"Learning the language of jazz"

Olaf Stötz­ler: Of cour­se. The de­gree pro­gram is the re­sult of a long pro­cess, and I have al­ways found our col­la­bo­ra­ti­on to be very fruitful and fo­cu­sed. We are glad that Frank­furt is once aga­in get­ting such a de­gree pro­gram, espe­ci­al­ly sin­ce the co­ope­ra­ti­on also fits very well with our own goals: As Hes­si­scher Rund­funk, as the spon­sor of the hr-Big­band and or­ga­ni­zer of the Ger­man Jazz Fes­ti­val, we are com­mit­ted to this mu­sic, to this cul­tu­ral as­set. And as a pu­blic broad­cas­ter, we are also com­mit­ted to an edu­ca­tio­nal mis­si­on. Of cour­se, we hope that the co­ope­ra­ti­on will also help us our­sel­ves - af­ter all, it's about young ta­lent, it's about pro­fes­sio­na­liza­ti­on in this area. We look for­ward to dis­co­ve­ring and nur­tu­ring new ta­lent, and to pas­sing on our know­ledge and ex­per­ti­se. In terms of its con­cept, the cour­se is tru­ly uni­que.

Axel Schlos­ser: That the stu­dents have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to work with us and that we don't just teach in a clo­set, but pass on our know­ledge, our ex­pe­ri­ence di­rect­ly to them. This has, in a po­si­ti­ve sen­se, so­me­thing of an app­ren­ti­ce­ship on top - in the sen­se of a craft app­ren­ti­ce­ship. So far, the­re is sim­ply no such co­ope­ra­ti­on, re­gard­less of whe­ther the stu­dents want to play in­stru­ments, wri­te or con­duct. We don't know yet who will be in­te­res­ted in the end, but we are very ex­ci­ted and hope for a real rush of good peo­p­le. In any case, the in­te­rest in the band is quite high, mea­ning that ever­yo­ne would like to par­ti­ci­pa­te and also teach. What is also uni­que for stu­dents is that they can get in touch with our guests, with in­ter­na­tio­nal so­loists, ar­ran­gers. That is a gre­at bo­nus.

Axel Schlos­ser: What we do on the ra­dio with the hr-Big­band could be de­scri­bed as the work of a stu­dio mu­si­ci­an who plays live. That me­ans that all kinds of styl­es can come up, which of cour­se we have to de­li­ver at the hig­hest le­vel. Ba­si­cal­ly, peo­p­le can learn fle­xi­bi­li­ty. You have to be good at sight-re­a­ding, you have to be a first-class en­sem­ble play­er, and you also have to be first-class as a so­loist. And the re­qui­re­ments are com­plex: from 'How do I play a pop song?' to 'How do I move in al­most free­ly im­pro­vi­sed lar­ge or­ches­tral ma­te­ri­al?'

Olaf Stötz­ler: In this way, the cour­se of stu­dy cor­re­sponds exact­ly to what you en­coun­ter every day in your pro­fes­sio­nal life as a jazz mu­si­ci­an. If you are al­re­a­dy clo­se to it du­ring your stu­dies, as we are, by re­al­ly par­ti­ci­pa­ting and im­mer­sing yours­elf in the or­ga­nic body of the band, then this is one of the best pre­pa­ra­ti­ons for the pro­fes­si­on that you can get. We re­cord, we re­he­ar­se, we play con­certs, we do wha­te­ver. Tha­t's a lot of facets, as Axel al­re­a­dy men­tio­ned: in dif­fe­rent styl­es, in dif­fe­rent si­tua­tions - so­me­times pure stu­dio, so­me­times con­cert, so­me­times live on the ra­dio, so­me­times strea­med.

Olaf Stötz­ler: One idea we have for the stu­dents in this fo­cus, for ex­am­p­le, is also: That they prepa­re for an as­sign­ment, just like in real life. We as­sign so­meone to work on the mu­sic of Mi­les Da­vis or Jel­ly Roll Mor­ton or Stee­ly Dan, for ex­am­p­le. So we don't just tell stu­dents, come with your mu­sic, but give them a sub­ject here. It can't just be about their own com­po­si­ti­ons; they also have to prac­ti­ce ful­fil­ling such re­qui­re­ments.

Axel Schlos­ser: I think the sce­ne is both sta­ble and gro­wing, for fac­tu­al re­asons alo­ne - in prin­ci­ple, you have a fi­xed lin­e­up, you have good ac­cess to sheet mu­sic, and you can prac­ti­ce ever­y­thing ima­gi­nable with the young peo­p­le: sight-re­a­ding, good en­sem­ble play­ing, good com­ping, good so­ling. The­re are many re­asons why big bands are so po­pu­lar and are be­co­ming more and more po­pu­lar at schools, and some of the stu­dent en­sem­bles that we have ex­pe­ri­en­ced are re­al­ly ama­zin­gly good, be­cau­se peo­p­le at the grass­roots le­vel are com­mit­ted to them and are in­cre­di­bly ac­ti­ve.

Olaf Stötz­ler: An­o­ther aspect: al­most all gre­at jazz so­loists star­ted in a big band or went th­rough this school. Mi­les Da­vis or John Col­tra­ne, for ex­am­p­le, or to­day Till Brön­ner. Big bands have al­ways been in­sti­tu­ti­ons for lear­ning the lan­guage of jazz, for ex­chan­ging ide­as with others, and for en­te­ring into an ar­tis­tic dia­lo­gue.

Olaf Stötz­ler: I would like that. Ul­ti­m­ate­ly, li­vely mu­sic sce­nes are also crea­ted whe­re the­re are schools - tha­t's cer­tain­ly not the only fac­tor, but it's an im­portant one. We should ma­na­ge to up­grade the Rhi­ne-Main re­gi­on in ge­ne­ral and make it more at­trac­ti­ve. The­re is a li­vely sce­ne, the­re are also new clubs here in Frank­furt that are do­ing gre­at work. Jazz Mon­tez, for ex­am­p­le, with all its many events, whe­ther in the Ate­lier­frank­furt or in the Milch­sack­fa­brik. If we seek so­li­da­ri­ty with Mainz and think about the en­ti­re Rhi­ne-Main re­gi­on, in­clu­ding Wies­ba­den and Darm­stadt, it can only be good.

Axel Schlos­ser: I am also con­vin­ced of this. As a me­tro­po­li­tan re­gi­on, Rhi­ne-Main al­re­a­dy has a lot to of­fer; the pic­tu­re is just a litt­le dif­fu­se so far. But if you look at the big pic­tu­re, the­re are ple­nty of op­por­tu­ni­ties to per­form and try out new pro­jects. And I think that the stu­dy pro­gram and the peo­p­le who come here th­rough it can help to up­grade the sce­ne. As Olaf said: If ever­y­thing grows tog­e­ther more into a Rhi­ne-Main sce­ne, that would be a re­al­ly nice thing.