The tables have turned. In this episode, VJC Q&T producer Caleb Kilian interviews the usual podcast host, Russell Schmidt. Together, they share questions and tangents on a number of subjects, including the intersection of objectivity and subjectivity in education, how a mentor teacher continues to impact his life thirty years after his passing, and even why musicians “playing in parallel” might not be as good a thing as it sounds.
VJC Q&T podcast producer (and Critics Anonymous podcast co-host) Caleb Kilian has know Valley Jazz Cooperative Director Russell Schmidt for more than a decade. And for the past five years, they have worked together as colleagues at Music Serving the Word Ministries, where Caleb serves as Media Manager and Russ is Coordinator of Education.
At the start of the Arizona Music Educators Association’s 2020 Conference, and with concert band and jazz ensemble competition season imminent for music educators all over the country, Russ sat down with Caleb to record a unique Questions and Tangents podcast, one in which the usual host was the interviewee, not the interviewer. Their wide-ranging dialogue encompassed such subjects as the intersection of objectivity and subjectivity in education, how a mentor teacher continues to impact his life thirty years after his passing, and even why musicians “playing in parallel” might not be as good a thing as it sounds.
Learn more about Caleb Kilian and Russell Schmidt here:
https://musicservingtheword.org/artist_ministers
Find the Critics Anonymous podcast (co-hosted by Caleb Kilian and Robert Garza) here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critics-anonymous/id1480289208
Learn more about some of the individuals mentioned in the podcast here:
Count Basie – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Basie
Michael Brecker – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Brecker
Gabe Condon – https://www.gabecondon.com/
Duke Ellington – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Ellington
Maynard Ferguson – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynard_Ferguson
Paul Ferguson – http://paulfergusonmusic.com/
Herbie Hancock – https://www.herbiehancock.com/
Neal Hefti – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Hefti
Woody Herman – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Herman
John Hollenbeck – https://johnhollenbeck.com/
Vijay Iyer – https://vijay-iyer.com/
Thad Jones – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thad_Jones
Stan Kenton –https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Kenton
Joel McNeely – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_McNeely
Matt Mitchell – http://www.mattmitchell.us/
Sammy Nestico – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Nestico
Bud Powell – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Powell
Buddy Rich – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Rich
Maria Schneider – https://www.mariaschneider.com/
Wayne Shorter – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Shorter
Billy Strayhorn – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Strayhorn
Art Tatum – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Tatum
Alexa Tarantino – https://alexatarantino.com/
Rayburn Wright – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayburn_Wright
Thanks for listening!
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Website: https://www.valleyjazz.org/
Social Media (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/ValleyJazzCooperative/
About The Interviewee: Pianist/composer/educator Russell Schmidt has performed with such celebrated artists as Carl Allen, Michael Brecker, Eddie Daniels, Joe Lovano, Gerry Mulligan, Lucas Pino, Arturo Sandoval, and Clark Terry. Among his recordings as a leader are Anachromysticism (2012), which highlights Russell’s wide-ranging efforts as a jazz composer, Jazz Triptych, Volume I – The Sacred (2018), a collection of hymns and spirituals reimagined in the jazz language, and his most recent recording, the companion album Jazz Triptych, Volume II – The Secular (2019).
After a distinguished career in academia, Russell joined Music Serving The Word in June 2014 as Coordinator of Education, founding MSW’s Valley Jazz Cooperative program in 2016. Previously, he served as Director of Jazz Studies at Bowling Green State University and the University of Utah. He was also a member of the Eastman School of Music jazz faculty, where he co-conducted the Eastman Studio Orchestra. A student of Rayburn Wright, Russell holds two degrees from Eastman.
Find music from VJC Q&T host Russell Schmidt here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuao1b7Ztc7JNpUTzyorXDQ?
The Questions & Tangents podcast is produced by Caleb Kilian for the Valley Jazz Cooperative, an outreach of MSW Ministries, a 501(c)(3) organization.