In this Patreon-funded special episode, Kirk sits down with his former high school band director Janis Stockhouse to talk about her life as a music educator.
Janis started teaching at North high school in Bloomington, Indiana, in the early 1980s. It was a time when "jazz education" as a concept was still a relatively new thing. She retired 38 years later, having grown the North band program into a well-known Midwest institution, winning countless awards at festivals around the world and regularly turning out graduates who would go on to become professional musicians, as well as many others who would simply have a lifelong love of music.
On this episode she tells the story of starting out at North and developing the program, along with her thoughts on how to get students to practice, which composers she prefers for student groups, women in jazz, funding for the arts, and some good old-fashioned album recommendations.
REFERENCED ON THIS EPISODE:
Janis's 2004 book Jazzwomen: Conversations With Twenty-One Musicians, which she co-wrote with Wayne Enstice - there are used copies on Amazon, and you should really track down a copy and read it
The late great jazz legend David Baker, whose NYT obituary captured at least some of his legacy: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/arts/music/david-baker-who-helped-bring-jazz-studies-into-the-academy-dies-at-84.html
MUSIC ON THIS EPISODE:
OUTRO SOLOIST: BJ CORD
This episode's outro soloist is BJ Cord, a fellow Bloomington North graduate and fantastic trumpet player based in Portland. BJ works at Monette trumpets making some of the most beautiful horns in the world, and is a regular presence on their Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monettetrumpets
NEWSLETTER/MAILING LIST
Sign up for Kirk's mailing list to start getting monthly-ish newsletters with music recommendations, links, news, and extra thoughts on new Strong Songs episodes: https://tinyletter.com/KirkHamilton
STRONG PLAYLISTS
You can find playlists containing every Strong Song as well as all of Kirk's weekly music picks from his other podcast, Kotaku Splitscreen, on both Spotify and Apple Music.
SUPPORT STRONG SONGS ON PATREON!
This episode was made possible entirely because of the show's Patreon patrons, so a huge thank you to all of them! The show is nearing its next goal, which will mean another bonus episode like this one, so if you want to support the show, here's the link: https://Patreon.com/StrongSongs
SEPTEMBER 2019 WHOLE NOTE PATRONS
andrew walters
CALEB ROTACH
Chad Barnard
Dan Apczynski
Dave Florey
Glenn
Jared Norris
Mark Schechter
Sara Walsh
SEPTEMBER 2019 HALF NOTE PATRONS
Alexander Polson
Andre Bremer
Andrew Lee
Arjun Sharma
Bill Thornton
Brett Douville
Brian Amoebas
Chas Lednicky
Chris Brown
Cyrus N. White
Dominik Schmitt
Earl Lozada
Eero Wahlstedt
Elliot Jay O'Neill
Emily Williams
FlSHBONES
Forrest Chang
Jaehoon Jeong
James Johnson
Jasmine Fellows
Jeffrey Olson
John and Sharon Stenglein
Jon O'Keefe
joujou
Juan Carlos Montemayor Elosua
Jules Bailey
Justin Liew
Justin McElroy
Kate Albury
Kevin Morrell
Kevin Pennyfeather
Kyle Simons
Matt Gaskell
Max Schechter
Melanie Stivers
Michael Blackwell
Miriam Juskowicz
Mueller
Nate from Kalamazoo
Nicholas Schechter
Richard Toller
samuel gardner
Shane DeLeon
Shaun Wiese
Tim
Tom Clewer
Tom Lauer