Arts Archives - Waxman Files

Marian McPartland (A Remembrance)

August 22, 2013 by Jerry Waxman Leave a Comment

By Jerry Waxman

I heard the news this morning on the radio (NPR, of course) while driving to one of our field trips and it hit me hard. I couldn’t think about it much during working hours but when I got home I couldn’t think of anything else. I knew it was going to happen but it doesn’t prepare you for when it actually does happen. She was 95 and yet it suddenly doesn’t seem to be that old anymore, because to me Marian McPartland and her contemporaries ( Dave Brubeck, George Shearing, Billy Taylor and scores of others) are ageless. She and they have left us a musical and creative legacy beyond compare that will transcend generations. Her abilities as a player, composer and radio host are the stuff of legend.

She made her living in a business that was tough on men and even tougher on women. She did have the benefit to marry Cornetist Jimmy McPartland which opened some but not many doors for her. He was stuck in Dixieland and she was more oriented towards the emerging bebop expressions. Her contemporaries then included Mary Lou Williams and Hazel Scott. She learned her lessons well, started her own trio and for seven years practiced her craft at the Hickory House. Her career spanned seven decades of modern music and she filled every decade with something special. The last time I saw her live was in Fort Lauderdale in concert almost twenty years ago. The first time I saw her was in New York in a small club in 1960. I was eighteen and could drink legally. It was a real treat to drive the ninety miles from Philly to New York and go club hopping in those days and my buddies and I did it frequently.

Prior to the CD and MP3 revolutions, one of the pleasures of driving through rural areas (especially in the South) was not being forced to listen to the commercial stations. There was always NPR. I discovered her program, Piano Jazz, in 1979 on a family vacation to Florida and was hooked ever since. It was bound to happen because my dial was and still is always set to the extreme low end of the FM band which is where all of the real good stuff is. She always had remarkable guests and one of her greatest assets was her ability to not overshadow them and let them shine. She always played the straight man to the guest and the conversations were remarkable. Piano Jazz was the longest running cultural program ever on PBS, now in its thirty fifth year. She actually retired from the program in 2011 but it still goes on, and programs that originally aired in the 80’s don’t seem dated at all.

Her guests spanned the history of modern music and included famous musicians other than piano players as well as singers. Some of her more interesting guests included Willie Nelson, Elvis Costello and Boz Skaggs and those programs were equally entertaining as the ones with famous piano players. Some of her programs stayed with you. I remember Bill Evans giving a piano lesson on air on playing around the melody as though Marian were his student. I also remember Michael Feinstein talking about How Ira Gershwin detested what both Bunny Berrigan and Frank Sinatra did with his lyrics to I Can’t Get Started. Ira was very particular about how his songs were sung, which I found interesting, because his brother George marveled at his music being improvised. One program featuring MJQ co-founder John Lewis featured a duet on Lewis’s composition Afternoon in Paris which has a non-traditional chord change that she screwed up and you can actually hear it. She recovered well and the conversation afterwards featured Lewis explaining the change. It’s embarrassing because it’s the same kind of change that Thelonius Monk used in Round Midnight and Randy Weston used in High Fly. Oh well, that’s the beauty of one take live performance.

RIP Marian McPartland. Thank you for the countless hours of pleasure you gave us over the years. Thank you for your devotion to the arts and for your constant desire to keep the music relevant. Thank you for being (like me) a devotee of Alec Wilder who wrote this beautiful song: While We’re Young

There’s a Lot to Celebrate

February 6, 2013 by Jerry Waxman Leave a Comment

By Jerry Waxman

Random thoughts while driving to the Celebration of 2012 at the GLBT Center……

It has been a long struggle. The world has not treated the gay community kindly for practically forever. Up until the Stonewall riots in 1969 the gay community sort of lived with it in quiet desperation. After Stonewall, things were not the same. That first taste of fighting back almost forty five years ago awakened the fighting spirit and gave rise to vigorous gay activism which is now stronger than ever. One of the reasons was the cultural revolution of the sixties in music, fashion, and the arts, a far cry from the conformist 1950’s. The most famous gay activist, Harvey Milk, born into a middle class Jewish family in 1930 lived (outwardly) a normal life for almost 35 years, graduating college with a degree in mathematics and even serving as an officer in the US Navy during the Korean War.

The GLBT community was at first mocked and ignored, which is how society usually treats people who are different, labeling them “misfits”. In literature and the arts it was rare that gays were regarded as anything but “odd”, or “eccentric”. The punishment for breaking these rules was brutal, witness the sad plight of literary giant Oscar Wilde.

Wilde was the very successful author of The Picture of Dorian Gray, a strikingly dark novel which had some homosexual allusions, and at one point had three hit plays running at the same time in London. He was widely known for his intellect, sharp wit, and biting remarks. He was a married man and the father of two children. He was also “that way” (that’s what they called it back then). In Victorian England there was an active community of people who were “that way” only nobody talked about it. Wilde was enamored of Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas, the son of the Marquess of Queensberry, a real macho man. Bosie reciprocated and the affair began. The Marquess, being the macho man he was, publicly denounced Wilde and constantly harangued him. Wilde sued for libel rather than quietly ignoring the situation. Evidence discovered during the trial compelled Wilde to drop the charges, but not before the damage was done. Wilde was arrested and convicted (after three trials) of “gross indecency” with other men. He spent two years in prison which ruined his health and died at the age of 46 in 1900.

In American culture for the first half of the Twentieth Century there was hardly any mention of gays. There were many American artists and writers living abroad, notably Gertrude Stein, who found acceptance in Paris and other European capitals. Gay artists who lived here kept it hidden. Composers and lyricists like Cole Porter, Aaron Copland, Lorenz Hart and Leonard Bernstein. Actors, writers and artists of all disciplines stayed in the closet. In 1934 Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour, set at an all girl boarding school broke new ground. A rumor started by a student, uncorroborated, about the two owners having an illicit affair causes the school to close. The play captivated audiences and caused the end of a law in New York that made it illegal to mention homosexuality on stage. In the movies, pre code there were a few portrayals but nothing overwhelming, however t he picture of Marlene Dietrich in top hat and tuxedo was a powerful image of the decadence happening in Berlin. Greta Garbo’s portrayal of Queen Christina was a rare departure from the conventional perceptions in film. Lesbians were usually portrayed as old maid aunts, busybodies or sadistic matrons like Judith Anderson’s Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca or Cornelia Otis Skinner’s Miss Holloway in The Uninvited, or Hope Emerson in Caged.

Men fared a little better. Actors like Edward Everett Horton, Donald Meek, Franklin Pangborn and Eric Blore worked constantly in films, usually as comic sidekicks or as officious department store managers who looked down on their customers and staff. They were never essential to the plot, and when they were their characters usually looked and acted like Peter Lorre’s portrayal of Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon. One of the only openly gay Actors who could carry a film by himself whose characters appealed to mainstream audiences was Clifton Webb. He horrified us in Laura. He made us cry in The Razor’s Edge and he made us laugh as Mr. Belvedere all while playing himself, an effete snob. In the play Tea and Sympathy, later made into a movie,

The central character at a boy’s prep school is perceived and taunted by the others as gay, which he is not. The story is about being different and how people’s ignorance perceives that difference.

After the 1950’s things gradually began to change. In 1962 Advise and Consent featured a Senator who had a gay past. The transition was gradual, but gay themes and characters in the movies and television have come full circle and today hardly raise any eyebrows. Our culture has advanced equality on all fronts, save some die-hard churches and certain conservative politicians. Even the Boy Scouts are taking a second look at admitting gays. They had better, because their ranks might be thinning out too much.

Wow! There’s no place to park!

OK, that broke my train of thought and here I am at the center. My first impression from outside was that there were an awful lot of people inside, and yes, there were, at least two hundred. It was a real celebration. Many local politicians were there and gave speeches. After all, this celebration was for them. These were the people that the GLBT community backed and they were celebrating those victories. Speakers were Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph, Orange County Property Appraiser Rick Singh, State Senator Darren Soto, State Representative Victor Torres, County Commissioner Tiffany Moore Russell among several others. Joe Saunders, one of the two openly gay representatives in the Florida House was unable to attend due to a last minute emergency. The highlight of the evening was the premiere of the video Get Tested which features prominent politicians and sports stars urging people to get tested for HIV infection. Testing is free and confidential and worth doing. The idea originated with The Center’s Director, Randy Stephens, who asked Rita Ashton, wife of State Attorney Jeff Ashton to help out. She did the entire project from start to finish, securing cameras, and crew and post production through her network of professionals who all volunteered their time. Although there doesn’t appear to be a link on the Center’s Website, the video is on the Center’s facebook page, GLBT Community Center of Central Florida.

Rita and Jeff Ashton

This was one of those occasions where few people left early. There was plenty of time to meet and mingle with the politicos as well as old friends. The cash bar was active and the food was plentiful and tasty. The politicians were completely accessible and didn’t show signs of that defensive wall that they can put up. I spoke for several minutes with Rita and Jeff Ashton, mainly about her video however, I couldn’t resist congratulating him on his decision to investigate the texting scandal. He looked at me and said “come on, that was a no-brainer!” His utter candidness made me decide to not ask him the follow up question.

The evening’s events, speeches and tone showed the immense gains that have been made in recent years. I have two thoughts about it: to paraphrase a Virginia Slim slogan, “We’ve come a long way, baby,” and in the words of Oscar Brown, Jr. “But we’ve still got so terribly far to go.” It is my hope that someday we’ll only identify people by their names. And so the journey continues.

THE REVOLUTION WAS TELEVISED (ONLY WE DIDN’T KNOW IT)

April 20, 2012 by Jerry Waxman 1 Comment

THE REVOLUTION WAS TELEVISED

(ONLY WE DIDN’T KNOW IT)

By Jerry Waxman

Dance programs on radio were nothing new in 1957. They had been around in one form or another since the dance marathons of the Depression years. Swing bands used to do remote national hookups into living rooms across the country and the kids used to dance at their house parties until all hours. This was best illustrated in the movie The Benny Goodman Story where the band is mobbed in California by hordes of teenagers. They had no way of knowing at that time that there was an audience in the west. Frank Sinatra’s time with the Dorsey orchestra was well spent gathering him a multitude of fans that went crazy over him in public. His 1942 dates at the Paramount are legend with bobbysoxers screaming, swooning and dancing in the aisles during the show. Radio dance programs were standard stuff by the late 30’s.

In Philadelphia radio station WPEN had two hosts, Joe Grady and Ed Hurst who used to broadcast from the downtown studio on Walnut Street. There was a dance floor in the studio and they used to invite teen agers from local schools to come and dance during their program. The year was 1946 and they were successful for many years. Of course, the music they played was in transition from swing, through Bebop, into R&B and finally Rock and Roll. It was a slow transition because the popular bands were Artie Shaw, Charlie Barnett, The Dorseys, Goodman, Kay Kyser and Sammy Kaye. The big vocalists were Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole Dinah Shore and two newcomers named Doris Day and Tony Bennett. Things were changing, however and groups like Louis Jordan, Three Cats and a Fiddle and Louis Prima were starting to make names for themselves, with music that wasn’t quite what the public was used to. Still, the kids loved it and loved to dance to it. The big breakthrough came in 1951 when Guitarist Les Paul and his wife, Mary Ford turned the music world upside down with their multi-track overdubbed recording of How High the Moon, a ten year old jazz staple that blew everybody away, and everyone young and old loved it. Les Paul became the high priest of the solid body electric guitar and even in death he still holds the title. The first revolution in pop music was over-the stage was set for the second one.

Grady and Hurst moved to television in 1952 but they didn’t get onto any of the network stations in the area. They were operating out of an independent in Wilmington Delaware, while at the same time WFIL TV, the ABC affiliate was experimenting with some live afternoon programming. Producer Tony Mammarella brought in Bob Horn to host a music program of mainly what today would be music videos. Horn didn’t like the idea and asked Mammarella if he could copy what Grady and Hurst were doing on radio. Mammarella agreed and history was born. Horn hosted the show for four years, and it was an important four years because Bandstand helped WFIL get on its feet and brought in nice revenues. Horn, however was not destined to last. He was involved with a prostitution ring and was brought up on morals charges over those four years. The final straw was when he was arrested for drunk driving. Mammarella hosted the show for a while until he could find a suitable replacement.

During the years between 1950 through 1956 the industry was again changing. Ray Charles was setting the South on fire along with Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. Country artist Patsy Cline was making her mark. In New York the music factories in the Brill Building were starting to crank out hit after hit. Disc Jockey Alan Freed coined the term “Rock and Roll” and started staging singing groups in a series of concerts, playing black music for white kids. Disc Jockeys in major cities on independent stations started playing the records and drew avid audiences. Bill Doggett’s Honky Tonk blew the charts away. The tune was so long that they had to split it into two sides. Part two was the one that got air time. In Philadelphia we had local DJ’s Georgie Woods, Hy Litt, Jocko Henderson and Joe Niagara playing the new music and we had jobbed in the “Hound Dog Man” out of Buffalo, N.Y. Local impresario Bob Marcucci was training Frankie Avalon and Fabian for future stardom. Philly also produced James Darren and Bobby Rydell along with great groups like Danny and the Juniors, the Dovells and in my opinion, one of the two best DooWop groups of all time, Lee Andrews and the Hearts. School officials, politicians, angry parents, the church and civic groups all railed against the new music saying that it would be the downfall of society as we know it (we’ve heard these words before), it was the devil’s music and using racial and ethnic epithets that are too horrible to mention here.

“Then Fate’s a thing without a head. A puzzle never understood, and man proceeds where he is led, unguaranteed of bad or good.”

Enter Dick Clark. It wasn’t as though Mammarella had to go through a nationwide search or anything. Dick Clark was already at WFIL. Clark was a seasoned radio host from upstate New York who had joined WFIL in 1952. He was young (27), boyishly handsome, soft spoken and charming. Just the sort of young man that Jim and Margaret Anderson would want Betty to date. He was the host on an afternoon pop music show that had not yet embraced R&R, although he was the first mainstream jockey on a commercial station to play Ray Charles (Hallelujah I Just Love Her So). The other network stations hadn’t come around yet. If Benny Goodman made big band swing jazz acceptable, then Dick Clark is the man who civilized Rock and Roll. He was the face of the new generation and we were all part of it. Clark had previously guest hosted American Bandstand on those occasions when Horn was unavailable, so he fit right in. The moment that Clark took over viewership increased exponentially and more kids from more schools were going to the studios every day. After a few months Clark was instrumental in convincing ABC to take the program national, and history was made.

Bandstand went national in August, 1957. We entered 10^th grade in September, 1957, and Sputnik was launched in October, 1957. These events are not unconnected. Public education was blamed for the failure of our schools to produce better students. It wasn’t true then just as the conservative attacks on public education is not true now. Many critics pointed to the leisure activities of teenagers as a part of the problem. Dick Clark helped smooth away those contentions, although in doing so he also lowered the artistic bar a few points. Rock and Roll was going to be around for a long time and even some of our parents started singing the novelty stuff like Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, Beep and Please, Mr. Custer. When Philadelphian Chubby Checker covered Hank Ballard’s The Twist the adults and the kids went wild. Ballard’s music at the time was considered to be too raw for air play. Looking back on those years the social revolutions of the mid 50’s, Brown v Board of Ed, school desegregation, HUAC witch hunts, all gave rise to the revolution in teen age style, voice, attitudes and music that set the stage for the protest movement of the 60’s. The seeds and maturity of that revolution came into our living rooms every weekday with Dick Clark at the helm.

Clark took it all in stride. He was savvy enough to capitalize on the success of Bandstand yet he never gave the appearance of being egotistical; he always came across as a gentleman and he was genuinely concerned about the people he was with. I outgrew Bandstand after 1960, but I never outgrew Dick Clark. He is a role model for all of us.

Quality Time

March 1, 2012 by Jerry Waxman 2 Comments

By Jerry Waxman

Everybody loved Davy Jones. Rich or poor, old or young, Davy had this ingratiating personality that transcended music lovers of all stripes. We loved The Monkees and we loved him. We sang his songs and we danced to his joyous music. Davey was unique-more than any other entertainer I’ve ever come into contact with. The news today hit me like a ton of bricks because we had a brief association several years ago, got to know each other fairly well and we remained friends.

It was October 2006 and I was winding down the theatre operation that I had started over a decade before. Hurricane Wilma in 1995 had blown the roof off our building and the landlord was not willing to pay to repair the place. We struggled to get through the season by occupying other spaces provided by the City of Hollywood and presenting other programming than our regular season. We managed to get through a successful season of children’s theater, which paid many of the bills and we had grant money that had to be used so we partnered with other companies who needed the funding. I was ready to move to Orlando but had to wait until I had satisfied all of the theater’s obligations. Earlier in 2006 the Rapp Agency out of New York hired me to tour the South Florida Condo circuit with Carol Lawrence, the original Maria in west Side Story, as her production/stage manager. My predecessor, whom she had fired, had confided in me that she was one of the most impossible people he had ever worked with, however, the theater’s coffers needed refilling and it was the chance to work with a living legend. Besides, I had survived five weeks with Melba Moore and her entourage back in 1995 and nothing could have been more impossible than that.

To our mutual delight we hit it off very well and there was never a contentious moment between us. She was very professional and demanding which I admired and I did my best to please her and it worked out great. Now approaching 80 she is still working and still as energetic as ever.

So it was no stretch eight months later to partner with Gold Coast Theatre producer Jude Parry who was touring an adapted British Panto show, Cinderella, written by popular British comedian Mike Winters who with his late brother Bernie starred in the Mike and Bernie Show on ABC TV and in Great Britain. Davy Jones was to be the special guest star along with Anita Booth of the Royal Shakespeare Co. Ms. Parry is an accomplished actress as well as a great mime and she uses these talents to their best advantage. Davy was also no stranger to the stage having played The Artful Dodger in Oliver as a teen ager in London. He also played on stage many other times during his career, so working with this group was going to be more fun than work. It wasn’t work at all. I spent a lot of time rehearsing Davy, and all of us went out afterwards and blew off steam. In those moments you get to know someone pretty well. He genuinely liked being with this cast and crew and he was just one of the gang.

Davy Jones and Mike Winters

When my daughter Nancy found out I was touring with him she called me and asked me to get a signed picture for her old college roommate, Laura, who was a big fan. Laura was ready to deliver her first baby within 10 days and Nancy was visiting her in New Jersey. Davy overheard the conversation and immediately wrested the phone away from me and engaged both Nancy (who was four months pregnant) and Laura for almost half an hour on the birth of his daughters and how he was not only in the delivery room but participated in the actual deliveries. This happened with less than forty five minutes before performance (on New Year’s) and Davy didn’t care; he was delighted to talk with them. His autographed head shot to Laura heads this article. We learned a lot about each other in those couple of weeks and we stayed in touch after the tour was over. We talked about doing it again but my schedule wouldn’t permit me the time. I did get to see him again when he performed here in Orlando a couple of years ago.

I’ll remember those couple of weeks for the rest of my life because to me Davy Jones was special. I weep on his passing yet I rejoice in the absolute joy that he exuded throughout his life and the pleasure that he gave to untold millions of people during his life. R.I.P Davy. Your existence elevated all of us.

Remembering Important Lessons From Our Teachers

January 5, 2011 by Jerry Waxman Leave a Comment

Jerry Waxman

It’s funny how some people can impact your life in incalculable ways. In 1993 I was stage managing, musical directing and rehearsing my friends, Roger, a good actor and promising playwright who can’t sing a note, and Ellen, a terrific actress who can sing well but doesn’t think she can, for a duet in the Neil Simon adaptation of Chekov’s “The Good Doctor”. I wrote out Roger’s melody along with accompanying left hand chords and tempos so he could practice at home with his own piano. He was too terrified. In desperation I finally had the two of them speak the lines in rhythmic tempo and underscored the music in the background. Roger did tell me, however, that his piano teacher was very impressed with my use of chord structure, syncopation and counterpoint. This was flattering but my intention was not to impress his piano teacher; it was to help Roger sing the song. At some point during the two week rehearsal process Roger told me that his favorite piano player was Billy Taylor, and then it all clicked.

Billy Taylor has been in my life since the first time I heard him in 1954. He is one of the most honored and respected musical artists of the last 60 years having attained a degree of accomplishment that is staggering in scope. The newspaper obituaries have covered his career, his educational initiatives, his Kennedy Center triumphs, his innovative Jazzmobile in New York and his entrepreneurship with radio and television broadcasting. What I didn’t get from them was a sense of the man’s music. When he arrived in New York in 1944 within two weeks he was playing with Ben Webster. From that point he continually went forward and never looked back. He spoke at length about being mentored by the legendary Art Tatum which had to be the greatest honor ever bestowed on any modern pianist. Legend has it that of all of Tatum’s heirs apparent he favored Taylor the most and handed him his mantle upon his death in 1956.

In the early 50’s there were a lot of excellent people playing great piano. Tatum was at the height of his powers. Nat King Cole, a stalwart of the piano in the 40’s, branched out into popular vocal music. John Lewis teamed up with Milt Jackson to form the Modern Jazz Quartet. Bud Powell moved to Europe. Duke Jordan, Al Haig and Dodo Marmarosa were fixtures in the Bebop movement. Gil Evans was hard at work creating Miles Davis. Dave Brubeck was touring every college in the US. Erroll Garner’s and Oscar Peterson’s careers were taking off skyward. Marian McPartland, ensconced at the Hickory House, Dorothy Donegan, Blossom Dearie and Hazel Scott were all following their career paths, trail blazed by the formidable Mary Lou Williams. George Shearing was turning out hit after hit. Lennie Tristano, Ahmad Jamal and Bernard Peiffer were creating a sensation with their own new ideas. Russ Freeman was tearing up the West Coast with Chet Baker. Bill Evans, Ellis Marsalis, Dave Frishberg, Phineas Newborn Jr., Hampton Hawes and Randy Weston were just coming on the scene. Teddy Wilson and Earl Hines continued their brand of swing piano. Thelonius Monk was…….Thelonius Monk. Ray Bryant, Horace Silver and Bobby Timmons were making big names for themselves and Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan and Red Garland were the best sidemen in the business. When they visited Birdland, Billy Taylor was the house pianist. Charlie Parker asked him to fill in for the ailing Al Haig in 1949 and after that gig he began a two year stint playing with and for all the great names

In an almost seventy year career he continued to record scores of albums, do concert dates, teach, advocate and innovate well into the just departed decade. He never looked, acted or sounded his age and he constantly grew as an artist. He was timeless and ageless. There are three levels to his playing that are important to note. First is his ability to please your ear. He always sounds good. Second is his virtuosity. He makes it look and sound easy no matter how complex. Third is his innovative drive. He makes you take the journey with him, from start to finish with no predictable outcome. This is best exemplified by his 1957 recording of Harry Warren’s “There Will Never be Another You”, a standard ballad from the 1942 film “Iceland” that John Payne sang to Sonja Henie.

The piece is constructed in a much faster tempo than written and Taylor opens with a hard two handed approach with left-handed harmonics similar to Bud Powell’s driving style. Throughout the eight choruses he never once repeats any idea other than a one note ascension that becomes a three note harmonic ascension. Each idea is new and different and culminates in chorus seven with a completely independent left hand counterpoint melody worthy of Glenn Gould or Oscar Levant. Chorus eight starts out in locked hand chords and then swings its way to an almost classical finish. It’s a really incredible journey.

His 1967 album “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free” contains his hit composition of the same name as well as the finest piano version of Clare Fischer’s beautiful “Pensativa” that I’ve ever heard, weaving in an intoxicating blues coda as counter to a seductive bossa nova beat. Again, he takes us on a remarkable journey.

Obviously he learned his lessons well, and he imparted his knowledge to us through his playing. I remember trying to get WLIB on my radio when he was on the air even though we had a great 24 hour jazz station (WHAT FM) in Philadelphia. The difference was that Taylor approached his audience as eager dedicated students and not mere listeners.

So, Roger’s remark reminded me of how Billy Taylor impacted me. The music I wrote for Roger had been subliminally influenced by that left-handed counterpoint.

Barely a week before Taylor’s death Central Florida lost another fabulous player, composer and educator, Harold Blanchard. As a player Blanchard was world class. His many compositions won coveted awards and he was one of the few people in modern music to meld the disciplines between jazz, the blues and classical music. His greatest virtue was as a teacher and mentor to young musicians. I once watched him teaching an improvisational class in deconstructing Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are” to its basics so there could be room for the musicians to take different directions with it. It was the same process that I had used to teach the same song to my daughter, Nancy over twenty years ago, a process that I learned from Billy Taylor.

The modern music world lost giants in 2010. In addition to Billy Taylor and Harold Blanchard we lost Hank Jones, James Moody, Buddy Collette, John Bunch and scores of others who will be difficult to replace. All of them were supreme musicians as well as educators and mentors to untold hundreds if not thousands of musical students. Thankfully, we still have elder statesmen like Marian McPartland, Dave Brubeck, George Shearing, Ellis Marsalis, Mc Coy Tyner, Randy Weston, Ramsey Lewis and others who are still active and productive, as well as their musical legacies: Monty Alexander, Kenny Barron, Herbie Hancock, Mulgrew Miller, Keith Jarrett, Bill Charlap, the incredible newcomer, Ehud Asherie and many others who will pick up the mantle and do it justice.

The one thing that conjoins the arts and science is the imagination. Albert Einstein once famously said that imagination is more important than knowledge. It’s the one thing that separates artists and real scientists from being only technicians. All educators, administrators and politicians responsible for the success or failure of our public schools need to understand the value of an arts and science education. That education stimulates the mind and imagination and increases the learning potential of young students more than any other tool we have, yet it is given short shrift by those who fund our schools. That attitude is wrong and no amount of “accountability” or testing is going to make the situation any better. Every one of the musicians I’ve cited here was driven by their imagination. It is what made them who they are. It is what compelled them to practice untold hours to achieve what they thought was possible. It is that inner ear or eye that tells you what is possible.

As I’m writing this I hear Billy Taylor’s voice on the radio in a public service announcement extolling the virtues of music education. It is a message we all need to listen to.