A Jazz Hothouse (Page 2)

A Jazz Hothouse (Page 2) McGill University

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Home > McGill News > 2003 > Spring 2003 > A Jazz Hothouse > A Jazz Hothouse (Page 2)

A Jazz Hothouse (Page 2)

Photo caption follows
Gordon Foote conducts a McGill big band reunion.

Along with this network of school combos, Dean also wanted an ambitious and highly visible big band. In 1986, the department hired director Gordon Foote.

"Certainly, at that time, the premier ensemble that was going to bring students to McGill would have been a big band," Dean observes. "We really needed someone who had expertise in that area, who had done it before, who would really promote it and use it as a kind of flagship group."

One of McGill's first jazz teachers, the late Gerry Danovitch.

Seventeen years later, Foote's still in charge. And he's made the ensemble one of the most acclaimed university groups in North America: with seven CDs and numerous honours, it's been an invaluable recruiting tool.

As Dean points out, "Gordon was especially conscious about making sure that they were always at the music festivals so all the high school students could hear the McGill big band."

Certainly, by the late 1980s, as the new jazz program was picking up steam, Dean's overall plan was starting to work. In a few short years, McGill had quickly become a real magnet for musicians across the country.

"Back when I applied there was no other choice in Canada," saxophonist Christine Jensen, BMus'94, recalls. Perhaps Jensen, a critically acclaimed composer whose group was featured this winter in the CBC's OnStage at the Glenn Gould Studio series in Toronto, was looking for a degree-granting school, but she also had another, more personal, requirement: "I wanted a serious program that kicked my butt."

She remembers seeing Gordon Foote's ensemble in 1989 at Music Fest, the national stage band competition.

"I heard the big band and I said, 'Oh, my God.' It had (singer) Denzal Sinclaire (BMus'93) in it, and (pianist) Tilden Webb (BMus'92, MMus'97) and (drummer) Dave Robbins (BMus'89, MMus'95). When I heard that band, it was like, 'She heard the band and she signed up for the program.'"

Indeed, the next year Jensen enrolled.

"When I arrived I was humbled by the amount of talent in the program," she recalls. "I had thought, 'Oh, yeah, I'm a big band player, I can do this, I can solo.' But then I got to McGill and I was instantly impressed. (Saxophonist) Kelly Jefferson (BMus'92) was in third year. (Saxophonist) Joel Miller (BMus'93) was there, as well."

Vancouver-based saxophonist Mike Allen, BMus'87, one of the program's first graduates, also remembers being awestruck by his peers.

"It was fantastic to be surrounded by people who were interested in jazz," Allen remembers. "When I went to McGill I could barely play. I could play the horn, but I just had no experience playing with good players. But it provided an environment for me to focus entirely on jazz...

In every program I've ever seen, the social aspect, the interaction between the musicians, is at least half of it."

That's something Kevin Dean has always been quick to recognize.

"I think the university setting is the new street environment: that's where most people go to learn about jazz," he observes. "It's not the big bands and it's not the night-clubs, like it used to be. People go to school now."

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