← Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
"Hans Schuman: Jazz Reach's Mission to Bring Jazz education and Community Through Community" Takin A Walk
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Podcast Announcer
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Hans Schumann
And Doug.
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Narrator/Voice Actor
Here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.
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Cut the camera. They see us.
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Doug (Liberty Mutual Character)
Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Very Underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates Excludes Massachusetts.
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Sophie Cunningham
This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity? They may be happening to you without you knowing. If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability and concentration issues, it may be due to osa. OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation. Learn more at don'tsleep on osa.com this information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.
- [01:45]
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Buzz Knight
Taking a walk well I'm Buzz Knight and welcome to the Taking a Walk podcast. And we love telling stories about the great work that in non profits that celebrate music and that apply the greater good theory like we like to call it on Taking a Walk. So on this episode I'M proud to welcome Hans Schumann. Hello, Hans.
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Hans Schumann
How you doing, Buzz? Good to see you.
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Buzz Knight
I'm doing tremendous. Now, Hans, you are the founder of the national nonprofit Jazz Reach, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, which is incredible. Uh, we're going to talk about the organization and the work that you do, which is so incredible. It's across. Do I have this correct, Hans? Across 42 states.
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Hans Schumann
Yep. We tour nationally and we've, you know, since inception, we've. We've presented our work in partnership with major performing arts presenters in over 42 states.
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Buzz Knight
So it's great work celebrating music, taking music out into the community, and that outreach we're going to talk about and the beginnings of Jazz Reach. We'll talk to Hans Schumann coming up right after this.
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Narrator/Voice Actor
Taking a Walk.
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Buzz Knight
Well, Hans, welcome to the Taking a Walk podcast. I appreciate you being on.
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Hans Schumann
I appreciate you having me on.
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Buzz Knight
And we like to open up the Taking a Walk podcast with this little question first. So you're not going to escape this question. If you could take a walk with somebody, living or dead, Hans, who would you take a walk with, and where would you take that walk?
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Hans Schumann
I think I would take a walk or choose to take a walk, if he'd so generously permit with James Baldwin, the great American author and intellectual. And I would. I can't imagine a better place to walk than Harlem, which was home to him for most of his life.
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Buzz Knight
That would be. There would be a story or two to tell.
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Hans Schumann
Absolutely.
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Buzz Knight
And a lot to unpack, as they say, Right?
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Hans Schumann
Absolutely. No, I mean, obviously, it was one of the. One of the deepest intellectuals of our. Of. Well, at least of the 20th century, and continues to be studied and celebrated and. And for good measure.
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Buzz Knight
So thank you for sharing that, Hans. And I want to congratulate you, first of all, on the amazing work of Jazz Reach. Tell me about the beginnings of Jazz Reach. And this goes back to the mid-90s, is that correct?
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Hans Schumann
In effect? Yeah. I mean, growing up, I should mention that I'm a musician and I play the drums, and I began playing in eighth grade and sort of was introduced to jazz sort of in reverse. I was very much a product of my generation insofar as the only exposure I had to most music was popular music. And, you know, I'm definitely of the MTV generation, and so. But I also participated in my high school's jazz ensemble. And so many of my friends played saxophones and trumpets, and by the very nature of the fact that they played those instruments meant that they were a little bit more aware of jazz and certainly appreciated the music more than I did, at least at that time. And so, you know, we would, we would go to each other's houses after school and listen to records and make sandwiches and just have these sort of like little listening parties. And so I sort of, I was sort of lukewarm to it, but then became sort of introduced to sort of like the sort of progressive rock or fusion stuff. And then, you know, which, which would mean, you know, Genesis and Russian bands like that and then would sort of, and sort of gradually was introduced to, you know, to bands like Weather Report and Chickera and some of his bands. And then subsequently Miles Davis and then Miles Davis's history. Obviously I would go and reverse to his career and it was introduced to all the great, subsequently all the great musicians who we all celebrate today and all the Blue Note artists and all the sort of mainstream, straight ahead jazz music sort of. So that process was sort of a, a cultivation of a passion, you know, for this music. And, and so eventually after high school, I went to Berkeley College of Music where I was really sort of put in touch with students my own age peers who were even far more serious and passionate than I was, which was great. And so it really, that was very inspirational to me. But also I, I grew up in Tucson, Arizona and aside from the University of Arizona, was sort of a, A, a cultural desert, pun intended. But when I got to Boston, all of a sudden I, I had access to, to all of my heroes who were coming into Boston regularly. You know, so we're talking about like Max Roach and Elvin Jones and Tony Williams and Billy Higgins and Al Foster and just the list goes on. Roy Haynes and just all these amazing folks who, who up to that point I'd only heard on record. So that that sort of further immersed me into the music and made me ever more passionate about it. So fast forward, you know, after Berkeley, I moved to New York City to sort of pursue my own career path. Just to basically play the music and play as much as I could and so forth. But along, along the way, I should say, like between the time I moved to New York City in 1990 and between then and 94, when I established jazz reach, I sort of became increasingly concerned about young people's lack of access to jazz music and its history and opportunities to experience it live and so to speak, I'd had one sort of transformative experience or pivotal experience when I was asked to do a little educational presentation with a trio at a downtown Brooklyn high school and was really just Sort of taken aback by the students level of sort of disengagement and disinterest. And I thought, this can't be about the music. Something's happening where, you know, I don't know if it was our, the way that we delivered it or what, but there has to be a way to further immerse these young people and engage them in a meaningful way and impactful way. And so that was sort of like the germ or the impetus to sort of start jazz reach.
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Buzz Knight
And it was a light bulb moment.
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Hans Schumann
It was a light bulb moment. Certainly you knew it was right, you.
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Buzz Knight
Knew it was something that was going to help others, was going to satisfy your curiosity, but cement your passion for the music, right?
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Hans Schumann
Yeah. I mean, I just felt like it was, it was, you know, young people are entitled to access to their own cultural heritage or their, you know, and history and, and the fact that this wasn't a subject that was included in most students, you know, social studies or history curriculums. You know, they didn't really have access to artistic excellence insofar as musicians coming into their communities and performing for them. And so there was a void that I saw that needed to be filled.
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Buzz Knight
So how did you embark on this journey then?
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Hans Schumann
Very idealistically and very naively. You know, I, I had had no prior not for profit experience, that's for sure. I had no idea what running a not for profit would entail, but I knew it was, was, was something that I was going to take very seriously and I wasn't going to allow to fail. And it's one of those things, like, the more I talked about it with friends and peers and other musicians, it sort of put me against the wall insofar as holding myself accountable to do what I said I was going to do, which is a good thing, I think, but nonetheless, I had a friend who I'd gone to college with, who after college became the very first development director for SF Jazz. At the time, I think they were called Jazz in the City, but they were producers of the San Francisco Jazz Festival. And, and so he was charged. They too were sort of in their infancy. They were a little further along than we were. But my friend was hired as their very first development director. And I basically said, can you send me some writing samples in terms of grant writing and fundraising and things like that. And so he sent me writing samples that were for grant requests, individual donations, and I think sponsorships. And that sort of became the foundation of my grant writing expertise, I would say. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I. Yeah, for Lack of a better word. So. So it was basically from that point forward, it was just. It was just everything was a learning experience. And it, you know, again, I founded the organization in 1994, which sort of predated the Internet. And so, you know, I used to. I used to go to either New York Philharmonic concerts or I'd go to the very sort of first Jazz Lincoln center concerts. And I'd take those playbills home and I'd go to the back where acknowledge all of their donors and I would sort of make lists, you know, by hand, these lists of like, foundations that were sort of historically committed to supporting the arts. And so then I would have to go to a place called the foundation center, which is based in. At the time, it was based in the Flatiron district. And you literally had to go there. This was, again, this predates the Internet, so there was no online portal or any way to access any of this information remotely. So, yeah, and they had these big books, and again, these. All this information was not available on a computer. It was these large books, like bigger than phone books, that were designated by areas of interest. So there would be a big book of foundations, you know, and it would be nationwide. It was a nationwide book. And, you know, foundations that support social services or things like that. And then there were. There were other books that were designated foundations that supported the arts. So I would then cross ref. I'd go down my list and get the information. And it was just, literally just trial and error, trial and error. And I have to say, the first four years or so, first three years, we got nothing but declines from all the foundations. And mind you, we had no track record, no history, nothing that proved that we were capable of doing what we said we did. I would send these three page meandering letters on the merits of jazz music and its place in our nation's cultural heritage and why it's so important to make sure that young people have access, blah, blah, blah, blah. But nonetheless, you know, three years of sending, you know, I mean, tens upon tens upon tens upon tens of proposals, only to, you know, sort of be rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected. And so we didn't really get our very first Grant until maybe 97 or 98. And it was the ASCAP foundation that responded to a letter that I had written. And they took me to lunch and I wore my best suit and tried to make as strong a case as possible. And they ended up giving us a small grant. But nonetheless, it enabled us to sort of premiere our debut educational program for a Full house of New York City public school students. That sort of launched us a little bit, but, you know, it was slow going from that point forward, but it went nonetheless.
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Buzz Knight
And that culmination after those dark moments of not, you know, getting bites on funding, the culmination of that finally that first program must have been absolutely mind blowingly exhilarating.
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Hans Schumann
Yeah, it was very, I mean, it was very affirming, particularly after all that rejection. And I, I have to. There was one, one moment when I received a manila envelope in the mail from a school that had attended that very first performance. And in it were all these letters, just letters, just probably maybe 40 to 50 letters from, from students who had, who had attended this performance. And they were all just so positively glowing and complimentary that I literally. I started, I bawled. I started to cry sitting there on my bed because it had just been such a process, you know, not knowing whether or not, you know, what I wanted to do was ever going to be embraced by anyone or affirmed by anyone to the extent that they supported or funded or make what we, what we were striving to do possible. So, yeah, so that was, yeah, that was pivotal.
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Buzz Knight
And just watching the, the five minute video, talking about jazz reach on, on YouTube and just seeing the, the faces of the students and just their joy and how locked in they are to what's going on is just so beautiful. It's amazing.
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Hans Schumann
It is beautiful and it continues to fill my cup. I mean, as you can imagine, 30 years in, I'm certainly wrestling with some burnout and I'm certainly trying to muster all the inspiration, motivation that I can to sort of keep going and keeping it growing. And obviously I am committed. But the reminders are always help whenever we get these opportunities we present seasonally, so it's consistent with the academic calendar. So we generally begin our annual seasons of educational programming in the fall. January through April or May tend to be the busiest periods of time. But yeah, within those, with those, within those spans of time when we, when we're actually out there carrying out the mission and doing what we are so committed to doing, it's. It's certainly a re. Energizing. And yeah, the cup runneth over in those moments, thankfully, you know, because I think we continue, obviously like any organization, you know, we continue to get rejected or, you know, requests for funding declined and you know, so it's, it remains a, an arduous process to continue from one season to the next. So, I mean, we're fortunate that we have cultivated really meaningful, impactful partnerships with performing arts presenters around the country who present our work on their stages. I mean, they play a major, major role in making what we do possible. And insofar as giving us access to their community, going so far as to market the programs and promote the programs and to ensure that schools have buses to bring the students into the performing arts venues and so forth. So, yeah, we're grateful for them.
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Buzz Knight
And there's also the aspect of new touring seasons that you sort of create new particular themes. There's a new one that's celebrating the John Coltrane centennial that I'd love for you to talk about.
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Hans Schumann
Sure. So I should mention that most of our educational programming is in the form of these live productions. So the productions are generally between 55 to 60 minutes long and are theme or subject oriented. They're all scripted and integrate live narration with live music. And all of this is complemented with really beautiful video projections. So this is sort of our template or our formula for presenting the music. So we do have a program on Miles Davis, on Duke Ellington. We have programs that promote the histories of Latin jazz and women in jazz. And we have programs that sort of highlight the history of jazz, sort of using 20th century American history as a backdrop. We've got a relatively new program called Janis Jaunting, which aims to promote innovations and developments in jazz between 1990 and present day. So to your comment about a new program, particularly the John Coltrane program, it's sort of what we're working on currently, and we hope to sort of have a soft debut of that program in early January. There's a performing arts presenters conference in New York that takes place every January called apat, which stands for the association of Performing Arts Presenters. And it's really where all of the performing arts presenters around the country converge to sort of explore opportunities for the coming season. So it's always beneficial for us to showcase a new work that we're planning to feature for the next season. And so we're hoping to sort of have the program more or less finished by then, and then we'll offer it for presentation in the 26, 27 season.
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Buzz Knight
So over time, I think you have observed and passed on your learnings about what jazz does for the students in these communities and talk about some of those takeaways that I think are very key for people to understand and why this is important.
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Hans Schumann
First and foremost. I mean, to experience a live jazz performance is to sort of experience the most aspirational of our democratic principles and ideals sort of in action. Right. So this notion that you have any number of musicians on stage reacting to one another, interacting with, with one another, communicating with one another, and participating in a democratic process that gives everyone equal weight and equal say. So you have the, the accompaniment portion or, or component of, you know, which is to say that the, the rhythm section is always sort of supporting the soloists, right? Sort of give them a forum or a platform to, to sound as, as great as they can sound and be as great as they can be. So you have this accompaniment portion, but then you have this opportunity to solo and really express yourself and to, to have your voice be heard and to have had an individual say so in, you know, that, that said, you know, you literally have sort of like the democratic process sort of embodied in that, in that experience. But they're also, I mean, the young people who attend our performances also, you know, it may be their first time participating as an audience member. So it sort of cultivates this, this awareness of what it means to participate, you know, and enjoy music from a listener's point of view. And it's also, you know, oftentimes it's their, their first time experiencing, you know, what we might call, and I realize this is subjective, but what we, what we might call artistic excellence. You know, you have these individual musicians who have dedicated their lives to the practice of their instruments and to the mastery of their instruments. And I think it's important to, to see anyone who's committed themselves to something passionately and who are, are so dedicated to achieving, you know, excellence at what they do. So I mean, that's, that's a, that's the short, the short list.
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Buzz Knight
And of course there's the empathetic aspects of it. That's sort of referred to the collaborative aspects of it, but there are these, these not so subtle learnings that come out of that process and that listening as well.
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Hans Schumann
Right? Yeah. Well, interaction, to interact in a meaningful way or in a way that produces great art is in of itself an act of empathy and compassion.
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Buzz Knight
So how can folks help out in the mission of Jazz Reach?
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Hans Schumann
Well, they can certainly go to our website, which is jazz reach.org if they're interested in supporting us. Obviously we encourage them to make a donation to our organization. If they're based in New York City and are interested in playing sort of an active role, they can inquire with me about the possibility of joining our board of directors or playing some sort of advisory role. We're currently in the process of carrying out some capacity building plans and strategies that are kind of taking me out of my depths or my comfortable wheelhouse. And so that's a capital project where we're aiming to sort of build a facility in the upper Hudson Valley of New York State. But we're very much in the embryonic stages of implementing that project, so I could certainly use some insight and expertise in some of those areas. But first and foremost, if anyone's interested in supporting us, we'd certainly encourage you to donate by just going to our website.
- [23:27]
Buzz Knight
It's amazing work. You wouldn't be the type of person to crow about things like this, but you've never missed a single Jazz reach performance in 30 years, and your work is incredible and it's so important and we're grateful for it. But we we hope others understand it and appreciate it because it deserves having a light shining on it. So thank you, Hans Schumann, for everything you're doing.
- [23:52]
Hans Schumann
I can't thank you enough for giving me the opportunity to speak about it. Means a lot. Thank you, Buzz.
- [23:57]
Buzz Knight
Thank you, Hans.
- [24:00]
Narrator/Voice Actor
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.
- [24:18]
Chase Sapphire Reserve Announcer
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- [25:12]
Sophie Cunningham
This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA in adults with obesity? They may be happening to you without you knowing. If anyone has ever said you snored loudly, or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability and concentration issues, it may be due to osa. OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation. Learn more at don'tsleep on OSA.com this information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.
- [25:51]
Doug (Liberty Mutual Character)
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Pets Best Insurance Announcer
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Hans Schumann
But first. There the last one.
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Pets Best Insurance Announcer
Enjoy a Coca Cola for a pause that refreshes.
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Doug (Liberty Mutual Character)
And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means playing in a football game.
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Hans Schumann
Boom.
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Narrator/Voice Actor
42. You're going down, Doug.
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Doug (Liberty Mutual Character)
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Narrator/Voice Actor
Hey.
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Doug (Liberty Mutual Character)
Limu, what are you doing on their team? Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty.
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