The SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival is built around a festival in Saskatoon at the end of June, but it goes beyond a Saskatoon based event. Proof was in the tour of area schools by the jazz combo lead by trumpeter Dan McNeill. They visted schools in Yorkton and the surrounding area, teaching kids about jazz by playing it for them.
“The purpose of this tour we are on is not to come to the festival, though they certainly can if they want to, but it’s to bring some quality jazz music out into smaller communities.”
The jazz combo was made up of Dan McNeill on trumpet, John Barron on bass, John Harmon on piano, Zack Harmon on drums and Greg Gatien on saxophone.
“The band has been getting along great, personally and musically. It’s tight quarters, of course, and the festival has kept us very busy doing three concerts a day. Everyone’s in great spirits and having a great time.”
Outside of the city itself, the band visited Norquay, Canora, Calder, Churchbridge and Fort Qu’Appelle. Visiting the smaller schools, McNeill and the rest of the group were impressed by the students.
“They don’t have professional bands coming through towns very often, so it’s very touching and moving, the kids are very attentive and very into it. We were talking in the van how engaged and attentive the students are, and that’s really saying something because they’re ultimately listening to instrumental jazz music.”
This is one of two things that McNeill is doing in terms of education for the festival. The other is a “Jazz Intensive,” a week long camp for high school and university students during the end of June. Music education is McNeill’s career, as he is a faculty member in the University of Saskatchewan’s music department, and he believes that getting the arts out to people, especially children, needs to be a priority.
“I think it’s important to expose children to quality artistic experiences at an appropriate level, in all the art forms and as much as possible. I think it’s totally appropriate and highly advantageous to expose kids to quality jazz music, quality art, quality dancing, drama... These are things that will leave lasting impressions on them. There is something very special about music in particular that lights up various aspects of their brains, at every stage of their cognitive development, from being in utero to right up to their deathbed.”
The commitment to the arts also extends to people outside of school, as the band also worked with Yorkton’s All That Jazz Community Concert Band.
“I have enormous amount of respect for [Larry Pearen] not only as a musician but also as a civic leader. In his “retirement” the guy has been pretty busy developing the cultural capital of Yorkton and beyond, and was instrumental in this tour. Any chance we have to hopefully inspire them a little bit and provide quality information to help them get them to their next level in their educational journey, we’re happy to do it. The gift of sharing is what music is all about, and sharing can be playing in a concert, sharing can be imparting information on to other people whether they’re in grade 7 or someone in Larry’s band who might be 75 years old.”
The tour outside of Saskatoon is an annual commitment for the festival, with the goal of reflecting the provincial mandate of the festival. Another program, unrelated to the tour, takes on the opposite end of the age spectrum, with Jazz on the Go going to play music for people who would be unable to attend the festival, such as seniors.
“Some of the tunes that you play in these old folks homes... Some of these people have their popular music in the ‘50s and ‘60s, it includes some of the standards we play today, it’s a really cool connection. I don’t know what will happen, say, 50 years from now, if the Jazz Festival is still going, and you’ve got people’s music of their youth is going to be Taylor Swift, I’m not sure how you’re going to do that!”
McNeill and the rest of the band want to thank the teachers for their efforts in accommodating the band. He recognizes that bringing a band in can disrupt a school’s schedule, so he wants them to know he appreciates their efforts and their commitment to bringing arts to their students.
“This is a busy time of year, and I know how hard teachers work, and they’re adding this extra event into their schedule, disrupting their classes and bringing students in – some of the students in some of the concerts we are playing were bussed in from other schools. So the concerts have been very well attended and this is hard work for the teachers in these schools.”
