That’s what the professionals do.
As I listened to an Evergreen Jazz festival performance by two top clarinet players, I glanced around the audience. One row in front, observing every nuance, sat Clark Burnside, the veteran clarinetist for another band at the festival.
That scene repeated itself throughout the weekend: one master of the craft listening and learning from another.
That morning, Maurie Walker, who’s performed on the banjo for decades, sat up front as banjo master Bob Barta was featured with the Wolverine Jazz Band.
Around noon, longtime drummer Tony Pantellis of Denver’s Queen City Jazz Band watched every move by drum legend Hal Smith.
If you can learn in person from a pro ― at a conference or one-on one ― there’s nothing finer. But there’s also what they’ve published. Throughout the jazz festival, artists spoke of what they’d learned by studying great recordings.
The weekend jazz festival began with a formal clinic for student musicians. But throughout the event, I noticed students listening to each performance. Some of those students were high-schoolers. But many were also professionals. Maybe that’s why.
