Jim Carlson and legacy of jazz at U of M-Morris

Jim with guest artists Lin Biviano (left) and Bobby Militello (Allen Monroe photo)

Music is such a highly fluid thing, yet we study it as if we can get it all figured out. That's always the aim in academics, right? To get everything figured out? Nice try, but I would suggest these efforts are always going to come up short. Often a new thing develops in music that we could not have anticipated. 

I doubt that the UMM music people of the institution's first decade saw a big wave of "jazz" coming along. The wave most certainly arrived. We had the right individual in the right place at the right time to seize on it. It was Jim "Doc" Carlson who established the UMM Jazz Festival, perhaps the most ballyhooed event in the whole UMM academic year at one time. 

The success sort of spoke for itself: an auditorium filled with wildly approving fans of the music, those orange school buses seen around town for the event's duration - buses from the various communities that sent kids here. The audience members were left with memories that they would never put aside. They'll smile with any mention of UMM jazz today. 

UMM still has jazz. I find the level of artistry pleasing. UMM music has lots to be proud of today. But the true heyday of Jim's program seems past. Sad? Not sure we need to make a judgment. Music is fluid by its very nature, it gets pushed and nudged in various directions. Academic leaders come and go who don't see things in a common way. 

Am I overstating the popularity of the Jazz Fest in Jim's tenure? Well, allow me to share the memory of the U of M president coming here proudly wearing a Jazz Fest T-shirt. That was Robert "Bob" Bruininks. It took some discipline for me to get his last name spelling mastered. It's pronounced "Brunix." So I wondered why he couldn't just spell it that way. Then again, once you have typed his name correctly a few times, it gets fixed in your mind. 

Thinking of Bruininks reminds me of the issue of alleged largesse in how the U spread money around. Well, if the man was capable of acquiring money and using it to reward people who had a true commitment to the U, well then maybe we should say "all the more power to him." 

 

The intangibles

Looking back, Jim Carlson seemed bigger than life at UMM, just with his persona. It was energetic all the way. He could disarm you with his nature. A hearty laugh came easily to him - it was infectious. The personality trait complemented the musical enrichment he instilled. 

The quality of the music was super but allow me to suggest: it wasn't as connected to the pure "jazz" as much as might be suggested! Jazz is improvisation. While challenging and artistic, pure improvisation has limited crowd-pleasing effect. No, I think a lot of the music's appeal here had to do with the structured arrangements. They were powerful and with a most contemporary type of rhythm underpinning. Jazz rhythm reflects an African influence. To be very raw and candid here, this aspect held back the art form's advancement for a long time. Finally a young generation came along that didn't give a rip about such inhibitions. You might think it was the 1950s, when rock 'n' roll burst out of its cultural confinements. The process happened in the 1930s with big bands starting to flourish. 

The trap drum players were quite the ingredient for supplying sounds to the liking of young people. So in the 1980s we got the popular rage of jazz at UMM: bands playing structured arrangements, making them seem not a whole lot different from the "concert" band. And concert band music is boffo. But the jazz groups had the trap drums that drove a particular type of energy. 

I found the jazz bands appealing largely because of their smaller size, compared to concert band or "symphonic winds." I saw two advantages with the smaller size: each musician had a better chance of standing out. Also, because the students were arranged in tiers onstage, we could see all of them so much better than with the concert band. 

Mind you, concert band need not be "stuffy." Oh, it can be. But, look up the "Windstars" ensemble playing "El Cumbanchero" and you'll be enlivened, truly. John Woell once directed "El Cumbanchero" for our Morris High School band. The "Windstars" version is too advanced for high school band, but Woell directed a most appealing version here. 

Woell made his mark too by continuing the marching band tradition at the school. He picked up from Bob Schaefer. Woell did yeoman's work keeping it going until youth culture began to change and interests began diversifying. Until 1972 there was no varsity sports for girls. Egad! Well, that was the world we lived in. It was a fact. So even though a huge wave of the boomer population kids was "in force" by 1972, girls sports was just starting to take some baby steps forward. It took time, patience and dogged advocacy by those who would never accept a "back seat" to the boys. 

Chris Voelz became controversial at the U of M. I confess I sometimes felt a little exasperated by her - Sid Hartman shared that exasperation. But now I look back and realize the dogged advocacy was needed. In the same way, we can look back at the early jazz music, along with the seminal rock 'n' roll, and feel befuddled about how white culture seemed to recoil at it. Strange but true, just like a world with no varsity girls sports. Heck, we didn't have an indoor arena for hockey either. All this with the wave of boomer kids reaching a (thunderous) crescendo. 

 

His soul has departed us

I share all these thoughts at the very sobering time of realizing that James "Doc" Carlson has gone to that big jazz nightclub in the sky. How tragic that he left us so suddenly on Christmas Eve. 

There was horrible reporting of the news of his death. The news has sort of trickled around through chance conversations at the slow time of the holidays. Was University Relations responsible for the negligence here? Maybe someone should be fired. 

At some point there would have to be a standard obituary. The University of Minnesota-Morris is in mourning.

Jim with Jazz Festival guest artists Ed Shaughnessy (left) and Jim Pugh. Photo by Del Sarlette. Sometimes people mispronouned Ed's last name "O'Shaughnessy." He played drums with the Tonight Show band, remember? Mr. Pugh was trombonist. I remember him playing with Woody Herman's band at the old St. Paul Prom Ballroom. What a place! Lots of boxing matches there. It was like an extra-large version of the old Lakeside Ballroom, Glenwood. Pat Boone sang there.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com