Local music teachers take a turn in the spotlight

Jody Graves, recent Steinway Hall of Fame inductee, will join the Spokane Jazz Orchestra this weekend for a concert at the Bing Crosby Theater showcasing some of the best work of American composer George Gershwin.

When Paul Whiteman, the American bandleader and composer, produced “An Experiment in Music,” Gershwin was one of several composers selected to premiere a new work at that concert. Whiteman’s goal in this project was to bring some of what he called “our American music,” which, at the time, was much more in the jazz idiom, onto the traditional concert stage, which had, until then, most commonly featured the works of European greats like Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

“It was a real pioneer effort, which was, as we know now, very successful,” Graves said.

Now a professor of music and piano performance at Eastern Washington University, Graves has been teaching piano since she was little more than a child. The SJO is likewise entirely composed of music teachers and professors from institutions all over the Inland Northwest.

“Any great artist is also going to teach. We’re here to pass along the legacy and train young artists to do what we do, to get the next generation going,” Graves said. “I’ve literally been teaching piano to someone else since I was 11 years old when I set up my first little piano studio in my neighborhood and taught the neighborhood kids.”

Even earlier, she remembers playing by ear and listening to recordings of Gershwin, especially those of “Rhapsody in Blue.” “I would just sound it out, I was (always) able to improvise,” Graves said.

A fitting centerpiece for the evening, Graves and the SJO will perform “Rhapsody in Blue.” This piece was composed in a little more than a month after Gershwin forgot about agreeing to participate in the aforementioned experimental concert. Gershwin reportedly read about the forgotten event in a newspaper, came to his senses and sat down with orchestrator Ferde Grofé to finish the piece. Gershwin more or less improvised the piano line onstage during its premiere and later had it transcribed.

What audience members will hear Saturday, not often heard now, is the original version of “Rhapsody in Blue” orchestrated for big band and played that first night in 1924.

The program will feature other Gershwin pieces including “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Strike Up the Band,” “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” “S’Wonderful,” “I Got Rhythm,” “Summertime,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” and “Someone to Watch Over Me.”

While you’re likely to recognize most of these pieces by their general tunes, three of the programmed arrangements, two by the group’s music director Don Goodwin and one by guitarist Michael Gerety, were composed specifically for the concert. Saturday’s performance will be their debut.

“The rest are pre-existing arrangements,” Goodwin said. These include the pieces from “Porgy and Bess” like “Summertime” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” which were arranged for Miles Davis by Gill Evans and eventually transcribed by Gunther Schuller, who directed SJO for a limited time. He also served as artistic director for the Northwest Bach Festival for more than 20 years and worked at times with the Spokane Symphony and the Festival at Sandpoint.

“Schuller is nearly as famous as Gershwin in terms of his importance in the classical world and the jazz world as a conductor and author,” Goodwin said. “So it’s neat that we have that connection.”

The Spokane All-City Jazz Ensemble, made up of high school students, will open the concert.

Note: This concert has been postponed until May 23. Keep your March tickets and use them on May 23rd. Tickets for the March date will be honored on May 23rd. Ticket holders for the May 23rd concert, “The Great American Songbook: Then and Now” featuring guest vocalist Keleren Millham are likewise advised to keep their tickets until the new date, July 25. Info: www.spokanejazz.org or visit Spokane Jazz Orchestra on Facebook.