Relationship and creativity through jazz education

THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC BIG BAND

A professional London jazz musician and successful pop session keyboard player for many years, I directed the Royal College of Music Big Band from 1999 to 2007 (pictured above). Band members were some of the UK's top young jazz musicians – highly talented and creative individuals, potential leaders in their musical communities. (Shout out to Bruno Heinen, Rob Taggart and Rob Eckland, amongst many others.)

Few received any credit for their ability to lead, or indeed for their jazz skills, from the course they were on at the time. The norm was not to perform outside the college, and to focus on technical skills and on recreating the great music of the past one more time. For me, this is honorable, but misses the point.

Without listeners, music is beautiful in itself, but is without function. Relationship is what music is for. In jazz relationship occurs through improvisation, the ultimate creative act, where every individual is empowered to have a voice.

What these potential leaders needed above all was to perform a lot, and to discover how to speak to an audience through their music-making. They needed a musical space to create, and the confidence that they did not have to play perfectly to start a human conversation through improvising.

What I learnt in my time at the Royal College was that music education should free learners to build relationships through music, so they learn above all why music is important in the world. Once they get that, and have found their community and their audience, the skills will follow, with the right kind of support. At teh RCM, that support is there in spades.

Conservatoire musicians, the top 0.1%, are already potentially musical leaders. They can use music to rebuild our fragmented society and help us rediscover our common humanity. I believe they should.

Below are two recordings from my final concert with the RCM Big Band in June 2007, the day the photos above were taken. The first is part of Maria Schneider's original composition Hang Gliding, and the second is an extract from Quincy Jones's classic Quintessence.