PATRICK HAZELL EDUCATES THE QUAD CITIES
ON THE BLUES
By Jimmie Jones, MVBS Education Committee Co-Chair
Mississippi Valley Blues Society Blues News, February 2000
After a lot of hard work by the Education Committee on blues artist
residencies, the first of three residencies by Patrick Hazell
for the week of Nov 29-Dec 4, 1999, was a rousing success. Serving
more than 2300 Quad Citians at no charge, Patrick was scheduled
for two workshops or concerts each day at elementary, intermediate
and high schools, colleges, retirement centers and concert halls.
Hazell was escorted by a member of the Education Committee. I
will discuss the five events I covered during his stay.
Patrick's audience at Williams Intermediate School in Davenport
consisted of a surprisingly large amount of students (they have
a much bigger music program than anticipated!) and a few teachers.
Patrick began his workshop by telling his students how he got
into the blues while at the same time accompanying himself with
blues piano and harp. He said that when he was eleven, his brother
had been studying piano under a teacher who had been with the
New York Symphony but appeared to spend more time teaching the
blues than classical music. Among the records that Patrick's brother
brought home was a boogie woogie piano recording by the Kansas
City legend, Pete Johnson, who had worked a lot with the bartender
and blues singer, Joe Turner. The music on that recording changed
Patrick's life forever.
Learning that there were a number of students in the school jazz
ensemble, Patrick told them that in order to play jazz it was
essential for musicians to know the blues
and have a blues feeling when they play. Patrick talked about
the many hours he spent practicing as a youngster and thanked
God that his parents were kind enough to put up with his practicing.
Patrick also talked about some of the blues artists he listened
to.
Patrick's workshop at Black Hawk College on Monday obviously made
a connection with the students, because Edgar Crockett, Music
Educator, and his students invited Patrick to their Wednesday
night jam session at Sessions club in Rock Island. Although Patrick
declined to sit in at the jam session, he did express an appreciation
for the talents of some of the musicians.
The audience at Adams Elementary School, Davenport, consisted
of the entire student body and faculty. The younger kids were
seated on the auditorium floor, while the older students were
seated in the balcony. As Patrick played the blues, some of the
kids kept time by waving their arms wildly, some by waving their
legs and others by nodding their heads. The highlights for the
kids came towards the end of the workshop when Patrick proceeded
to display and demonstrate his enormous harp collection. He began
with the smaller ones showing how high and how low they could
be played. The harp, gradually got bigger and bigger with some
over a foot long. As the time got close to the end of the workshop,
Patrick began asking did he "have time for one more?"
Each time, seven hundred voices answered, "YES!" After
Patrick demonstrated the last large harp (which costs over "a
million dollars"), he played a harp he had hidden in his
mouth.
The Patrick Hazell performance at the Quad City Arts Center on
Friday evening occurred in conjunction with the Fall '99 Gallery
Hop and a reception for the Iowa Caucus of Women in the Arts.
Over 300 people mingled in and out of the gallery. A showing of
works by many wonderful artists decorated the performance by Hazell.
In addition, since the event was during the evening, many of our
very own MVBS volunteers, members and directors were able to attend
with their friends and families.
On Saturday, Patrick performed for inhabitants of two retirement
centers. The audiences at the Colona House in East Moline, and
Friendship Manor in Rock Island were quite receptive to Patrick's
blues and especially enjoyed his renditions of "Georgia on
My Mind" and "As Time Goes By". (I neglected to
mention that Patrick pointed out how any song could become a blues
song depending on who is performing it. For example, Ray Charles
might sing a country and western tune, but it will still sound
like the blues!) After the performances, Patrick had to go out
to his van to get his CDs and cassette tapes for several in the
audiences. A very friendly and cooperative Bernadine Brumas, host
of the Colona House event, was the first to buy and even asked
for Patrick's autograph.
At the conclusion of each performance, audience members were asked
to complete a questionnaire/evaluation. Faculty members at some
of the younger schools were even asked to do some follow-up work
with their individual classes. The Blues Society suggested a variety
of ways to do so and asked that the information be shared with
MVBS. We are still receiving thank you letters and wonderful pictures
from all the children that came to see Patrick.
This residency was an all-around success and MVBS is eager to
continue this educational effort with our next residency in February.
And to think that we could not have done it without the assistance
of the Iowa and Illinois Arts Councils, as well as the Holiday
Inn-Davenport…..THANK YOU for "Keeping the Blues Alive!"