The JOI of Jazz

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This is a kunv Studios original program.

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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.

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You're listening to 91.5 kunv 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'agostinoslv dot com in studio today. This is Donnie Thompson, and I'm really excited to welcome the director of the UNLV division of jazz and commercial music, Professor Dave Loeb, welcome to Joy of jazz. Dave, thanks,

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Donnie, glad to be here. We're

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gonna be playing music from the award winning UNLV Jazz Ensemble one's newest album, The let the good times roll today. But first, Dave, I wanted to really, I feel like I know a lot about you, but I don't know a lot about you, because, you know, like most good educators, when we talk about jazz, you focus a lot on the students. And so I want to just peel back that onion a little on Dave Loeb and uncover a little bit about what makes you tick. So can you tell us, first, a little bit about how you got your start in music. My

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dad was a machinist, Tool Maker, tool and dye maker, and mother stayed at home with all five of us, so it wasn't really huge in our family, but their other grandmother played piano a little bit. It's not a whole lot of music in the family.

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Did you come to play the piano from hanging out your grandma's house, or how did you get involved? Yes, but

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I had an uncle who I'd go, who played drums in a Scottish band and a fire. He was volunteer fireman. Played in this band on the weekends. They'd have me over and I did a garden work. He found me with his drumsticks or pounding on the telephone book, and he said his kids got rhythm or something, and then they had it. They gave us, everyone in school, a test, a musical ability. I vaguely remember. I just remember it was, I was kind of laughing because it seemed like silly, and I everybody seemed so serious about it. I guess I got everything right, whatever it was. And then they said, this kid needs lessons. My parents, you know, was difficult, but they got the money together. And the church organist from Lutheran church that we went to took me in when I was, I think, seven, and I studied classical for a while, but my friends around the corner, would play their favorite RnB, you know, temptations and whatever. Although our piano was pretty much a half step flat, I didn't know. I just figured out things. And I'd go to the church, go, Wait a minute, but I could hear it a couple times and play it between that and then playing for my teacher, who wanted me to meet a organist, that's all he cared about, and give me Baca play, study of that with him. And soon as I could reach the pedals, he had an organ builder in his basement in a row house in Norristown. He started giving me preludes and fugues to play when I was about 14 or 15, I think maybe 13, soon as I could reach pedals. That's all he really cared about. And I would bring in the pop the songs that my friends were saying, Hey, play this. And I'd figured out play it. And he'd slam the little on me and tell me, Oh, that's not appropriate for you to play, you know? So I would do that on the outside. And then for him, I played the bot. I think I quit when I was I couldn't. My dad had trouble paying for it. Paid for a little bit with my paper route or whatever. And then I stopped, I realized I couldn't really learn a whole lot more. And then I picked it up again when I won the talent show in high school, and the band director says, you know, you really should consider music, you know. And I hadn't really thought about it, and I went back to Dr duddy for some brush up lessons before I went to Westchester college for music education. But then the entire time I was performing, you know, I had all the bands wanted me, because I could tell everybody what notes to hear it and tell them what notes to play. But that was playing Morgan in the church and directing the choir and playing gigs almost from the time I was 15, and then I went to school. But the whole time I was in school, I played at Mickey Rooney's Downingtown, and for Anna Marie abrogetti would come into the weekend, or Dick Sean would sing Springtime for Hitler. I was about 18 or 19, and then I got the job within the Al Albert showcase. I played for Andrew McArdle, before she was known for Annie, he would audition young, talented singers from performers from all over the Pennsylvania. And I was in charge of the music that was in Hershey, Pennsylvania. That's when I met Glenn Holmes, when he came through the park, when he had his hit playground on my mind. And we would do three shows a day in the park. And then on Sunday, we had a TV show in the tri state area. I was musical director for it, and I put all that music together for the different young performers. I was 20, I think, and Andrew was about 10. We kind of reminisced about that when we did the follies production,

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because Andrea is in that. She was in that, of course, was in it. And we kind

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of caught up, and Clinton was there, and we remembered all the other performers that were on it. You know, in 19 was 73, or four, and then I went on the road, graduated one of the road with the Glen Miller band, and somebody recommended me for the trumpet player, Ray Anthony. I went to Hawaii for five months. I came back, and then it was house piano player at the Valley Forge music fair, playing for the Nicholas brothers. But I found out about Eastman School of Music When I was on the Glenn Miller band reading downbeat magazine, got myself over to Eastman School of Music. My friend from high school was playing Tiffany for Stravinsky Right of Spring. And I went up afterwards and said, I'm interested in this. The bus leaves in three hours. So he took me over to Ray Wright's office. Knocked on the door. He got Bill Dobbins from down the hall. He came in and they said, play for us. I played something Stella by Starlight or something. And they said, Well, you're in. How are your grades and so forth. You have to go talk to the classical teacher downstairs. And he said, Well, you're gonna have to come back and audition for classical. I said, but I can. I'm going to Hawaii for six months with Ray Anthony. I sent a letter of appeal. They accepted the recording when I played the Ravel, you. Major concerto my senior year, and they took that and then they gave me one of the top class piano teachers. So I was working with him and Bill Dobbins Eastman, playing six nights a week again, trying to pay for everything. Later, I played in the Hollywood Bowl for 10 years as principal keyboardist, is the title, and I had to play pieces like Takata for the fall of Julius Caesar, and I literally had to play the Oregon piece of the Hollywood Bowl. So thank Dr duddy for teaching that to me, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do that. Yeah, let's

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get into the album. Dave, oh yeah. We want to introduce the song. What are we willing to introduce first? Well,

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it's a difficult choice, because everything on this album, we're so proud of it. It's really the students work with some of our wonderful supporters, who we asked, and they graciously offered to perform on the album. So the opening track is a chart by our good friend Gordon Goodwin, it was produced by Greg field, came in and actually called Gordon when we were recording it with Clint Holmes. That's just a brilliant talent. Most of the people here probably know Clint. He's just an amazing performer. So he sings the title track, arranged by Gordon Goodwin, and it's called, Let the good times roll. All

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right, let the good times roll, from the UNLV jazz on song, one new album, let The good times roll. The same name

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you here I listen

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here. Hey everybody, let's have fun. You only live once, and when you're dead, you're done. So let the good time roll. Come on and let the good time roll. I don't care if you're young and hero, get together, let the good time roll. Don't sit there mumbling, talking trash. If you wanna have a ball, spend a little cash and let the good time roll. Come on and let the good time roll. I do not care if you're young, get together, let the good times roll.

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It, baby.

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Hey, everybody. Friend homes in town. I got $100 ready to clown Don't let nobody sell us cheap. I got $100 more than I'm gonna let you keep baby, so let the good time roll. Come on and let the good times roll. Do not care if you're younger. Now's the time to let the good times no matter where it's raining, where the birds of a feather, find a way to stick together. So get yourself under control. Come on and find a way to let the good time roar.

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Whoa, Come on y'all.

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Come on and let the good times roll. I don't care. I just don't care if you're old or you're young. Let's have a ball y'all. No matter whether it's raining weather, birds of a feather, gotta stick together. Find a way to

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the final way.

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Welcome back to jazz outreach initiatives, the joy of jazz, underwritten by D'Agostino Trattoria. This is your host, Donnie Thompson, and I'm joined again by the esteemed professor Dave Loeb from the UNLV division of jazz and commercial music that was let the good times roll, from the UNLV Jazz Ensemble ones album, also called Let the good times roll, Dave, let's take a stroll down your history, your musical career. We talked a little bit about where you started, and you got over to Eastman. Anyone that knows anything about you, but there may be some people that don't know a lot about you. You've arranged, composed, directed, and performed with a number of really amazing artists and groups for locals that have been around for a while. You directed Steve Wynn's show stoppers, the Sinatra 100 All Star Grammy concert. You performed with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and so much more and all. TV you arranged for the American Music Awards, the Academy Awards, comic relief. And you played on a number of TV shows and films. Can you list a few of those TV shows and films for us?

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Family Guy, the underscore American Dad, The Cleveland Show, Magnum PI, quantum leap. Played for Hill Street Blues for a while. You

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did the theme song right that you played for that a

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lot of shows, la law, Hunter, Hardcastle and McCormick, if I can remember, all these wise guy was another one. I met Walter Murphy on one of those shows. He was one of the writers from my post. He had like five or six writers on staff who all went off to develop their own careers. And Walter called me, said, I have this new show. Was Family Guy. And then I did 19 seasons of that, you know, it's the very beginning. And then the Family Guy in Las Vegas, that show was canceled, and then brought back. And I did movies like Pocahontas and Hercules and the hunchback in order to name for Alan Menken. I did a lot of the played when I said I didn't write music, I played that music. Let's take

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a break and listen to some more music from the Jazz Ensemble ones album. Let the good times roll. Whatever gonna listen to now, Dave, think

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we're gonna listen to an arrangement of a classic Duke Ellington composition chinoiserie that we've recorded before. We recorded the original Ellington, but this is an arrangement by Kirby Galbreath, who is one of our trombonists who has gone on to win the downbeat student Music Awards, and he's one of our top composers. He's getting recognition worldwide as a former student, Jorge machain has and other Carlos Mata Alvarez, they've all won these awards, but he arranged this, and we asked Kenny Rampton, and he graciously agreed to perform with their students. He's been on the last four or five CDs that we've done, and we're so thankful for to him and a magnificent performance on this. It's actually in Grammy consideration right now, this performance and the entire CD, and also as well as Clint Holmes's performance on with Good Times role. So this Is chinoiserie Featuring Kenny ramp

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Dan, welcome back to jazz outreach initiatives, the joy of jazz, underwritten by d'agostinos tratoria. This is your host, Donnie Thompson, and I'm joined again by UNLV, Director of the Division of jazz and commercial music, aveau That was chinwari from the UNLV Jazz Ensemble ones album, let the good times roll, Dave, where can our listeners find this and other albums to listen to? Well,

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they can email me at dave.loeb@unlv.edu, L O E, B, yes. L O E, B. It's also available on Vegas records and band camp and Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon music. It's on all those platforms. And we sell them at our concerts at Ham Hall in the performing arts center. And they also have them for sale there, if you want a physical CD. Let's

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talk a little bit about the UNLV Jazz Ensemble jazz program itself. It's one of the world's best programs, and we have no shortage of people that have come out of that program, some really big names. And I think recently, you announced that UNLV jazz has won something like 50 downbeat awards, right? I mean, that's incredible for an organization. I'm just curious if you can tell what is the reason for all the success, especially for so long decades, that this has been really a top school in the country, if not the world. Well,

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it's the students. We hope you point them in the right direction, and the faculty is just stellar, and world class. Nathan to NOE is one of the greatest arrangers. He's a brilliant trombonist. Of course, he plays in the jazz Vegas orchestra. He was chief arranger for everyone from Silene Dion to Midler. And he's a wonderful educator, not just one that does it. And we have Professor Adam Schroeder, who's a Grammy Award one himself on baritone saxophone, and he performs with John Beasley's monchera and Clayton Hamilton big band. He just put out his own CD, which is also in Grammy consideration. It's tribute to his mentor, Clark Terry. Really a fine CD. So the faculty is phenomenal. They're great educators. Great team. We've managed to recruit some really top students from a lot of the performances that we've done with the Jazz Ensemble, particularly on the West Coast. What comes to mind is the Monterey Jazz Festival that we won the Monterey next generation Jazz Festival a couple of times and performed the Monterey Jazz Festival. And one of those performances, the drummer that's on the CD right now was with the phenomenal group from Costa Rica, and he heard our group and. So he wanted to come to UNLV from Costa Rica to do his master's. Now he's working on our brand new DMA in jazz, and you get

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a lot of support from the Joe Williams everyday foundation for scholarships that helps bring kids in too Right? Full scholarships for most of them, or all of them. Absolutely,

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we couldn't do it without the Joe Williams everyday foundation scholarships were trying to uphold the unbridled joy that Joe had for music and jazz. Particular, every time he sang and got on stage, or even off stage, he was just a wonderful human being and one of the most brilliant jazz Vogels we've ever had, I think, in history. And we're very fortunate to have those scholarships every year, and we try to attract students that we feel have a good chance of going on and making a career and keeping Joe's name alive and the true spirit of

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jazz, exactly. And you know, we have the legacy money out there that Joe left to help out your organization, as well as jazz outreach initiative as well. And then we have people like Robert and Shirley Kramer with the Friends of UNLV jazz, that they do a lot of work around the community with all sorts of nonprofits. Tell us a little bit about friends of UNLV jazz and how people can help support you guys through that charity. It's

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a wonderful organization, and spearheaded by Robert Shirley Kramer, as she said, and they have really brought this to the forefront as a major organization. Well, they support a lot of organizations around town in the arts, but particularly for the UNLV jazz program. The Friends of UNLV jazz, they generate funds. We can use them for trips. It helped us to travel to the jazz Education Network Conference in New Orleans last January, our UNLV Jazz Ensemble one was one of the feature performers. We got a standing ovation, and we are now have the funds thanks to them to go to Atlanta this coming January, and our Latin Jazz Ensemble director by Pepe Jimenez, who teaches drums for us. He's another one of our phenomenal faculty. We have about 12 part time faculty. They're all world class. And then, of course, three full time faculty. He directs that ensemble, and they're going to be a feature performer at that jazz education network Convention, which is considered probably the top gathering of jazz educators and student musicians as well as major jazz artists worldwide. So unlv.edu/music/support

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you'll be able to find friends of UNLV jazz listed there, and it goes right through directly to your program. Thank

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you so much, Donnie, and there's so many great supporters. I mean, we can't thank Randy Garcia enough. His investment Council company has been very generous with supporting our CD projects. It takes a lot of funding to pay the recording engineers and all the production costs and so forth, benefactors like Laura Taylor, who's actually singing on this CD, she's a wonderful vocals and songwriter, and her and her husband David Mulkey, have been wonderful supporters. And there's so many, frankly, that's why we are able to succeed at this high level. The students have to do the work, and they do absolutely and you can go around town and they're playing, you're going to hear, I mean, our students, when pianist Donna William came over from California, he's just brilliant genius, and he's now, I think, musical director over at the O show for Cirque. And before that, he was Donnie Osmond's musical director. We can go back to Kenny Rampton, one of the most incredible players in the world has been so supportive. He's in Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra with Kenny Rampton and Kurt Miller, of course, is on the board of jazz battle orchestra and outreach initiative, and he just performed on the CD. His rendition of Emily is of Emily is just

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spectacular, yeah? So we're actually going to play that next, right? Great, yeah, we're gonna. So here is Emily, and who do the arrangement of this?

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Ranzen malbalo, who's a freshman student, did this arrangement, and this also received Grammy consideration for his unique treatment of Johnny mandels composition Emily, Featuring Kurt Miller on trombone.

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Baa Baa, BAA Ah, thank you again for listening today, and thank you again to our friends at yagostinos tratoria for underwriting the show. Thanks again to Dave Loeb for sharing some great music with us today. Wesley Knight, our producer, and everyone here at kunv, if you enjoyed the episode, tell a friend and help us read the joy of jazz. You can also find information about jazz outreach initiatives, many events, concerts, e newsletters, blogs, volunteer opportunities and more@jazzvegas.org for a jazz outreach initiative. This is Donnie Thompson, and we'll be back again with another episode of the joy of jazz on the third Sunday of next month, at 9am right here on kunv 91.5 jazz and more the Q interview mobile app and wherever you get your podcasts. Until then, as always, make it a joyful day for you and for someone else. For jazz outreach initiative. This is Donnie Thompson, thank you for listening, and as you head out the door today, make it a joyful day for you and for someone else you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai