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Bloom School of Jazz Now in 36th Year
Bloom School of Jazz Now in 36th Year
Date Posted: September 12 2011
Written By: Mike Jeffers
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If you have seen a live jazz performance in Chicago, then most likely you have heard one of David Bloom’s students in action. David Bloom, the owner and founder of the Bloom School of Jazz, has influenced the way musicians have created music in Chicago since 1975. I had heard about the school, played with musicians that had attended the school and spoken with David Bloom many times by phone and in person, but had never studied at the school. When the idea came about to put an article together about the Bloom School’s 36th year I wanted to do something different, something that would give readers of Chicago Jazz Magazine an inside look into David Bloom’s philosophy of music and performance, to gain an understanding of why so many of Chicago’s top jazz musicians have come through the school.
The Bloom School is located at 417 N. Ashland Avenue, in a very hip-looking warehouse, complete with a stage and seating for about 50 people. It is an ideal small performance space for jazz and a great space for teaching. The space is outfitted with recording equipment––every lesson and rehearsal is recorded. Students may take copies of their performances or lessons home with them, in order to analyze their playing.
During my session with Bloom we didn’t talk about technique. Instead, we discussed expanding my thinking and opening up my ideas on the drum set to include all of the different possibilities I have to work with. I had worked on many of these concepts years ago while in college, but over time many of the ideas slipped away. Bloom reminded me of how creative one can be with music, and in just that hour-and-a-half he pushed me back on the right musical path.
I had only one session with Bloom, so I wanted to reach out to a few of Bloom’s former students to gain a broader perspective on Bloom and his school of jazz, and to see how he helped them with their musical ideas. Below are just a few of the responses I received:
Steve Rodby––Bassist
“David Bloom has that special combination of technical knowledge and experience married to a strong and clear vision of his aesthetic values. As an educator, his fierce commitment to excellence is as inspiring as his gifts for communicating the details of music.”
Tom Burrell––Founder and chairman emeritus, Burrell Communications Group; author, Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority
“For David Bloom, music is more than meets the ear. Much more. Bloom students learn to view music as a soul-searching tool, a vehicle on a radar-sharp journey towards self-actualization. He transforms people into musicians, and he transforms musicians into better human beings. He played a significant role in elevating my life, late in life (which I could say makes me a Late ‘Bloomer’!). In 2003, at age 63, I came to the Bloom School for an eight-week vocal course. That I wound up singing in front of an audience for the first time in my life is noteworthy in itself, but what it did for me on a deeper level is profound; I discovered my inner voice and the GPS that delivered me to my ‘first’ career––my true life’s purpose. As a result of my experience at the Bloom School, and my on-going friendship with its founder, I truly and wholeheartedly embrace the notion that music is the major on-ramp to the soul.”
Cliff Colnot––Arranger/Conductor, Civic and DePaul University Orchestra
“The time I spent studying with David Bloom was significant in that it importantly added to my perspective of what is effective art––whether classical music, painting, dance, rock-and-roll, literature or jazz. David’s approach to thinking about and performing jazz at the most meaningful and communicative levels transfers easily to other disciplines and provides a powerful basis by which to soulfully teach and discriminate. David Bloom is an international treasure––a truly unique composer and teacher, who continues to insist upon values and techniques that are quickly disappearing.”
Ryan Cohan––Pianist, composer
“As an instructor of mine almost 20 years ago and later with occasional project-specific creative advice during my professional career, David Bloom has been valuable in my growth as a musician and artist. With David it’s all about the music serving the sentiment or mood one is trying to communicate as effectively as possible. Technique and theory facilitate expression. This approach gets to the heart of the art, and David has developed a curriculum and teaching protocol that challenges students at any level to maximize the potency of their musical ideas.”
Mark Colby––Saxophonist
“I guess it’s been about ten years now, but back in 2001, Rob Parton and I had been talking about putting a group together. David was teaching at Roosevelt College, and Rob said that David had some good insight into group concepts and talked me into taking part at David’s school on Wabash. I was looking to freshen up my approach to teaching and was hoping to get some new insight and ideas to carry over to my own teaching concepts. That experience was helpful in so many ways: it opened up new lines of group communications and gave me clear ideas on where to start with my students. It was also an experience that opened me up to pursuing my own compositional ideas. That experience has stayed with me and I thank David for bringing out other parts of my musical personality.”
Mark Yonally––Founder and Artistic Director, Chicago Tap Theatre
“I grew up playing with some of the finest jazz guys in Kansas City, and had learned a lot about jazz improvisation in an instinctive, sometimes imitative, way. Studying with David helped me put names to some of the concepts that I’d played with, and that deeper level of understanding allowed me to explore jazz in a more meaningful way. His ability to take what can sometimes be abstract concepts and give you easy-to-use, practical exercises for improvement is truly a unique gift that he gives to his students. The other thing I have to say is that his school is the first school I’ve attended for the arts that uses technology so intelligently and innovatively to help his students. He records all of the classes, and if a student does something really amazing, he’ll give that student a CD of the class session. Really smart!”
Max Hornung––17-year-old jazz vocalist
“The Bloom School gives me a musical opportunity that I cannot get anywhere else. My school has a decent music program, but nothing compares to this. In the ‘Perfect Set’ class, which I attend, a pro band backs you up. For someone who’s 17, having that is especially cool and unique. Working with David is just great. He’s honest, yet down to earth, regardless of all of his musical accomplishments. He’s always there for an extra meeting, and he really has in mind my (and all of his students’) best interests. The professional conditions he gives us allow us to grow and learn at our own pace. Sometimes I forget he teaches other things besides our class, because he’s so dedicated to our success and improvement. I recommend his school to anyone interested in music, regardless of talent. Even if you can’t take a course, Bloom’s a real cool guy to even just listen to music or talk with. His school’s a great place, and I plan to spend a lot of time there in the future.”
Lee Metcalf––Guitarist
“We were sitting in Bloom’s living room and he said, ‘Let’s play some question and answer.’ So he had me set up a Dorian vamp, and played a short phrase and answered it with another. ‘Now you try it,’ he said. As he played the chords, I just improvised phrases the same way that I always did. He stopped me: “No man, like this,’ and proceeded to play another example. I responded as before and again he stopped me: ‘No man, like this!’ This went on five or six times and then suddenly I heard it: a true epiphany. In one instant I understood the logic of a musical phrase, a problem that I had been trying to solve since I began trying to improvise. In that very instant I understood how to apply 14 years of practice to musical situations. It was the single greatest lesson that I ever took and it changed my life. That was July 4, 1993.”
Zach Brock––Violinist
“I was introduced to David Bloom by the pianist Ryan Cohan and I studied with David regularly for four years. During this time I found his teaching to be unique among all teachers I have studied with. While David had specific things to say about the nuts and bolts of improvisation, his attention to the compositional effect of one’s entire solo was a revelation to me. David is a staunch supporter of the jazz tradition while resisting the trend in jazz pedagogy towards a more “Pavlovian” approach to improvisation, i.e. regurgitation of historic melodic fragments. Instead, he champions the process of discovery through rigorous self-examination. Almost every lesson I had with him was recorded and I was required to sit with him and ‘objectively’ describe my musical successes and failures in that day’s session. I think of that process now as ‘quantum learning,’ because I have never improved so quickly as when I subjected myself to that process.”
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