A Conversation with Phil Schaap – Jazz.com | Jazz Music – Jazz Artists – Jazz News

A conversation with phil schaap

by Andy Karp

Over the course of his extraordinary career in jazz, Phil Schaap has played many roles: radio host, nightclub promoter, record producer, researcher and educator. But the role that perhaps best defines Schaapone he was seemingly born to playis jazz griot. Like the West African griots, he is an oral historian dedicated to preserving culture and lore. Schaap has spent most of his 56 years absorbing stories and collecting information, often directly from the musicians themselves. He has amassed an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz eras and styles, particularly swing and bebop. His command of biographical and discographical information astounds even the most erudite jazz fans. Yet its Schaaps talent for weaving this information into the context of American history and pop culture that makes him an exceptional teacher, both on the air and in the classroom.

For nearly 38 years, Schaap has been sharing his knowledge with the listeners of Columbia Universitys WKCR-FM in New York. His long-running programs include Traditions in Swing and Bird Flightan all-Charlie Parker showas well as marathon birthday broadcasts for Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Lester Young and others. Since the late 70s, Schaap has maintained an academic career, teaching jazz at Rutgers, Princeton, Columbia and Juilliard.

What was the impetus behind Swing University, and how did it evolve?

Actually, its just a crystallization of what I do, which is I train listeners, and try to enlighten and enlarge the jazz audience. The audience is an essential ingredient, and given the smallish size of the audience and its aging out, the replenishing of the audience is probably the most grave concern in jazz at this moment in time, in my estimation. Im determined to do it, and Swing University is one of the primary avenues.

Where do you see new recruits to the jazz audience coming from?

Anywhere. Any and all are welcome. I obviously am working on younger people because theres more bang for the buck. If you teach somebody whos seventy five about jazz, unless they pass it on to somebody relatively speaking quickly, its a short-term gain. If you teach somebody whos 20, its got much more potential. The number of people and the whole concept of music appreciation for jazz is really the issue. If you had music appreciation for jazz on any kind of grand scale, youd probably be able to nurture at least a niche audience for a while.

How do you help younger students, who may be put off by the sound of old recordings, come to terms with swing and bebop?

Hopefully I have some facility, and other educators have some facility to help students grapple with the timelessness of the music. Its not that were trying to get you to listen to arcane music. If recording had become operational in 1514, it would be a non-issue. The issue is an artistic one.

Theres also a sociological aspect. Theres a great deal of Americana involved in the story of jazz, and in fact I believe that post-Civil War to 1950s civil rights history is actually easier or better taught through jazz illustration than almost any other avenue allowed to you.

Youre uniquely qualified to teach Swing U. Growing up in the Hollis neighborhood in Queens, New York, you had jazz musicians such as Roy Eldridge and Lennie Tristano as neighbors. As a young person, what impression did that make on you?

Obviously, its my being. I got a no longer repeatable education in jazz because I learned from its originators. I grew up when the prophets were largely still alive and I profited from their being nice to me. My experience is profitable only by my being able to pass it along as it was passed on to me. Basically, Im your medium. Jo Jones and I used to listen to records in the late afternoons when I was growing up. And he also demonstrated a way of listening to a record, how to study a recording.

Was he also a neighbor? No, Jo wasnt a neighbor. I met him when I was five years old when he and my mother chatted backstage at the Randalls Island jazz festival in 1956 when the Count Basie band played. She implied or maybe said directly to him, Well, thats all well and good, but my little boy here knows more about it than I do. He asked me some tough questions and I got them right, so he volunteered to be my new baby sitter. Your dad, Walter Schaap, was involved in jazz in Paris in the pre-war years. Yes, he was the translator for Delaunay and Panassi. [Charles Delaunay and Hugues Panassi were members of the Hot Club of France and published some of the first formal jazz criticism.] He was involved with jazz because it was the music of his generation. He got heavily got involved until hebeing wiser than mediscovered there was no job in jazz. Didnt he know Sidney Bechet? He knew him well, yes. Did he know Django? He was Djangos English teacher.

COMMENTS FROM WYNTON MARSALIS Wynton Marsalis Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, comments on the importance of Swing University and Phil Schaap. What are the main goals of Swing University, and why is it integral to JALC's educational mission? Education is a very significant aspect at what we do at Jazz at Lincoln Center we have so many programs for people of all ages: WeBop! for the little kids, Essentially Ellington programs for the high school kids and for the bigger kids, a program called Swing University. Swing U gives adults the chance to learn about the history of this great American art form and to gain an appreciation of its many styles from master teachers who know and have performed the music at a world-class level. For example, youve got the legendary and award- winning pianist Dick Katz who teaches a class about Teddy Wilson and Thelonious Monk who Dick actually knew and worked with. Swing U is a cornerstone of JALC's educational mission since it's an essential and unparalleled way to build an informed and enthusiastic audience for the music. For us to be able to teach the history of the music and then make it come to life in our concert halls and club is an opportunity to integrate all the things we do in a complete and holistic way. Its been our mission to play, teach and love jazz. How does Swing U benefit from Phil Schaap's extraordinary knowledge of jazz as well as his unique teaching talents? What Phil Schaap brings to Swing U is an intimate familiarity with jazz and its makers and an ability to convey that knowledge and love of the music in a way that people find highly engaging. For students, the ability to learn from and talk to a walking encyclopedia of the history and lore of jazz is what makes Phil's classes so unique and so popular.

You are a living repository of jazz lore. How do the stories and anecdotes youve collected inform your teaching?

Students like stories better than rote learning. The stories are particularly important in a new field like jazz studies that relies more on pop culture than some more established fields of study. But the stories have to be secondary to the premises of the course youre teaching.

Ive been blessed. The reason I know a lot about jazz is that I was trained by the original jazz musicians. And Ive got to train somebody with my training, and create some form of system, whether its writing books or creating at school. Its got to be converted and now, because otherwise eventually Ill be just as dead as Jo Jones currently is, and what difference does it make that I had an ice cream cone with him in 1956. Its gone.

Do you see yourself primarily as a preservationist?

Im a preservationist in this regard. Jazz music largely emerges in the 20th century. But it doesnt just belong to the 20th century. I believe its an art deserving of continuity because of its quality. Regardless, if it emerged in 1614 or 2006, I would feel the same way. Its defined by its artistic value.

Lester Young happened to play his best obbligatos and his most frequently recorded obbligatos to classic singing and even less-than classic singing in 1937, 38, 39 maybe and a couple of more ones in 40 and 41. But the real point is, Lester Young established a very important concepthow to accompany a singerand illustrates through his recordings a way to do it. And if youre unaware of the recordings and youre unlucky enough to have to reinvent the wheel, how are you going to have it again? I have faith that this is of enduring value, and I am trying to be one of the facilitators of it being allowed to endure.

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December 06, 2007 · 10 comments