SJSU jazz musician, professor recognized for teaching excellence
Jill Abell
Issue date: 11/16/09 Section: News
After 35 years of sending students out to make names for themselves in the music world, an SJSU jazz professor will receive his own day in the limelight.
California Association for Music Education will award SJSU alumnus Frank Sumares with the Jazz Educator of the Year Award for all of California in March 2010.
For the Jazz Educator of the Year Award, the association seeks full-time educators in high school and college throughout California, pianist Sumares said.
"It's a nice award," he said. "I hope I got it because of my merit and not because I'm old, and they think I'm going to croak."
Winners of the California Association of Music Education awards are judged by the number of nominations received by individuals who know an outstanding music educator, according to the association's Web site.
"Frank (Sumares) is a one-of-a-kind guy, who's not only a mentor and great friend, but just has this wealth of life, and sort of this knowledge to pass onto people who are really looking for it," said Vincent Rodriguez, a senior jazz studies major.
Rodriguez said Sumares creates a classroom or rehearsal environment that is a combination of four key elements.
"The first is getting the student interested in whatever the subject may be," he said. "The second is through his explanation, which is always really concise and really takes all of the mystery out of playing jazz."
The third element is his ability to help students play on a professional level by preparing them for their professional musical careers, Rodriguez said.
"The fourth variable would be he somehow makes things really fun, and he puts this vibe out where it's okay to make mistakes," he said.
Sumares said he was the director of jazz studies and instrumental music at Chabot College in Hayward for 25 years, the director of the award-winning jazz band at Chabot College for more than 18 years, and he annually teaches at the Lafayette Summer Jazz Workshop.
"I've seen him take classes full of complete zeros (inexperienced musicians), and by the end of the semester, half of them are on their way to being pros, and the other are half are no longer zeros," said jazz studies professor John Shifflett. "How many people can do that?"
Senior jazz studies major David Aguiar described Sumares' teaching methods as unconventional.
"He's one of the guys who's not going to grade you on how well you do, performance-wise, at the end of the semester," Aguiar said. "Rather, he's going to grade you on your attitude and your improvement. Anyone who's showing up every week and improving a little bit, he's going to be stoked. He's not going to flunk you."
SJSU Jazz Program
He said after 25 years at Chabot College, he thought he was ready to retire.
In 2001, he said the dean of the school of music and dance at SJSU asked him to help the jazz program.
Sumares said SJSU offers a master's degree of arts in music in the jazz studies program, which is uncommon.
"Once we got the program on its feet, it took about two years to be like regular schools," he said. "We had jazz combos. We started to have vocal jazz choir, (improvisation), jazz piano. We had things most other schools had."
Then Aaron Lington was hired to be coordinator of the jazz studies program, he said.
"We hired him, and I asked the director if he wanted me to split, and he said, 'No, I want you to stay and make sure that the young guy doesn't step on his own crank,'" he said. "So I stayed, and I've been here for almost 10 years. I enjoy it. I'm an old guy, so until they tell me to split, I'll stay."
Piano Beginnings
Sumares said he is from a traditional Portuguese family where jazz was considered taboo.
He said his older brother was interested in jazz, and since he emulated his older brother, he wanted to play jazz, too.
"When my brother played the clarinet, I wanted to play the clarinet," he said. "When he wanted to play saxophone, I wanted to play saxophone."
Sumares said his brother bought a piano, but did not have the dexterity to play, so he gave it a try.
He said he gained enough courage to ask a jazz musician for private lessons, and it came naturally to him.
"I thought, this must be my instrument of fate," Sumares said. "I could see what I was doing, because the piano keys were right in front of me. With a saxophone, you can't see anything."
The Road to Jazz
He said in 1957, he went to San Francisco State University and did not do so well.
"I completely blew it," he said. "I got decent grades from the music things, but I blew general education. I was going to after-hour spots and playing everywhere I could play."
Sumares said he was kicked out of the university, and he had to return home.
The recruiter that was supposed to enlist his brother in the Marine Corps ended up convincing Sumares to join the Marine Corps in his older brother's place, he said.
"I mean, I just got kicked out of school, my dad was on my buns, so I agreed," Sumares said. "So, that was on a Monday. By Thursday, I was gone."
He said he was in the Marine Corps from 1958 to 1962 and spent three years in San Diego.
"During those years, Los Angeles was just backed up with a flood of jazz musicians," he said. "They had too many jazz musicians for the amount of work. A lot of them backed down in San Diego."
He said he would finish his duties with the Marine Corps around 4 p.m., and then he would go into downtown San Diego to meet a bass player, who was a former Marine at a club called The Place.
"It was like university of the streets, man, far hipper than going to school," Sumares said.
He said since he was underage, he was not supposed to be in clubs such as The Place.
When he was on stage, he said he watched the military police make their rounds around the room, but they never checked the musicians.
He said when he was not performing, the bouncer would warn him that military police were coming, so he would hide in the bathroom.
"I'm short enough to stand on the seat, on the toilet seat, and hide," he said. "They'd look under to see if there was any feet, so I was cool. Military police - they would also be looking to see if you were underage.
"This guy would show me the ropes during the day, and at night they'd let me sit in and play," he said. "It was a hell of a learning experience. After hours, we'd go to Tijuana and play with the Mexican musicians. And then the next day we'd start the Marine Corps all over again. If I tried that now, I'd be 5 feet under."
Reward
Sumares said the most rewarding aspect of teaching jazz is seeing students have success.
"My whole thing is to have the student be better than the teacher," he said. "I've had the good fortune of having students go on and be professional."
One student he taught in high school, Jeff Beal, now composes music for film, television, recordings and concert halls, Sumares said.
"Now, when I watch TV, it says music by Jeff Beal," he said. "And John Patitucci is one of the top three bass players in the world."
Patitucci won two Grammy Awards, has released five albums and worked with numerous famous artists, according to the Concord Music Group Web site.
"Ledisi was up for the same awards as Amy Winehouse, Newcomer of the Year at the Grammys (Music Awards)," he said.
"Count Basie Band"
He said one of his student from Chabot College, who refers to herself as Ledisi, is now signed with Verve Records.
"She couldn't soul, she couldn't scat - that means nonsense syllables," he said. "She had a hard time with that, so I worked with her for a long time."
After two or three years, the jazz choir at Chabot College started winning a lot of awards, he said.
Sumares said he directed the Count Basie Band for Ledisi at Yoshi's, a club in San Francisco in December 2007.
"I put together a bunch of tunes, I wrote some tunes, and I got calls from guys, legends, who had been in the Basie Band years ago," he said. "They sent me charts that they had done for big names like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn."
In October 2007, Ledisi contacted Sumares again and asked if he would play and conduct the Basie Band at the Blue Note in New York, he said.
"Pictures of stars lined the Blue Note, and here's this old guy from Hayward," he said. "I told my wife, 'Why didn't it happen when I was 30 or 40? Why did it have to happen when I was an old coot?' As long as you still dig it - that's what I feel even about the teaching thing."
Sumares said he is lucky to have the pleasure to work with so many talented students.
"It's wild," Sumares said. "People say you must have been a great teacher, but it's really because these guys are so talented, and all I did was scrape away the garbage.
"They were so naturally talented, but when they're young, they carry a lot of baggage, so you try to scrape the garbage away and out comes this beautiful stone."
He said the message he wants to send to future jazz musicians is practice, practice, practice.
"Most of the time, I tell students here to get your paper, get your B.A., the M.A., put it in the drawer, then go out and knock yourself out," he said. "If it doesn't work, then come back and you have paper to get a job teaching and still play locally."
California Association for Music Education will award SJSU alumnus Frank Sumares with the Jazz Educator of the Year Award for all of California in March 2010.
For the Jazz Educator of the Year Award, the association seeks full-time educators in high school and college throughout California, pianist Sumares said.
"It's a nice award," he said. "I hope I got it because of my merit and not because I'm old, and they think I'm going to croak."
Winners of the California Association of Music Education awards are judged by the number of nominations received by individuals who know an outstanding music educator, according to the association's Web site.
"Frank (Sumares) is a one-of-a-kind guy, who's not only a mentor and great friend, but just has this wealth of life, and sort of this knowledge to pass onto people who are really looking for it," said Vincent Rodriguez, a senior jazz studies major.
Rodriguez said Sumares creates a classroom or rehearsal environment that is a combination of four key elements.
"The first is getting the student interested in whatever the subject may be," he said. "The second is through his explanation, which is always really concise and really takes all of the mystery out of playing jazz."
The third element is his ability to help students play on a professional level by preparing them for their professional musical careers, Rodriguez said.
"The fourth variable would be he somehow makes things really fun, and he puts this vibe out where it's okay to make mistakes," he said.
Sumares said he was the director of jazz studies and instrumental music at Chabot College in Hayward for 25 years, the director of the award-winning jazz band at Chabot College for more than 18 years, and he annually teaches at the Lafayette Summer Jazz Workshop.
"I've seen him take classes full of complete zeros (inexperienced musicians), and by the end of the semester, half of them are on their way to being pros, and the other are half are no longer zeros," said jazz studies professor John Shifflett. "How many people can do that?"
Senior jazz studies major David Aguiar described Sumares' teaching methods as unconventional.
"He's one of the guys who's not going to grade you on how well you do, performance-wise, at the end of the semester," Aguiar said. "Rather, he's going to grade you on your attitude and your improvement. Anyone who's showing up every week and improving a little bit, he's going to be stoked. He's not going to flunk you."
SJSU Jazz Program
He said after 25 years at Chabot College, he thought he was ready to retire.
In 2001, he said the dean of the school of music and dance at SJSU asked him to help the jazz program.
Sumares said SJSU offers a master's degree of arts in music in the jazz studies program, which is uncommon.
"Once we got the program on its feet, it took about two years to be like regular schools," he said. "We had jazz combos. We started to have vocal jazz choir, (improvisation), jazz piano. We had things most other schools had."
Then Aaron Lington was hired to be coordinator of the jazz studies program, he said.
"We hired him, and I asked the director if he wanted me to split, and he said, 'No, I want you to stay and make sure that the young guy doesn't step on his own crank,'" he said. "So I stayed, and I've been here for almost 10 years. I enjoy it. I'm an old guy, so until they tell me to split, I'll stay."
Piano Beginnings
Sumares said he is from a traditional Portuguese family where jazz was considered taboo.
He said his older brother was interested in jazz, and since he emulated his older brother, he wanted to play jazz, too.
"When my brother played the clarinet, I wanted to play the clarinet," he said. "When he wanted to play saxophone, I wanted to play saxophone."
Sumares said his brother bought a piano, but did not have the dexterity to play, so he gave it a try.
He said he gained enough courage to ask a jazz musician for private lessons, and it came naturally to him.
"I thought, this must be my instrument of fate," Sumares said. "I could see what I was doing, because the piano keys were right in front of me. With a saxophone, you can't see anything."
The Road to Jazz
He said in 1957, he went to San Francisco State University and did not do so well.
"I completely blew it," he said. "I got decent grades from the music things, but I blew general education. I was going to after-hour spots and playing everywhere I could play."
Sumares said he was kicked out of the university, and he had to return home.
The recruiter that was supposed to enlist his brother in the Marine Corps ended up convincing Sumares to join the Marine Corps in his older brother's place, he said.
"I mean, I just got kicked out of school, my dad was on my buns, so I agreed," Sumares said. "So, that was on a Monday. By Thursday, I was gone."
He said he was in the Marine Corps from 1958 to 1962 and spent three years in San Diego.
"During those years, Los Angeles was just backed up with a flood of jazz musicians," he said. "They had too many jazz musicians for the amount of work. A lot of them backed down in San Diego."
He said he would finish his duties with the Marine Corps around 4 p.m., and then he would go into downtown San Diego to meet a bass player, who was a former Marine at a club called The Place.
"It was like university of the streets, man, far hipper than going to school," Sumares said.
He said since he was underage, he was not supposed to be in clubs such as The Place.
When he was on stage, he said he watched the military police make their rounds around the room, but they never checked the musicians.
He said when he was not performing, the bouncer would warn him that military police were coming, so he would hide in the bathroom.
"I'm short enough to stand on the seat, on the toilet seat, and hide," he said. "They'd look under to see if there was any feet, so I was cool. Military police - they would also be looking to see if you were underage.
"This guy would show me the ropes during the day, and at night they'd let me sit in and play," he said. "It was a hell of a learning experience. After hours, we'd go to Tijuana and play with the Mexican musicians. And then the next day we'd start the Marine Corps all over again. If I tried that now, I'd be 5 feet under."
Reward
Sumares said the most rewarding aspect of teaching jazz is seeing students have success.
"My whole thing is to have the student be better than the teacher," he said. "I've had the good fortune of having students go on and be professional."
One student he taught in high school, Jeff Beal, now composes music for film, television, recordings and concert halls, Sumares said.
"Now, when I watch TV, it says music by Jeff Beal," he said. "And John Patitucci is one of the top three bass players in the world."
Patitucci won two Grammy Awards, has released five albums and worked with numerous famous artists, according to the Concord Music Group Web site.
"Ledisi was up for the same awards as Amy Winehouse, Newcomer of the Year at the Grammys (Music Awards)," he said.
"Count Basie Band"
He said one of his student from Chabot College, who refers to herself as Ledisi, is now signed with Verve Records.
"She couldn't soul, she couldn't scat - that means nonsense syllables," he said. "She had a hard time with that, so I worked with her for a long time."
After two or three years, the jazz choir at Chabot College started winning a lot of awards, he said.
Sumares said he directed the Count Basie Band for Ledisi at Yoshi's, a club in San Francisco in December 2007.
"I put together a bunch of tunes, I wrote some tunes, and I got calls from guys, legends, who had been in the Basie Band years ago," he said. "They sent me charts that they had done for big names like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn."
In October 2007, Ledisi contacted Sumares again and asked if he would play and conduct the Basie Band at the Blue Note in New York, he said.
"Pictures of stars lined the Blue Note, and here's this old guy from Hayward," he said. "I told my wife, 'Why didn't it happen when I was 30 or 40? Why did it have to happen when I was an old coot?' As long as you still dig it - that's what I feel even about the teaching thing."
Sumares said he is lucky to have the pleasure to work with so many talented students.
"It's wild," Sumares said. "People say you must have been a great teacher, but it's really because these guys are so talented, and all I did was scrape away the garbage.
"They were so naturally talented, but when they're young, they carry a lot of baggage, so you try to scrape the garbage away and out comes this beautiful stone."
He said the message he wants to send to future jazz musicians is practice, practice, practice.
"Most of the time, I tell students here to get your paper, get your B.A., the M.A., put it in the drawer, then go out and knock yourself out," he said. "If it doesn't work, then come back and you have paper to get a job teaching and still play locally."
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