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First Take
by Ed Enright
Sacramento State
Summer Jazz Camp
Jazz Camp: Not Just For Kids
Here at DownBeat, we love music students. We value them as readers and
admire their ambition. The very thought of some of them growing up to
become professional artists, and having their performances and recordings
covered in these pages, thrills us. Music students with an appetite for jazz
are our future, in more ways than one. That’s why we’re always publishing
comprehensive jazz school guides and hosting our own annual Student
Music Awards, not to mention covering campus jazz news in every issue
of the magazine.
But the study of jazz isn’t limited to young players who are currently
enrolled in school music programs. Many instrumentalists, vocalists and
composers among us are eternal jazz students. Although we finished our
formal schooling years ago, we try to keep up our practice routines and
check out new instructional books and play-alongs to keep our chops
strong and our ears keen. Some of us grownups have even sent ourselves
to summer jazz camp, the ultimate environment for learning creative new
ways to improvise and interplay with others. Camp, it turns out, isn’t just
for kids—at least not when it comes to jazz.
In this issue of DownBeat, we present our annual Summer Jazz Camp
Guide, which includes vital information on more than 60 different jazz
camps offered across the country and beyond. Aspiring jazz musicians
young and old will be in attendence at these summertime gatherings, so if
you have the resources and the time, don’t let age be a barrier: Just sign up
and go. The jazz camp experience is probably the best schooling available
for anyone who’s not currently enrolled in an institution of higher learning.
It will give you the chance to really be a student again and will provide
you the inspiration to play.
Several summers ago, when I attended Jamey Aebersold’s Summer
Jazz Workshop (one of the best and most popular jazz camps going), I
found myself in the company of peers—not just adults in their thirties,
forties and fifties, but teenagers who were easily as accomplished as the
rest of us. It was the most fun I’d had woodshedding in years, and the
amount of knowledge I gained—about jazz and about my own ability—
was staggering.
Jazz camp is a blast. Take a look through this year’s guide, which
begins on page 45. Give camp a try—you know you’ve always wanted to.
It will challenge you in ways you can’t imagine and give you the opportunity
to make new friends and form lifelong connections. It will renew your
interest and recharge your creative muse. And it will let you feel just like a
kid again.
DB
8 DOWNBEAT March 2010