 Former bandmate to icons Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson, Bruce Johnstone teaches saxophone and jazz at the SUNY Fredonia School of Music. |
It’s late-February, and brisk temperatures have settled into Western New York, but the jazz world of Bruce Johnstone of the SUNY Fredonia School of Music, is already heating up.
The renowned saxophonist and director of curricular jazz will be featured Feb. 26 on “Jazz, Ballads & Blues,” a survey of modern mainstream jazz heard Sunday evenings on WQLN-FM, 91.3, the public-radio station in Erie, Pa. On a good weather day, its signal can be clearly picked up in Fredonia.
Program host Al Lubiejewski will feature Johnstone selections from the 1970s, when he was playing with jazz icons Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson, including “Stay Loose with Bruce” from Ferguson’s landmark album “Live at Jimmy’s.” From a 2011 Fredonia faculty concert recorded live at Rosch Recital Hall will be “As Time Goes By,” which Johnstone performed with the Carousel Strings, a group of 10 strings and rhythm section. Listeners will also be treated to a live 1999 recording of Johnstone with Steve Swanson’s Bluezinn.
Lubiejewski’s program, which runs 7 to 9 p.m., showcases great instrumentalists, such as Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Milt Jackson, Grant Green and John Coltrane, so Johnstone is among very good company indeed.
Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter when he saw his shadow Feb. 2, but that forecast didn’t keep Johnstone from pursuing a Pittsburgh musical adventure. That day he led an afternoon clinic at Peters Township High School for 80 student-musicians, drawn from four high schools, and their band directors. The session focused on sound, technique and other factors that affect a band’s performance.
“I try to enhance their performance and give them something to think about in the future, try to set a standard that they can try to achieve,” Johnstone explained. “I think it’s a good thing for band directors to hear, so they can ask their students about what they heard at the clinic, and say, “Let’s try it.”
That evening, Johnstone joined these students on stage as a guest soloist at a concert they presented to over 400 people. A similar musical adventure, though much closer to home, is being planned by Johnstone during March in Grand Island.
Johnstone also reports that it’s full steam ahead for an April 17th showcase concert at Jamestown Community College that will feature his 18-piece Wednesday Night Big Band, 14-piece Carousel Strings and five-piece Hot Club of Fredonia. Johnstone will play with the Carousel Strings.
It will be a rare treat to hear Gypsy Jazz – a style played in France during the 1930s – and a string ensemble performing with a rhythm section in the same concert along big band. Johnstone, who will also give a pre-concert clinic for band directors and students prior to the JCC concert, embraces opportunities to showcase his students to audiences that may be unfamiliar with SUNY Fredonia or its School of Music.
“I’m really looking forward to taking these wonderfully talented young performers off campus. It’s a great opportunity to present these concert ensembles to people in other communities who may not be aware of the high quality of music or the musicians that we’re producing at SUNY Fredonia,” Johnstone said.
Early in his career, New Zealand-born Johnstone toured extensively in Australia, England, France and Denmark before joining Ferguson and relocating to the United States.
