Ralph was my father. He has left us for that ballroom in the sky. The University of Minnesota was integral to his life. He formed our U of M-Morris music department in 1960-61 and was the department's sole faculty member in the first year. What heady times.
All throughout his career, we could not have dreamt of the kind of pandemic we have now. Very tough on music. Dad would be bewildered and downcast. My parents don't have to deal with the crisis - Mom later entered the celestial ballroom. I remember when we had a dog die, Mom said "she's in a better place now."
We have adversity on several fronts in the present day. Mom could have been prompted to faint when learning of some of the things that Donald Trump has said and done. My parents were of the very "proper" generation called "the greatest generation."
Dad was well beyond his big band or jazz days by the time I came along. I had to hear the stories to get the background. And, to see scrapbook items like the photo on top here. Dad referred to Leroy Ellickson as "Swifty." He talked about the seemingly meager compensation for musicians, but of course the Depression set the tone for both compensation and prices.
Dad gained permanent habits and ways of thinking rooted in the 1930s economic situation. He never looked casually at a bill for anything. He'd want to be sure it was reasonable and for something that was necessary. He memorized prices in a sometimes uncanny way. I remember hearing from a business associate of UMM benefactor Ed Morrison, that Ed had quite the same inclination. This was from the hospitality business. Ed's most memorable imprint came from the newspaper business.
My boomer generation could find the money consciousness a bit much ("nickels and dimes"). And in more recent times, we found that technology was such that people were expected to discard generations of expensive equipment and just move on to the next. I'm sure this was a bridge way too far for the likes of Ed and my father. It's like humankind had progressed to a whole different planet.
Us boomers were aware of what the Depression and WWII had done to our elders. We could put their behavior in context but we still got flustered. I used to have to explain myself after I signed for some AA batteries at the drugstore. Bob Rose knew what I was in for! We at the paper might want to minimize our use of camera flash! Seriously!
My father did so many things with UMM in the seminal days. It seemed to know no bounds. But it did have bounds in the sense that jazz wasn't there. Ironic when you look at the photo at the top of this post. There is a ready explanation: our culture was not ready for jazz in the college music curriculum. Hard to believe that now. I would estimate the mid-1970s as when the cultural prohibition started coming down. There may have been exceptions but I'm speaking in general terms.
Furthermore we were a small rural town out here, pretty ensconced in the traditional or proper manner of music presentations. There was definitely variety in UMM music in the seminal days. I have old concert programs that verify this. I would love to go back in time and "prod" my father to be adventuresome with a jazz-flavored big band group. So easy to practice hindsight now.
Isn't there a scene in one of the "Back to the Future" movies where the lead character does rock 'n' roll for a young crowd, then advises them "you aren't ready for this."
In Morris we saw halting steps toward incorporation of jazz. And here I'm talking about the high school with John Woell as director. Happy to say Mr. Woell is still with us. He doesn't get enough credit compared to predecessor Robert Schaefer. And yet it was Woell that launched jazz band, although at that time - ahem - it was called "stage band." Alas, the world wasn't ready, at least the world out here in western Minnesota, for "jazz" on the concert bill. Sad? Well it was reality.
We must resist hindsight. Hindsight would tell us we were absolutely nuts allowing smoking in public places for as long as we did. Our restaurants like right here in Motown catered to the infamous "bar rush" on Friday and Saturday nights. We're all inclined to laugh about this, but it was of course highly undesirable behavior. So society changes.
High schools everywhere adopted jazz band programs. They gave full-throated jazz concerts.
A preferable format
Putting the actual music aside, I like jazz band because of how the young people are arranged on the stage. Kids don't get "buried" in the back rows. The saxophones are seated, and the trombones and trumpets stand behind, so each kid can project his sound and feel like a valued individual.
It is important that jazz "charts" be tasteful and well-rehearsed. Under-resourced bands can sometimes come off sounding like a pep band. It's a pitfall to avoid.
Our MAHS auditorium in Morris was terrible for concert band, I felt. Maybe the acoustics were fine. As a photographer I can speak on this: I'd go to a concert and only be able to see the front row of clarinet players (almost 100 percent females of course). Behind them it was hopeless. The high school auditorium served a nice purpose for theater, not so much for music. The auditorium was supposed to be a step up from the gym. A gym! In an earlier time so many schools had combination gym/auditoriums and I sometimes wondered what to call them in photo captions. Hah! I remember often using "gym/auditorium."
I remember Morris High School band concerts under Woell at the 1968 gym. I remember when I was too young to be in the top band and I attended a concert that featured Renee Schmidt (a male) on flute. The Schmidts were a dynamic family in Morris, kids involved and talented. And I remember how wonderful the concert was as I sat halfway up the bleachers, and I could see everyone in the band so easily. We had breathing room in that place compared to the later auditorium which is absolutely claustrophobia-inducing, stuffy etc. Superintendent Fred Switzer claimed for years that he "almost got fired" for getting the auditorium built.
Needing to get "hip"
I remember some of Dad's students coming to our place - yes, Northridge Drive where I'm seated right now - with a Blood, Sweat and Tears record album. It was a pioneering type of sound. It was brass-flavored with a gravelly vocal and jazz elements. Maybe my father thought such music just wasn't within reach for UMM to present yet. Only in (20/20) hindsight could I say "Dad, soak this in and see what you might launch at UMM." It was the 1960s.
I could see on the faces of the student visitors that they wanted the music to make more of an impression on Dad. He kept talking when he should have paid more attention. Maybe I should have nudged him, but 1) it's easy to say now, and 2) Dad could be a little fixated on what he wanted to do. From my time machine I'd like to tell him: "Dad, you have credentials from your college years to do something along the jazz/big band lines!"
I'd also say: "Dad, it's risky for you to keep prioritizing the men's chorus. It's fantastic what this group has meant to UMM, but the times they are a-changin'."
In this new day a gender-specific music group, especially men, was going to get non-practicable.
I know UMM had no female varsity athletics at its inception. I'd be guessing to try to identify the first year. And I am certain that the start of women's varsity sports had fits and starts, as a broad range of the public was either going to be skeptical or view it merely as a novelty. The latter could be just as discouraging as the former. Added to this was the lack of background in the skills of the game, making the earliest teams look ungainly at times.
And our high school went through the same process. Our high school girls programs sadly lagged in the 1980s, not because of any natural evolution but because of shortcomings in programs. I became very concerned about that and I suffered professionally for saying anything. All of us have baggage in our background.
It was Jim Carlson who returned to UMM and got the fire lit under jazz, right at the time when the world was finally ready for it. Our evolving culture can be amazing. Jim's UMM Jazz Festival became perhaps the most high-profile thing on campus. U of M President Robert Bruininks was a big fan. My father had the credentials but I suspect that in the early '60s, jazz would be an impossible "sell" here. It would have been "Back to the Future" and the premature rock 'n' roll rendition. People would be taken aback, sadly.
Many people associated jazz with African-Americans. It has been said that rock 'n' roll of the '50s finally crossed the bridge to African-American preferences for music. But in reality, the big band pioneers of the '30s had already pushed through that possible barrier. It would be fun to say that in the world of 2020, we are racially blind to any such matter. Our political culture has seemed to devolve, tragically. Look at our U.S. president.
UMM today continues with jazz, with standards that I feel are high as ever, although the Jazz Fest is not the "event" it once was. A famous song glorifies rock 'n' roll by saying "rock 'n' roll is here to stay, it will never die." Oh, most certainly true with jazz and big bands too.
Podcast for Sept. 9
I invite you to visit my "Morris Mojo" podcast for my September 9 episode. I start by noting we're two days from the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It's important to note but we have an immediate crisis: the pandemic, the shaky start of school etc. Here's the permalink:
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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