Pitt Jazz Seminar speakers to include flutist, guitarist
By Bob Karlovits
TRIBUNE-REVIEW MUSIC WRITER
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Ron Affif and Nestor Torres are musicians first and foremost, but they will be teaching their own brands of philosophy at the Pitt Jazz Seminar and Concert.
Flutist Torres says he will be trying to show how jazz teaches a way of coping with life in the way it outlines how to deal with music. Meanwhile, Affif will be hoping to illustrate ways of escaping the vacuum of modern music and culture.
"If you want to get more, you have to go after it," says the New York City guitarist who is a native of Pittsburgh's Banksville area.
They are part of the crew for the 36th annual seminar that culminates with a concert featuring all the participants at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland.
Besides Torres and Affif. this year's event features pianist Patrice Rushen, trumpeters Jimmy Owens and Oscar Brashear, bassist Abraham Laboriel. vibraphonist Dave Pike, drummer Winard Harper, and saxophonists Donald Harrison and Nathan Davis.
Davis is the director of jazz studies at the University of Pittsburgh, and founded the seminar.
The seminar is made up of talks and workshops in which musicians and other music professionals discuss musical technique and business thinking.
"The conference is really a unique situation," says Torres, who is participating in his second event. "Nathan brings you in and wants you to work in the groove of things, but then he lets you loose to function as you see fit."
That will give the two of them the chance to talk about the strength they see in jazz.
Torres, born and reared in Puerto Rico, sees playing as an experiential form of learning. If a player goes into jazz, he says, the musician has to learn rules of music.
His fine-tuning of those rules came at the New England Conservatory of Music, the Berklee School of Music in Boston and the Mannes School of Music in New York City.
But Torres also found out how vital it is to create new, workable patterns.
"It gives you the chance to open other doors," he says.
That bit of learning can teach you what it "is to be a jazz musician in the modern world" as well as ways of handling improvisation in other aspects of everyday life.
He says it has helped him shape his own music into a Latin form of jazz with a pop twist that makes it accessible.
It is vital, Torres says, to keep control over the direction of your music, rather than letting a recording company dictate where to go.
"For them, it has nothing to do with the arts," he says. "It's all about business,"
It's sort of a shallow business at times, Affif says. When he talks to music students, he is generally impressed with those who are into jazz. They have seen some of the hollowness of pop culture and are trying to escape it, he says.
Those who are trying to expand their knowledge, he says, are really helped by modern technology. It leads them to the work of a range of musicians.
"Communication is so big," he says, "there's not too much they haven't heard of."
Affif crafted his philosophical tract largely on the road. After attending Canevin High School, he left Pittsburgh for Los Angeles in 1983 to work and study guitar with his uncle, jazz ace Ron Anthony. He then moved to New York City, where he centers a career that is busy on the road and in Gotham clubs.
One of his favorite activities is the Monday night jam session at New York's Zinc Bar, which often features Pittsburgh natives, such as pianist Dave Budway and Jeff "Tain" Watts.
Both Torres and Affif are fairly confident about the future of jazz.
Affif says he sees many players making great progress and "playing their tails off in New York City."
Similarly, Torres sees a jazz audience that may not be huge, but is dedicated. Recording and downloading technology has lead to "a new frontier" that lets fans get to the music they want.
"A niche market is a good thing," he says. "It's all just a matter of handling the process of survival."
Pitt Jazz Seminar and Concert
All events except for the Saturday concert are free.
Wednesday
7 p.m.: Heinz Memorial Chapel. Lecture on the History of Jazz, Dan Morgenstern, critic, educator from Rutgers University.
Thursday
7 p.m.: Heinz Memorial Chapel. Lecture on Inside the Recording Industry, Mike McFadin, co-founder and president of Ubiquity Recordings.
Friday workshops
All workshops at William Pitt Student Union
10 a.m.: The Brass Connection with trumpeters Jimmy Owen and Oscar Brashear.
1 p.m.: The Artistry of Jazz Piano, Patrice Rushen
3 p.m.: The Art of Jazz Guitar with Ron Affif
Saturday workshops
10 a.m.: Fascinating Rhythm in Motion, Winard Harper
11:30 a.m.: Jazz Explosion from New Orleans to Los Angeles, Dave Pike and Donald Harrison
1 p.m.: Latin-Jazz Fusion, Nestor Torres, Abraham Laboriel
Saturday concert
8 p.m.: Features all participants at Carnegie Music Hall. Admission: $18, $8 for students.
Details: 412- 323-1919
Free workshops also will be given at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Ronald McDonald House on Shady Avenue in Shadyside and at the Hill House on Centre Avenue in the Hill District.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt.../s_477053.html
Linear Mode
