Edmonton Jazz Saxophonist Jerrold Dubyk
When I get Edmonton jazz saxophonist Jerrold Dubyk on the phone, the first thing he tells me is I’ve caught him recovering from a weekend camping trip with buddies, fraught with, amongst other things “poker and meat”.
“I’m just done,” he laughs. “Done with meat until Christmas”
This surprises me. When I think of jazz musicians, I think of dudes with pompadours and cravats, smoking pipes, wearing velour jackets…y’know, “Yazz Flute” kind of guys. Not guys who camp in the Alberta wilderness and consume vast amounts of steak. But this is precisely why I’m so psyched to talk to Jerrold: I need somebody like this to dumb down jazz for me.
While I like to pretend like I’m hip and I’m with it, I just don’t get jazz. Never have. I think of it kind of like Dancing with the Stars. They all seem to be able to dance. What makes good dancing better than bad dancing? What makes good jazz better than bad jazz?
“I think if people are actually listening to jazz, that’s the right the step,” he laughs. “Listen honestly …jazz music, it can be a very difficult music to listen to. I think it’s intimidating, if you don’t know what’s going on. Sometimes I blame jazz musicians for making it intimidating…”
“I think, like any music, what makes it good [is] its authenticity. If you can change [the feeling of] a room, I think it’s good music. If people can leave going ‘wow, I really enjoyed that,’ it’s good music.”
I ask him to recommend some records I can start with.
“Kind of Blue, Miles Davis. Duke Ellington, Live at Newport 1956 … and Branford Marsalis, Eternal. Those are the 3 on my playlist,” he says. “If you can start there, and listen to those for awhile and you’d be well taken care of.”
Alright. That addressed, we can get back to talking about Jerrold. He has a CD release show at the Yardbird Suite tonight; a party celebrating the release of “The Maverick,” which earned his Jerrold Dubyk Quartet the award for “Best Jazz Album” at the 2009 Western Canadian Music Awards back in September. He was in some good company; other nominees included Mark Dejong, the Peggy Lee Band and Rubim de Toldeo.
“This sounds really cheesy, but I was just happy to be included. There were so many good recordings that were nominated,” he explains. “I think these nominations prove that there ‘s some really high quality music being played [in western Canada], and I’m not sure that the rest of Canadians realize that.”
In addition to winning awards and making records, Jerrold teaches music at Victoria High School and Grant MacEwan University. I ask him if the attention garnered by the award has affected his day to day life.
He says not so much.
“It’s probably the reality of jazz music. Is it going to help me get a gig? I hope so. Has it translated to physical CD sales? No. I know its generated interest in my show coming up. I have been getting some pretty cool feedback.”
“It’s another thing that you put on your resume and then you keep on plugging .”
Jerrold’s award winning album “The Maverick” is available now at cdbaby.com and on iTunes. You can also check him out on his website, or at his CD release party, tonight, 9 p.m. at the Yardbird Suite.
