Giant steps, one at a time
Ralph Bowen and his students share a love of the jazz idiom
Archived article from Feb 11, 2000
By Douglas Frank
In November, the Rutgers Jazz Ensemble treated an appreciative audience at the Nicholas Music Center to a driving big-band performance worthy of a New York nightclub. The band's solid rhythm, finely coordinated section work and creative solos drew an enthusiastic response.
The young players in the band, ranging from precocious undergraduates to 30-something globe-trotting graduate students, share a love of the jazz idiom, not only among themselves but with their leader Ralph Bowen, himself a veteran performer and role model in the vocation to which they aspire.
Both a noted performing saxophonist and a respected educator, Bowen serves as coordinator of jazz studies at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, among other duties, which include leading the Rutgers Jazz Ensemble, where students hone their "chops" and showcase their talents in the shadow of the Big Apple.
The group rehearses Tuesday nights and performs on and occasionally off campus. They perform two concerts each semester in Nicholas Music Center and participate in performances at conventions and competitions, said Bowen, an assistant professor of saxophone and jazz theory. The ensemble's next performance is Feb. 22 in the Nicholas Music Center.
Since 1990, Bowen's presence has sparked the student group to new heights, although he acknowledges that the jazz ensemble has had a long history of success. Talent level is high in the ensemble, a fact he attributes to a good teaching faculty, whose reputations can draw accomplished students to audition here.
Over the years that faculty has included such leading lights as pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Larry Ridley, trumpeter William Fielder and the late Ted Dunbar, a guitarist. Fielder remains on the faculty and is joined by such other jazz notables as drummer Ralph Peterson Jr., Mike Richmond, Vic Juris, Scott Whitfield, Tommy Igoe and, most recently, pianist Stanley Cowell. Among the jazz performers to come out of the Rutgers program over the years are both Bowen and Peterson, who currently play in a band together, as well as trumpeter Terence Blanchard, pianist Harry Pickins, trombonist Frank Lacey and the late saxophonist and composer Thomas Chapin.
"I like to make note of why students come here to audition," said Bowen. "Time and time again, they speak of Rutgers' reputation. 'My teacher recommended that I come here' -- I hear that a lot. I really think that has to do with the faculty and its traditions."
Bowen has come to be regarded as an effective leader possessing playing experience combined with solid pedagogy and an understanding of what his charges can accomplish.
"First and foremost I am a performer. Personally, I try to keep a sense of being able to move forward; as a performer I can keep things fresh," he reflected recently. "As you demonstrate something for a student, you want to be able to perform it at a high level, and that requires that you keep yourself in playing shape.
"But, at the same time, I don't think of teaching and performing as two separate careers. I really do think they are connected, because your ability to express a concept to someone else is connected to your own understanding of it."
In handling the ensemble, Bowen said it is important to give students as wide a range of experiences as possible -- from historically valid music, like Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson and the Count Basie Orchestra, up to the music that is current today.
"Monday night in the city, there are many latter-day big bands going strong with original music and original arrangements, as well as standards," Bowen noted. "If our students experience both kinds of music here, they are better prepared to go in and fill in and perhaps get a chair." About a half dozen of the ensemble players go to New York frequently and sit in with the pros.
A well-traveled pro himself, the Canadian-born Bowen started piano lessons at age 5, and clarinet and saxophone lessons followed soon after. When he was only 13, he was already leading his own quartet, which performed in major jazz clubs around Canada.
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