What a Wonderful (Jazz) World
As if echoing Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong’s signature song, top jazz musicians from the United States visited Yekaterinburg to perform with local jazz musicians and conduct master-class workshops with Russian students from the Urals and beyond. For the third year in a row the U.S. Consulate General supported the Urals Summer Jazz Academy by sponsoring American jazz musicians, this time by inviting two artists instead of one (see linked story about the Urals Jazz Academy).
In partnership with the Sverdlovsk Oblast Ministry of Culture, the Tchaikovsky Musical College, the Artists Methodical Center, the Rotary Club of Yekaterinburg and the Educational Center Kamerton, the Consulate invited Jim Beatty (clarinet, saxophone) and Adam Klipple (keyboard) as the Academy professors.
The legendary Jim Beatty has been making wonderful jazz music for over fifty years, and is a living link to some of the top names in the early days of traditional jazz. In his long and successful career, Jim has performed in almost every conceivable setting, from clubs, jazz festivals, and sold-out concerts to radio and television. He has recorded multiple albums, toured extensively and lectured in schools. In addition to leading his own band, Jim is a highly renowned jazz soloist, performing with some of the top bands around the USA, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, Europe, and China. Beatty plays a New Orleans style of jazz, and possesses a vast repertoire of classic jazz and blues songs. In addition, he is equally at home playing popular hits and swing standards from the big bands of the ‘40s and the music of composers such as George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Duke Ellington.
Adam Klipple is an outstanding pianist, composer and arranger. He plays piano, Hammond organ, sampler and a variety of vintage keyboards. He leads three of his own groups called “Drive-By Leslie,” “Sneak,” and “The Masters of Tashkent.” “Drive-By Leslie,” his Hammond organ quartet, explores many styles of electric jazz. “Sneak” makes melodic, otherworldly songs featuring vocalist Becca Stevens. “The Masters of Tashkent” is his eight-piece Soul-Uzbek-Hindustani-Funk orchestra. He is a resident at many New York City jazz clubs.
Adam Klipple has visited Yekaterinburg three times since he first led his band, the Adam Klipple Quartet, as a U.S. Jazz Ambassador on stage at the Yekaterinburg Philharmonic in 2003. At that time he also led master class workshops with the music students of the Tchaikovsky Music College and Children’s Music School No1. In 2007 Adam visited Yekaterinburg again as a professor at the Summer Jazz Academy for children – a musical project which was hosted by the Yekaterinburg Children Philharmonic and founded by Svetlana Zabolotnykh, head of the educational center Kamerton. Jim Beatty’s wife Pauline joined him for his first visit to Russia and Yekaterinburg.
The American musicians and their Russian counterparts taught the Summer Jazz Academy-2009 students aged from 7 to 20 the specifics of jazz style and technique. A panel jury for the young performers included the US jazz musicians Beatty and Klipple, renowned local trumpeter Sergey Pron, vocalist Oleysia Slukina, Victor Pastukhov, Director of the Tchaikovsky Musical College, and as an independent expert, the Consul General Tim Sandusky, himself an ardent jazz fan and guitarist. Following auditions on September 30, the jury was impressed with the high level of jazz performers and the exuberant spirit of the students.
The Academy closed with a big gala concert on October 2. The students and the professional musicians – professors of the Jazz Academy - performed on stage together. Beatty and Klipple also performed with local jazz artists at the Estrady Theater on September 30 and at the Ever Jazz venue in Ben Hall on October 1. Two press conferences were held so that local media could capture both their performance skills and pedagogical dedication. Their visit is certain to continue building on the strong foundations of Urals jazz.
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