Creative Response

           This is a video recording captured during the latest jazz practice that I attended with Martin Schwacha. I am fortunate enough to be able to perform with the UIW Cardinal Jazz Band alongside Schwacha as the second alto saxophone. Once a week, we as a band practice together for two hours in preparation for our group gigs. Some of the charts include arrangements from Schwacha, as well as other members of the group. Listening to these great charts is one aspect, but performing alongside this brilliant artist is truly an astounding activity. I walk out of that jazz session every week feeling newly inspired from all the creativity that I am surrounded by in that band. I absolutely love big band jazz, and it’s arrangements like this that fuel my desire to write music. This tune happens to be one of my favorite charts that we currently play as a band, and one that the audience always seems to love when we perform it at The Cove. That is why I put this video together for the sake of having a more permanent form of music as Schwacha explained in my interview with him. Creativity inspires creativity.  

Local Living Musician Martin Schwacha

Martin Schwacha - Ideas About Music

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Imagine a nightclub in the New York jazz-mecca era of the 1940s. Bebop fills the room with the buzzing air of what would become jazz standards. These are the sensations you’ll find when listening to the compositions and arrangements of baritone saxophonist, Martin Schwacha. Born in 1959 in north New Jersey, this musician was brought up surrounded by the jazz atmosphere and immersed in a world of music.  Through his 48 years of playing saxophone, while building and maintaining a career outside of music, Schwacha now positions as one of the leading baritone saxophone soloists, performers, and writers in the local area of San Antonio, Texas. His compositions and arrangements demonstrate his musical prowess, as his background in jazz and bebop exuberate this proficiency throughout his performances.

            Having picked up the saxophone at age of nine, Schwacha has worked his way from the alto to the baritone and now to the soprano as he has continued to evolve within the jazz music that he has been performing throughout his life. The opportunities he was presented with, growing up so close to New York City, influenced his pursuit into the jazz genre. In high school he was able to perform with professional musicians from New York who would sit in with the stage jazz band on charts such as Maynard Ferguson arrangements. This ignited a fire within him for jazz. He played jazz throughout college on the side while studying at the University of Rhode Island. He has studied with the renowned jazz trombonist, Hal Crook. After graduating, he played in southern New England with a number of blues bands that primarily focused on Chicago jump style and Ray Charles arrangements. It was not until after college that he began to attempt writing, having understood harmony on a rudimentary level. Schwacha explained that,

“maybe it was a desire to leave something more

permanent and less interim than jazz improvisation;

where you play a solo and it's there and it’s gone.

Some of that stemmed honestly I think from my father

who was a fine artist and painter . . .  He liked the idea

that I was writing music and having something kind

of permanent like that and I enjoyed that creative process.”

             While playing in blues bands after college such as East Coast Rockers, Stovall Brown and the Bobby Watson Band, while also writing songs and lead sheets, Schwacha inevitably began arranging. He goes on to explain that, “it would be nice to kind of arrange and have them [jazz standards] played in a different sort of setting, but it is another aspect of being creative in the creative process.” His works of arranging various jazz standards invariably help to maintain the songs for present audiences to hear performed live. New arrangements also help the genre to continue to thrive and evolve as musicians build upon one another’s musical ideas, forming new repertoires.

             Having developed a career now in biomedical research, which is very separated from music, playing and writing have become even more important to Schwacha, as it feeds the part of his personality that needs to be taken care of as far as creativity. But furthermore, as Schwacha states, “it is the release.”  This release is from the pressures of the day; his daily activities of interaction with other professors and surgeons, writing grants, and doing research in the lab, all the activities he performs that are completely devoid of music.  It is that search of release that motivates him to continue his writing and arranging music, not having it be a financial obligation but a way of expression and relief.

Activities Involving Music

Martin Schwacha moved to San Antonio in 2008 from Birmingham, Alabama and quickly became active in the Jazz scene through the Small World jam session. This freelance musician, composer and arranger has performed with Dave Ballou, Paul Butterfield, Richie Cole, Hal Crook, Phil Watson and a multitude of others. Here in San Antonio, Schwacha recorded his first release, Sweet Serendipity, at Peter Carey’s Rhythm Room. He currently holds down the baritone sax chair and a number of big bands around San Antonio, as well as writes and arranges for a number of various groups. He now actively performs locally at venues such as the Blue Star, The Cove, Patty Lou’s Restaurants, and Olmos Bharmacy.

Schwacha had been working at the University of Alabama Birmingham before moving to his current home in San Antonio, Texas. While there, he was also playing in the ensembles, writing, and teaching music on the side to keep musically active. Not having heard anything about a jazz scene in San Antonio, Texas, he was not aware of what the city held for his future when he moved there. Having stumbled upon the jazz radio station, KRTU, when first arriving in San Antonio, Schwacha heard about a jam session at the Boardwalk Bistro. He took his saxophone down to the event and explains, “I was just stunned by the quality of musicianship I had absolutely no idea that there was this jazz scene here in San Antonio with the quality of players that existed in this [city].” Since then he has been introduced to and networked with some of the leading performing jazz musicians around San Antonio such as John Magaldi, the leader of the San Antonio Prime Time Jazz Orchestra.

Like many performing artists, Martin Schwacha first “test drove” his music at public venues before recording. One of his arrangements being analyzed in this blog, Georgia on My Mind, would fall into this category of songs currently being test driven but not having been professionally recorded yet. Much like his compositions on his debut CD, “Sweet Serendipity,” which he performed for a number of years with his group Funky Bebop at venues such as Olmos Bharmacy and others around San Antonio before recording. It was from this opportunity to perform publicly before recording that enables him to fine tune his writings and see the reactions of audiences to them.

For Schwacha, it is much better to be performing music that an audience is interacting with, attentive to, and appreciative of. “Without question the environment where you are able to feed off that kind of energy from an audience is the type of situation I would prefer.” And with the multitude of opportunities that have emerged over time for him in San Antonio, Schwacha says, “it is actually been a godsend to me as I’ve had more opportunities playing here than I’ve had playing right out of college.” But like most performing musicians who perform in smaller local venues, occasionally the music will become background for the audience, who are only partially attentive. At this point, Schwacha believes, “you can kind of come into a situation where you’re playing for yourself and your musical peers and interacting on that level.” Though with a group like Funky Bebop, the vibing sounds of the baritone are sure to perk the ears of all listeners alike.

Repertoires of music

             Martin Schwacha grew up in a family very involved in the fine arts, a father who was a painter and a fine artist, a mother who could play piano, and a brother who played tuba. Schwacha was surrounded by a number of music cultures, growing up so close to New York. His parents, having come from a classical music background, exposed him and his brother to music throughout their formative years. While in school, Schwacha would focus on the jazz ensembles, being a saxophone player. Growing up totally immersed in these musical cultures, music was always important to his family.  This immersion invariably filled his repertoire.

“In college, while my major was not a music, it was actually

in animal agriculture, I took as many electives in music courses

that I could take. That included courses in ensembles, also

courses in jazz improvisation. I started taking courses in

writing and arranging, and fortunately I was able to study

with trombonist, writer, and arranger, Haul Croaker, who

teaches at Berklee College of music in Boston”

 Being a saxophone player, jazz music naturally falls within the idiom of the sax and thus inclines the ear of Schwacha. With a repertoire of predominately jazz standards and what can be termed as the great American songbook, he plays standards of a lot of bebop and hard-bop from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. Having lived some time in Alabama before moving to San Antonio as well as growing up in New Jersey playing charts such as arrangements of Ray Charles, Schwacha’s own arrangement of Georgia on My Mind is teeming with the passionate soul-filled sound that his repertoire has influenced.

The bluesy style of tempo rubato that he opens the piece with is a heartwarming introduction to the tune. Following the main melody, he works in ostinatos and blends ornamentation in a slightly improvised style with each performance. The slow introduction of his solo baritone saxophone with the pianist backing him up seems to be mostly inspired by the opening line of Ray Charles’s 1985 cover of the tune. The brass section comes in on the repeat of the melody as a pad, mimicking the string section of that cover. The robust voice of the baritone impersonates the impassioned timbre of Charles himself. The tempo is slightly slower than that of the Charles cover and that of the 1930 recording from the original composer, Hoagy Carmichael, creating a more “greasy bluzie” sound. After two minutes of the slow tempo, the band suddenly crescendos out of mezzo forte to Schwacha’s solo in the baritone that leads the band into a tempo change, speeding up from a tempo of 70bpm to around 200bpm. This speeding up gives the piece a sudden swing feel as the baritone continues to lead, highlighting the technical prowess of Schwacha’s playing. This up-tempo section only lasts for a few phrases until the band crescendos to a fermata before cutting off into a drum solo that re-sets the initial slower “bluzie” tempo to end the song with. What seemed a relived moment in music history comes to a reverberating decay, like Schwacha says, “it’s there and it’s gone.”

Apart from arrangements, a number of Schwacha’s compositions are contrafacts, which are jazz melodies over standard cord progressions and familiar harmonic structures. In fact, some of the arrangements that he has brought to big bands such as the UIW Cardinal Jazz Band have been contrafacts. His composition Pepper Like that was based on Honeysuckle Rose and another composition, One Way or Another that was based on Night and Day. These are two jazz standards whose chord progressions were borrowed to create the new contrafacts. A piece from his album, Sweet Serendipity, falls into this category of contracts. Harold & The Purple Canyon is an original composition of Schwacha’s that borrows the chord progression of the jazz classic, It Could Happen To You by the composer Jimmy Van Heusen. Schwacha’s use of the chord progression to create a new swinging chart brings the tune into a new light while still highlighting the virtuosity of the instrumentalists performing. Through the vast repertoire that Schwacha has built over his life, his creativity is able to continue to produce memorable charts and fuel the jazz scene in San Antonio.

Sustainability

             Jazz, like many enduring genres, has seen an evolution through its years in existence. Artists like Martin Schwacha are the evidence of the continuing life of jazz. From bringing back some of the greatest songs in the genre’s history, to bringing new charts onto the scene, Schwacha sustains a mutual relationship with the genre; continuing its assured future while fueling his artistic side.

             Many universities across America teach jazz courses and maintain jazz ensembles as part of the curriculum for music majors. Some may argue that it is this type of conservatory attempt at sustainability that is producing musicians that are deprived of the ability to truly play music. Instead, throughout their years of studying, they are trained to play scales and practice written scores rather than seeking to put real soul and emotion into the actual pieces and make the music come to life. While these institutions may preserve the genre in the aspect of music theory, the essential aspect of true musicality arguably can be lost.

              As a college student, Schwacha did not emphasize jazz as anything more than a passionate hobby. For him, music was maintained by his passion alone, this sentiment without a doubt working it’s way into his music and filling it with a real sound. As a freelance musician, Schwacha does not rely on his musical work to sustain a living but rather uses it as a release and fuel for his creative side. Approaching music in this way does not confine him to performing and writing for the sake of monetary gains but rather for the sake of music itself.

It is often when musicians can truly put emotion and passion into their sound that audiences will truly become captivated. There comes into question the truth of the connection to the audience with performing jazz musicians. Many jazz artists seem to be intellectualizing the genre, which Schwacha fears often leads to the disconnectedness with the modern audience. This style of intellectual jazz is aimed more at other musicians, rather than the general audience. So Schwacha seeks to maintain a level of visceral connectedness with the listeners; this being one of the reasons that he performed his compositions from “Sweet Serendipity” publically at local venues before setting it to a permanent recording.

            

 Jazz has been infused with many different genres over the past few decades of its evolution. Having spent his formative years immersed in the jazz scenes, Schwacha has focused his writing to bebop and traditional jazz standards.  It is no wonder as a baritone saxophone soloist, that Schwacha has maintained a passion for these styles of jazz. While many various artists are continuing to infuse jazz with newer genres, such as pop and R&B to maintain a way of bringing jazz to new audiences, Schwacha believes that the golden days of jazz as a predominant genre are over. But he explains that, “my hope is that it will sustain and continue to be viable in some capacity I think that’s going to be up to the musicians that are playing it.” 

His passion for music fuels his hope to continue performing and writing until he can no more. This fiery passion that jazz has been known to instantiate within many musicians is clear evidence of its durability through the tests of time. Not having to stress about constantly finding venues to perform at, but rather using this music as a release, Schwacha undoubtedly will be able to continue to sustain his mutual relationship with music.  Jazz and bebop’s torch will be carried on for many years to come, and maybe one day this fire that Schwacha brings with him will ignite another’s listener’s passion for the genre.

Works Cited

Carmichael, Hoagy. "Georgia on My Mind." Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra.

           Timeless Records, New York City, 1999. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.

Robinson, Ray C., perf. "Georgia on My Mind." The Best of the Blues Singers. By Hoagy

           Carmichael. Denon Inc, New York, 2008. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.

Schwacha, Martin G. Herold & The Purple Canyon. 2012. San Antonio: Funky Bebop

           Music, 2012. 1th ed. CD-ROM. Sweet Serendipity

Schwacha, Martin G. Personal interview. 13 Nov. 2014.

Schwacha, Martin. “Sweet Serendipity.” Online video clip. YouTube. 17 Jan. 2011. Web.

           14 Nov. 2014

Titon, Jeff T. “Sustainable Music in China.” Sustainable Music. Blogspot. 15 Nov. 2009.

           Web. 12 Nov. 2014

Titon, Jeff T. Worlds of Music. 5thth ed. Belmont: Cengage Learning, 2009. N. pag.

           Print.

Wilson, Jeremy. Jazz Standards. Ed. Sandra Burlingame and Noah Baerman. N.p., 17

          Aug. 2005. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.