Backcountry Jazz: reaching kids with music

“If it wasn’t for the public school music programs in Chattanooga, Tenn., when I was a kid, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” says tenor saxophonist and composer Bennie Wallace of Greenwich. He began his professional career in New York in the early 1970s and has played throughout the country and around the world since, recording some 25 albums with various jazz artists in the process.

 “I initially agreed to take music because it got me out of the classroom for an hour,” Mr. Wallace admits, “but I liked it and the first time I attended a youth concert by the local symphony, I was thrilled. I can still recall the wonderful feeling of being enveloped by the music. When we were to select instruments,” he continued, “I wanted to play trombone, but was told my arms were too short, so I played clarinet. When the band needed a sax player, the teacher gave me a sax and a Sonny Rollins album and said, ‘Try to sound something like this...”’ With a smile he added, “And I’m still trying!”

Four years ago, Mr. Wallace decided he wanted to bring the bring the best jazz possible to Fairfield County, “offering a level comparable to what you’d hear at concerts and festivals in Europe.” Taking its name from the beautiful surroundings visible through his windows, he dubbed the endeavor Backcountry Jazz.

Comprising about a dozen affiliated musicians ranging in age from the mid-20s to 77, “We started purely as a concert organization that would play locally,” he explains, “then we started working with kids, and it grew into a partnership with Bridgeport Public Schools. Now we are talking to Greenwich and Staples High Schools and see opportunities in Norwalk and Stamford.”

Early on, “We brought an 11-piece jazz band to the Quick Center at Fairfield University and bused the kids in from Bridgeport; everyone had a great time and we realized we are also reaching another audience for this music; it is a way to make kids aware of what music is on a real immediate level.

“We also realized that there are a lot of people in the area who have similar ideas about the values of music education, and we want to work with them,” he said.. “The key to expanding the educational component is partner organizations, and since fund raising and sponsors are critical, we’ve made Backcountry Jazz a 501(c)(3) organization.”

For two years, Mr. Wallace worked with Tonya Kelley, whose position as superintendent of music and performing arts in Bridgeport was recently terminated due to budget cuts, on a summer program that offered Bridgeport students two-week music workshops. When he called Ms. Kelley last December to discuss plans for the summer of 2011, he was informed that there was no money for the program this year.

Believing in the many values such programs offer to the students — “Music and the arts train parts of the brain that help makes them better adults; I often say it was no coincidence that Einstein played the violin” — he contacted Melissa “Lizzie” Newman (he scored the Paul Newman film, Blaze) and wrote a grant application to the Fairfield County Community Foundation. “We didn’t know until May if we’d have a program this summer, but between the generosity of Lizzie, her mother Joanne Woodward and the Fairfield Community Foundation, we got enough funding to expand the program from 70 to 120 kids, and we still had to turn some away.”

Over the course of a month, the students attended two-week sessions for either a half or full day. “The kids in Bridgeport are great, and have some inspiring and dedicated teachers — Tonya Kelley, Gerry Tandi, who is Juilliard-educated, Michael Roach and Fran Russell — and that is why we are there,” Mr. Wallace said.

“Studies have shown that test scores of first grade students in places like Bridgeport and Greenwich aren’t that different,” he noted, “but the further along they go in school, the further apart the scores become. And the level of music training in the cities is way behind other communities. When we find students who are outstanding or really dedicated, we give them free instruments and lessons. This summer was our second year of doing this and 16 students received instruments. We hope to help during the school years as well.

“One way to expand the program is to get suburban high school students involved with teaching others,” he continued. “We’re working with John Yoon to get Greenwich High School Jazz Band members to do that.. The idea is to create a community of musicians of all ages and skills to interact and learn from each other. Everybody gains and the kids get to rub shoulders with jazz greats.”

On Sept. 24, Backcountry Jazz will be presenting a traditional jazz quartet as a fund-raiser at St. Bede’s Chapel on Lake Avenue in Greenwich. In addition to Mr. Wallace on alto sax, the quartet will comprise “Kenny Barron on piano — he was named a 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award winner and this is his first time in Greenwich; bassist Peter Washington, everybody’s favorite bassist, who played with the Tommy Flanagan Trio; and on drums, Herlin Riley — he’s the preeminent New Orleans drummer and lights up the room when he plays.”

The concert starts at 7:30 pm and tickets are $100.

On Oct. 5, in partnership with Avon Theatre Film Center in Stamford, Backcountry Jazz will present a screening of A Great Day in Harlem, a 1995 Academy Award-nominated documentary by Jean Bach about the making of the photograph “A Great Day in Harlem” by Art Kane. The 1958 black and white group portrait of 57 notable jazz musicians remains an important object in the study of the history of jazz.

“The movie has some wonderful clips of many of the musicians,” said Mr. Wallace. “You learn so much about what made them great; we’ll have a panel discussion afterward that will include Jerry Dodgion, who played with many of them. Tickets will be $6, and we are working to provide transportation for students.”

For more information about or to help support Backcountry Jazz, visit backcountryjazz.org. For more information on Mr. Wallace, visit benniewallace.com