50 Years of Jazz
CHICK COREA: Are you ready?
[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]
PETER GODART: Jazz is definitely very intellectual. In order to do it, you really have to dive into the harmony and figure out what's going on. And I think there's a part of all of us that really likes analyzing things.
[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]
CHARLIE MARGE: It's a great outlet for people to really be able to express themselves and do things at a high level.
[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]
COLLEEN JOSEPHSON: When you really nail something and get it in the right spot and you play it exactly the right way, it feels like the universe is falling into place.
FRED HARRIS: In the 1950s, the Techtonians, which was a big band, were performing dances. They were performing functions. And Klaus Liepmann, who was the Music Director at that time, thought, we should try to harness this somehow and make it better. And the number one person on the Boston scene at that time, who was leading big bands and was known as a consummate teacher, was Herb Pomeroy.
JOHN HARBISON: And I'm sure what he probably said to Herb is, I want the best band we can have. Get it going.
FRED HARRIS: In the spring of 1963, what he did with the program here was to build it from the ground up. He illuminated the essence of the students' passion, and he brought a sense of professionalism and polish.
CHARLIE MARGE: The experience for me was just one of wonder at how he managed a rehearsal.
MARK HARVEY: He had a wonderful way of working with the students so that he could push them and get maximum effort out of them, but at the same time, be congenial.
GARY BURTON: He had lots of little tricks that liven up your melody lines when your playing. And I've been passing these on to people for decades now.
CHICK COREA: He set a real good example for me. He was a kind, straight-ahead, down-to-earth, communicative, helpful guy and made me feel comfortable right away.
CHARLIE MARGE: The reputation that he built here for having a great band, I think, it probably attracted a lot of people.
MARK HARVEY: It was called the Festival Jazz Ensemble because in the early days, they would go to various jazz festivals.
He auditioned everybody. He was turning so many people away, he decided to start like a feeder band.
CHARLIE MARGE: The Concert Jazz Band was led by Everett Longstreth, and his focus was really to teach us the fundamentals.
EVERETT LONGSTRETH: The big difference for me with the MIT people was when I told them something, I only had to tell them once. And they couldn't do it all the time, because maybe they didn't have the technique to do it all the time. But they understood it.
JIM O'DELL: I was always just really blown away, not only by the caliber of the band, but the caliber of the music it was always fresh; it was always new.
MARK HARVEY: Jamshied Sharifi was the next one right after Herb, and, in fact, he had been a student of Herb's her at Berklee as well as at MIT. So he was essentially handpicked by Herb to succeed him.
ALI AZARBAYEJANI: He was younger and hipper, and he brought a new vibe to the band. He was also really good writer. Some of the best music in the band's library comes from Jamshied.
JAMSHIED SHARIFI: I grew up with music that included rock and funk and R&B and soul, and even hip hop. So all of those I felt were viable rhythmic areas that the band could explore.
FRED HARRIS: In 1981, Mark Harvey joined the faculty. And he really has been a central figure to the jazz education experience at MIT since that time.
OTTO BRINER: I've had a couple classes with him, and he's a genius, and he's incredibly open to students' new ideas.
It was a laboratory for composers.
FRED HARRIS: Jim O'Dell had great success with festivals, and he brought wonderful artists to engage and work with the students, including Phil Woods and Terrence Blanchard. And he also continued having local and national jazz composers, innovative jazz composers, write expressly for the ensemble.
JIM O'DELL: Who's writing? Who can I talk about getting some charts? Who can I get over here to work with the band, help me feed the great appetite that the FJE students had.
FRED HARRIS: We've been privileged and honored to be able to interact with some of greatest jazz artists on the planet. Legendary saxophonist Joe Lavano has been an artist in residence a number of times here at MIT.
We were rehearsing one of his nonets, and I had tried to, as best I could, dutifully rehearse it close to the tempo that he had recorded it at. And he came in and took it at a tempo that I'd never done it with with the students. And I was a little worried. And unbelievably-- and he was playing with them-- they rose to the occasion and played way over their heads. And it was amazing to see them. It was just another example when you take a great artist and you put them with students who are passionate and have the ability to rise, they will rise.
CHICK COREA: Can you hear me?
STUDENTS: Yes.
CHICK COREA: Hey, how are you doing? Modern technology-- MIT, yeah.
FRED HARRIS: We are rehearsing Chick Corea's "From Forever." It's dedicated to Herb Pomerory. And the notion that he would write a piece for MIT sent me out of orbit.
We thought we would run it for you.
CHICK COREA: I've got the score in front of me, and let's go.
[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]
OTTO BRINER: This Chick Corea piece is this beautiful amalgamous mess of melody and harmony and rhythmic counterpoint. It's taken awhile for the whole band to dig through this heap of content and start to gel it together.
CHICK COREA: You can do [INAUDIBLE] the way you want. But my intention at that section was to create an illusion, a rhythmic illusion, at that second part of the phrase, like, for instance, you go--
[HUMMING AND CLAPPING]
You're going to be going to a back-beat there or something.
[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]
FRED HARRIS: The students that perform music at MIT, and particularly jazz, have such a deep love of it that they just have to do it. It isn't a choice almost. And I think MIT is about passion. It's about excellence. It's about stretching. And I think any innovation involves risk. And jazz at MIT is no exception.
[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]
COLLEEN JOSEPHSON: It's definitely been something that's made my time at MIT much more enjoyable.
OTTO BRINER: This is my meditation. This is my sit-down time, where I just get to be in the moment and lose myself in the music that I get to make with the people around me.
CHRIS RADOWSKI: It's just one of the fondest memories I have of all of MIT by far.
JOHN HARBISON: And there's nothing to stop MIT from being a leader in the jazz field for another 50 years.
CHICK COREA: Hi, this is Chick Corea. I want to congratulate all of you.
GARY BURTON: I absolutely would like to congratulate the MIT jazz band and program.
MARK HARVEY: Happy birthday on 50. Let's have 50 more at least.
ALI AZARBAYEJANI: Congratulations to the Festival Jazz Ensemble for your 50th anniversary.
You've lasted 50 years, and it's only getting better.
PETER GODART: Congratulations, MIT Jazz.
[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING]