What Is This Thing Called Soul

Damani Phillips

What Is This Thing
Called Soul

Conversations on Black Culture
and Jazz Education

PETER LANG

New York • Bern • Frankfurt • Berlin

Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Phillips, Damani C., author.
Title: What is this thing called soul: conversations on
black culture and jazz education / Damani C. Phillips.
Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2017.
Series: Black studies and critical thinking; vol. 103 | ISSN 1947-5985
Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017020291 | ISBN 978-1-4331-4565-0 (hardcover: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4331-4570-4 (paperback: alk. paper) | ISBN 978-1-4331-4571-1 (ebook pdf)
ISBN 978-1-4331-4572-8 (epub) | ISBN 978-1-4331-4573-5 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Jazz musicians—United States—Interviews.
Jazz—Social aspects—United States. | Jazz—Instruction and study—United States.
African Americans—Music—Social aspects.
Classification: LCC ML3918.J39 P45 2017 | DDC 781.65089/96073—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017020291
DOI 10.3726/b11362

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

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About the author

Damani Phillips is a native of Pontiac, Michigan, and currently serves as Associate Professor of Jazz and African-American Studies at the University of Iowa. Phillips has earned Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from DePaul University and the University of Kentucky in classical saxophone, a second Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies from Wayne State University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Jazz Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. An active performer, teacher and lecturer, Phillips has taught and performed throughout the world. He previously served on the faculty of Grinnell College and is actively sought as a guest artist, clinician and adjudicator throughout the country. Phillips has performed with artists/groups such as Lewis Nash, Christian McBride, Wycliffe Gordon, Bobby McFerrin, Marcus Belgrave, Terell Stafford, Hank Jones, Red Holloway and Pat Bianchi, among many others. He has released four albums as a leader: Yaktown Nights (2003), The String Theory (2010), The Reckoning (2012) and Duality (2015).

About the book

How does academic jazz education impact the Black cultural value of soulfulness and esthetic standards in contemporary jazz music? Through candid conversations with nine of the country’s most highly respected jazz practitioners and teachers, What Is This Thing Called Soul explores the potential consequences of forcing the Black musical style of jazz into an academic pedagogical system that is specifically designed to facilitate the practice and pedagogy of European classical music. This work tests the belief that the cultural, emotional and esthetic elements at the very core of jazz’s unique identity, along with the music’s overt connection to Black culture, are effectively being “lost in translation” in traversing the divide between academic and non-academic jazz spheres.

Each interviewee commands significant respect worldwide in the fields of jazz performance and jazz pedagogy. Noteworthy subjects include: Rufus Reid, Lewis Nash, Nicholas Payton and Wycliffe Gordon—along with the late jazz masters Marcus Belgrave and Phil Woods. Interviews are supplemented by original analysis of the nature and validity of these issues contributed by the author.

What Is This Thing Called Soul offers a candid and objective look into pressing issues of race, culture and ethnic value in relation to both jazz music and jazz education. Sensitivity, marginalization and even a fear of offending others has limited open discussion of how the soul of jazz music can be lost in technical boundaries. What Is This Thing Called Soul is the first attempt to directly address such culturally urgent issues in jazz music.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

table of contents

Foreword by Derrick Gardner

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Introduction: Jazz Is Black Music

Chapter 2. The Black Church: Stefon Harris Interview (1973–)

Chapter 3. Melting Pot Experience: Ellen Rowe Interview (1958–)

Chapter 4. Just Play Something Real: Rufus Reid Interview (1944–)

Chapter 5. Spirit and Hope: Marcus Belgrave Interview (1936–2015)

Chapter 6. Self-Taught Through Emersion: Brad Goode Interview (1963–)

Chapter 7. The Devil’s Music: Wycliffe Gordon Interview (1967–)

Chapter 8. The First Rule of Colonization: Nicholas Payton Interview (1973–)

Chapter 9. 4/4 Swinging Beat: Lewis Nash Interview (1958–)

Chapter 10. Music is Music: Phil Woods Interview (1931–2015)

Chapter 11. Discussion: “You Cannot Teach Culture”

Chapter 12. Conclusion: Adjusting Course←v | vi→ ←vi | vii→

Foreword

Derrick Gardner

An interviewer once asked Louis Armstrong if he could read music. Louis answered, “Not so much that it messes up my playing.” In my estimation, that answer is pure genius: it exposes a presumed superiority of the formal music tradition, and in a light-hearted way establishes both the pedagogical strategies and value systems of the jazz tradition.

The differences between traditional and academic teaching models for jazz is at the crux of Dr. Damani Phillips’ compelling and timely study, What Is This Thing Called Soul? Through a series of brilliant interviews with notable jazz musicians and educators, Phillips explores the pros and cons of both “street level” and academic strategies, and their effects on those teaching jazz, future practitioners of jazz, and even the future of this uniquely African-American art form itself. If “soul” is a thing you can feel (both its presence and its absence), but you can’t really put your finger on, how does it factor into our teaching and mentoring?

Universities have shied away from qualities you can’t measure, but Phillips’ book brings intangibles like “soulfulness” and “expressiveness” into a serious conversation about teaching, and opens musicians and students alike to some important considerations. If “soul” is the intangible quality that creates a connection between musician and non-musician, performer and audience,←vii | viii→ then every musician must consider the listener as an integral part of a performance. When you are presenting the melody of a song, or congregating your notes for improvisation over a harmonic progression, are you connecting with your listeners? Are you telling a clear musical story? Are you moving them musically? Does the listener recognize you as having a unique musical voice when you play or do you sound like someone else?

Phillips wants to draw attention to the importance and legitimacy of “street level” education. He looks at how foundational qualities like soulfulness, expressiveness, and connection to the people are passed on powerfully and effectively when established jazz artists offer direct mentorship to learners. It puts me in mind of an independent study I had with legendary pianist Kenny Barron, at that time a member of the diverse faculty at Rutgers University. The course had no syllabus, no quizzes, no exam, no transcriptions, no assignments – none of the traditional measuring criteria one would expect in an academic setting. I would arrive at his office, and he would ask me what I wanted to play. I’d suggest a tune or he’d suggest one and BAM, he’d start playing the intro. No count off, no talk of key, tempo, feel, style, nothing. You either got on board or got left at the dock. On the spot, we would exchange solos, create various trading scenarios, then take the head out and create an ending. It was all spontaneous composition and arranging. After we finished, there was no debriefing, just a request for my next tune. That cycle would←viii | ix→ play out for the full hour, every week, for the entire fifteen-week semester. At first, I questioned his methods. Where was the structure, the feedback, the musical direction? What was the evaluation rubric? Then I said to myself, “Wait a minute – this is Kenny Barron! Just follow his lead and figure out how to extract everything you need to enhance your playing and get where you want to go musically.” So I did. I’d heard stories of people like Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and others who conducted practice sessions or rehearsals with almost no directives. With Mr. Barron I experienced it myself, and it was one of the richest learning experiences of my life.