Berklee Global Jazz Institute Celebrates International Jazz Day with Outreach

The BGJI performed for local students and hosted workshops in Newport, Rhode Island, to fulfill its mission of using jazz to build communities, provide mentorship, and live up to its mantra of “with talent comes responsibility.” 

June 12, 2015

Frank Carroll and his bandmates hurried into the performance hall. They had gotten stuck in traffic on the way to Newport, Rhode Island, and were running late for the jazz clinic. But as soon as Carroll saw the charismatic figure on the stage—the man at the piano working with a group of young musicians like himself—he stopped in his tracks.

Carroll, 18, a senior at Barrington High School in Rhode Island, immediately recognized the man as Grammy Award–winning jazz pianist and composer Danilo Pérez.

“I was a little starstruck,” acknowledges Carroll, who plays the drums in Barrington High’s jazz ensemble. He and dozens of other local high school students had come to the Casino Theatre in Newport that afternoon to attend a lecture and master class led by Pérez, a Berklee professor and artistic director of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute (BGJI). The workshop put on by the BGJI was produced by Newport Festivals Foundation in association with Salve Regina University, and was part of an all day celebration of International Jazz Day on April 30

Any flash of intimidation Carroll felt initially, however, evaporated as he watched Pérez and musicians from the BGJI work with the local students on stage. Their feedback was detailed, not pedantic. It was delivered in a way that was encouraging, not patronizing.

Pérez suggested one drummer avoid overplaying so as not to drown out the Latin roots of the piece that group just performed. With another group, he explained the difference between “talking with the saxophone versus whispering with the saxophone versus shouting with the saxophone,” Carroll recalls.

“The fact that he was so warm and easygoing made it really easy to appreciate what he was saying,” Carroll says. “I know that when I play again, I can just call to mind what he was saying because he made it memorable—but he also made it accessible.”

It’s an approach that wasn’t lost on Roni Eytan, an eighth-semester student at Berklee and a harmonica player with the BGJI. Eytan and other BGJI musicians in Newport that day worked directly with local students during the master class, giving him a renewed appreciation for Pérez’s talents as not only a musician but also as an instructor.

“It was a class for us in pedagogy and teaching music to younger generations,” says Eytan, a double-major in performance and professional music. “And the music that we play has tremendous power—not just power to be great, to be successful, and to make people enjoy your music. It’s the power to help people and literally make change.”

Jazz as a Mechanism for Change

For Pérez, events like the workshops in Newport fulfill BGJI’s objective to use jazz to build communities, nurture opportunities for mentorship, and live up to the institute’s mantra of “with talent comes responsibility.”

“It’s a mission, basically—larger than playing an instrument. When we are in front of those kids, it is an opportunity to touch their lives in a way that inspires them,” Pérez says. “[The BGJI musicians] see and feel the responsibility of keeping this art form alive.”

Having performed with the BGJI everywhere from orphanages to elderly care facilities to prisons, Eytan says he’s seen firsthand the profound effect this outreach has on communities, as well as on himself as a musician.

“I’ve seen Danilo countless times lifting up people with his music, and it changed the way that I play,” he says. “I’m always aiming for that place of truly reaching people and hopefully making change.”

Not Just a ‘Children’s Concert’

The afternoon class with older students was half of the BGJI’s work in Newport. Earlier in the day, Pérez and the Berklee musicians performed a concert for local elementary school students, playing songs from Pérez’s latest album, Panama 500.

“We didn’t treat it like they’re children and we’re going to play a ‘children’s concert.’ No, it’s really like we’re playing at Carnegie Hall,” Pérez explains.

His young audience responded in kind. Energy in the room grew as the BGJI musicians started improvising to complement Pérez’s intro. It’s a testament, he says, to the universal nature of jazz.

“I started doing a piano solo for [the children] and they started clapping [along], and it was amazing. At the end, you know, we’re leaving a concert and they’re still sitting down. They’re like, ‘OK, it’s over? That’s it?’” Pérez recalls with a laugh. “To see that it doesn’t need to be diluted for children—they took it, they reacted, and they enjoyed it—it just touched my heart.”

It’s an experience that famed jazz promoter George Wein, chairman of the Newport Festivals Foundation, hopes will stay with the students for years to come.

“I remember hearing a performance of ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ during a school assembly many years ago.  I have never forgotten how exciting it was for me,” Wein says. “Hopefully, hearing Danilo and the Berklee Global Jazz Institute students will be as exciting for the students from the Newport public schools.”

One of the most memorable moments of the day came when Pérez, in the true spirit of improvisation, unexpectedly asked Eytan, the group’s harmonica player, to sing at one point in the concert.

“I like the way he sings. He sings with this Middle Eastern influence, and these kids went crazy—they really did,” Pérez says.

Eytan acknowledges he was stunned when Pérez asked him to sing in his native language, Hebrew, but says he was happy do his part to promote the BGJI’s other mission: creating unity among different cultures through music. 

“It wasn’t what I thought I would do, but it was totally cool. It was really beautiful just to get to share who you are and what you love, and that’s what’s amazing about Danilo. He always pushes everyone to do their best and to their creative limits,” Eytan says. “I never thought I’d be singing, but he actually encouraged me to do it more and more. He helped me find my voice—literally this time.”