Controversy at UMM in. . .music?

And the band played on. Well, not exactly, or at least not on the terms of a portion of UMM's students who like jazz.

I had to smile when I learned a rhubarb had broken out on our beloved campus spawned by. . .music? My first thought was that it's nice music is inspiring such strong feelings. Good grief, be thankful for the interest.

Oh, I had other thoughts too.

The vehicle for this rhubarb sprouting was the campus newspaper. I have written about this paper before. It's called the University Register.

I have written that college newspapers ought to be allowed to wither away and die and give way to the new and unbridled frontier of the Internet. That frontier may have started out a little raw, like North Fork in "The Rifleman," but it has gotten civilized and organized quite quickly.

If someone seeks to extinguish a newspaper controversy, the controversy will find new life and will probably prosper more online. This is wonderfully liberating. And we seem to be observing a nice laboratory example on our University of Minnesota-Morris campus.

I have to smile because it's nice to see the Register show some uncharacteristic vigor. Its April 21 issue was virulent with its page 4 guest op-ed by an impassioned student name of Mike McBride.

Congratulations Mike. I don't know if your facts are ironclad but I applaud your sincerity and drive.

Music would do this? Not surprisingly we're talking about jazz music.

Music educators had best sigh and realize that big band jazz occupies a special place with young people. I'm not sure it's the "jazz" (improvisation) that the students find so infectious, rather I think it's the type of rhythm and the big brassy sound that projects from onstage.

As a photographer I like jazz because the musicians are arranged in tiers onstage so you can actually see all of them. This might be an overlooked attribute.

With concert band you're restricted to seeing the front row of clarinet players, basically, plus some guys on the edge and some standing percussionists.

Concert band is a wonderful venture. UMM has outstanding music programs across the board. Jazz found its place beginning in the late 1970s.

Why so late? Jazz had an image that seemed, well, a little "edgy" in the eyes of mainstream America, at least the mainstream America of Ozzie and Harriet.

Del Sarlette of Sarlettes Music supplied a little tidbit shedding light on that. Del was speaking at the retirement reception for the individual who established the full-blown UMM jazz program that created so much excitement, culminating in the April Jazz Festival.

Del noted that in his own band background (coinciding with mine), bands of this type were called "stage bands." Music directors had to be a little delicate and not use "jazz."

The director who was feted where Del spoke had the same initials as Jesus Christ. He's happily in Florida now, I hear. Jazz is a passion of his but it might be second on his list, to golf.

Golfing in Florida puts J.C. a long way from the controversy that clouded his campus this past spring.

There were brickbats in Mike McBride's op-ed. Essentially, this young man wrote about students wanting to launch a student-led big band that would fill what he sees as a void in UMM's music since J.C.'s departure.

Apparently there are fewer jazz ensembles in the actual music discipline. There were four under J.C.

I'm told that the third and fourth were for the less-serious music students or music majors playing secondary instruments. It all seemed to be a thriving environment.

McBride wrote "there exist currently two jazz ensembles and a combo class for those of us who wish to learn and perform that most American of musical forms."

He went on to argue that demand exceeds the supply. In athletics this is handled by intramurals.

There are music enthusiasts at UMM who want to establish a music equivalent of that. McBride sees a "large and growing" group of students who want to achieve this.

Here's where it gets controversial. I would argue that no one at UMM wants to suppress the learning aspirations of the uniquely gifted young people who come here.

But educators do set priorities. We rely on their guiding hand and wisdom. Where they might have erred in this case is not fully appreciating just how jazz bands or stage bands have flourished among high school youth since about 1980.

I would guess there are many non-music majors who would love an avenue to continue playing their "ax." I suspect this is what McBride and his compatriots have been working toward.

Unfortunately McBride describes a minefield. He lays blame. I have to smile because this is how college students are: direct and non-nuanced in expressing themselves, whereas maturity (or reality) brings on the acknowledgment of the "gray areas" that exist in these matters.

But who knows? McBride might be totally right.

The most cynical observation that might be made, is that an element in UMM's music department is "leveling the playing field" by giving jazz a haircut. So we're talking about jealousies.

I don't want to believe that. Why can't we all just agree to disagree?

But McBride shares a narrative that is a little disturbing. He indeed makes it seem like a minefield that these intrepid students are crossing.

At one point this fledgling group attempted to play in the hallways of the HFA, "in protest," McBride explained. They had been hamstrung at every turn, not even being given access to the desired performance spaces, McBride asserted.

My goodness, police were called.

Hey UMM, it's a blessing if your biggest problem is overzealous music enthusiasts.

Around St. Cloud State, the police are usually activated for other reasons. But they've cancelled Homecoming now, so that solves part of their problem. But I'm not sure the problem at UMM has been solved.

Hey, why couldn't a student-led band begin showing up at some Cougar games and supplying pep band music? Just a thought that crosses my mind.

Maybe they could dust off the original University of Minnesota-Morris fight song and experiment with it. Does the band arrangement for that song still exist out there? It would be fascinating to dust it off just for archival purposes.

I have always felt the song might have been retired because of one weak line in the lyrics. I have a possible solution for that. Anyone who's interested, please get in touch.

I have communicated this before to Dr. Ken Hodgson. I don't know if he's one of the "bad guys" wearing a black hat as if in "The Rifleman," in the scenario as laid out by McBride, but he runs a quite dynamic choir program.

Choir, concert band and even orchestra have had an enriching impact at out little university on the prairie. But hey guys, there is only one program where an audience might cheer three or four times before a tune is even done.

That's jazz. You have to admit it.

High school jazz is big. It's not unusual to see high school concerts devoted entirely to jazz band.

It was just beginning to take off when I concluded my college years at St. Cloud State - no comment about if I ever attended something where police were called - and I was privileged to be invited by J.C. to be part of the first-ever UMM Jazz Festival.

There were no jazz alumni then, of course, so there could be no alumni band. There was a group of adult jazz musicians in the area that performed: the West Central All-Stars. Just a bit of hyperbole there.

The audience certainly didn't come to hear me. From the stage I could detect that "something big" was in fruition here. The audience was so ebullient and the atmosphere so electric with, well, joy. Big band jazz brings that out in you.

I don't want to endorse the cynical viewpoint that elements at UMM are in effect "putting jazz in its place."

Educators have the best interests of their students in mind.

But there must be something to McBride's assertions. This op-ed didn't just materialize out of the ether. There must have been some pain along the way.

Here's my advice to the music department: realize that like it or not, young people today have a special love for big band jazz and it really needs to be allowed to occupy a special plateau.

Stop watching Ozzie and Harriet (or The Rifleman).

Let's let J.C. feel proud of the musical nurturing that jazz affords here. He has lots of disciples.

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com