Rick Holland: Al welcome. Loved your new H2 Big Band project with Dave Hanson, You’re It and also really enjoyed your first project with him Just A Little Taste, a tribute to the 1955 ‘Clifford Brown with Strings’ session. My first question addresses the balance in your trumpet playing. Can you tell us which teachers inspired you to have such a balanced and virtuosic approach to the trumpet?Al Hood: Thanks Rick! Sure – my first teacher of note was Howard Rowe, a trumpeter and band director in the Rush-Henrietta school district near Rochester, NY. He made the art of practicing and playing the trumpet, in whatever style you played in, fun and challenging. Most importantly, he would let me take home amazing albums from his collection every week, in every genre, but mostly jazz! By far the most influential teacher on my present playing, persona and teaching approach has to be Vince DiMartino. I spent the better part of 1983-89 studying with him in Kentucky. He was, and still is, all that I ever wanted to be as a trumpeter and as a pedagogue. After that, I studied with Ron Modell at Northern Illinois University, a

natural orchestral musician with wonderful jazz sensibilities and love for the music, Ray Crisara at UT-Austin, who emphasized a polished style in whatever idiom you perform in, and the late Gil Johnson at Miami, a legendary musician who knew music inside and out and who could also play most any tune on the piano! All five of these individuals, no matter what their specialty happened to be, instilled a love for ALL musical genres within me and I am very grateful for that. And each one of them is a wonderful gentleman….RH: When did you start listening to Jazz? Who were your early mentors on record?AH: Well, I went through the early part of my development listening to the popular trumpeters on radio – Maynard Ferguson, Chuck Mangione (Rochester connection!) and Herb Alpert. I actually got to perform with Mangione in a back-up orchestra in 1980. My first real jazz enlightenment came when Howard Rowe let me take home some Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan albums. I was hooked. From there, the hard boppers became a favorite (Clifford, Lee, Freddie, Blue Mitchell, Kenny Dorham, Chet

and Miles) and grew in both directions from Satchmo, Eldridge, Cootie Williams, Gillespie and Clark Terry to Woody Shaw, Randy Brecker, Kenny Wheeler and Tom Harrell, among others.RH: What was your process like, especially as you gathered harmonic, rhythmic and melodic material in this idiom?AH: It was haphazard at best. A lot of listening kept the progress going somewhere at least! I started to transcribe a bit in high school and was always drawn to melodic ideas, melodic solos and phrases and balladic playing. I wrote down the solos and played along with the recordings as best I could! A melodic approach is still a high priority for me. Rhythm became an integral performance element (and is at the core of jazz music) urged by my combo coaches when I attended the Eastman HS Summer Camp and when I finally entered college, but the harmonic element has always eluded me, probably because I never learned the keyboard and always shied away from it even through my college training; a big mistake. Mainly, I was attempting to emulate these masters on record

and played along with those recordings, often covering up masterful solos with my feeble attempts at improvising! What did I know? I also started to read a lot about jazz theory and practiced patterns I was given, or discovered, blindly and without real purpose. I don’t want to say I wasted my time, because I was excited, but it would have been nice to have a few more nuggets of knowledge!RH: Can you talk to us a little about-- how you like to approach teaching at the Higher Ed. Level? What are some things you expect from your students?AH: Though it doesn’t always take root, I do emphasize taking a holistic approach to being a trumpeter, immersing oneself in as many styles as possible. Keep your musicianship and style study high in every idiom to make yourself both more marketable, and to have the utmost of fun and variety in the music field! First and foremost, they must play the instrument well and know both how it functions in the most efficient manner possible, and if not, how to problem solve their errors quickly and effectively. So, consequently a lot of time, especially with the

young ones, is spent on tone production, projection, efficiency, mobility and flow and other necessary technical issues. I tend to utilize the methods of Arban, Clarke, Schlossberg, Charlier, Gates, Concone, Colin, Bosquet, Sachse, Hering and other standards for undergrads and Arban-Maire, Bitsch, Aaron Harris, Vizzutti and Snedecor for the grads. All are expected to transpose (in classical or jazz idioms), keep up scale and chord work, work on solo literature, do range exercises and lip flexibilities, prepare their phrasing, be curious and ask questions, and maintain a regular regimen of intelligent practice and live and recorded listening. Jazz majors, and some brave classical majors, also transcribe, compose and work on voice-leading principles. Everyone is encouraged to maintain their “own voice,” but that is sometimes hard to achieve.RH: Are there some things you emphasize in balancing the students routines?AH: Not really. The assignments I give either are clearly balanced already or I leave it in their hands. Things I tend to be emphatic about are – practice as slowly as you need to MASTER

something, repeat that perfected item a lot to ingrain it, and consider spreading out your practice so you can maintain a fresh perspective and pretty fresh chops! Thoughtless practice done in an inefficient way is such a waste of honest efforts – some are not even aware they are doing it! I see my biggest role as being a guide for the inexperienced trumpeter – to help them get on a good path and then to teach them to help themselves eventually! My students hear these words a lot from me – project, emote, slower, efficiency, balance, center/core, slot, phrase – and the list goes on!RH: Changing gears. Can you share with my readers your involvement with your role as chief researcher and chief interviewer for Dr. Nick Catalano’s biography, Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter?  Can you share the type of content you provided?AH: Sure – I’ve been researching Brownie since I was a graduate student in Illinois in 1992. I first interviewed his widow LaRue for a school project by phone and she put me in touch with others in Wilmington, DE and the list just started to grow and grow. I soon made my way to

Wilmington and interviewed many of his family and friends there, had some sessions with his teacher Robert ‘Boysie’ Lowery and started collecting every bit of information I could on Clifford – it became somewhat of an obsession for a while! I finally did get to meet LaRue and some of the other legendary Brownie associates in person. My reputation as a Brown scholar started to expand and consequently I’ve written several articles on him and made numerous presentations nationwide. When Nick Catalano was contracted to write the first Brown biography for Oxford University Press, he actually moved down to Miami, where I was a grad student and wrote the draft, utilizing all of my research, interviews and collected data. We met on a semi-daily basis and as it turned out, most all of my research ended up comprising the chapters on Clifford’s early years. I do have plans to expand on that first biography, utilizing far more of my research than Nick did, adding some new research and writing it from a trumpeter’s perspective. There’s also a video documentary on Brownie by Don Glanden and his son Brad that is forthcoming and is VERY

interesting and thoughtfully done. I had some input into that as well. I also have future plans to hold a 5-day “CB Jazz Trumpet Retreat” in Wilmington, DE – stay tuned! RH: You’re project Just A Little Taste is an awesome Brownie tribute Al. Please share with us how that was conceived and put together?AH: “Just A Little Taste” is my first CD as a leader (I only have two!) and is really a collaborative effort with my good friend and DU faculty colleague Dave Hanson. Dave is one of the premiere writers of this generation, especially in the orchestral jazz idiom – a little sprinkle of all the greats – and one day I asked him if he wanted to do an orchestral/jazz trumpet album with me a la ‘Clifford Brown with Strings.’ He said yes, I got a school grant to get started and it was as simple as that. He started writing beautiful pieces one by one; I asked for a few, like “I Remember Clifford,” “Pure Imagination,” “Do You Know What It Means (To Miss New Orleans)” and “If I Loved You” and left most of the rest up to him. We recorded it with a quartet, sometimes a quintet, over a few days and added the strings and winds

later – it’s pretty hard to tell we did it separately. I’m proud of that fact, and even though I would have loved to record it all together, it just wasn’t possible. It retains the essence and vibe of the Clifford with Strings session, but is in no way a copy of the style of that monumental recording. It has become for me, and I think will forever remain, a very special musical experience.RH: Let’s talk about the H2 Big Band. How did it start? Is the band active locally? And what are some goals that you and Dave have for this?AH: The H2 Big Band is the result of the second collaboration between Dave Hanson and myself. (The H2 represents the first letter of our last names) I received another university grant and it was our plan to move on to the big band idiom if that ever happened. So, Dave began writing over the course of a year, cranking out magnificent arrangements and originals and we tried most of the charts with our Lamont School Jazz Orchestra in concert first, giving Dave an idea of whether they would work well or if they needed some tweaks. The band itself is only a studio phenomenon, unfortunately – we only had one 4-hour rehearsal and two days in the studio

to get what we did. It is composed mostly of local Denver players, but I did import 4 members – the incomparable Bobby Shew on trumpet, Jason Carder (Miami), and Mike Rodriguez (NYC) on trumpets and Glenn Kostur (Albuquerque) on bari sax. We’ve played a live CD Release once at the 2011 Rafael Mendez Brass Institute here in Denver, but that’s it! Dave and I would love to actually have a live band here in Denver to continue to play this swinging music and have plans for a second H2 Big Band CD. So, a working band would be ideal… RH: You’re it, is going to get many great reviews, because it is contemporary, yet, Swingin’. Share with us how you and Dave conceived the plan that led to this recording.AH: With the trumpet section we picked, we definitely wanted some swinging brass features. I picked “Joy Spring” of course (!), and that became a ‘celebration’ of sorts on the recording. All of the tunes ended up having that sense of camaraderie and togetherness, even though we were only together such a short time. Dave’s writing is world class, and on the CD there’s a

sense of a swinging tradition, done in a contemporary way, but never abandoning that tradition. Some of the more esoteric pieces like “For Claus” and “Romanza” are masterpieces by Dave, but fit incredibly well beside the powerful swing materials. I can only applaud Dave for this and the beautiful playing of my cohorts. The CD has received several great reviews, though not from high profile magazines. But the real achievement has been in the airplay – it’s still (4 months later) in the top 50 on Jazz Week’s radio play chart, spending most of the Summer in the top 20, peaking at #10 two times! It also sat on the number one spot of Bob Parlocha’s Top 40 list for several weeks. Now we are entered on the ballot in the 54th Grammy “Best Large Jazz Ensemble” category, so we’ll see what transpires with that!RH: You enjoy a wonderfully balanced life of performance and teaching. Playing with everyone from Phil Collins Big Band to performing with an excellent Faculty Brass Ensemble, the Lamont Brass Trio. How do you make it all work for you?

AH: Can I borrow some Sominex!? Seriously, I am blessed with that balance and for having the opportunity to play with MANY great musicians in a city of Denver’s size. I trained that way, I always wanted it that way and I strive for that mixture of making great music and art with like-minded musicians. Sometimes my chops say “No!,” but I try to keep in decent enough shape to play classical in groups like the Brass Trio and the Denver Brass and jazz with the Ken Walker Sextet and some of my own groups I occasionally lead. It’s more of a mind switch in the long run – knowing what it REALLY needs to sound like for the situation you’re currently sitting in. Listening to all of the nuances of the styles you need to play and keeping mental track of that, and simply just ENJOYING playing in all of those situations, challenging though they may be. I wouldn’t have it any other way.RH: Al, I ask everyone this, what is your take on the future of Jazz Education and performance?AH: I believe it is bright and brilliant as long as the students and educators keep their attention on the music and the traditions progressing and

not on the hype, superficiality and at times, greed of the music marketing machine. I’ve played with plenty of honest expert musicians and have seen enough brilliant educators in action to know we’ll be in good hands for some time to come, but the more folks who are in the field for the wrong reasons that can come around to that realization (or get out of the business altogether), the better off we’ll be. It’s certainly an overcrowded scenario and could use a little “house cleaning!”