by Caroline Wright
Saxophones And Poi:
It's well after midnight, and the kid's been awake since before dawn. He watches his hero slowly take the stage, a little unsteady on arthritic knees that probably creak a little when it rains. The old man opens a battered case and lovingly removes his trumpet. Without any fanfare, he begins to play. The kid forgets to breathe for a moment. He's listened to this guy's records for so long that he knows every note, but how sweet they sound when they are played right near one's own ear!
After a while, somebody steps up with a clipboard. The kid hears his name being called, and he goes to the stage, heart pounding, cheap cornet in his shaking hand. When he starts to play, though, the notes ring clear and true, just as he's practiced them for months. The old man plays, too, nimbly dancing along his melodic path with sweet harmonic riffs that elicit cheers from the crowd.
When the song is over, the old man goes to a table at the side of the stage to put his horn back in its case. As he leans over to lock the clasps, he looks up at the kid solemnly.
"Hey there, boy," he says in a gravelly voice. Then he grins. "You were pretty damn good."
Magical moments like these happen all the time at the Hawaii International Jazz Festival. Now in its eighth year, the Festival is an exhilarating forum for world-famous seasoned musicians to interact with the stars of tomorrow.
"We're expanding more than ever," says Abe Weinstein, founder and promoter. "We have ten big bands coming in from all over the world! They're part of our educational component, which has exploded into what we think of as the equivalent of the biggest jazz festivals in the world."
Rewarding Young Talent
The educational components of the festival are truly remarkable. In workshops held each morning at McKinley High School, students will learn about the practical aspects of professional jazz, including improvisation and rehearsal techniques, from some of the genre's best-known musicians.
"The kids are within eyeshot of these big stars. They have the opportunity to walk up to these performers and say, 'Hey, could you listen to me and tell me what you think?' Or 'Can I talk to you about where I should go to school?'" In fact, Weinstein adds, festival artists are chosen as much for their ability to teach as for their musicianship. "Part of their contract with me is that they have to teach the kids as well."
Over $100,000 in scholarship funds will be awarded at the end of the festival. "In the last 7 years, we have provided over $750,000 to Hawaii high school kids who go on with their studies," Weinstein says proudly. "The process of selection takes place during the school year. All the kids have an opportunity to audition for chairs in a select band. That band performs many times during the festival while the judges are listening, and every kid is a potential recipient of scholarship money."
On the final day of the festival, in one of the most exciting moments of the event, the scholarships are awarded. "None of us know till the last second who's gonna win," adds the promoter.
Jamming With Giants
Between the morning clinics, the free afternoon concerts at Ala Moana Center and the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, the specially themed concerts every night, and the jam sessions that follow, there will be plenty to see and hear. Serious jazz lovers should start catching up on their sleep right now! "We'll basically be operating from 10 in the morning until 2 or 3 in the morning every day," says Weinstein.
Each of those sizzling jam sessions is a new opportunity for college kids, local musicians, and international stars to come together in a very impromptu way, "just as jazz is normally performed," Weinstein comments. "We leave it up to the house band leader to say, 'Okay, who wants to sit in?' Sometimes people sign up on a sheet, and sometimes, if they can't stand it, they just run up to the stage and start to blow. Of course, we don't discourage that kind of enthusiasm!" he laughs.
The sessions have become tremendously popular with festival participants. "Even the big professionals, the guys who have worked with Count Basie and Stan Kenton, ask me before they get here, 'Hey, are you lining up the jam sessions? 'Cause I love that more than anything!'"
As stage announcer for the themed concerts, Weinstein announces the jam sessions himself. "I tell all the people in the audience, 'I'll see you at such-and-such club immediately after the show, and I'll be there with my saxophone!'"
Classical Foundation
Though he's certainly made his mark in the world of jazz, Weinstein was raised listening to Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart. At age eight, he started to play the clarinet. "Back in the 50s and early 60s, there was music happening all up and down Collins Avenue in Miami Beach. I learned a lot of jazz standards from retired folks, a lot of them from New York, who had moved down to Miami."
When he graduated from high school, Weinstein won a scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Music. His professor got him a part-time job with the Cleveland Orchestra, then considered one of the greatest symphony orchestras in the world.
After graduation, Weinstein played in venues all over the globe, including the Portland Symphony in Oregon, Canada's Winnipeg Symphony, and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland. He returned to the U.S. and received a full scholarship to work on his Master's Degree at the University of Michigan. At the end of the first semester, he won an audition for the Honolulu Symphony; he couldn't resist.
"Then I was invited by UH to become director of jazz studies. So I started teaching two days a week. Though I had serious training in classical music, I wanted to spend more time on jazz." By then working full-time as personnel manager for the Honolulu Symphony, the musician immersed himself in the genre, devoting himself to educational workshops and importing famous jazz musicians to teach them, and well as gigging locally himself, when he could find the time.
His friends started talking about wonderful jazz festivals they'd attended in their travels. "They said, 'Why is it that we can't have a world-class festival in Hawaii?'" recalls Weinstein. "The more I thought about it, the more the idea intrigued me." When the Symphony began having financial woes, Weinstein decided to plunge fulltime into the investigation of a new venture.
"I took a year off and studied jazz festivals - what they had in common, how they were different, who the sponsors were, who attends these events." He developed profiles of the festivals, and friendships with festival directors around the country "Most of them told me the same thing. They said, 'You have to do this!'"
Shot In The Arm
This year's festival highlights will include a tribute to Stan Kenton, one of the most critically praised and controversial progressive orchestra leaders of the period between the 1940s through the 1970s. Hawai`i musician Gabe Balthazar was lead alto with Kenton in the '60s, and Balthazar worked with Weinstein for years. "He's always told me about his wonderful experiences. He asked me to consider presenting a tribute to Stan, because we've never had one in Hawai`i."
Weinstein started contacting Kenton fan clubs around the country, and discovered that there are thousands of Stan Kenton fans all over the country. "Then I started calling musicians who were famous recording artists with Stan, and they all said PLEASE, let me come! So now we actually have two evenings dedicated to Stan Kenton."
One of other exciting events is a tribute to Hawaiian jazz lined up, with participation by the Paulo, Cazimero, and Baltazar clans. "One of the most poignant aspects of living in Hawai`i is that you become surrounded by music in your own family," enthuses Weinstein. "It's gonna be a blast. We're gonna have so many families on the stage!"
With last year's attendance estimated at 6,000, the festival provides a nice little boost to local economy. Mayor Jeremy Harris has proclaimed Hawaii International Jazz Festival Week during the week of the event. "We're really turning our festival into a destination piece," remarks Weinstein. "We've already sold about 500 room nights, which will translate to the equivalent of about 2000 hotel nights. Imagine the value just on that!"
The airfares, tour packages, meals, and venue rentals will also stimulate local economy, says Weinstein. "A lot of economic energy is created by this! That's why the state tourism agency is funding us as an instrument of economic development."
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