City of Detroit's composer laureate to de-mystify jazz at Friday night concert
April is National Jazz Appreciation Month, and the city of Detroit's Office of Arts, Culture and Entrepreneurship (Detroit ACE) is marking the moment with a Friday, April 25, performance by the city's new composer laureate, Patrick Prouty.
Bassist and composer Prouty's first concert in the role will take place at 6 p.m. at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
'While I write music in all kinds of genres,' he said, 'the thing that I've done most is compose jazz music. I want this concert at the Charles Wright to show jazz composition in two different lights. The first thing is, of course, you write a tune and it's got a melody, chord changes and a groove, and trying to convey some kind of emotion. And then, the song in jazz music is also a vehicle for improvisation.
'When you listen to jazz improvisation, the piano solo you hear? That's a composition that is happening in the moment, and it will never be repeated. And what sometimes gets lost is, it's not just the improvisation of a soloist who's composing in the moment, but the bandmates that are playing with the soloist. It's collective improvisation, that's also part of the composition. That's the first half of the program.'
In the second half, Prouty — along with pianist Phil Kelly and drummer Julian VanSlyke — will compose a song in real time before the audience's eyes (and ears).
'These are guys that I have 10,000 hours of making music with,' said Prouty, 'and we're going to go to the audience and ask for some musical direction. Like, 'Give me a tempo, give me a groove. Major key? Minor key? Happy? Sad? Funky? Ballad?' And then, in real time, the three of us are going to compose a song in the moment and then perform the song and solo over the song. We'll tie in both composing in the jazz vernacular, and the soloist and collective improvisation also being part of the compositional process, which is unique only to jazz.'
He said that those who are new to jazz or skeptical about it should not be afraid to approach with open ears and hearts.
'You always hear these things: 'Oh, I don't understand jazz.' 'I hate jazz.' 'Jazz makes me nervous,' because you don't understand what it is. Country music, heavy metal, pop music, gives you whatever you need right from the get-go, meaning the listener does not need to be involved in the process. You can tune out, come right back, and it's just here you left off.
'Jazz music asks something of the listener. It asks the listener to come on the adventure with us, to be a passenger on the flight, to listen to where the soloist begins and where they end, and the collective improvisation in between. I've taught music for 15 years, and every time I show a young person how jazz works, they go, 'Oh, okay, now I know what to listen for,' and they sort of have a roadmap. So, if you've never been into jazz, or thought about coming to jazz because you didn't understand it, this is the concept for you.'
Prouty also spoke about the larger, ongoing projects he's working on in his laureate role.
'The goals of the laureate position,' he said, 'are to, one, mentor young composers, young musicians. The other is to celebrate Detroit's history with music, so we are planning a digital music lab for young Detroiters, where we'll have multiple classes with stations that have keyboards and interfaces and digital audio workstations, and we'll be working on the artistry of composing digitally.'
More: Detroit's first composer laureate says he'll tell the city's story in music
More: Detroit's Hannan Center called 'one of Michigan's best-kept secrets' for senior citizens
Prouty told the Free Press he's also working on a longform piece that will be performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in late 2025, comprised of five Detroit-inspired vignettes for orchestra.
Detroit ACE director Rochelle Riley called Prouty 'wonderful, excellent.'
'The most wonderful thing,' she said, 'about working with someone as talented as Patrick Prouty is that all of his ideas are great. I don't have to give him assignments. We're lucky to have a poet laureate and a composer laureate who don't really need any hand holding. They have amazing spirit, and amazing love of Detroit. I am thrilled by what he's going to be doing Friday and what he's going to be doing all year.'
Friday's 'Composing in the Moment' concert was sold out at press time; the event will be recorded for later streaming on the ACE website.
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit's composer laureate to de-mystify jazz at Friday concert
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