those all night flights are NOT for her.  (I don’t blame her at all, but sometimes I have no choice, given my schedule.) Peggy took a nice nap all afternoon and I, being my usual self, went down to see what all was happening and start saying hello to old friends.  One of the greatest things about conventions such as this one is that you get to see people who have become good friends, but you just can’t see them very often.
In the music and education business that is certainly true.

Since the demise of IAJE, there was a void in the Jazz Education community and JEN
has certainly taken the reigns and filled that void in a rapid manner.  In the span of just a few years, they have formed the new organization and already presented three very fine conventions.  These conventions are a wonderful combination of concerts, clinics and an all-around good “hang.”

On Wednesday evening, Lew Fisher hosted the President’s reception for all of the
Founding Members and sponsors of the convention.  Good food, some drink and lots of good friends and some new acquaintances were the rule of the evening.  It was a pleasure to see people such as Rufus Reed and his wife, Mary Jo Papich (the first president of JEN and an old friend from my Kenton days), Bruce Gates from the Airmen of Note and now living in Phoenix, Jim and Lana Widner, and so many others.  One person whom I really enjoyed seeing was Andrew Surmani.

Andrew Surmani

 Andrew was my trumpet student at least 20 years ago.  He is now president of Alfred Publishing and also the president-elect of JEN.  He is a great guy and will do great things
for JEN.  I must compliment the JEN people for having the foresight to elect a person who is in the Music Business,
rather than being an educator.  It is one thing to have educators lead such an organization, but with Andrew it will
bring a whole new perspective to everything. I know he will do a great job!

I spent much of each day at either the Getzen booth or our FBBJ table.  Peggy was a real trouper as well and manned our table much of the time that I couldn’t be there.  We gave out lots of information on Friends of Big Band Jazz, The Stan Kenton Alumni Band, The Prescott Jazz Summit and my own
clinic bookings.  Our table was in the
foyer outside of the ballrooms where the instrument company and college booths
were located.  The only problem with our location was that people were always in a hurry to get to the next event as they walked through our hallway.  We sure would have loved for more of them to stop to talk to us, and I know others who paid for tables felt the same way.  One good thing was that the JEN people did think about having these tables that weren’t as expensive as a whole booth inside of the ballrooms.  I’m not sure what could be done to get the people in attendance to actually stop and talk to those of us who had tables there, but I hope something might happen at future JEN conventions to facilitate that.

On Thursday afternoon I was guest soloist with the Thelma-Yellin Big Band from
Isreal.

Thelma Yellin Big Band from Israel

This school is an arts magnet school for the whole country – sort of like what Interlochen is here in the USA.  The band was VERY good and the conductor had the students really well prepared for their performance.  The only thing that was a little weird for this performance was the fact that the administrator who I had been dealing with, misunderstood what I was supposed to do with them, so they never rehearsed the arrangements that I had sent them.  I know – seems strange that he didn’t think about why I had sent the arrangements, huh? I have to admit that I was more than a little upset with this turn of events, but I did play on a nice arrangement of “  that they had scheduled for the concert anyway.”  The kids were wonderful musicians – with some really strong jazz soloists – and very friendly.  They made me feel right at home, even though
I was a little put off that we couldn’t do any of my charts.

These students had traveled half way around the world to perform for the convention
and I felt very bad for them that there were only about 50 people in the audience for their concert.  As I talked about in my last installment, there were just too many things scheduled at the same time as our performance.

There were many wonderful performances and clinics that I didn’t get to attend,
mainly because of doing business at our table and in the Getzen booth.  It is a little frustrating that one can’t be in two places at once at these conventions,

"What should I do?"

but after all, we were there to promote our endeavors and to work on bookings and do the usual networking.  One of the delights of the weekend was to see Gwen Terry there with her own table, promoting Clark Terry’s new autobiography.

Clark Terry's Autobiography

She did very well at her table and sold over 100 copies of the book, as well as having hundreds of people sign a large banner that would be presented to Clark, wishing him speedy recovery from his latest operation.  He is 91 years “young,”

Clark Terry

and an inspiration to us all.  Be sure to get his book, it is a true history of jazz and big band music and a real eye-opener as to how black musicians were treated on the road back in the 30’s and 40’s.  It doesn’t even feel like you are reading, since it is written just like he was sitting there talking to you with that happy voice of his.

It was great to hear such musicians as Byron Stripling with his Columbus Jazz
Orchestra, Jamey Aebersold and his quartet, Mel Martin and my old student from
Kenton Clinic days – Bobby Watson in a quintet situation, and many others.  I also enjoyed Jeff Sultanof’s clinic on music notation and music publishing.
Jeff is an old “Kentonia” friend and has actually traveled on the bus
with us on a Kenton Alumni Band tour.  If I tried to write about every single thing, it would take pages! The next JEN convention is in Atlanta, Ga, the first weekend in January of 2013.  I highly recommend attending!

Mike Vax
vaxtrpts@aol.com
www.mikevax.net
www.bigbandjazz.net
www.prescottjazz.com
www.getzen.com

Hard working - trying to catch up

so this is late, but here goes anyway!

First thoughts about the JEN Convention
Well,
Peggy and I are flying back to Arizona after a wonderful five days in
Louisville, Kentucky.  I hadn’t been to Louisville in many years and the down town area is very nice and I found out that they have really been working to revitalize downtown for quite a while.  Lots of interesting looking buildings, many fine restaurants, a beautiful performing arts center, and many nice hotels.
Here is the first overview of the The Jazz Education Network Convention.  It was held at the

Galt House Hotel

Galt House Hotel and Convention Center.

The layout for the convention was very good, easy to maneuver and well planned out as far as getting from one venue to another. To be honest, I can’t say the same for many of the hotel amenities.  The internet (free) was almost unworkable.  It was very slow and much of the time wouldn’t even allow you to get on to retrieve your messages.  VERY frustrating!

Frustration – Oh My

 The elevator situation was abominable.  I don’t think that they had them all running – and there were at least two thousand people at our convention, plus some other events happening as well.  Sometimes the wait could be up to ten minutes.  Then let’s see – the heater in our room didn’t work properly and the maids couldn’t seem to get it together to actually make the bed so that the bottom sheets didn’t scrunch up as soon as you got into bed.  As you know, I stay in hotel rooms about 150 days a year, so I am usually pretty easy going about “hotel stuff.”  Don’t think I would stay here again of my own accord. The room itself was rather large and comfortable.
We went one night to the restaurant at the top of the hotel that revolved and the
ambience was wonderful as was the food.  (Pretty high priced – but I guess that is to be expected.)  We were the guests of Devon Pelton, the Getzen District Manager for that area and also had dinner with some people from Antigua Instruments.  A great time was
had by all and the topics for discussion were varied and enjoyable.
The rooms where the clinics and performances were held were very nice and the sound
company that was doing sound in a “zillion” different places did a very good
job with it.  It was nice to hear some people who didn’t have “rock n’ roll ears” mixing jazz music properly for a change.
The quality of the music and the clinics and workshops was top drawer.  Everything imaginable, from elementary school, through high school, university and professional level musicians were invited to perform, including many well known musicians from all over the
country.  I’ll get into more specific things in the next installment.  My one
big complaint was that there were too many things going on at the same time all
day long.  I know they want to give as many people as possible a chance to participate, but they need a couple of thousand more people to make a difference in attendance to everything. There were at least eight choices at each interval all day long.  So the results were that many school bands that had traveled long distances to perform played for 30-50 people in a 90% empty room.  I felt so sorry for those kids!  And even some clinics were
sparsely attended.  Of course there were the few exceptions when there was a big name musician involved.   I know it is a HUGE challenge to do the scheduling, but I sure hope for the 2013 convention to be held in Atlanta, they will give more consideration to this.  I
know the “people at the top” with JEN really mean well and are working to do things right!

Much more in the next installment.  I don’t want to make this one too long.  I’ll add
some photos as well.
Mike Vax
vaxtrpts@aol.com
www.mikevax.net
www.bigbandjazz.net
www.prescottjazz.com
www.getzen.com

Well Peggy and I are on a “red-eye” flight to Charlotte, NC and then on to Louisville, KY for the third annual Jazz Education Network convention.  It’s been years since I did my last all night Flight, but this was the best way to get to the convention in time for what we need to do.
I am a “founding member” of the organization and there is a special reception in the early evening that we really need to be at – so here we are on the plane at 4:20 AM east coast time.  The plane is completely full and US Air somehow messed up our reservation, so Peggy is about ten rows in front of me on the flight.  Ah – the joys of air travel these days!

I have been at all the JEN conventions so far and they are not only a fun time, but educational and a great place to network in the jazz education business.

JEN Convention Louisville, KY 2012

This year I am doing a clinic on “Successful Section Playing in a Big Band,” as well as soloing with a big band from Israel.
Peggy and I will also have a table for Friends of Big Band Jazz, The Stan Kenton Alumni Band and The Prescott Jazz Summit.  We hope to give out lots of information about FBBJ and about upcoming Kenton Alumni and clinic tours that we are trying to book.

It will be great to see many old friends and of course, make some new ones as well.

More from the convention soon.

Mike Vax
vaxtrpts@aol.com
www.mikevax.net
www.bigbandjazz.net
www.prescottjazz.com
www.getzen.com

Mike Vax

I am really excited to let everyone know that thanks to KR Web Design, my new and much improved web site is up at http://mikevax.net/. Same address but all new look and much more information. Even a few little fun surprises.

Home page of http://mikevax.net

You will be able to access all my promo sheets, clinic information, itineraries, and other hopefully interesting stuff, as well as link to all my other websites. You can also go between the website and this blog very easily to keep reading about what I am up to, as well as posting your own messages in response to mine. I am new at this blog stuff, but it looks like fun! I welcome any and all comments. Please do put your own thoughts and ideas here about me and my road stuff.
We are also working on updating the Friends of Big Band Jazz website (http://bigbandjazz.net/) and the Prescott Jazz Summit site as well (http://prescottjazz.com/).
I hope that in the near future, you will see fit to visit all the sites and keep up with this blog.

Mike Vax
vaxtrpts@aol.com
www.mikevax.net
www.bigbandjazz.net
www.prescottjazz.com
www.getzen.com

Stan Kenton (Born 1911- Died August 25, 1979 Age 67)

Well, I am back home from my exciting trip to Interlochen to celebrate Stan Kenton’s Centennial.   Sometimes the weather is “stranger than fiction.”  I left the  mountains of Arizona and went to upper Michigan to get warm?  Yep! They are having an unseasonably warm early winter and we have had some early cold weather.  It did finally snow a little my last day in Michigan.

Interlochen Center for the Arts

Interlochen is an amazing – almost magical – place. It certainly is one of the most prestigious arts schools in the world.  It is a real accomplishment for a young person to be accepted there.  They have a total of 460 students and that number includes music, art, drama, dance, and communications.  The students are obviously exceptional talents, but they are also very down to earth, nice young people.  The students and faculty made me feel truly at home right from the start.  Interlochen also has an even bigger summer arts camp that has about 600 students who take part each year.

I stayed in the “Conductor’s Suite” in the Hotel right on campus.  I can only imagine the people that have stayed in that room over the past few decades. Two names that come to mind are Fredrick Fennell and William D. Revelli.   It was an honor to be allowed to stay in
that room.

The surroundings at Interlochen are beautiful. It is in the middle of a forest and is a combination of old historic buildings and brand new modern ones.  The Concert Hall (Corson Auditorium)

Corson Auditorium

is a work of art in itself, and the acoustics are great in there.   I walked the grounds a little (it was raining much of the time) and I also saw Kresge Auditorium

Kresge Auditorium

where we played with Stan Kenton’s band in 1972.  It is covered but the sides are open to the air.  Sure brought back some wonderful memories.  Peter Erskine, the wonderful drummer who has played with literally everybody, was a student at Inerlochen
and also played his first gig with the Kenton Orchestra – aptly enough – at Interlochen in 1972.

I worked with both the Jazz Ensemble and the Brass Ensemble while there, and also
did a brass clinic.

Trumpet Clinic

I can tell you that the Jazz Ensemble at Interlochen is better than many college bands that I have performed with.  They have excellent section work, and the soloists sound like seasoned professionals.  Playing Stan Kenton music is quite a different challenge than most other big band music and Bill Sears

Bill Sears and Mike Vax (left to right) before the concert

had these students not only well prepared, but really interested in the Kenton legacy.  Thanks Bill, for all your wonderful work in Jazz Education.

I must also thank Derek Kwan for taking such good care of me during my visit.

Derek Kwan (director of concert productions at Interlochen) Mike Vax, and Bill Sears (director of Jazz Studies at Interlochen)(from left to right)

Derek is in charge of the programs in Corson and Kresge Auditoriums and does an amazing job of booking just about every kind of musical entertainment that is imaginable.  They have an on-going concert series all year.

After the concert we went to Giovonni’s Roadhouse.

Giovanni's Sign

The restaurant part was closed, but that didn’t make too much difference because we were there to toast Stan Kenton’s 100^thbirthday!

Toast to Stan Kenton at Giovanni's restaurant

And that we did – with vodka and pretzels.  (Stan would have overlooked the pretzels……)  I would say that the whole day was a very emotional one for me, and I think we “did Stan proud” on his centennial birthday.  One of the things I thought about was how much more he could have done for music and for jazz education, had he lived a long full life, instead of passing away when he was only 68 years old.

On Friday I did clinics at Traverse City Central High School.  Again – wonderful kids and a very young and very enthusiastic band director – David Hester. I wish you well David, and know that you will have many years of inspiring young people to love music!

Trips like this make me so thankful that I chose to be a clinician, to work with young people, and to hopefully help keep music and jazz education alive in our country.

Additional pictures from my trip.

Dinning Hall

Rehersal

Mike's Dressing Room - a star no less?

Mike and the Trumpet section

Mike and the Trombone section

Mike waiting to go on stage

Mike Soloing

In the Trumpet section

signing CD's - a madhouse

What a great trip.

Mike Vax
vaxtrpts@aol.com
www.mikevax.net
www.bigbandjazz.net
www.prescottjazz.com
www.getzen.com

Stan Kenton

I REMEMBER STAN

 Stan Kenton was a grandiose person, both in stature and in the aura that he exuded to everyone who came in contact with him.
He could enter a room full of people and even the ones who didn’t know him by sight would turn their heads to see this impressive man and wonder about him.  He was the greatest leader of  people that I have ever known.  I truly believe that, if he had been a politician, he would have become President of the United States.  He had that “something” that made you believe in what he believed.  We are so lucky that he chose to become a big band leader and jazz educator.  He changed the face of jazz and big band music, as well as becoming the Father of jazz education.  It was his vision that helped create the National Association of Jazz Educators (now a new  organization called The Jazz Education Network) and his lead that convinced other band leaders to go into schools to create a whole new audience for big band music.

He changed my life completely in 1960 when I went to the 2^nd National
Stage Band Camp.  I got to play in the faculty band (at 17 years old) and at the end of those two weeks, I knew that I wanted to play on his band – not become a classical player as I had intended originally. At the end of the camp, I told him that I was going to play first trumpet on his band someday and his answer was so typically “Kenton.”  He said “If you want to bad enough, you probably will.”  For Stan Kenton to say that to me at that young age was the best thing that had ever happened to me.  I told him about that incident 10 years later when I had taken over the lead trumpet chair, and he REMEMBERED our
conversation from the camps.  (Although, he hadn’t realized that I was that skinny, short little guy that had talked to him back in 1960.)  He seemed amazed that his words had meant so much to me.

On the bus, he was a playful and overseeing “road father.”  He loved to go to the back of the bus, start some sort of political or ideological argument and then come back up to the front and watch his handiwork.  If anyone had a problem, they could sit and talk with him and he listened intently and many times gave fatherly advice.  I  really believe that in some ways, his frustration and unhappiness with his own family life, was eased by his relationship with the musicians in his band.

On the bandstand he was a caring, but forceful leader who wanted perfection and didn’t except excuses.  The music had to be right, no matter what!  He knew when his musicians were ready for the “next step” in their performance with the band, even before they did.  He knew when a jazz player was ready to be a featured soloist, or a section player was ready to become a lead player.  I am a perfect example of that.  He made me the lead trumpet player out of the blue, when I had no inkling that he was going to place me in that most responsible position.  I am happy to say that I lived up to his expectations.  But then he wouldn’t have put me there unless HE knew I was ready.

I will always cherish my time with Stan as one of the best and most important periods in my life.  Everything I have done musically and educationally in all these years since his passing was influenced by him.  I think of him most every day in one way or another.

Mike Vax

vaxtrpts@aol.com
www.mikevax.net
www.bigbandjazz.net
www.prescottjazz.com
www.getzen.com

The first reason is that we had the initial meeting of our new marketing committee
for the Prescott Jazz Summit yesterday and the ideas were really flowing.  Not only will we be working on new sponsorships for the festival and our educational outreach programs, but our internet presence is going to be the best it has ever been.  Thanks to the Prescott Jazz Summit being named a “Signature Event” for the City of Prescott, we have actually been awarded funds from the city to help us promote all that we do.  I know that the 12^th annual Prescott Jazz Summit (August 24-26, 2012) will be the biggest and best ever!

Next week as a very important milestone in the history of American Music – and big
bands in particular.  December 15^th is the 100^th anniversary of the birth of my old leader and mentor, Stan Kenton.

Stan Kenton (Born 1911- Died August 25, 1979 Age 67)

Stan was not only one of the most forward thinking and influential big band leaders, but really the father of jazz education as we know it today.

I will be flying way up to the “northern hinterlands” of Michigan (Burrr!!!!) to
be guest soloist one of the most prestigious arts schools in the world – The Interlochen Center for the Arts. (www.interlochen.org)  We are presenting a tribute to Stan Kenton on
the evening of his birthday.  We actually performed at Interlochen with the Stan Kenton Orchestra in 1971 and I haven’t been back since, so I am really looking forward to this one!  I know they have a fantastic jazz ensemble and we will be performing such Kenton Favorites as:  Malaguena, Stompin’ at the Savoy, A Little Minor Booze, Artistry in Rhythm, Here’s That Rainy Day, and quite a few others, plus some of my solo repertoire.  We are also going to talk about Stan and his influence on music and education in some
master classes.  I will be putting up some photos and reports of the concert after I get back as well.  I think I will also put on the blog next week, the tribute that I was asked to write quite a few years ago, called “I Remember Stan.”

I hope everyone is having a great start to the Holiday Season and I will wish you
an early Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Wonderful 2012!

Mike Vax
vaxtrpts@aol.com
www.mikevax.net
www.bigbandjazz.net
www.prescottjazz.com
www.getzen.com

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www.mikevax.net
www.bigbandjazz.net
www.prescottjazz.com
www.getzen.com