The JOI of Jazz

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Donny Thompson 0:18
You're listening to 91.5k U, N, V, jazz and more. And this is jazz outreach initiatives, the joy of jazz. I'm your host, Donnie Thompson, and this program is underwritten by d'agostinos Trattoria, a small local, family owned Italian restaurant at the corner of West Flamingo and buffalo, specializing in classic, always scratch Italian favorites, handmade pastas and desserts. For more information, go to d'agostinos lv.com and in studio today, I'm thrilled to welcome a friend, Associate Professor of jazz and commercial music and Assistant Director of the Division of jazz and Commercial Music here at UNLV, the venerable baritone saxophonist. Do you say saxophonist or saxophonist? You can say whatever

Adam Schroeder 0:59
you want. I've never been called any of that which you just mentioned. So thank you very much. Donnie

Donny Thompson 1:04
and woodwind specialist, Adam Schroeder, so welcome to the joy of jazz, Adam. Thanks for having us. I have to mention because we both know my son in law, bonson Lee, who's a great baritone saxophonist. And so we always have this debate, is it saxophonist or saxophonist?

Adam Schroeder 1:19
I think both are fine. Just call us. That's all we want to have. Absolutely.

Donny Thompson 1:23
There you go. So we're going to peel back the onion a little bit on you, as it were, as a musician, educator and advocate of jazz, let's go back a bit and describe your coming to your instrument. Did you come from a musical family, or was it the saxophone is your first instrument? How did I discover your passion for this? So

Adam Schroeder 1:42
we're going to talk about just a few years ago, right? You know, my parents played instruments during their middle school and high school years, but didn't follow that passion very much forward. And so when we were given a chance in elementary school to choose an instrument, I remember, sort of like an instrument petting zoo, pretty common practice these days, to go to the music store, the local music store in Sioux City, Iowa, and get to try a mouthpiece, basically. So I tried some breath mouth brass mouthpieces, and couldn't make a sound there. And I think I tried the clarinet mouthpiece, and that didn't go well either, and the saxophone mouthpiece allowed me to make a sound. So we went home with an alto saxophone that day, and I remember that at the end of our fifth grade year. So the first year on the instrument, we played hot cross buns for our final concert. It was very memorable. And I see the smile on your face, I know you know exactly what I'm talking about. So and then obviously, middle school happened. When I got to high school, alto saxophone was still the name of the game. I was studying with a local teacher by the name of Reggie shive, who led the Carl King band, Municipal Band in the state of Iowa, and was prominent at Morningside College in Sioux City, and had been taking a little bit of jazz lessons with him, and he turned me on to a bunch of different artists. This is when CDs were starting to come out, so we're dating ourselves a little bit. But by the time I got to my junior year in high school, I was starting to understand a little bit more about music and and make it some strides that way. And was fortunate enough to become sort of the first alternate for all of the honor bands, and just hard work was was what the name of the game was. And by the time the transition between junior and senior year happened, I had the fortune to mention to meet Clark Terry through the help of our local band directors. Clark had actually reached out from his jazz Institute, which was up in LA Mars, Iowa, and needed four or five instrumentalists to fill out his collegiate big band, and he wanted just local recommendations, and so we met him and started to sit in with them over the summer. And I was still an alto saxophone at that point, and going into my senior year, I didn't practice as much as I probably should have. And my best friend at the time, Ben, we both played alto saxophone and were studying with the same teachers. He was also one of the members that was going up and working with Clark. We tried out for jazz band, as we did every fall semester, and he beat me for the lead alto spot that I had held for three years. And so I remembered at that point a lesson that the teacher, Dave Glasser from New York, saxophones from New York had mentioned, which is the two most important people in the big band saxophone section are the lead alto and the baritone player. And so I went to the band director at that time at East High School and said, instead of sitting second alto, I'd like to switch to baritone and see what it's like. And you know this lesson that we both got from our teacher, let's see if it actually pays off for the rest is history. The rest is exactly history.

Donny Thompson 4:41
So, so then you got to college, and you attended Clark carrot Terry's International Institute of jazz, and one of your professors was the legendary Clark Terry. I just can't even imagine how cool that would be at such a young age. You know, what were you

Adam Schroeder 4:55
like? 1819, I was younger than that. Even it was during my senior year of high school. Wow.

Donny Thompson 5:00
So, I mean, a guy who played for eight presidents in his lifetime and had multiple Grammy nominations and a lifetime achievement award, tell me a little bit about what was that like, just being around that kind of presence. It

Adam Schroeder 5:11
was always about giving. You know, it didn't matter if you were young or old. Clark just embodied the spirits of giving. And there's a wonderful documentary called keep on, keeping on that really does embrace and capture all of that, and it wasn't just Clark, it was the people that he surrounded himself with. So we get to hang with snokey Young and red Holloway and Butch miles and Al gray and Lynn Seaton, just so, so so many people that were prominent players throughout the course of this history of jazz, and we had that fortunate opportunity to just be in their midst and just kind of witness it all and take it all in. And that's where really the spirit of giving, which I know is something we both share, also really sunk into my soul, and still to this day, it's something that I really do try and model going forward. So

Donny Thompson 6:00
perfect segue as we talk about Clark Terry, because you have a song we're going to play. I think boardwalk coming up from your album, CT, Adam Schroeder and Mark master celebrate Clark Terry, tell us a bit about what we're listening to.

Adam Schroeder 6:14
So this record came about as Clark would have been turning 100 but that happened over the pandemic. And so I'll try and be brief here, we had the arrangements done going into the pandemic. Obviously, the pandemic shut everything down. It took a couple years to get the funding back, and with a grant through the Nevada Arts Council, which I'm very thankful for, we were able to record 13 Clark Terry original songs for a big band, a mini big band, and it just came out a year ago in January, January 2024, and we hope you enjoy,

Donny Thompson 6:45
enjoy board walk from the album CT Adam Schroeder and Mark masters. Celebrate Clark Terry.

You Adam,

Ha, Welcome back, jazz outreach initiatives, the joy of jazz under. my d'agostinos tracheria, this is your host, Donnie Thompson, and you're just joining us. We're visiting with Adam Schroeder, and that was boardwalk from his album, CT. Adam Schroeder and Mark masters celebrate. Clark Terry. So Adam, you completed your masters of music degree at Cal State University, the Bob Cole conservative story of music. There's no shortage of accolades coming your way. But I'm curious, what do you consider your breakout moment, and how did you get to UNLV in Las Vegas? Gotcha, it actually happened well before I arrived in California, leaving Texas State University San Marcos as the first graduate of jazz studies down there. I was hired by Ray Charles, and that was really kind of the breakthrough. Obviously, Clark was already in my life, and I had been working with him in a small group setting, as well as his young titans of big sorry, young titans of Jazz Big Band. But yeah, when the call came in from Ray Charles, that really kind of catapulted my career forward and allowed me to get to a bunch of major cities and with ease and meet a lot of other players, and moving to Los Angeles, hence the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music master's degree at Cal State Long Beach, and then coming to Las Vegas. Was soon thereafter, about 15 years later, that's great. So we're going to take a break another listen to Adam Schroeder's music. This one we're going to play. It's all right with me from his album, a handful of stars. What should we know about this selection, Adam this was my debut album, and it was shortly after I got to Los Angeles. And I just wanted to say thank you to what John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton had given to me by employments and opportunities in their big band, the Clayton Hamilton jazz orchestra. And it also features Graham Decker on guitar. It's all right with me, from Adam's charter's album, a handful of Stars. That was it's all right with me from Adam charter album, a handful of stars, welcome back to jazz outreach initiatives, the joy of jazz, underwritten by idea of seniors Trattoria. This is your host, Donnie Thompson, and I'm joined again by educator, musician, composer, arranger and leader, Adam Schroeder, that was, that was some great music, Adam. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. So in addition to everything else you do for this art form, here at UNLV, and throughout your your own musical tours and so forth, you're you've been a part of jazz outreach initiatives board, the advisory board. You've you were the head of the jazz School of Jazz at Nevada School of the Arts. You're deeply affiliated, I think you're on the board of the Las Vegas jazz society. Tell me about your drive that passions that makes you want to be a part of these other organizations and help form a real community. I

Adam Schroeder 19:20
think that's it right there, to form a community. Again, going back to Clark Terry, it was always about giving and bringing people together via the music, through the music and in life, and just seeing what can magically happen. You know, putting people in different rooms together and wondering what the outcome might be is the only way to really do it, you know, if we stay separate,

Donny Thompson 19:42
kind of the essence of jazz actually exactly, exactly.

Adam Schroeder 19:45
So I do owe it all to Clark and that model of of all of this, and my my participation with all of these organizations, is about that it's making our community actually stronger. And that's my whole goal. And

Donny Thompson 19:57
if the folks out there want to listen to your music or. You live. I know this is going to air late February, so let's talk March, April. Where are you going to be around town? And where can they find you online? We have plenty

Adam Schroeder 20:09
of stuff happening, obviously, at UNLV in the jazz and commercial music division. And you can also visit or find me on any of the social media platforms, just my name, Adam Schroeder, or if you'd like to visit my website, www, dot low blow. Shro L O, W, B, L O, W, S, C, H, R, o, e.com,

Donny Thompson 20:32
and let's call out one thing related to the jazz society. Many of us know, of course, you know they're doing the huge three day free festival celebrating their 50th anniversary this year in April, but they're also helping the folks in the LA wildfires, musicians, both of I mean, you would you, and I know some people out there that were affected. Some of them lost their homes. Some of them lost priceless and even irreplaceable instruments. What is the jazz society doing to help those folks? Thank

Adam Schroeder 20:57
you for bringing that to everybody's attention. The Jazz society came together and worked with the California Jazz Foundation to make a large donation on the musicians behalf and the jazz society's behalf, to help the California Jazz Foundation provide $1,000 grants to any jazz artist that was in fire relief assistance. So if anybody out there is listening right now and still wishes to participate in any type of fire relief, I know Joy has some wonderful opportunities going on as well, and the jazz society, Las Vegas jazz society, does as well. And you can always reach out to the Los Angeles jazz society or to the California Jazz Foundation too. So

Donny Thompson 21:37
we have one more song to play today. Professor Adam Schroeder, thank you for your privilege of your time today. Thank you also to our listeners for tuning in. And, of course, our friends here at KU and V 91.5 jazz, and more especially, Wesley, our engineer and the whole team. And of course, d'agostinos Trattoria for underwriting the episode. And if you'd like to hear more about jazz outreach initiative, the jazz Vegas orchestra and it's nearly 30 performances this year. Our many music education outreach and performance programs for kids and ways you can participate. You can visit us@jazzvegas.org Okay, Adam, since we always clap at the end of a great program, let's play your recording of just clap your hands from your album. Let's you have some big names again on this album. Give them a quick rundown of what we're going to play

Adam Schroeder 22:22
here. Again, we got John Clayton on bass, Jeff Hamilton on drums and Anthony Wilson on guitar. And again, thank you, Donnie, into the jazz outreach initiative for this opportunity to share the music with the general public here on the West Coast, always

Donny Thompson 22:34
a joy. Just clap your hands from jazz outreach initiative. This is Donnie Thompson. Make it a joyful Day.

Music 22:40
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