Memorable Moments from the 1980's at Stanford Jazz Workshop by SJW Faculty Member Bob Murphy
Bob Murphy was a student in the first Stanford Jazz Workshop class in 1972 while a jazz studies major at DeAnza College. He was also a founding member of the Natural Gas Jazz Band, a traditional jazz band that has made more than a dozen recordings and toured internationally at least ten times (including a historic 1989 tour of the Soviet Union as the Berlin wall was coming down, when the group was the first American band since the 1917 Soviet revolution to perform east of the Ural Mountains). Bob has taught at the Stanford Jazz Workshop since the mid-1970s and is on SJW’s Board of Directors.

Many interesting characters have passed through the Stanford Jazz Workshop since 1972.  Perhaps the most interesting was jazz giant and innovator, Dizzy Gillespie, but there were other prominent and talented jazz musicians at Stanford during that period, such as Stan Getz and John Handy.  Each of them left indelible impressions.

The first time I saw Dizzy Gillespie up close was at the Stanford Jazz Workshop in the summer of 1984.  I had the pleasure of leading a student combo in the Braun Music Center with two faculty members in the rhythm section—Jeff Saxton on bass and Kenny Morse on drums, both experienced players.  I had alerted my combo that Dizzy was making the rounds and to expect a visit from him.

During the rehearsal, the door opened behind me.  I turned to see a large man wearing go-aheads, cut off jeans, a maroon T-shirt with gold lettering that said, "Somebody in California loves me," an open carton of buttermilk, and a slimy stub of a chewed-up unlit cigar butt in his mouth.  It was Dizzy.  Every so often he would take the cigar butt out of his mouth and take a big slug of buttermilk.  Oh, to have had a video camera at that moment.  And Dizzy was always highly photogenic.  He offered a few approving comments and moved on.

After lunch, all the combos gathered in Dinkelspiel Auditorium to play for Dizzy.  He was seated in the front row.  Each combo was to play one tune, then clear the stage for the next.  Dizzy must have had a heavy lunch, because he was in a somnolent state for the first few combos.  But when my combo hit on "Blue Bossa" with Jeff Saxton and Kenny Morse propelling the band with a hot Latin beat, Dizzy came to life.  He jumped up on the stage, landing on the pie-shaped wedges that cover the orchestra pit, saying, "It all comes from Terpsichore—the dance!"  He started doing a little jig to demonstrate his point.  The wedges were bouncing up and down.  I was sure Dizzy would go through to the bottom.  After our combo was excused, Dizzy returned to his seat without mishap.

Stan Getz was in residence at Stanford as a guest artist at the same time that Dizzy was on the Stanford Jazz Workshop faculty.  Stan was generally gracious and generous with students.  He gave each student an autographed copy of his newest album, "Pure Getz," with a personal note to each student.  Stan mostly taught by example.  Just listening to his sweet sound and creative ideas was a complete lesson in itself.  His comments to students tended to be sparse—"Don’t play a major seventh on a dominant chord," or (to saxophone players) "Take a little more mouthpiece."

Stan could also be mercurial and unpredictable.  Announced as "special mystery guest," Stan was to play a concert at Stanford's Memorial Auditorium with the Dizzy Gillespie big band, a performance that was to have been recorded.  But at concert time, mystery guest Stan was nowhere to be found.  By a stroke of luck, alto sax great John Handy was in the audience, having bought a ticket.  The first set proceeded without Stan.  At intermission, John Handy was recruited to play the second set.  There was a delay while Jim Nadel scampered to the Braun Music Center to grab his alto saxophone for John Handy's use.  When the second set got underway, Mr. Handy displayed himself brilliantly. The closing tune of the second set was Dizzy Gillespie's "Bebop," played at a blistering tempo.  John Handy ripped through several choruses of alto solo, ending with a line ascending up into the altissimo register, almost above the range of human hearing.  And on a horn, mouthpiece, and reed setup he had never played before!  My jaw was on the floor.  It was the most astonishing performance by a saxophone player I have ever heard.

I have other personal favorites, such as drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath, who continues to inspire students by teaching at the Stanford Jazz Workshop and elsewhere.  We have been blessed to have some of the most prominent names in jazz to rub elbows with students and enrich their educational experience.  The decade of the 1980s was a particularly fertile period.