Musician describes connection to jazz

Jazz pianist Marcus Roberts, throughout his six-week residency at the University as part of the 28th annual Carolina Jazz Festival, has described jazz music as a creative art form, the music of surprise.

At the festival’s opening event Wednesday night, Roberts offered insight on his personal background and the history of the jazz genre.

How did you get involved in jazz music? What difficulties did you have getting into —

Into jazz? Well, I got into jazz as a child, listening to the radio and records and tapes, trying to figure the music out. It is a difficult music to learn, but the payoffs are immense once you acquire some of the skills that you need to do it. The biggest problem is finding people to play with. I’m from Jacksonville, Fla., and that’s kind of a country-western town, you know?

Not exactly the jazz capital?

No. So when I went to college at Florida State (University), you know, there were more people. And it was just a matter of finding more people and getting more experience, and finally I went on the road in 1985 with Wynton Marsalis, which was the first time I got the chance to play with people, you know, in my generation, who were really dedicated to the principles of the music.

The good thing now, I think there are more people teaching jazz music to the young people. I certainly try to do as much of it as I can, because I don’t feel when I came up that there was as much of that, you know? So we try to explain more of the fundamentals to them, show them ways to approach how to solve those problems, to swing and use syncopation and play the blues. … The elements of the music, we try to teach that, and expose it in a way that will maybe be a little easier for that generation than we had it.

What do you feel the importance of understanding the history of the music is in playing it?

The history of the music just gives you tools and vocabulary that you can use when you play. When you play the music, it’s the same as if you wanted to be a writer. It’s going to be helpful for you to understand different approaches to writing. The more vocabulary you know, the more writers’ styles you understand, your individual voice is going to be enlightened with the information that has been prior and necessary to articulate clearly your vision.

It’s really for that purpose — the more pianists we listen to, the more information we have to play the piano. It’s a tremendous history, and it just fills in the holes in your playing.

What do you feel the impact of your residency will be on the jazz program or the Marcus Roberts Trio itself?

Well, I hope that the residency is able to help give the students information about jazz music so that the music is less mysterious to them. I’m hoping that it will encourage more students to get interested in it. I’m hoping that in some way it will help the audience for the music down the line.

From our standpoint of being here, it’s been very helpful to us because being here for six weeks really gives you a chance to really start to know the students, know what they’re trying to figure out. … It’s allowed us to help develop some better strategies for helping to solve those problems, and we’ll be able to use that in future residencies and future teaching situations that we encounter.

The theme for the festival this year is “A Journey Into Swing.” What does “swing” mean to you?

OK. Swing is the feeling of freedom when you play. It’s the feeling of hope that is in the sound of the music. So when you’re swingin’, there’s a brilliant feeling, that if you’ve heard any jazz — like if you’ve ever heard any Thelonious Monk, if you’ve ever heard any Duke Ellington — the swing is necessary because that is the life of the music.

It would be the equivalent of something in food having flavor. Without the flavor it’s no good to eat it. But the swing is what makes you want to hear the music. That’s the dance component of it. So the “Journey into Swing” just means the journey into the feeling of the music, and the specific concepts, specific artists who created it.

Contact the A&E Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.