Musical Youth: Royal Academy of Music’s Junior Jazz Course hits 20

This September marks the 20th anniversary of the Junior Jazz Academy. Initially beginning as a Saturday morning jazz workshop for young musicians, it’s served as an often life-changing entry point into jazz education for musicians aged 14 to 18. Importantly it’s welcomed players from a huge variety of backgrounds, always putting talent before privilege. And with Mercury Music Prize nominees and Grammy Award winners among its alumni it’s not hard to see how important it’s been in uplifting a huge range of players from all backgrounds. A few of the names who started there include Kit Downes, Jacob Collier, Nubya Garcia, Joe Armon-Jones, Michael Kiwanuka, Josh Blackmore, Ife Ogunjobi, Femi Koleoso, Rosie Turton, Tom Walsh, James Copus, Flo Moore, Daisy George, Will Barry, Alex Ridout, Tom Barford and Rosie Frater-Taylor, along with so many more who have taken their first steps into long and successful careers as professional musicians since its inception.

The Junior Jazz course was the brainchild of trumpeter Gerard Presencer in 2003, the then Head of Jazz at the Academy, who was concerned at repeatedly seeing how the level of applicants seemed to just depend on whether they were lucky enough to have grown up in an area where there was a good jazz teacher. Overcoming this geographical lottery was the core rationale from the very beginning. Gerard was to then invite current Head of Jazz, Nick Smart to head it up and the first Junior Academy course started in September 2003 with an initial cohort that was to include many, future stars of the UK jazz scene. With the 20th anniversary to be celebrated on 30 September with special fundraising concert at the Susie Sainsbury Theatre featuring three all-star ensembles made up of world-class alumni, Jazzwise spoke to RAM head of jazz Nick Smart and Junior Jazz course leader Gareth Lockrane about the impact the course has had on countless young musicians.

It must be pretty life changing for young musicians coming into the Academy environment – how do you put them at ease and nurture their abilities?

Nick Smart: “It is an amazing and exciting community to come into, and even more than that, it's also part of a wider London jazz scene and all the amazing, diverse things going on in the music right now. But it is also important to feel safe and like you can take risks and learn without fear of failing, I’m always keen to stress that nothing is expected of the students other than to be themselves – after all, you can’t really be anything other than that can you?! That said, the responsibility one takes to be the ‘best’ version of oneself as a musician is another matter though, and something the environment you are in and the peers and mentors you work with can all inspire.”

What’s your approach to working on both their strengths and weaknesses?

Gareth Lockrane: “Students come in at different ages and levels, and we've recently expanded the Junior Jazz course from three to four bands to cater for this huge variety of experience and age range in the students. We try very hard to make it a level playing field within each group, but the simple answer really is that going back to basics can never be a waste of time for anyone, no matter what level you're at! The more experienced players deepen what they are doing by working further on their ear and strengthening their musical roots and the newer players learn from that process and can perceive the link between the ‘simple’ things and sometimes ear bending/mind boggling events that appear on many jazz records! When I took over the role of running the course in 2011, Nick had done such a fantastic job of setting up the course that all I had to do was continue with his groundwork of putting the course together and not mess it up!”

What do you say to the misconception that studying in an academic environment is less valid than going to loads of jam sessions or just working it out for yourself?

NS: “The great masters always studied incredibly deeply alongside playing and jamming, from Coltrane studying Carlos Salzedo harp exercises or Bird and Diz transposing each other's method books backstage at Earl Hines gigs, Wayne Shorter studying orchestral scores and Herbie Hancock being hugely influenced by Ravel, the list goes on and on. The idea that studying hard is a hindrance and improvisation comes out of thin air is a nice image, but the reality is you have to listen a lot and work really hard for those divine moments of magical inspiration to happen, if you’re lucky! The important thing I understand we do need to acknowledge is that wherever there may be misconceptions about the institution, we are quick to dispel that myth and make everyone feel welcome and part of the community.”

GL: “Musicians have always learnt from each other in a group setting, it's community music. In the Junior Jazz course there is a lot of old school jamming too, the main difference I think is that the relaxed atmosphere in the sessions lends itself to a lot of listening, discussion and dissecting the ingredients of the music which proves highly beneficial for everyone. More often than not, we're dealing with tunes as opposed to abstract exercises that are hard to apply for an inexperienced player; so in dealing with compositions, whether it's standards or jazz/pop tunes and learning how to apply ourselves to that, we are listening to the records, deepening everyone's musicianship and making the rich history of the music come alive for the students too. I'm firmly of the belief that the great tunes teach you how to play.”

The Junior Jazz Academy 20th anniversary concert takes place on 30 September at Susie Sainsbury Theatre, Royal Academy of Music, London - click here for more details