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Richards-Haar, China
Music Professors Gain Perspective on Jazz in China
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ssociate Professor of Composition and Jazz Studies Eric Richards and Associate Professor of Saxophone and Jazz Studies Paul Haar traveled to China last November to perform and give masterclasses at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. The Shanghai Conservatory Jazz Orchestra performed a concert featuring compositions by Richards. One of Richards’ friends and mentor, Dr. Gene Aitken, former director of the world-renowned jazz studies program at the University of Northern Colorado and now a guest professor at the Shanghai Conservatory, has commissioned work by Richards dating back to the mid-1990s. Since 2008, he commissioned a new piece annually for the fall concert at the Shanghai Conservatory. This year’s piece, “Booming-Blowing,” was particularly ambitious. “The purpose of the piece was to combine some elements of classical Chinese music, which we might term folk music, and contemporary American jazz,” Richards said. “It involved taking an existing score [“Booming”] composed by Xang Zhuru for a Chinese percussion ensemble. It was about a 10-minute piece. [Aitken] asked me if I could build a jazz ensemble piece around this existing score.” Since it was such an ambitious project, Aitken invited Richards to come to China for the premiere. He was also familiar with Haar’s work and invited him to come, too. The fall concert featured all of the commissioned works by Richards, and Haar was able to perform guest solos on two of the pieces. This year’s piece, “Booming-Blowing” was the finale of the concert. “It received a standing ovation,” Richards said. “Booming-Blowing” included four major sections. “In each section, I tried to use the rhythmic motives from the percussion score to develop a melodic and Eric Richards (left) and Paul Haar outside a temple in the shopping district of “Old Town” Shanghai.
arts MAGAZINE | 2012
harmonic realization of my own jazz score,” Richards said. “Much of the material had a Rock or Latin feel to it. It ended up being almost like a miniature suite. The students liked it very much. The jazz musicians felt like it enabled them to interact well with the percussion ensemble.” Another piece performed was the commission from last year titled “Fantasia on Spring River Flower Moon Night,” which incorporates two traditional Chinese instruments— the pipa, which is like a lute, and the guzheng, a 23-string zither—into the jazz piece. Richards also gave masterclasses on jazz theory and arranging at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, while Haar gave masterclasses on improvisation and classical saxophone. Haar was impressed with the respect students gave both Richards and Haar during these classes. “When you call it a ‘masterclass,’ they truly believe that,” Haar said. “You are there to speak, and they believe you have done what you need to do to be there. Their university wouldn’t put someone in front of them who wasn’t skilled or able.” They also appreciated another Chinese custom in which it is considered disrespectful for a professor or guest artist to carry his own bags. “Everywhere I went, I had a student carrying my saxophone,” Haar said. “One day, when they were going to rehearse ‘Booming,’ I didn’t have to be there, so I was going to go back to the hotel and catch up on some sleep. I was going to grab my saxophone and go back and a student said, ‘No, no, no. I’ll bring your saxophone to you.’ Sure enough, at 9:30 that night, the doorbell at my hotel room rang, and he brought my saxophone to me. That was very unique.” It was the first trip to China for both professors and both appreciated the experience. “I think for a composer, any time you can step out of your culture and have a wider, broader view of the world, that just makes what informs your own music that much richer,” Richards said. “What really strikes me is the great degree of commonality among musicians. Even though there was a language barrier, wherever you go in the world, musicians are able to instantaneously able to relate to each other. Musicians across the world, no matter in what culture they are raised, tend to be humane, thinking, compassionate people.” Haar said the experience gave him a more global perspective of how powerful music is. “I said I would never come back the same person, the same teacher, the same player,” he said. “I believe that happened.” University of Nebraska–Lincoln