The 2016 Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival (XRIJF) runs from June 24 until July 2. Among the hundreds of musicians gathering for this major musical event are many Eastman faculty members, alumni, and students. Free-lance writer Dan Gross will be blogging regularly during this period with reports and interviews highlighting Eastman’s involvement in the XRIJF. Here, Dan interviews Eastman professor of jazz studies and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra bassist Jeff Campbell.
By Dan Gross
Graduate of Brigham Young University (’90) and Eastman (MM ’92), bassist Jeff Campbell grew up in Utah, and after moving here for school, joined the Eastman faculty in 1997. Campbell, a bassist extraordinaire, is involved with many organizations and events outside of Eastman, including the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the International Society of Bassists. An in-demand performer and highly respected teacher, Campbell’s laid-back demeanor and down-to-earth vibe disguise a virtuosic player, versed in classical and jazz of many flavors.
In Rochester, he frequently performs with Eastman’s Jazz Quartet and Trio East, and coordinates the RIJF-ESM Scholarship Concert. This year he’s playing along with the students who are working together to celebrate the newest recipient of that scholarship, alto saxophonist and Gates native, Grace Frarey, at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Monday, June 27 at the Jazz Street Stage. You can also hear Jeff play with Trio East at 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. on Wednesday, June 29, at the Little Theatre.
You’re a native of Utah, and you came to Eastman for school.
Yeah, like a lot of people in that category, I moved here for school, and once opportunities started coming around, I stayed. That’s worked for a lot of people like us.
I come from a musical family. My dad is a professional musician, and two of my brothers are professional drummers, and one of my brothers is a band teacher and a professional trumpet player. My parents are still alive and my dad is still a great professional musician.
When you came to Eastman, was the plan to become a performer, or be an educator? Did any teacher an Eastman inspire you to go to education?
I have to confess, I didn’t come here with a plan. My main objective was just to learn. I was in Utah for a long time and had very good opportunities to play as a professional musician and was busy, but to advance my musicianship, I had to go to a different environment. That’s one of the reasons I came here — just to become a better musician. I didn’t come to get a job, exactly.
Many opportunities here began to present themselves in different ways, and so, like anybody else, you pursue these paths and make things happen. Meaning you get entrenched in a situation where you have things to do, and you keep doing them. That’s one reason that I stayed here: because I had lots to do.
Especially playing for the RPO. I can imagine that your schedule is very busy.
It’s busy, yeah. It’s one of the things that I liked about being here – the opportunities.
Two things happened at the same time. Jeff Tyzik became the Pops conductor of the RPO in 1994, and he said to me and (pianist) John Nyerges, “We’re doing this Pops show, can you come and play in the rhythm section with us on this concert?” So I did, and when I played that first concert, I met Bob Zimmerman, who was the principal bass for the orchestra at the time, and he came to me and said: “Hey, we’ve got to get together and play some duets!”
I went over to his house, and he said that I should keep working on the skill set of an orchestral bass player. So I did, so it was really Jeff Tyzik having me play in the rhythm section for that concert that helped me to meet the right people to begin to develop skills at a higher level to play in an orchestral bass section. And I’ve been with the RPO for about twenty years now.
You gained an appreciation for classical playing for the RPO. But as a jazz bassist, what specifically has being in and around Eastman has allowed you to grow and expand?
When Harold Danko joined the Eastman faculty in 1998, we began to have a working band. Then Clay Jenkins joined a couple years later, and we expanded our working opportunities. Then Trio East started because we had a couple of gigs where there wasn’t a piano, and Harold doesn’t like to play anything except an acoustic piano, so we were forced to play without him, in a positive way. We started to have our own repertoire (as Trio East), and that “double band” with the Eastman Jazz Quartet and Trio East still coexists in a very positive way. Those opportunities helped me just to have more stuff to do musically.
As a teacher, lots of gigs and lots of experience help your students to gain insight into what’s going on in the music profession and how it is to be a rhythm section player.
I travel around and play with other groups, and I direct a summer camp in Wisconsin. I’m the bandleader there, and we have group of exceptional musicians. I bring my Eastman students (to get that experience there and) to play with us. There’s a nice pipeline between Wisconsin and what happens here.
I’m also on the board of directors for the International Society of Bassists, a big society with a lot of opportunities, and some of my students have won contests in the ISB.
Mike Forfia won last year, and Danny Ziemann placed second.
That’s right! In that regard, I feel quite connected to the professional world.
I’ll tell you this, and I don’t want to be a name dropper, but Ron Carter, who went to Eastman a long time ago (BM ’59), and I have become very good friends, both with each other and the school itself. Ron and I often talk on the phone about pedagogical things. There’s a lot of camaraderie in our profession about teaching and playing. The bass community is a friendly and warm community. We’re very willing to share ideas and concepts with one another.
In fact, Mike Karn, who’s coming up to the Festival, is a bassist and saxophone player from Rochester… He’s playing with Charles Ruggiero, and I got an email from Mike the other day saying: “Hey Jeff, can I borrow your bass?”
I see players who come through Rochester, and I help the Festival get basses. We’re very connected. You asked about jazz pedagogy, and I also thought it was really important to talk about these connections, with this town and with the jazz community, and the bass community. All these local guys like Harold Danko, Clay Jenkins, Rich Thompson, and Bill Dobbins have so many of these connections throughout the Festival and throughout the year outside of the Eastman faculty.
How does it feel for you both playing at the Jazz Fest as a teacher seeing faculty, colleagues, and students who are playing at this Jazz Fest, giving back to Rochester and Eastman?
Well, it’s amazing. The students in this Festival get energized because they hear all this great music, and interact with artists in different ways. Sometimes they (the students) are members of the audience and sometimes they’re backstage.
I have to tell you that the Festival itself is one thing, but there’s a lot of spin-off music too. The Downstairs Cabaret Theater sponsors music every Tuesday night all year long for the students, and they have done an amazing job giving students opportunities to play. They also have gigs every night during the Festival. When I call my students and say: “Hey, can you help rent a bass?” or anything else, they say, “No, I have a gig.” It provides an opportunity for them to be actively engaged in the profession and be a member of the society of music.
Half of this business is not necessarily whom you know, but whom you know next, and the connections that you make. So these students are able to make strong connections, or tangential connections, but they are connections, because they met somebody here, and they interacted with someone in some kind of way. So as a faculty member at Eastman, it’s truly rewarding to see the students be such a strong part of what we do throughout the rest of the year. It creates energy.
We often tell people during the exit interview after the audition process at the school: “Oh, by the way, there’s this amazing jazz festival here in June. It’s not a part of the school year curriculum, but it is part of the community.” We were able not only to talk about the Festival and its impact on the community, but on the school, and specifically for the jazz department in our recruiting process.
Could you lay down the background on the Scholarship Concert, and how you got involved in it?
This will be a small group concert. I will be playing bass with two different groups (see full list below for both lineups). We have a young woman playing with us this year, Grace Frarey on alto saxophone and she’s the recipient of the XRIJF Scholarship. All of the performers have received scholarships from Eastman in one way or another, not necessarily the XRIJF scholarship. Usually when we do this scholarship concert each year, we recognize the person who won the award for this year; we don’t usually bring back the past winners. We’re going to have Grace be the guest of honor this year.
There is an alumni concert (as well) for past winners, the XRIJF Alumni Concert. Bob Sneider does that (Wednesday, 6 p.m., Jazz Street Stage).
A lot of Eastman students, particularly the jazz students, play out. So what’s the goal of this concert?
It’s a way to honor our students and to publicly celebrate that the Jazz festival has donated scholarship support to the students.
You’re playing on this; was no bassist available?
It’s a way for me to be a part of the Festival with the kids, and to play along with them. Hopefully if everything works out, we’ll have two other bass players who are scholarship alumni. Maybe we’ll put together a three-bass tune, or something like that.
At this concert, are you playing arrangement and compositions by the XRIJF Scholarship winner, Grace Frarey?
We’ll be playing some tunes that Grace has selected. She’s just out of high school, and doesn’t have the highest experience level, so she hasn’t written a lot of music yet. She’s chosen some standard tunes from the Great American Songbook that we’re going to feature her on.
Lineups for the two shows on Monday, June 27:
7:30 p.m.
C.J. Ziarniak, Tenor Saxophone
Grace Frarey, Alto Saxophone (this year’s scholarship recipient)
Christian Crawford, Trumpet
Andrew Links, Piano
Jeff Campbell, Bass
Chase Ellison, Drums
9:30 p.m.
Ben Britton, Tenor Saxophone
Christian Crawford, Trumpet
Grace Frarey, Alto Saxophone
Julian Garvue, Piano
Jeff Campbell, Bass
Chase Ellison, Drums