Students scattered to their seats and the hum of side conversations died down as Bob Mintzer, longtime tenor saxophone player for the funk fusion group Yellowjackets, approached the stage at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Center Thursday.
Mintzer hosted an educational workshop in front of a packed crowd of students as a part of the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. Mintzer’s workshop focused on the fundamentals of jazz improvisation and his development as a musician.
Mintzer also took questions from the crowd on a variety of topics from saxophone tone production to balancing music and family life.
Mintzer said his first large break as a composer and tenor sax player came when he recorded and soloed on one of his original compositions with well-known guitar player John Tropea.
Mintzer said even though the album would go on to sell half a million copies he was still nervous to play on the same album with established New York heavyweights like Steve Gadd, and Michael and Randy Brecker.
“I was shivering in my boots, I got to tell you,” Mintzer said. “I was very pleased that this guy thought to record my tune.”
Mintzer said jazz is similar to language in many ways because it can be used to communicate ideas and feelings. He said just like everyday speech is accented, jazz vocabulary and notes should be accented to fit in the style.
Mintzer said he developed as a jazz musician by surrounding himself with the music and absorbing the style and groove of past musicians.
“I was always listening, and maybe not always paying full attention to what I was listening to, but the music was always playing in my house, in my car. To this day, it’s still the case,” Mintzer said.
Mintzer said young musicians should take part in both passive and active listening to become more familiar with the jazz idiom and further their musicianship.
“We listen to the music, we listen sort of generally, we listen specifically,” Mintzer said.
Mintzer said students should study legendary jazz musicians as well as contemporary artists to develop a full scope of the music.
“Don’t just check out the most fashionable contemporary saxophone player, check out the people they checked out,” Mintzer said.
At one point in the workshop Mintzer was asked by an audience member to play his life story on the saxophone. Mintzer spent a few seconds in thought and then proceeded to play a three and a half minute solo that transferred from smooth melodic lines to a repetitive rhythmic groove.
Riley Berthandin, a student from Mount Boucherie Secondary School from British Columbia, said he learned a lot from attending the workshop and plans to look up the Yellowjackets when he gets home.
Mintzer, who was a classical clarinet major in college, said he continues to play multiple instruments, which allows him to approach music from different perspectives and widen his range of music.
Mintzer said he is working on multiple projects including a big band album that will feature arrangements of 60s R&B tunes, and an organ trio album with Larry Goldings and Peter Erskine. He said he also has been contacted by the San Francisco Symphony to write a piece for a brass group.
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected]