Keynote Speech UNLV 2/01/2020, Las Vegas EE Regional
WR I T T EN BY JUL IUS TOL ENT INO

It’s truly been a pleasure to be working with your groups today and it’s great to have this time as directors to break bread and talk shop. 2020 has started off with a lot of losses in the jazz community, just in the wake of losing an iconic sports figure in Kobe Bryant, the jazz community has lost Vic Juris at the beginning of the year, then just a little more than two weeks after that we lost Claudio Roditi and Jimmy Heath on the same day and I just heard New Orleans trombone legend Lucien Barbarin just left us yesterday. Losing these larger than life figures you can’t help but reflect on life and how we interact with one another everyday. One of the most comforting aspects of losing these legends is hearing the inspiring stories about these amazing people. I’d to share a little story about Master Jimmy Heath. I was lucky enough to share the stage with him and I’ve had several opportunities to pick his brain, but my first real interaction with him was at a gig that I was playing. It was a Jazz Mobile gig in NY, and if you haven’t heard about Jazz Mobile it’s actually the first non for profit arts organization created just for Jazz. In addition to having a concert series, the organization runs all kinds of educational programs, and it was founded by Dr. Billy Taylor in 1964. It has a rich and long history, but all these Jazz Mobile concerts are held on this beat up little white stage that’s mobile, which they take to different locations in NY, hence the name Jazz Mobile. It’s something my Dad used to take me to when I was in high school, so I was super excited to play my first one. My roommate at the time was a trumpeter named Jeremy Pelt and he put together a sextet for this Jazz Mobile in front of the Louis Armstrong House in Queens. The only tune I remember from that concert was a blues at the end of the gig, and after my solo I remember seeing at the corner of my eye a little man in the back who was pointing to the sky. I got at a better look at this man, who was still pointing at the sky, and it was Jimmy Heath! I’m not sure why he was pointing, but he seemed liked he dug my solo. I got to talk to him after the gig and he gave me a big hug and said “We little people have to stick together.” He was super supportive, funny, very humble and for me to have an interaction like that with one of my heroes put me on cloud nine. That was a good day. And to make that day even better was that my teacher from college, Jackie McLean called me up the next day saying that Jimmy Heath called him about me and that he was proud of what I was doing in NY. Man, I was on cloud nine for more than a month after that. This was in the late 90’s and I had recently moved to NYC and for a young jazz musician just trying to get by and working hard, it was what I needed at that moment.

These moments help you to keep fighting the good fight, whatever that fight might be. We as educators have opportunities to create these kind of reaffirming moments for our students all the time.

We all have these reaffirming moments in life, especially as a developing artist or as an educator. These moments help you to keep fighting the good fight, whatever that fight might be. We as educators have opportunities to create these kind of reaffirming moments for our students all the time. As a band director your students really look up to you, and the key is not to compliment them for the sake of complementing them, but to find some defining moments in the school year that you can highlight in a rehearsal or maybe in an email or a phone call, maybe it’s like, man I was hanging with Kenny Rampton and he said you had a great sound and he couldn’t believe how young you were, that means a lot coming from him, keep doing what you’re doing. Putting your students on cloud nine will give them the reaffirmation they need to keep working. That’s one of the take aways I wanted to share with you today, create reaffirming moments in a meaningful way for your students.

The other concept I want you to take back to your band room, is to use stories to make a point. Just like I tried to do just now, use stories to motivate, to explain a piece of music, use stories to set the background or explain some history. Not just your stories, stories you’ve heard, stories about your students and definitely stories about our music, jazz music.

Whenever I play “Take the A Train” with a student band, I make it a point to tell them that the composer Billy Strayhorn, who was Duke Ellington’s right hand man, actually threw the music to A Train in the garbage and Duke took it out and wanted to play it and it became their theme song. I also make it a point to tell them that Billy Strayhorn was an openly gay black man in the 1940, 50’s and 60’s and was a human rights activist and a friend of Martin Luther King. Our music is built on stories and we should make it a point to use them as a tool to inspire our students. I’ll be the first to tell you that I am not fond of public speaking, and even when I’m working with my students I am not very chatty, some of us don’t have the gift of gab like Mr. Todd Stoll, but it’s something that I force myself to get better at because it’s engaging for students and important for the music. It’s easy for us to talk about the story of a piece, where the shout chorus is and that’s the high point of the story, or asking students to tell a story with their solos, but also make it a point to tell them that Charlie Parker practiced 11 to 15 hours a day for a three to four year period, or that Charles Mingus wrote Fables of Faubus to attack Orval Faubus an Arkansas Governor who ordered the National Guard to stop nine black students from entering a high school in Little Rock, or tell them a story of your lead alto player leaving school when he wasn’t supposed to because he forgot his horn for rehearsal. Jazz music was built on stories and will continue to be, and I urge you to keep telling your stories. Thank you again for your time, and thank you to everyone at JOI and UNLV and of course thank you to Kenny and JALC for bringing this amazing festival to Las Vegas.

Interview conducted by Solomon Elyaho (Vandoren Resources)

After a lengthy career as a performer what inspired you to pursue a career in music education as well?

I’ve always enjoyed teaching and I think I discovered this in high school trying to help my fellow musicians in class and in the jazz band. I was able to teach officially in college giving private lessons at a local store and at Jackie McLean’s Artist Collective and I felt like my students were always excelling. One summer in college I was able to teach as part of Mr. McLean’s Summer Program at Hartt, and even then, I was starting to formulate how to teach jazz music as a language. So JMac was a huge influence formulating a concept, but also, he gave me my first official opportunities. For me now playing and teaching come hand in hand and one doesn’t exist without the other. I still have the opportunity to play with the highest-level musicians and right now teach seven days a week with all of my different positions.

In your experience, what are some of the toughest challenges faced by jazz educators?

For music educators in general having a schedule that gives you time with your performing groups is a common challenge. Many schools across the country are cutting program hours when they should be supporting their arts programs. Even in a school like mine where we have a very supportive administration, hours are coveted by all the programs because many students do everything now a days. So just having time with our groups is one of the toughest challenges. I know of so many directors that this is probably their number one challenge and they somehow make it work by seeing their ensembles before or after school, most of the time without compensation.

Specifically, for jazz educators, the toughest challenge is that many of our teachers are thrown into having a jazz band or are not sure how to run a jazz band with very little or no training in jazz. This music has a very deep history that we all share as Americans and we need to make sure our teachers are getting the right tools, support, and resources to teach this great art form. It’s one of the reasons I started JTole Music and we are excited to have our first Jazz Director’s Academy this summer in Texas.

“This music has a very deep history that we all share as Americans and we need to make sure our teachers are getting the right tools, support, and resources to teach this great art form.” – Julius Tolentino

Programming is one of the most important tools you have as a music teacher.  I believe you have the most impact on your students and your audience with the selections you choose for your groups.  Of course it’s important to have a varied program of selections with different tempos, keys, moods, feels, etc., but I would argue the most important factor is substance.  When I say substance, I mean music that is apart of this rich history and this musical tradition. Are you giving your students an opportunity to experience the music that jazz has built its foundation on?  In the big band tradition of the swing era and beyond there is so much music that is available and accessible now, especially to a high school level group. This was not the case 20 years ago. Musicians my age or older will have not played an actual Duke Ellington chart in high school.  Thankfully Jazz at Lincoln Center has almost single handedly changed that across the globe, by starting the Essentially Ellington Festival, which gives several charts out each year for free!

When I decided to pick my program for my first state competition 10 years ago, I was torn on what kind of selections to showcase the band with.  I was familiar with these festivals from my own high school experience. All the winning bands had this formula of a technical piece with lots of notes for the saxes and at some point a difficult soli with the rhythm section dropping out for more flare.  There would be a ballad that eventually went into a rock ballad or double time, maybe a latin piece that had screaming trumpets or a loud trombone soli. These flashy pieces did not have the substance I spoke about earlier and seemed like they were written specifically to meet a set of competition standards.  I instead decided to go with some Duke Ellington, Benny Carter, and Tito Puente. Of course I wanted my band to do well it’s first time out, but I decided to go against the trend and settled to go down swinging, pun intended. This was my first time going to the state festival and my program was just starting out, in fact this was my second year and the first time I had full instrumentation for a big band. We qualified for the state competition that first year and even placed third overall.  Hearing the other bands, I thought no way we would place because I didn’t really have strong players, especially with the brass, and every band had way more chops than us. But we did place because we could swing and our music came from a much deeper place than what I heard from the other technical groups. So the next year our band was eager to go back and the program became stronger and more dedicated. My third year on the job we placed first at states and have continued to come in first for 9 years running.  Now I’m not saying play Ellington and Basie and you will start winning at festivals. I am saying program substance and get your groups to swing and solo in the language of the music because you are directing a JAZZ band.

As far as festivals and competitions, it’s never about winning a music competition for me or my students.  It’s always about the process of pushing ourselves to play to the best of our abilities, while representing what’s beautiful about this music- swing, the blues, soloing with a deep respect for the language, and the excitement that comes when it’s done at a high level.  My students know that and understand that we are also leading by example, and I think it’s working. I’m happy to see more bands in NJ dealing with Ellington, Basie, Mingus, Thad Jones, Mary Lou Williams, Benny Carter, Fletcher Henderson, and many more. I think we have played a part in that with hosting our own festival promoting the music of Ellington and by sharing all of our teaching concepts through band exchanges, artist in residence programs, teacher visits, and the summer workshop.  To all my director friends out there, keep dealing with the real deal!

Please visit eJazz Lines for a great selection of jazz big band and combo charts. Brothers Rob and Doug DuBoff are the founders of this publication company and are dedicated to bringing great charts to all level of big bands and combos.

https://www.ejazzlines.com/

– Julius Tolentino, March 10, 2019

I love Jazz at Lincoln Center’s yearly Essentially Ellington competition and festival for high school jazz bands. Many may read “high school” in that last sentence and lose interest. I have been to many of the 23 events, and will attest that there is more musicianship from these kids than I have heard from professional musicians in some bars across the country and overseas. (Indeed one Hungarian professional played so poorly he drove me from a bar, but that’s another story.) These are not average high school bands. They are a combination of exceptionally talented and dedicated students and band directors. To get to the three-day event in New York they, along with over 5,300 other bands, must compete in a vigorous yearlong program of mentoring, monitoring, competitions and judging. That willowing removes the chaff. This year we couldn’t experience it there, but Jazz at Lincoln Center posted it live via Livestream, so we watched the final concert and award ceremony at home. When the announcer said that the first to play of the three top prize winners would be the Newark Academy big band from Livingston New Jersey, I resolved to enjoy the show and contact Julius Tolentino, the band’s director, and Erica von Kleist, one of the judges, to talk about the event later.

Julius wears many hats. He is a father, husband, gigging musician, music teacher, and band director at the prestigious Newark Academy. He is also a veteran of Essentially Ellington, having taken various bands there over the years. Last year his band, known as Chameleon, had just missed landing in the top three. He resolved to build on that. “I asked the kids to raise their hands according to how many years they have been in the jazz program. My lead alto, Charles Pan and lead trombone player Reid Christmann have been involved with all of our groups, and studying with me since sixth grade. We have 11 seniors and I was adding up all the years on the board saying, ‘This is why it is going to be a special year, this group has experience.’ Actually, most of the kids had already been to Essentially Ellington, some several times.”

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Resident Jacob Magiera has said it time and again, almost like a mantra – “There’s talent in Roselle Park.”

Resident, saxophonist, professional musician, educator, bandleader, and recording artist Julius Tolentino is the latest example of that.

He dreams of having a jazz festival in the borough and at the end of the November 1st Mayor & Council meeting, he laid out the framework to make his dream a reality before the governing body.

“Seeing all the things that we’re doing in the town I just thought it would be a great place to start off our own jazz festival,” Julius said during his presentation, “Jazz music has the ability to bring communities together. I’ve seen that firsthand. I’ve been fortunate to play a lot of festivals all around the world, and I feel like we can bring something to Roselle Park that will be very different in a jazz festival and really bring in the education part of it and get different towns to come . . . [We’d be] talking about community, talking about the pride of Roselle Park and bringing all these jazz fans to our town would be an amazing endeavor.”

Julius took part in the 2015 Roselle Park Loves Art Festival with the Chameleon Jazz Band. It was that performance that made him realize the possibility that Roselle Park could be a home for jazz music.

In reviewing on the record his outline for a 2019 Roselle Park Jazz Festival, Julius – who has taken part in the Montclair Jazz Festival – pulled from his 20 years as a professional musician and 12 years in music education in order to formulate a program that would incorporate a program he has started in New Providence as part of the New Jersey Youth Symphony. It is a two-week workshop and Julius would love to see that two-week workshop culminate in a big jazz festival.

He also wants to include the swing dance community in Jersey to make it a full immersion event. He explained, “There’s a big swing dance community and we have ties the George Gee Big Band as well as a vocal competition that will also bring different communities together. That would be like an online vocal competition, and the two finalists will perform with the student big band at the festival.”

Julius has a tentative date, July 27th, in mind. He sees the gazebo area of Michael Mauri Park on the corner of East Grant Avenue and Chestnut Street as a great location for the festival. If possible, he would like to include a sound stage much like the ones that have been used for the music portion of the Roselle Park Arts Festival. The inaugural year would have two main acts and a dance lesson portion.

“I think it’s all feasible with the team that we have,” he stated, adding, “I’m also bringing in Lori Wood Montague. She’s very experienced with running a festival. She’s a key component to the Montclair Jazz Festival being what it is. She worked for Jazz House Kids for many years, and she’s also a wonderful fundraiser that would help bring in the funds to pull this thing off.”

Councilman-At-Large Joseph DeIorio, during the presentation, addressed the municipal government aspects and logistics for the jazz festival. He explained that an autonomous entity could be created which would be separate from the municipality but still have the support of the municipality to have Roselle Park be the host and cover insurance, safety, and public works.

One main component in Julius’ big picture outlook is to not just have the jazz festival but to provide several scholarships to Roselle Park’s finest musicians from middle school to high school and have them attend the summer camp for two weeks then have them featured on the big stage.

With no objection from the dais, the next step for Julius is to meet with the borough’s municipal arts committee this month to begin the actual work of scheduling and setting target dates to have the 2019 Roselle Park Arts Festival become a reality.