Jazzing It Up

The cradle of jazz gets its first traditional jazz camp

by

Maybe your mom made you take piano lessons. Perhaps your sister was first chair clarinet in the district honor band. Maybe you were a trumpet player who could soar above the staff for days. Maybe you even were part of the Southern University Human Jukebox, LSU’s Tiger Band, or Louisiana-Lafayette’s Pride of Acadiana. You had big plans to be the lead trumpet or a concert contralto, until Dad sat you down and gave you “the talk.”

“Son, here’s what a band director makes and here’s what a (fill in profession) makes. How are you going to support a family on that?” So you put down the horn and picked up the books and made a comfortable life for yourself. 

But still, every time you see that guy you used to know up there on the bandstand, that guy who caught lightning in a bottle and made a living as a musician, there’s a little part of you that says, “I could’ve been a pro.” You go home, dig through the closet, open the trumpet case, and blow a few notes. You hit a high C and think, “Yeah, I still got it. If only I had a chance to perform….”

[You might like: All that Jazz: John McCusker's New Orleans Jazz Tour]

Thanks to three strong-minded women, the premier river town, and a dash of natural disaster, there is a stage for amateur musicians to jam, play and perform. It’s the New Orleans Traditional Jazz Camp, a place where musicians of all ages and skill can learn from the top trad jazz musicians of New Orleans and around the country.

Traditional jazz is the jazz born in New Orleans. It’s the music of Jelly Roll Morton, Buddy Bolden, Nick LaRocca, Joe “King” Oliver and Louis Armstrong. The camp is not a conventional camp. It’s in the heart of the French Quarter. There are no campfires. They don’t allow pup tents in the foyer of the Bourbon Orleans Hotel either, but it is a solid week of jazz instruction, private lessons, and ensemble performance.

Leslie Cooper, vocalist and mother of a talented trumpet player; Banu Gibson, a professional vocalist, banjo player and dancer; and Anita Hemeter, a drummer who previously attended the Sacramento Trad Jazz Camp,  joined forces in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina with the general idea of preserving New Orleans’ trad jazz scene. Cooper and Gibson emerged as the driving force that has kept the camp going for the last several years.

Cooper’s son, Doyle, showed a prodigious talent for trumpet playing when he was only 12.  

A benefactor heard the redheaded boy play and sponsored Doyle at the long-established San Francisco and San Diego trad jazz camps.

“Why did I have to send my son to California to learn how to play jazz when New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz?” Cooper pondered. “We should have a trad jazz camp here!”

Cooper, the host of WWOZ’s Traditional Jazz with Leslie Cooper, found that Gibson and Hemeter, both members of the New Orleans Women in Music support group, shared her idea. It’s one thing to float a great idea, and another thing to bring that floating idea to pay dirt, however. Gibson, as a professional musician, was key. She had performed with many of the great modern trad jazz players across the country. Gibson’s recruiting phone calls were returned.

Gibson’s pro chops are sizable. She played with the old Your Father’s Mustache touring banjo band. She gigged on Prairie Home Companion and was the sole guest artist ringing in Y2K with the Boston Pops. She formed her band in 1981 and swings songs from the American Songbook with her six-piece jazz band at performing arts venues as well as with symphony orchestras across the world. She has also recorded more than twenty albums of trad jazz and other music. 

“Luckily I had enough of a reputation as a professional musician to convince a bunch of great musicians to come to New Orleans and help us,” said Gibson. 

Those saviors include clarinetist Tom Fischer and drummer Gerald French of the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, vocalist Leah Chase of the New Orleans Chase family, trumpeters Connie Jones and Jamil Sharif, clarinetist Dan Levinson, saxophonist and Loyola music prof Ray Moore, trombonist Rick Trolsen of Neslort and Bonearama, pianist Steve Pistorius, and banjo/guitarist Katie Cavera, among others. The entire jazz faculty is as patient as they are professional with gifted young players and older musicians.  

Cooper and Gibson contacted their counterparts at the San Diego camp; Gibson, who had performed with the California teaching musicians, was invited to the camp to observe its organization.  With a basic framework in place, the New Orleans Trad Jazz Camp got off the ground in 2010.

“The first camp was all adults, but we learned the older musicians wanted young musicians to be there with them,” said Gibson. “We said, ‘Kids can’t afford it.’ They said, ‘We’ll help.’ And they helped start our scholarship program.” 

The camp is held in the Bourbon Orleans Hotel at the corner of Orleans and Bourbon Street. A typical trad jazz camp day begins with a buffet breakfast in the hotel ballroom followed by a discussion on music performance which is demonstrated by the campers and faculty. There may be a lecture on jazz. Last year Ricky Riccardi, archivist of the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, New York, delivered a beautiful, heartwrenching talk on the life of Louis Armstrong, New Orleans’ most famous jazzman.

[You might like: Getting Into Jazz with Zia Tammami]

Then the campers, equipped with sheet music provided weeks beforehand, divvy up into jazz band ensembles and retreat to classrooms where they are taught by the pros. One hour you get the trombone guy, the next hour, you’re given the hands-on experience by a member of the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band. Numerous volunteers fill in parts if needed and help set up drums and Sousaphones. There’s lunch, then afternoon classroom rehearsals with the brass guys. On Tuesday, the entire school, including faculty, don New Orleans marching band attire (white shakos and shirts) and parade through the French Quarter to “Bourbon Street Parade.” A Second Line follows.

The penultimate class day is spent preparing tunes like “I Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None of My Jelly Roll” and “Rose Room” for an afternoon performance at Preservation Hall. Imagine – Preservation Hall today, Carnegie Hall tomorrow. All it takes is practice, practice, practice. 

Camp evenings are sprinkled with performances by the pros at the Quarter and Marigny jazz venues. There are also nightly jams for the adventurous campers on the Bourbon O stage of the Bourbon Orleans. The last day of camp is spent preparing new concert pieces for a final performance in the hotel ballroom. Friends and family are invited.

As for testimonials, Doyle, Cooper’s 12-year-old trumpet prodigy, is now the 24-year-old band leader of the Doyle Cooper Jazz Band with a music education degree from Loyola University. 

“He played three gigs last Saturday,” his mother beamed. “And he made his rent money.” 

You might have already seen and heard Doyle in action when his band was featured at the New Orleans Jazz Fest May 4.  His visage is unforgettable—he’s a burly redhead who can really play. Trombonist Miles Lyons, a graduate of the New Orleans Trad Jazz Camp, is a featured member of Doyle’s band and another camp success story. The young people have now made national connections with seasoned professionals and other young jazz campers. Here’s the cherry on top: Doyle will be one of the trumpet teachers at the camp this year. 

This year’s camp will be held June 10–16.  The spots fill up quickly, so don’t delay. One thing’s certain: the New Orleans Traditional Jazz Camp is an unforgettable experience. After a week playing the music of Jelly Roll, Louis, and Kings Bolden and Oliver … who knows? You might quit your day job.

neworleanstradjazzcamp.com