Jazzing It Up with Saddleback College
Saddleback's Joey Sellers directs jazz studies at the school, and he's brought in some heavy hitters from the jazz world to help students improve their craft.

By Dee Dee McNeil | December 17, 2010
In 2008, U.S. scientists looked at the effect of jazz on the brain. Using specially built keyboards that would fit into the cramped area of an MRI scanner, they tested six jazz pianists.

The scientists wanted to know how oxygen flowed through different parts of the musicians' brains. Why jazz musicians? Because they improvise, setting them apart from other musicians.

Trombonist Joey Sellers told me he had heard about this study. Sellers is a composer, arranger and educator who is director of jazz studies at Saddleback College. He has played and recorded with a slew of recognized jazz icons, including Joe LaBarbara, Lew Tabackin and Toshiko Akiyoshi's Jazz Orchestra, to name just a few. 

When those jazz musicians being studied started to use free self-expression, their brains showed heightened sensory awareness, even though the only thing that changed was their newly created improvisations.

Neuroscientists say the brain has the power to rewire itself, and jazz improvisational experiences seem to do just that.

On a chilly California day in December, I visited Sellers' classroom. He and a student were busy rewiring their brains. He sat behind the grand piano and accompanied a trombonist, who rehearsed his part and later was critiqued in front of 15 peers. Sellers, sensitive enough not to injure the tender egos of budding artists, uses a technique of letting the students critique themselves, then gives his input.

After the class, I asked Joey Sellers his opinion about how jazz music makes a difference in the lives of his students and what is going on with the jazz music program at Saddleback College.

"This is a two-year college, and it's got a very high caliber, by two-year-college standards," he said. "I'm proud ... that we have the luxury of being inclusive here without dropping our standards.

"What we're doing is using music as a vehicle to understand concepts about discipline, work ethics and freedom. Like Ellington said, there's two kinds of music: good and bad. Style doesn't matter. It's about them learning to know that there is a world outside of themselves."

"Besides that, I'm proud of the fact that we have a really killing jazz faculty here. They're all great players. Ron Stout [trumpet], Jerry Pinter [saxophone], Gerard Hagen [piano], Luther Hughes [bass], Paul Johnson [drums], and Jamie Rosenn's the guitar guy. So there's seven of us. I'm the only full-time guy, but I get those guys involved all the time."

They start each semester with a faculty concert. And the faculty teams up with students, as do such visiting artists as John Daversa, Bob Sheppard and Sal Cracchiollo.

Sellers, a Mission Viejo resident, has also lived and worked in New York. So he sometimes utilizes his East Coast contacts and features guest musicians from that part of the country. That's how Saddleback College got Ben Monder (guitarist) and Theo Bleckmann (voice and life electronics) into a duo setting where they demonstrated to students how to blur the boundaries between jazz, classical, ambient and rock music.

When musicians are on tour between Los Angeles and San Diego, Sellers often gets them to drop by the college on their off days to give performance lectures.

"You know, it's not just a concert," he said. "The kids get something out of it. So I'm really excited about that. I've done it for the last seven or eight years. Any time we have a guest group we have a good master class."

As I sat in on Sellers' jazz lab ensemble class, the one thing I admired about his teaching technique was how he addressed the students with questions. At one point, after they had warmed up playing Charlie Parker's tune "Scrapple from the Apple," he asked them how they could change the texture of the music and color it differently. That tickled their brains and encouraged them to problem-solve. After they gave their comments, Sellers summarized the answers and added his own take.

It was like playing music as a group. The critique experience is shared like the bandstand: give and take. Joey Sellers uses that same premise to teach. He encourages students to listen to each other and musically add or subtract, improvise or accent accordingly. More important, he inspires them, utilizing America's indigenous art form of jazz.

"I just want people to come and hear this music," he said. "We have eight jazz combos and a big-band ensemble at the school, because we try to embrace the applied-music students and the community. We always have great music, and this lab band had a very good concert last Monday night, but we didn't have a good attendance."

So let this article act as an open invitation to all of you who love music and who support quality education. You are invited to attend upcoming concerts at Saddleback College to witness for yourselves the results of this inspirational music department and the joy of students sharing music.

About this column: Dee Dee McNeil is an educator, singer, songwriter, poet, journalist, producer and playwright who has worked with some of Motown's biggest names. She will write about music in Mission Viejo, from jazz ensembles to oudists.

DeeDee McNeil
December 17, 2010

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