In a bold attempt to revive the spirit of jazz music, the
Student Committee for the Arts is launching the third of four
performances in its Jazz at the Grand series tonight in the
Kerckhoff Grand Salon. The performance will feature virtuoso jazz
drummer Winard Harper and his band, the Winard Harper Sextet.
The series is designed as a tribute to world-renowned drummer
Billy Higgins, former member of the UCLA jazz faculty, who died two
years ago after a lifetime of creating influential music. Higgins
had been a good friend and a mentor of Harper’s, as well as
many other musicians in the jazz community.
“There’s a whole army of disciples who are out here
trying to promote his work, trying to continue what he’s
started,” said independent producer and SCA consultant Dennis
Sullivan.
“Jazz is like that, it’s about tradition. Passing
down the history, even the methodology. That is what the art form
is about. We don’t want to lose that tradition,” said
Sullivan.
The Kerckhoff Grand Salon, a smaller venue, will provide the
ideal intimacy of a true jazz performance, with the music placed on
the foreground.
SCA members have been very meticulous in organizing the series
in order to provide an environment that will entice the
audience.
“The atmosphere is only the music,” said Malik
Chaudhary, first-year comparative literature student and SCA
member. “In most venues, like in a coffee shop, for example,
the jazz is totally background, and we’ve made a
conscientious effort not to make it that way. When you’re in
the room, there are no lights except the lights on the performers.
There are no distractions from the music.”
The main focus of the jazz series is to provide a type of music
that has diminished from the mainstream, and has ceased to call out
to today’s youth.
“We’re working with artists who are pretty much
locked out of the mainstream media. I think as time goes on,
what’s true and real gets buried,” said Sullivan.
“When you hear this music, it’s like something
you’ve never heard before. A woman at a concert we did last
November described it as: “˜Music I always knew existed, but I
never knew where to find.'”
Having played the drums for at least 35 years, Harper has
reached new levels of experimentation and flexibility with a
variety of percussive instruments, like the djembe, the bongo, the
samba and the ballophone.
In an effort to integrate instruments of other cultures, Harper
introduces a new concept which spices up the primary jazz element
in the music without removing its free-flowing emphasis. The
instrumental setup also consists of the trumpet, saxophone, piano,
bass and drums, with the different percussive instruments played
alternately between the members.
“It’s like bringing in the African tribal concept
where everybody participates,” said Harper.
“That’s the beautiful thing about jazz. There are no
limits to it. It can mean something of everything depending on
who’s playing, what their intentions are and who’s
listening to it. As Jimmy Heath once told me, “˜Jazz is one of
the greatest examples of democracy we’ve ever
seen.'”