Wichita State University - Parnassus Yearbook (Wichita, KS)

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Jazz vocal group Rare Silk receive applause after their afternoon per- formance in Century ll. 4!29f84 The solo trumpet player for the Jazz Commodores is silhouetted against the glowing arches of the Cotillion's stage. 4!28f84 Clark Terry, ajazz festival regular, helps get things started at the kick- off party Saturday night. 4!28!84 Herb Ellis, one of the Jazz All- Stars, plays along with Clark Terry and the Jazz Commodores. 4!28!84 Carol Baldwin, a fine arts major, stretches out during the 14-hour main concert at Century Il. 4!29!84

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jazz Festival Hits Wichita By Storm It's as if the city becomes one dispersed nightclub. Every year come springtime, the wail of the saxophones complements the wail of the tornado sirens. The Wichita jazz Festival, a three-day event rated one of the top educational festivals in the world, moves through Wichita by storm. The festival is one of the few in the coun- try to be sanctioned by the National Associa- tion of jazz Educators. To be sanctioned, the adjudicators must be NAJE members, judging must follow specific guidelines, the awards must fall within NAJE allowances, as well as other requirements. 'I think the founding fathers of this festival had it in mind as an educational experience for high school and college students,' Tom Fowler, assistant professor of music educa- tion, said. The festival begins at Wichita State University with jazz groups throughout the region performing before a panel of judges. Along with the college big bands and com- bos that are entered in the competitions are other groups that come to be critiqued by the festival judges. Traditionally, WSU's jazz bands and com- bos have not been judged. Fowler said this was because, as the host school which hires the judges and pro- I vides the facilities, it was impor- tant that WSU avoid the ap- pearance of a conflict of interest in the competition. The judging is subjective, said Fowler, just like a gymnastics competition. It's an aspect I'm not particularly thrilled about, per- sonally, he said. 'But the feeling is the competition is really what keeps people coming to the festival. If we didn't have that competition I don't think we'd have as many bands coming in. In 1984, Wichita State Univer- sity's Jazz Arts I, directed by Fowler, led off Sunday's main concert at Century II. In addition, WSU's combo won its competition and played on Sunday's con- cert. While Sunday's concert draws the biggest crowd of people, the heart of the festival is the competition and clinics. It is at this time that the passing of the torch from the established artists to student musicians takes place. The jazz clinics on Saturday is where the patriarchs instill the almost intuitive sense of rhythm and style which goes into making music, as opposed to simply playing the cor- rect notes. The afternoon closes with a concert by the clinicians, a scheduled impromptu jam ses- sion, that offers a taste of what is still to come. The festival then begins its gradual march to encompass the city. In 1984, the Kick-Off Party was held on the other side of town at the Cotillion. Whereas many of the festival goers earlier in the day were college age, the crowd at the Cotillion was middle age, for the most part. Their tastes in music seemed less eclectic - the more straight-ahead, big-band sound characterized by the All Stars. They had liv- ed through the grand experiment which gave jazz its roots and were content to settle for an established style. Traditionally the best and most honest and hottest jazz played during the festival has been on Saturday night,' Fowler said. The Saturday night event basically started out as a more relaxed jam session where the All Star group could stretch out and play what most of us know as honest-to-goodness jazz, where they're not limited to a 40-minute time slot and then quit because there's another group coming on. If it runs late, itis okay. People can relax, drink a little bit. The opening group for the XIII jazz Festival, the Pan America Steel Orchestra, seemed to test the crowd's tolerance of how far the definition of jazz could be pushed. The group played a vast array of styles rang- ing from Irish folk tunes to classical to the more modern, studio style of jazz. This isn't exactly what I came for and I wonder how long they will play,' one woman said. But the band was called back for an en- core after first receiving a cool reception. They chose to play Johann Sebastian Bach's Little Fugue in g minor. A man at a table directly across the aisle from the woman was en- thralled with the group. He kept laughing, tapping his hand on the table and saying how he thought the band was great. It was a hit M a risk. The group was harebf three months old and it was performing before a crowd W' hardened jazz aficionados. H that wasn't enough, members of the Pan America Steel Orchestra were not planning on performing what is infor- malb known as jazz, instead, Wer- ing a mixture dfolh, elassieal and cahfpso musie.

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lt's been the policy to have a variety of attractions so you don't get 10 big bands that all play the same thing. We were playing to have a premiere, said Gary Gibson, the band's leader, and Q' they lik- ed it . . . well, they seemed to. We deyinitebf have been given much warrner receptions since then. The Pan America Steel Orchestra is Gibsons dreamchild. ln a way it was a flash Q' inspira- tion. When I first moved down to Texas, my roommate and I were talking about what a drag it was to be down there. I just got this idea, 'Wouldn 't it be great to fubill this dream and have a band and not play garbage? Most W the performers are percussion majors at Wchita State University and receive one hour credit for being part M the group. But the group is not ojicralbf sanctioned by the univer- sity or offered as a course in the music depart- ment. The group is given space in the bowels of Duerksen Fine Arts Center to store equwment - 24 'drums made from 55-gallon oil barrels - and to practice. Funding for the band, mainbf for instruments l and any recorrhng ventures, comes from Gibsons savings and a loan he took out. i Im still paying of the loan. And we have l received some private support. The group is a prokssional band and prides itsel on playing good music, not being locked into T a stereotypical cahpso or reggae mode. The group i also faces another problem in Wchita. T H you don 't play country-and-western in Wchita, Kansas, nobody likes you, Gibson said. But out here at Wchita State, the percus- sionists are further into the future than music students in any other school in the country. That can be debated, M course. The band is planning an album which it hopes to' release through a national label. Otherwise it will promote the record itsef at its concerts. The big point behind the album is that its go- ing to be a cornpleteb' unexpected new sound because people, when they think ofa steel band, think W Marianne and Yellow Bird. The point is to open people up to new sounds. The music then shifted to ,what the ma- jority ofthe audience had been hoping for and expecting. The Navy Commodores Big Band, along with the jazz All Stars - made up of Butch Miles, jay McShann, Herb Ellis, Milt Hinton and Clark Terry,