There’s a word you’re going to be hearing a lot more of in the next two weeks. It’s abundance, the title of a buzzy new book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson that proposes something they call “the abundance mindset“ as a new basis for progressive politics. There’s no evidence that Klein and Thompson visited the campus of The University of Akron School of Music Jazz Studies Department before they wrote the book, but if they had they would have found that mindset in abundance . This week, April 7-11, that mindset will be on public display as UA kicks off JazzWeek 25: Abundance (Jazz Festival), featuring performances by Joshua Redman and Sean Jones in an illustration–and celebration–of music, community and lineage.
Let’s take those qualities one at a time starting with community. Both Theron Brown, UA Jazz Studies chair and JazzWeek director Chris Coles, also a member of the Jazz Studies faculty, are deeply embedded in northeast Ohio’s musical fabric. That’s by design.
“That’s where we live, in the community,” Brown said when I visited with him and Coles on the UA campus. “We were already [on the scene], so how can we connect it to here? We’re changing the culture here to be more like us, to give the kids what we had when we were in school. We help them find gigs that they can play, so that when they get out, the can keep rolling.”
The scene in question extends beyond the region. Brown, for instance, had connections with Redman’s representatives, who reached out to offer an open date that coincided with Jazz Week.
This brings to Akron one of the most influential improvisors of his time. Redman is a tenor saxophonist with a probing, intellectually curious style lit from within by a warmly human tone that connects on the level of the heart. His impressive group will open the ticketed show at EJ Thomas Hall on Tuesday.
The second half of the double bill features the week’s other touring artist, though in many ways, it seems as though Sean Jones has never really left northeast Ohio. He’s been a regular at UA as artist in residence, making frequent trips back home in the last six months. That’s the power of lineage.
“We try here at UA to create real-world opportunities,” Coles added, “Theron’s constantly throwing gigs at students working to make sure they’re prepared to be ready for the gigs. [Department members] Dan [Wilson] and Anthony [Taddeo] are doing everything they can to make sure that this can happen.”
Coles related a recent exercise where students learned 15 minutes of music to take to a rehearsal with the Akron Symphony Orchestra, not an easy assignment even for professionals. “I talked it down, but we didn’t play it through, and in rehearsal they nailed it to the wall,” he said.
Just how well UA’s community-based, real-world pedagogy works as music in the real world will be a centerpiece of the festival in the 40 hands of the Birth of the Cool Ensemble Encouraged by Coles, Ephriam Miller, a multi-instrumentalist graduate student in composition, founded the group to explore the music of the seminal 1949 Miles Davis/Gil Evans collaboration for nonet.
In time, what had begun in imitation blossomed into creation with Miller composing and arranging a program of original music and lyrics for an ensemble of 20 musicians, including five saxophones, three trumpets, three trombones, two French horns, euphonium, tuba, a full rhythm section and a vocalist.
Returning to the subject of community, Coles laid out a defining philosophy. “Any place where policy is structured and experimented with should be the cultural beacon in any community, he said. “As Jazz Studies, we should be doing that so that we can change the idea of culture and arts in this community from entertainment to an experience. There’s nothing wrong with entertainment, but that’s not all it can be.”
Sean Jones with SmokeFace, Floco Torres and special guests + UA Birth of the Cool Ensemble, Monday, April 7, 8 p.m., BLU Jazz+, 47 E. Market St, Akron. $15 at the door. Students FREE with ID and valid ZipcCard.
Joshua Redman Group with guests Sean Jones and the UA Jazz Ensemble, Tuesday, April 8, 7:30 p.m., EJ Thomas Performing Arts Hall, 198 Hill St, Akron, tickets $30 available here. Students free with ID and valid ZipcCard.
Miles Davis’s Birth of the Cool with UA Faculty and Jazz Trio with Sean Jones, Wednesday, April 9, 8 p.m., The University of Akron, Sandefur Theatre in Guzzetta Hall, 228 E. Buchtel Ave., free (donations accepted)
UA Jazz Ensemble and Birth of the Cool Ensemble, Thursday April 10, 8 p.m., Musica, 51 E. Market St., Akron. free (donations accepted)
Hubb’s Groove Jazz Vespers, Friday April 11, 7 p.m., St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1361 W. Market St., Akron,. free (donations accepted)
NOTE: This article was written by a real human being. No artificial intelligence or generative language models were used in its creation.
Red beans and ricely yours,
jc
