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Rich Corpolongo Passion for Jazz
Rich Corpolongo Passion for Jazz
Date Posted: July 02 2009
Written By: Ruth Sze
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Reedman Rich Corpolongo’s journey as a musician began during a car ride when he heard clarinetist Artie Shaw playing “Frenesi” on the radio. Corpolongo was just an eight-year-old boy when he fell in love with the sounds that Shaw portrayed on clarinet, which stirred up a desire in him to learn to play. He acquired his first clarinet six months later, but it wasn’t until the age of eleven that he was able to take his first lessons with the legendary Joe Daley.
Daley was an intimidating force, having performed with Sonny Stitt and James Moody, taught saxophonists Michael Brecker and David Sanborn, and made a mark with his own band, The Joe Daley Quorum. Corpolongo recalls his first lesson with Daley vividly: “I was so nervous,” he remembers, “and he looks at me with these real beady, see-through-type evil eyes.” Daley never directly complimented him, but would make comments like, “You aren’t cutting it, baby.” When Corpolongo reminded Daley that he was paying him five dollars for lessons, Daley responded, “I’ll pay you ten if you stop coming.” Although he recognized Corpolongo’s talent he only praised him in front of others. Corpolongo listened to Daley like he was a god and Daley’s frequent rebukes served to make Corpolongo practice even harder. Since Daley taught improvisation and made his students write out all the solos and look at manuscripts, Corpolongo learned improvisation techniques along with how to play the clarinet and saxophone.
In his last lesson, during his junior year in high school, Daley told Corpolongo he had taught him everything he knew and suggested that he “just go out and blow.” Taking his advice, Corpolongo played almost every night at different clubs until early morning and then attended his classes having had only a few hours of sleep. He remembers one night at a club when he was lined up as the last soloist and the band finished the tune before he had played. Though he was upset, Corpolongo refused to be pushed around by others and kept on playing for four more choruses with no rhythm section. He had remembered Daley advising him, “You gotta be strong. Don’t take any crap from anybody.”
Though Corpolongo was offered a full scholarship to study at DePaul University, he declined it because he did not want to play clarinet in a symphony. “I did not want to wait 400 measures just to play five notes,” Corpolongo explains. “I wanted to be freer.” Instead, he attended Roosevelt University, where he acquired his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music composition. He chose to study composition because he believes it is similar to improvisation, since both require the ability to create. During those years, he also focused on playing tenor saxophone in order to better his skills as a jazz musician.
While he was searching for a chance to get launched in the jazz scene, an opportunity arose that taught Corpolongo an invaluable lesson. Daley recommended Corpolongo to a bandleader who worked shows and happened to need a clarinet player for the show Gypsy. When asked if he could handle it, Corpolongo claimed that he “had it all down.” At rehearsal however, Corpolongo proved himself wrong. “I stepped all over my feet and made an idiot out of myself,” Corpolongo recalls. “I was squeaking and I would freeze up, and they had to take me off the show because I couldn’t play.” From that experience, he learned to never take on a job he couldn’t handle. He also learned that he could not get away with lying and misleading people, and that he needed to remain true to himself. Corpolongo believes this philosophy eventually led him to the release of his first album. Although it took fifty-five years, Corpolongo was simply grateful that it happened. “You have to be truthful about who you are because the truth will always come out,” he notes confidently. “If something doesn’t happen, then it’s not supposed to happen.”
Corpolongo also had the opportunity to play alto sax, flute and piccolo in The Joe Daley Quorum, where they enjoyed playing a form of jazz he calls “spontaneous composition.” It happens when a musician follows a written composition, and then improvises in a musical manner off that particular tune while remaining in form, and finally returns to the original tune. According to Corpolongo, the free ideas and sounds of a good improvised solo has logic because it stems from a sense of development and the subliminal knowledge of the tradition, composition and history of music and styles. “It becomes logical because you hear melodic ideas and noises, but you put it in some type of melodic character,” Corpolongo clarifies. He believes a true player can play intuitively and from the heart. “There must be an innate sense of musical sensitivity,” he adds. “It’s not music until it has that. It becomes prepared because your innate mind has trained you to do that.”
Corpolongo has performed with many legendary jazz instrumentalists, such as Eddie Harris, Herbie Hancock, James Moody, and Oliver Nelson, as well as vocalists Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Nancy Wilson, Billy Eckstine, Tony Bennett and Lena Horne. He has performed in groups including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Civic Opera House Orchestra, Grant Park Orchestra, Auditorium Theatre Orchestra, Candlelight and Forum Theatre Orchestras and has taught at many high schools and colleges.
In addition to performing music, Corpolongo is also an author. In his book, 217 Sequences for the Contemporary Musician, he explains how sequence groups can be used to inspire new composition. He also wrote Improvisation, a set of three books separated into beginning, intermediate and advanced levels, in which he explains techniques for jazz improvisations and how to play “free,” and gives steps for procedures and practice.
Though Corpolongo recognizes that jazz is less popular nowadays, he believes jazz is the true American art form, and is a combination of all different cultures: “It’s enlightening, heartwarming and alive,” he says enthusiastically. “It’s always changing, but the music has to change in order to stay alive.”
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