UMM music events this time of year are a great way to "set the table" for the upcoming holiday season. We have been seeing some of the holidaytime trappings out and around already. Really it's never too early.
The UMM jazz ensemble and combos will perform on November 22 at the HFA recital hall, 7 p.m. Classic jazz will be the evening's fare. Sometimes I'm slow picking up on trends, but it seems "UMN" is displacing "UMM." My inclination is to stick with UMM some.
Jim Carlson's name is associated with development of jazz at our esteemed campus. He had charisma. For the record, jazz
did pre-date Carlson here. Clyde Johnson directed jazz groups. I have written a blog post about a "historic" performance by jazz under Johnson, when the musicians did the very challenging "Final Analysis" of Don Ellis. So many years ago. Yet it made such an impression.
I remember attending the retirement event for Johnson at the HFA. Unfortunately the sound hookup didn't work for a good portion of the slide presentation. I remembered reading a chapter of a Harvey Mackay book, where he noted that the person responsible for the sound system should always be present for an event like this. I photocopied those pages and left them with Carlson at his office. I guess I chose him because I had some personal rapport with him. Carlson called the newspaper office and left a "thanks" message for me.
Mackay is the envelope salesman who has had quite a passion for writing about all sorts of things. What a great gift he has. It dawned on him once that his company's vehicles should have the company name on top instead of on the side. Because, think of all the people in their elevated offices in tall metro buildings, looking down!
It is important to remember all of UMM's history. So I felt some chagrin when, on occasion of UMM Homecoming, the institution trotted out a longstanding theme of how the "concert choir" was "founded" - yes, we always heard about the "founding" - in 1979. Specifically, UMM announced the "40-year anniversary of the concert choir."
The concert choir is fantastic. Through the years with the eminent Ken Hodgson, I had the highest opinion of this group and Hodgson, professionally and personally. I find it puzzling that this "founding" theme has to be hammered home so much. It's not as if UMM vocal music had its start in 1979. One could easily conclude based on the theme from UMM releases and promos, that it did.
Oh, don't doubt me on this, please. Because none other than Garrison Keillor got fooled when he came here for one of his radio show performances. I remember sitting down to listen and enjoy his show that night, broadcast from UMM. I was no longer with the paper. At the time of his previous performance here, I covered the event with quite a splash in the Morris Sun Tribune. That first show was special for me because the UMM choir - I guess the "concert choir" - performed the UMM Hymn which my father composed at the time the institution began.
I sometimes think the Hymn would be a nice little "encore" for the UMM Homecoming concert, only lasts a couple minutes, and it pulls at your heartstrings, a nice thing perhaps for getting alums to open their wallets. I'm not aware of Brad Miller ever directing it.
So I'm sitting at home listening to Keillor's later appearance here, with Mom close by, her hearing having become impaired so she really couldn't follow it. That was a good thing. At one point Mr. Keillor said "UMM didn't have a choir for its first 18 years." Someone I know who taped the show confirmed these words, lest I was misremembering.
"UMM didn't have a choir for its first 18 years." And there I was, just sitting on the davenport wanting to enjoy the show. How could anything go wrong? You just never know.
So I got on the Internet machine (as Rachel Maddow would call it) and contacted Jacqueline Johnson. Back then I didn't have a computer at home - I communicated from public places. I contacted Johnson and said right away that I had a ready explanation for what Keillor did. That's because I had dealt with UMM music press releases through the years. I was quite familiar with the "founding - 1979" theme that went with the UMM concert choir. I never liked it but I never said anything until after the Keillor incident.
What Keillor said was such an egregious misstatement of fact, I felt it should have been corrected during the program. I'm sure Hodgson was positioned very close by. What was Hodgson thinking? "Oh my this could be a problem." Or maybe he didn't think that at all. I don't know.
I shared my background with Ms. Johnson and I can't remember the specifics of her response - I would guess it was appreciative in a generic way. If she made a statement to correct the matter, I think I would remember it. Maybe she saw no merit in what I had to say. She could have articulated in a friendly and considerate way how my thinking was errant.
Evidently no action was taken because for the 2019 Homecoming, UMM went further and used sledgehammer to kill an ant by giving much ballyhoo to the "40th anniversary of the UMM concert choir."
How did the public take this? Well let me point out a possible problem. I suspect most people are not going to do the math in their heads to realize what year we are going back to. Many people might see the "40 years" and just assume it covers all of UMM's history. How many people can even say off the top of their heads the exact year UMM started? The year is becoming ever more remote in time.
Well, UMM did lots of exciting things musically right from the start. Most certainly vocal music was an important part of that.
When I say UMM should celebrate its whole history, I add that this should even include losing football coaches!
I never would have been smart enough to attend UMM. In high school I was given a pass for skipping some of the usual science and math because the administration probably had a hard time figuring me out. I seemed smart in certain respects - my critics of today would dispute that - but seemed hopeless in others, maybe due to a condition like Asperger's. I got an inflated GPA. It was misleading. Had I tried UMM and failed, it would have brought embarrassment for my family.
I should have just tried to get a dishwashing job or something like that. At age 64 one can ponder the "could have beens." We are past trying to impress people. Father Gerald Dalseth wrote that the older you get, the more you are willing to be open about your shortcomings at high school reunions. "We are not nearly so successful as we thought," I remember Fr. Dalseth writing.
Catching some wrath
In the past few weeks I have experienced blowback on the comments I have made out and around. It is sharp and disappointing. Most likely I was never meant to have a comfortable relationship with UMM. This is in spite of when I put on a suit coat. I try to rub shoulders with some of the community's true big shots or bluebloods, as it were, and I think my efforts to "fake it" have been OK.
Recently I had occasion to talk with a friend at a local diner, a respected lawyer who is closely aligned with UMM's interests. I was seeking background on something and he was most apt. I wondered how much money it would take for "naming privileges" at UMM, like for maybe the recital hall. This is just in theory but I have always felt that if something were named for my father, the Johnson name should also be put forth. Those guys were the prime movers.
I played some "gigs" with Johnson. I know he and my father did not always see eye to eye and I don't care to know any details about that - such things are the norm in academia. I also played gigs with Carlson and that's why I felt some extra affinity with this dynamo. Bill Stewart was always fond of telling me about the great job my father did working with African-American students like Roland Wilson. There was a group called "Flightline" or "Flighttime" or something like that.
So many rich memories and yet we have the meme pushed forward on campus that somehow the choir began only in 1979.
I have communicated with Michelle Behr about this and noted that when Keillor was here, he was no doubt going by "press kit" information from UMM.
My attorney friend quoted what I'm sure was a nice "ballpark" $ estimate on the naming rights idea. The number would strike the average person as high. But I told him I would not rule it out. As I have said often, "When in Morris do as the Morrisons do."
Based on the recent unpleasantness with the choir/founding thing, I am taking consideration of this $ gesture off the table. I don't want to discuss it any more, as I am old and tired, and I have lots of old memories flooding back of my newspaper years due to the recent change of ownership of the Morris paper. It has been stressful.
We are also seeing the interest rates paid by banks sinking rapidly. So there's more stress. That trend started when the tariffs on Mexico were announced - so it was the "trade war." Who is really being hurt by the trade war? I have a feeling that the very wealthiest among us are not being hurt. So it's other people, guess who?
We still have a nice little "Ralph and Martha Williams Fund" at UMM. It's nothing to sneeze at. I am putting on hold any further gestures because of some nastiness I have encountered recently. You might talk to a certain main street business person who has association with UMM music. He is the main reason. You all can just leave me alone now. Or you can ask Ken Hodgson for some money. Maybe he can cut loose with a quarter million dollars or something.
Addendum: I wasn't going to publish what follows here, but if ever I'll share it, now is the time. The Williams Fund was going to be the subject for an article in the U of M "Legacy" publication. I went along with this at first and supplied the writer with a considerable amount of background. Stress built as I was concerned how my high profile was going to be taken by some prominent local people. I was told the article was going to be for the cover. Regardless of what people think of me, the attention would have been good for UMM. However, there are some very hard-edged local people who would see this and think it's just a case of yours truly blowing his own horn. Could you imagine what Nick Ripperger would say, if he were to see this? My physical safety might be in danger. So I could not risk it. I told the publication to call it off. I did share my background piece with my attorney friend just for fun, and at the time I said it would not go on my blog. So I was lying, because at this time I'll share it here. It's quite "buried" at the bottom of this blog post, and my detractors would say "nobody reads you stupid blogs anyway." I would hope that maybe a handful would read what follows here. It was written for Ms. Kiser at "Legacy." It's the Williams family story with UMM.
I
doubt we had much if any sense of history when we arrived in Morris at
the start of the grand endeavor of the University of Minnesota-Morris.
Our thoughts were focused on the present, on the gritty day to day
challenges. As a kid I was focused on getting through kindergarten.
Those were the days before kindergarten graduations! I suppose
finger-painting was a priority.
For
my parents, they were invested in the future of UMM which was occupying
a campus that had been used for a long time as an ag school. Ag schools
were being phased out because of new realities in our culture. So, what
to do with the old campus? The existing campus surely made a difference
in getting the new University branch. And heavens, there was
competition for this. Interests from further south were fervent. You
cannot blame any civic organization for wanting to aggressively pursue
an institution like this.
Amenities?
Morris has never been famous for amenities, at least not like the kind
we tend to associate with larger population centers. Like for example, a
shopping mall. Wait a minute! Shopping malls are dying in the year
2019! There's a whole "Dead Malls" series on YouTube, haunting. So many
of the traditional amenities don't carry the weight they once did. A
student on the UMM campus has always been able to live a fulfilling
life. We went without a true student center for a long time but you know
what? We nevertheless heard the most positive things about the UMM
experience. That said a lot. Today we have a wonderful student center.
I
made a pledge to UMM through a fund in my parents' names, and this was
due partly to ensure that our family's name in connection to UMM is not
just "history." It needs to have relevance today! It is essential:
Williams and UMM, a partnership, a real living bond. I'll do the best I
can as spokesman.
Music
is of course our forte. I'm very proud to remember how my father Ralph
led a choral group in two trips to World's Fairs in the early 1960s. In
Seattle our chorus with the maroon blazers opened the Minnesota Day
program at the World's Fair, at a tense time in our history because of
the Cuban Missile Crisis. JFK bailed on closing ceremonies, officially
because he was sick but in reality he was dealing with the Missile
Crisis. The choir's trips were a high-profile way to try to ensure that
UMM wouldn't be in a state of obscurity in its admittedly challenged
early stages.
Oh
yes it was "admittedly." We seemed on the defensive for a time until we
got past some initial hurdles and truly began blossoming. And blossom
we did, in so many ways! After making the initial family $ pledge, I
found the Fund could be "perpetually endowed" if we upped the amount
some. So we did. Again, it's all about having family relevance to UMM's
mission in 2019 and henceforth. What could be more rewarding than that?
UMM
music is a rich resource, not only for educational purposes but for
entertainment and culture on campus. Personally I feel affinity with
jazz! Let me emphasize that my father's background with the U went well
beyond UMM, going back to his undergraduate degree in the late 1930s.
There is a photo in an album that shows him administering "the paddle"
to a "new trip member" as initiation for the U of M band's trip to Ann
Arbor MI in the fall of 1937! There's a photo of the drum major clowning
around and after consulting the Internet, we can be almost certain this
was Winston Jewson. Dad wrote a postcard home to his mom Carrie in
Glenwood MN.
After
World War II in which Dad was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, he got on
board teaching music at the U of M's St. Paul School of Agriculture,
while I was in preschool. That brought us up to the pivotal year of 1960
when my parents began the most important chapter in their lives, as
they grabbed the oars with UMM and began rowing with our "jewel in the
crown" U of M-Morris!
Mom
Martha managed the campus post office for many years and before that
worked at the campus bookstore. I remember the turbulent 1960s when the
Vietnam war fomented restlessness.
Meanwhile
I had the typical priorities growing up as an adolescent in the U.S. I
sometimes took for granted what UMM meant to us and the community - I
was just a kid - but that's not an issue today. We sing the praises of
the liberal arts. While that area may seem under some duress, it surely
will keep a viable place, even if UMM ultimately tweaks its mission
some. Some school advocates would not like me saying that, but hey. . .
Music
will have a vital role no matter the shape of things to come. The
future can never be certain to predict, but leave no doubt, the Ralph
and Martha Williams Fund will be there to buttress music and the school
in general. I'm doing the best I can to carry the torch, with or without
a diploma from kindergarten.
- Respectfully submitted,
Brian R. Williams, Morris MN
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| Ralph E. Williams, UMM music founder, in 1962 photo. |
