When performing jazz, musicians never quite know where the music will take them until they’re in the middle of it.
The flutist nears the end of the song and decides she’s explored every aspect of the solo she wanted to that night. She begins to play quieter as she finishes out the bar, signaling the next soloist to begin.
Jazz can be difficult to play and musicians must have a strong grasp of the music and the order in which the different instruments play. But what is the most challenging part of jazz also happens to be what gives it spontaneous flavor — instrumental solos.
“That’s where the freedom of jazz comes in because you don’t always know,” junior bassist Amelia Stieren said. “You might decide you wanted to solo longer, or shorter, but you don’t know until you’re already doing it.”
Stieren is the leader of the Genuine Draft jazz combo, one of three combos in the Music Department’s jazz program. Before spring semester last year, Stieren had never played bass in a jazz combo. Head of the Jazz Program Chris McCourry calls her “fearless.”
Also in the combo is sophomore Stephen Savas on drums, freshman Quinn Reichard on piano in the “rhythm section,” sophomore Heather Woodhouse on flute, junior Eric Wert on alto saxophone, and senior Emma Takach on vocals.
The group meets twice a week to practice, once with just the combo, and the other with McCourry.
“He gives us a lot of tips and sometimes says, ‘hey, you should do this,’ but also we can choose our songs,” Stieren said. “There’s a good balance with that.”
McCourry sometimes has the combo play one section of a jazz song again and again for an hour in order for the group to get a specific aspect of the song just right.
“When it comes down to it, they’re practicing performing in class,” McCourry said. “The students have to learn how to recover. What do you do when the bass player get’s off on the changes? How do you cue everyone to get back on without the audience knowing you made a mistake?”
According to McCourry, as the combo practices every week, he can hear the music bring out the players’ personalities.
“Some people put up a front of being very quiet and maybe that’s their defense,” McCourry said. “But when they have to play, and it has got to come from within, it’s really something.”
Stieren is thankful that the musicians can push their artistic limits in the combos.
“What’s great about the Hillsdale jazz department is that it’s a safe place to put yourself out there,” she said.
One of the most important things the band practices is playing in sync with one another, as one musician signals to the group that he’s ending his solo, the next instrument picks up where he left off.
“It forces us to be more engaged with the music and the song because you are really listening to the soloist and paying attention to what they’re doing,” Stieren said.
This past semester was Woodhouse’s first in a jazz combo, but she said she has already grown to love playing with the combo and “trading fours.”
“One person plays four or eight bars and then the next person takes it,” Woodhouse said. “And you can imitate aspects of the other musician’s solo and add new things to it. Sometimes I get lost in my solo, but I know they have my back.”
The musicians have to work together to accentuate the sound of each individual instrument in the midst of the rest of the combo.
“The longer you play together, the more you understand how others express themselves musically,” Savas said.
For all of their practice, Genuine Draft has only performed twice this semester, but Stieren doesn’t mind because for her, playing jazz is enjoyable in itself.
“It’s great to perform, but within the combos, even if we’re not performing, the time that we spend playing music together is valuable and is a worthwhile endeavour and experience in itself,” Stieren said. “Because in it, we’re learning and growing as musicians.”
