Pat Harbison’s blog

When I started teaching at the Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops in 1976 the vast majority of students was of high school or college age and most aspired to careers in music. Over the years I have seen a shift in demographics toward a greater percentage of adult learners at these workshops. At the Aebersold workshops in the US I would guess that almost 50% of the student population is over 30 years of age and a large percentage of those adults are over 50. At the Aebersold summer course in the UK the percentage of adult learners is even higher.

The age range of the combo members I worked with each of these weeks ranged from teenagers (some as young as 13) to people in their 60s. Last week in my trumpet master class at the UK workshop I had 11 students ranging from an 11 year-old and a 13 year-old to a handful of retirees. I find this kind of diversity both fascinating and challenging to me, the teacher…

…But it isn’t just age where the diversity manifests. Last week my combo members were from Spain, Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands, and various parts of the UK. It included a magistrate, a law professor, a chest surgeon, and a member of the British military along with students, teachers, and full-time musicians. For one week these people are meeting on common ground, united by a shared passion and a mutual challenge… learning to make music by improvising together.

At one of the workshops in Louisville my drummer was a sociologist by profession. After one afternoon session we chatted about the unique nature of the social and cultural interactions he was experiencing and observing at the workshop. He agreed with my perception that there is nothing else quite like the dynamic created by Jamey and his events. In that student band he was working with a 40-something IT professional from the east coast, a 20ish “southern belle” from Tennessee, and a few high school and even middle school students. Somehow, in the context of the combo… and even in their interaction outside of rehearsals, it felt like a peer group.

In sociology and in education there is a great deal of emphasis on the benefits of diversity of all sorts. There is a lot of value placed on inter-generational learning activities. There is value attached to working in teams and learning in groups. However, when I have experienced or observed these sorts of concepts pursued or artificially created in more formal educational or institutional environments the interactions seem superficial, contrived, and generally less than satisfying. This is true whether one is dealing with a University, K-12 school, or a public service institution. However, somehow at jazz camp these elements come together in an effective way. Amazingly, this occurs without self-consciousness and without feeling contrived.

Go to the lunchroom at an Aebersold workshop and you will see teenagers sitting with people old enough to be their grand parents. They’ll be doing their theory homework together, trying to unlock the mysteries of the altered dominant chord or flipping out at their recent mutual discovery of the music of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. I have never heard of anything like this. People who seem so different meet on identical footing as they confront similar challenges.

To be continued…

Pat