Pedagogy

Once a month, the Jazz Institute of Chicago holds a jam session for elementary through high school aged kids at the Chicago Cultural Center.  The cost to the students to play and the public to hear is nothing - and they hire a killer house band to back the kids up, encourage them, and lead by example.

I caught one of the sessions today. The band consisted of Robert "Baabe" Irving III on piano, the man behind the later years of Miles Davis (not his proudest years, but to be Miles' right hand man you have to be the real deal). Baabe is a killer player and he possesses a very generous and kind spirit.

Kobie Watkins played drums. He's a young guy but his recent appointment as the new drummer in Sonny Rollins' current touring unit speaks for itself.

Lorin Cohen played bass, a first call guy in Chicago who plays with all kinds of guys. MC'ing the session and playing trumpet was the multi-talented

Corey Wilkes, another young guy who's already all over the place with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Will Calhoun, Greg Osby, and others.

They don't get paid a ton of money, but they make as much if not more than a door gig in the city. But the real point is that they're playing because they want to, and they see the value in playing with the young kids and passing along their craft. These kids can't get into clubs, and they know the value of learning on the bandstand as well as the classroom. They offer encouragement, tips, and you can tell that being on the same stage as them means a lot to the kids.

People come just to hear the kids go, cheer them on, and occasionally laugh at the funny faces kids make when they're soloing.

Corey got some of his first playing opportunities from the Jazz Institute, as did Maurice Brown, and I'm sure many other musicians in the future will have come through this program at some point.

One particularly incredible story emerged in the last year. A 12 year old, blind since birth, pianist showed up at one of the sessions with his parents. He'd been playing his whole life but never played with a band before. When the MC asked him what he wanted to play, he called a somewhat obscure Eddie Harris tune, got up, and killed it. Everyone was in awe.

A few sessions later someone took a little video clip of him playing. His name is Ade (pronounced AH-day), and he has a musical sense beyond his years.