| I don't think my son is in the same league musically, but I did frequent these discussions somewhat and he did chose his college largely around the opportunities to play and hear music without necessarily majoring in it. He chose Columbia University because its music performance program puts every intermediate to advanced jazz player who auditions into a combo. His combo has six players and is taught by an up and coming young jazz pianist and composer. My son was a little disappointed at first -- his audition did not net him the free lessons he also hoped for and he didn't end up in the most advanced combo, which performs at a club on the Upper West Side. So he also joined a klezmer band, led by a professor of Jewish Music. He's having a blast playing a type of music he'd never tried before. In the meantime, he discovered his jazz combo has been steadily improving and he's learning a lot from the man who leads it. (Could it be because the prof said my son's improvising reminded him of the young Wayne Shorter? Somehow, things seemed to go uphill from there.) He's just starting to be familiar enough with the city to go out and hear music. We took him to the Blue Note on parents weekend and heard four great tenor sax players celebrate what would have been Coleman Hawkins' 100th birthday. Then, Columbia -- which is trying to build a jazz studies program -- also had an event to celebrate Coleman Hawkins and my son went, heard a talk and demonstration, and loved seeing Hawk's horn which was on display. All in all, he loves being in a city that feels like Jazz central! |