Home | Get a Quote | Limited-Time Package Deals | Back to Main Samples Page

Clarence Acox

by Kenneth Strong

It's hard not to argue that adolescence is a crucial time in a person's development. Teenagers are very impressionable and open to the input in their environment, and having a good role model to encourage the development of one's talents and enthusiasms can make all the difference in the world. For thirty years and counting at Garfield High School in Seattle, Clarence Acox has been taking those who are drawn to music, and helping them to translate their musical impulses to sound. And to swing while they’re doing it.

Born in New Orleans, it's not too surprising that young Clarence was immersed in a variety of music--"both classical and jazz were played in my household," he told me. His first instrument was piano, and he started playing drums in the eighth grade. When most people think of New Orleans music, the first thing that pops into their heads is some form of jazz, but when Clarence was growing up, "a lot of musicians that I went to school with were into classical music, and that's really something about New Orleans musicians, they do both. You know, Wynton Marsalis got Grammies for that, but we had students who were doing that for years before Wynton."

Clarence graduated from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was recruited straight out of college in 1971 to Seattle specifically to revive the moribund music program at Garfield High School. "It was very typical of many inner-city schools in the late '60s and early '70s. There was a lot of turmoil, and a lot of the good students had left, and a lot of the good teachers had left." Garfield's principal at the time thought that a good way to help raise school spirit would be to start an outstanding band program.

How Garfield's principal found a young student named Clarence Acox from halfway across the country is a very interesting story: the Southern University band, of which Acox was a member, performed live on national TV during halftime of the Super Bowl in 1970. The Garfield principal saw the band, liked what he saw, and got ahold of the Southern University band director and asked him if he had any graduating students that could come to Seattle for a job. Clarence Acox was the man the band director recommended.

When Clarence got to Garfield, "we pretty much had to start from scratch," he says. "I worked year-round for three years; I never took a vacation. Any student that showed any interest in playing a band instrument, I taught them. As time went on, the kids started coming up from the elementary and middle schools already knowing how to play, so we were able to move forward. But that's how we got the program started." In the early years, there was no jazz band as such; it was just the regular concert and marching band. As the general skill level increased, Acox was able to assemble some students to start playing jazz.

Acox's teaching philosophy is to "try to create an environment for them that will allow them to expand and grow. And if that means raising them to a first-rate performing group, and using that as a springboard for their creativity, so be it. I've always tried to give them enough direction to take off on their own." Acox's students learn improvisation, theory, reading, how to play in a jazz style, and most important of all, how to swing. "That's the hardest thing to teach young kids, how to swing, because they don't usually hear that on the radio--they hear other things, like rock and funk, but they don't hear swing."

Lola Pedrini says with a laugh, "If you don’t swing with Clarence, there’s gonna be hell to pay." Lola is a woman who works tirelessly on behalf of the Seattle music scene--she manages an apartment building near downtown where musicians performing at Jazz Alley can stay while they’re in town, she’s on the board of Earshot Jazz (and, incidentally, Victory Music), and she knows just about everyone in the Seattle jazz scene. She’s seen Clarence Acox in action for a long time now. She recalls a recent conversation with a neighbor who had been volunteering at Garfield High School:

"She said that when Clarence walked by, the vibes, the energy around him, was just so positive. And the kids pick up on that energy, he just has this pull, this magnetism." Lola also describes a recent visit to Jazz Alley, when Clarence and his party entered between sets and sat down at a table. "All these kids in their early twenties, former students of his, came up and talked to him. And I just sat back and watched, it was so neat, they have so much respect, they just glowed, said thanks, talking about their current lives, new babies, and so on--you just don’t see that very often."

In person, Clarence cuts an imposing figure, full of the natural authority that a high school teacher better have, but at the same time friendly and relaxed towards all that he meets. Pedrini says, "You gotta do what he says, but you do it because you want to do it. All the kids like him. He just lives and breathes music."

Jim Wilke, longtime host of the nationally syndicated program "Jazz After Hours," as well as other shows locally on KPLU-FM, echoes that sentiment. "Watching him with the kids, he’s got a kind of gruff, no-nonsense exterior, but he’ll bend over backwards to help the kids get on their way. But in return, he expects them to pay attention and get something out of what he’s offering. When a teacher gets that much respect out of the kids, they really want to please him." Wilke feels that "the amount of devotion that he has to the kids, the band, the concept, the energy he gives to it all is quite remarkable. The kids have so much respect for him, they seem to feel privileged to be in his band. He’s just one of those people that has an aura about him, he puts a smile on your face every time you see him."

John Gilbreath, who has directed Earshot Jazz for the last ten years, feels that the parents of Pacific Northwest schoolkids value jazz more than in many other parts of the country--"jazz is not just a museum piece here, it’s valued, it’s a self-renewing ecology, and Clarence Acox is one of the key reasons for that. I’ve said this before, but I continue to wish that there had been someone like him around my life when I was a teenager." Gilbreath repeats a common theme regarding Clarence, his ability to combine the roles of authority figure, role model and friend with the right balance. "He’s very hip and knowledgeable and has an obvious strength of character. That’s a great model for kids, to realize that you can be responsible and serious and still be hip and fun and enjoy life." Gilbreath also mentions the importance of having strong role models like Acox who are African-American, especially in teaching an art form with African-American origins.

Asked about his favorite and most influential drummers, Acox protests, "That is a loaded question. I was influenced by many people, and most of them were not drummers. So I wouldn't even know where to begin." When pressed, he says, "I guess you can start with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, Oscar Peterson, Tommy Flanagan...a lot of people influenced me."

Clarence has a very busy summer planned, in progress as you’re reading this. He and his entire Garfield school band are in Europe for 16 days, appearing at the famed Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, along with performing visits to Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Germany. The trip is costing around $60-65,000, most of it coming from private donations and fundraisers, including a gala event at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle in April. This is the fifth time Acox has taken his school band to Europe.

Then, pretty much as soon as he’s back from Europe, he’ll be off to Port Townsend for the annual Bud Shank Jazz Workshop from July 22 to 29. The last four days of the Workshop coincide with the annual Centrum Jazz Port Townsend Festival. For those who are unfamiliar, Bud Shank has been a well-known jazz musician for over 50 years, and is considered one of the charter members of the "West Coast" jazz movement of the '50s. He made his home in Port Townsend some years ago and was one of the driving forces behind getting the Jazz Festival and the Workshop going. The non-profit arts group Centrum has been putting on a variety of events for 27 years now, presenting visual, literary and performing arts to the public. Other annual festivals put on by Centrum feature blues, chamber music, fiddle tunes, dance, a writer’s conference, and much more. Their website, at http://www.centrum.org/index.htm, has a lot more, including current information about attending any of these events. Most of the activities take place in the beautifully restored Fort Worden, in the scenic Olympic Peninsula seaside town of Port Townsend.

The Jazz Workshop brings locally and internationally acclaimed jazz artists to Port Townsend for a week of intensive study and interaction with students of all ages and skill levels. The Workshop is designed for intermediate-to-advanced players who already have a basic technical command of their instrument or voice. The week’s schedule includes master classes, jazz theory, big band and combo arranging, and improvisation classes. Acox will be directing the big band and one of the combos at the Workshop. Meanwhile, the Jazz Festival this year features Jim Hall, Joe Lovano, Cedar Walton, George Cables, Stefon Harris, and Bud Shank, among many others. Many of the performances take place in the intimate, friendly confines of the taverns and nightclubs of Port Townsend.

Following that, Clarence will be teaching at the annual two-week summer camp put on by the Seattle Center Academy. Now in its tenth year, the camp is open to middle-school kids in King County, and offers a wide variety of arts classes, including photography, sculpture, pottery, dance, radio production, comedy writing, animation, acting and much more. Clarence has headed the popular jazz class, which is sponsored by Earshot Jazz and titled "Hands on Jazz," since its inception. The focus of the class is improvisation; some tunes are worked on by the group, but the main thing is to get the kids used to the idea of standing up there and taking some kind of solo. "It’s a remarkable thing," says Gilbreath, "because in some ways, improvisation is the foundation of jazz, and it can be a terrifying thing for some students to take a solo, but Acox stands at the front, encouraging, not judging, keeping things going." Towards the end of the class, veteran local jazzers such as Floyd Standifer and Buddy Catlett are brought in to play for the class. Funding for these classes comes from a variety of interesting sources, including, according to Gilbreath, at least one member of Pearl Jam. Registration for this unique and remarkable program closed in April, but you can check out their website at http://www.seattlecenter.org/SCA.htm.

As if all that wasn’t enough, Clarence also is the artistic co-director (along with saxophonist and UW faculty member Michael Brockman) of the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra (SRJO). The SRJO was organized in 1995 by these two men, and is a 17-piece band featuring some of the area’s top veteran players. The orchestra is dedicated to performing works by the greatest jazz composers of the 100 years that jazz has been around. It has played the music of masters such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and others. Their website is at http://www.srjo.org/.

I asked Acox what he would do to keep busy, now that he was retiring. Laughing, he says, "Now, who told you I was retiring?" Well, um, no one, actually, now that I think about it. All the celebration is about his 30th anniversary at Garfield, but nothing was said about retirement anywhere. I just sort of inferred that without thinking. Is my face red now! "Don't worry," he chuckles, "you're not alone. A lot of people have made that association. But actually, even if I did retire, I would still come back and work with the jazz band and the regular band, I just wouldn't teach any other classes."

Acox and his sextet, which features Phil Sparks on bass, Randy Halberstadt on piano, Michael Brockman on sax, Rod Smith on trumpet, and Bill Anthony on trombone, are scheduled to perform at Tula’s (2214 2nd Avenue in downtown Seattle) on Saturday, July 21. He also appears most Wednesday evenings (when he’s not globetrotting, that is) with the great Floyd Standifer’s group at the New Orleans restaurant in Pioneer Square. Stop by and see the man in action. Rest assured that he will swing.

Home | Get a Quote | Limited-Time Package Deals | Back to Main Samples Page