It’s 6:30 on a Monday night and The Rex, Toronto’s pre-eminent jazz and blues bar, is sparsely populated. There is no world-renowned act playing here tonight, only a sextet of young, amateur musicians who have brought their own audience, composed of family and friends, to see them play. As they struggle to find room for their equipment and instruments on the faded brown, half-moon stage one can see “Faculty of Music” spray-painted on the back of their music stands.
The members of the sextet are mostly students from the University of Toronto Jazz program and such live performances, like tonight’s show at The Rex, are a regular part of the curriculum. According to the group’s bassist, Alex Fournier, the experience of playing for an audience is invaluable for a jazz musician.
“The gigs are more or less organized for you. At the beginning of the year, you’re put into a couple of ensembles and you’re given various bookings that you have to work towards,” he explains. “All students have to go through it, since performing live is something you need to mature into. It’s not as easy as it looks.”
Watching the sextet’s show at the Rex, their art looks anything but easy. Fournier’s fingers travel up the neck of his bass with incredible speed and finesse and then back down just as quickly, maintaining the precision that can only be achieved through years of intense training.
One of seven programs that comprise the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, Jazz is a small and tight-knit community of approximately 70 students, all working toward an undergraduate or Master’s degree. Professor Paul Read established the program in 1190, and served as director until 2004, when Professor Terry Promane took over the role. A lower brass specialist who maintains an active role in Toronto’s vibrant jazz community, Promane’s diverse resume includes work on several musical theatre productions and collaborations with internationally renowned jazz musicians Kenny Wheeler and Maria Schneider.
The heavily improvisational nature of the music and images commonly associated with the early American jazz scene, such as performances in illegal speakeasies and brothels in the Prohibition era, seem to clash with the more traditional programs offered by the Faculty of Music, such as opera and classical performance. However, Promane points out that jazz evolved through the 20th century, becoming a complex musical style that is ideal to pursue academically.
“Many forms of jazz, say past the 1930s, are composed of very intricate melodic and harmonic musical systems. Much like classical music, it lends itself to an academic setting. The study of theory and ear training is extremely important to the development of improvisation which is at the heart of the genre. Many hours of practice, rehearsal and research are required to achieve elite status,” he explains.
Alex Fournier is well on his way to achieving this elite status. He manages to balance his busy class schedule with the daily eight hours of practice he believes is necessary in order to be admitted to a graduate program in the U.S. Though he is obviously a passionate musician, the friendly atmosphere within the program and its low student-to-teacher ratio have helped Fournier cope with his gruelling schedule for the past three years.
“Everyone is on a first-name basis, and some teachers actually get pretty annoyed if you call them Mr. or Ms. So-and-so, “Everyone is accessible, friendly and willing to spend a little extra time with you to help explain a concept or an approach. Most teachers are not above going out for the occasional beer with a student.”
Now entering its third decade of existence, the program has already built an impressive roster of alumni. A number of acclaimed contemporary jazz musicians such as pianist David Braid, drummer Anthony Michelli and saxophonist Tara Davidson call U of T Jazz their alma mater.
Davidson graduated in 2002 with a degree in jazz performance and has since found success as a professional musician and composer, with Juno and National Jazz Award nominations among her growing list of accomplishments. She found her experience in the program to be quite invaluable and can attest to the virtues of the close student-teacher relationships; she still plays in a band with her former professor, Mike Murley, who also contributed his own compositions to Davidson’s 2007 sophomore album, Code Breaking.
“I definitely would say Mike was my most influential teacher in all aspects of how I approach music,” she says. “He inspired me to try to carve out a musical path for myself.”
Despite the prestige the program has earned in its 20 year existence, Fournier laments the relatively small amount of real estate that the program is allotted in the Edward Johnson Building as well as the fact that prominent faculty member Professor Tim Ries is being let go. Professor Promane acknowledges that U of T Jazz has not been immune to the negative effects of the recession.
“The faculty of music is under a great deal of pressure financially speaking,” he explains.
“We have not escaped the downward trend in the economy, so yes, we have experienced cuts. We continue to seek outside funding from donors who feel that jazz is an important art form for students and the community at large.”
