On Thursday, Feb. 20, Washburn University Faculty Jazz held a show at White Concert Hall from 7:30 – 8:30 p.m. The event featured performances by six faculty members, showcasing their musical talents.
Kurt Morrow, adjunct professor of music and bassist, has dedicated nearly 50 years to playing the bass. He discusses the influences that sparked his interest in playing the bass.
“The bass found me,” Morrow said. “I played a few instruments before and in the seventh grade I went into the band room of my junior high. This was before middle school, and I just went in to see if some of my friends were in there. And then I turned to my right and there was a kid playing an electric bass. And I saw that and I just went, ‘That’s it. That’s what I want to play.’ And that was almost 50 years ago.”
Morrow has also explained how he sustains the energy and atmosphere during his performances.
“You try to be in jazz, you try to be creative and you try to do creative things with the music, like dynamics. Like when a new solo starts, you bring the dynamic down,” Morrow said. “And then hopefully that soloist will lift everybody up and the volume will increase because of the excitement.”
Von Hansen, assistant professor of music and drummer,has reflected on his past concert experiences and outlined how he gets ready for a performance.
“It’s just always fun to get together with people and play jazz because it’s improvised so you get to … have a conversation with somebody,” Hansen said. “So this is one of my favorite groups to play with. So they’re all pretty memorable.”
Tetsuya Nishiyama, adjunct instructor of music and guitarist, is performing at the jazz concert for the second consecutive year. He has shared the story of what inspired him to pick up the guitar and also talked about the rehearsal process and how they prepare for the concert.
“So I’m originally from Japan, and then as I grew up in Japan, I always loved American music, which has a lot of guitar,” Nishiyama said. “I started off as …a pop music rock and then blues stuff like that. And then eventually gravitated to the jazz stuff like I played tonight. … I’m also learning this music. I’m teaching this music. But also, I never mastered anything, so I still feel like that. I’m a student.”
The Washburn music department will be hosting more concerts in the future. For more information about upcoming events, you can email music.theatre@washburn.edu or visit their website.
Edited by Jeremy Ford and Stuti Khadka
