I’ve said it
before, and I will say it again: I had the BEST time in college. I was
fortunate enough to choose exactly the right college for me, which is fairly
remarkable considering I toured exactly three colleges.
Honestly, I
didn’t even WANT to tour the University of Minnesota, Morris. I was planning to
go to Gustavus Adolphus in St Peter because 1.) what a cool name, and 2.) they
had the best food court I had ever seen. Quality reasons, I know.
But I visited
UMM anyway, one lovely October day in 2004. My mom (who had wanted me to give
UMM a chance all along) and I made the journey to Morris, and as soon as I set
foot on the campus, I knew this was the place for me. It was love at first
sight.
My tenure at UMM
was chock-full of good things. I discovered the joys of art history, worked at
the radio station and the newspaper, met my future husband, and made life-long
friends.
Those friends
and that future husband? All in the UMM jazz band.
I didn’t join
jazz band until my sophomore year – after all, I was a clarinet player, and our
jazz band didn’t have a clarinet section. I spent my freshman year playing my
clarinet in concert band and being jealous of all my friends in jazz band, and
I gamely tried my best to learn tenor saxophone over the summer. When school
crept around again, I was decent enough to join one of the Cougar jazz bands.
During my time
in UMM jazz, the jazz bands were broken into four main groups: Jazz I (super
good), Jazz II (good), and Cougar I and II. The Cougar bands were the same,
talent-wise: the only difference was that one was led by the jazz director and
the other was led by a student director. We affectionately called them the
Cougs. The Coug bands were the noncommittal jazz bands – for those of us who
weren’t necessarily that good and just wanted to play. (Without having to practice much/at all.)
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Those were also the jazz bands that
music majors would join if they wanted to try their hand at a different
instrument: my friend Nate played trombone in Jazz I and trumpet in Coug I.
Most of my jazz
band time was spent in Coug I (save for the single semester Coug I wouldn’t fit
into my schedule, and I was relegated to Monday night Coug II). My friends were
all in Coug I, and I loved each student director: Nolan my first year, Kevin my
second, and James my last. (I wish I could say that having my
then-boyfriend-now-husband as a director allowed me special privileges, but it
didn’t. Maybe he didn’t appreciate me boo-ing a few of his song choices from
the front row.)
Coug I was a
fifty-minute class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I sat next to my friend and
fellow tenor sax Clara, who was way better than me and bravely took the solos.
We moaned and groaned at our least favorite songs and accidentally stole egg
shakers.
My friends Sara, Nate, and Donovan were trumpet players, they
cheerfully heckled each student director from their place on the risers. Jazz
band was the greatest.
We had three
concerts a year (October, November, February), three jazz dances (December,
February, April), and one Jazz Fest (April). My parents happily came to Morris
for each concert, which – we all agreed – were much more fun than the concert
band concerts.
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| Obviously. |
It was great fun for me to play, but it was just as much fun for
me to listen to the other bands play. Jazz I always performed last, and they
were show-stoppers.
So, for this
musical top ten Tuesday, I’d like to present my top ten UMM jazz band songs.
Five of them I played, five of them I didn’t. I noted the date we played them
to the best of my memory/researching some of the old jazz programs James still
has saved. So allow me to present my ten favorite UMM jazz songs!
THE FIVE I PLAYED
Blues in the Night
November 2006
We played
"Blues in the Night" at my second jazz concert of all time. (Alas, I
can't remember what I played at my first jazz concert of all time.) I recall
being very excited that I could actually play the saxophone part - keep in mind
that I had been playing saxophone for a mere five months by this point. You
don't have to be impressed, but I'm still going to feel a-ok about it.
Manteca
Jazz Fest 2007
My first Jazz
Fest! It was always fun to go to Jazz Fest, but it was nowhere near as fun as
playing in it.
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| First Jazz Fest! |
We all had our matching t-shirts and matching excitement, and I
got to use an egg shaker for the first time. (It wasn't until my final jazz
fest that I accidentally stole the egg shaker. It may or may not still be in my
saxophone case to this day.)
Coconut Champagne
October 2007
"Coconut
Champagne" is by far my favorite song that I played during my jazz years. It was so much
fun to play, and it was catchy as hell. The saxophone part was super fun - fun
enough that I even WANTED to practice. I NEVER want to practice. That, my
friends, is a big deal.
Carnival del Soul
February 2008
As you've
probably noticed, all of my favorite songs are super catchy. "Carnival del
Soul" is not only catchy, but short and sweet: the recording I have of the
UMM Jazz Band clocks in at just over two minutes. It's got a great beat and
speeds right along, and you can't say that about all jazz.
Birdland
jazz dances, 2008 - 2009
As I was making
this list, I noticed that songs from James's days as the jazz director didn't
make the cut. "Didn't you pick anything good?" I asked him. "I
wanted to, but you guys had already played the good stuff!" he said. So
under James's direction, we played the good stuff at the jazz dances. I loved
playing "Birdland," and you have to admit that it just makes you want
to dance.
THE FIVE I DIDN’T PLAY
The First Circle
November 2006
Jazz I was made
up of the best and the brightest: the super-talented musicians who could take
anything thrown at them. "The First Circle" was a song that Jazz I
played one concert just to show us how just exactly how talented they were. "The
First Circle" was full of crazy time signatures that changed all the time,
and James says it was super complicated and he tried to explain why but he
ended up getting really technical and convoluted, so let's just leave it at
this: it was hard and sounded really cool. The end.
Village Dance
October 2007
While
"Coconut Champagne" is my favorite song that I've played in jazz
band, "Village Dance" is my favorite song from any of the jazz
concerts and dances, period. I asked James (who played in all of these songs
but one) what I should say about "Village Dance," and he gave me the
following bullshit:
"The low
brass is explosive!"
"The sound
is voluptuous!"
"It's like
a power ballad... but not a ballad."
When James
played this song that year, he had just learned how to circular breathe: you
push air through your horn with your mouth while still breathing air in through
your nose. It creates the illusion that you never stop for air, and it's really
cool if you execute it correctly. James tried out circular breathing during his
solo in "Village Dance," and it worked like a charm. The crowd went
wild.
Jalapeno Dreams
February 2008
When Jazz I
played something really cool, they always played it right at the end. No
surprise, "Jalapeno Dreams" was one such piece. There are a lot of
songs on this list vying for the title of catchiest, but I wonder if
"Jalapeno Dreams" couldn't take the title. I'm listening to it as I'm
typing, and I'm involuntarily bobbing my head - and out of the corner of my
eye, I see James doing the same thing. James, the resident jazz expert, wants
you to know that they played it at 200 beats per minute: aka very VERY fast. He
also thinks you should know that it features each section individually. You're
getting quite the music lesson today.
St Thomas
jazz combo
Yet another
magnificently catchy jazz standard. There have been times I've had "St
Thomas" stuck in my head for days on end. And you know what? I was ok with
it. At the UMM jazz concerts, the four big jazz bands played, but sprinkled
among them were combos. The combos had anywhere from three to nine people, and
they played one song apiece. One combo played "St Thomas," which I'd
never heard before. Changed my life.
The Bunny Hop
jazz dances
At the jazz
dances, Jazz I played last and got all the best dance songs like "In the
Mood" and "Sing Sing Sing." And of course, "The Bunny
Hop." What made it memorable was that the musicians would come out on the
dance floor and play their instruments... while doing the actual Bunny Hop. (If you didn't watch the Lawrence Welk video, do it right now. That's the Bunny Hop, and it's even more fantastic when Lawrence Welk does it.) That truly
takes talent.
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There
you have it: my top ten UMM jazz songs. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a
sudden urge to go and play my saxophone.
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