The Jazz Faculty turns fifty

In 1965 the jazz faculty was created in the Béla Bartók Music College. This was more than the foundation of a new faculty: for the first time jazz as an independent genre had found itself a place in Hungarian state music education and this to a degree represented the recognition of jazz's improvisatory creative and performance practices as a sovereign art form. But it was also significant because jazz – through its improvisatory technique – demands new styles of teaching and mentality that depart from those in traditional education.

The circumstances surrounding this important moment were anything but favourable. The cultural policy of the time was blinkered and prejudiced, deeming jazz to be the cosmopolitan music of the American upper classes and, in common with other music forms created in the West or at least linked to it, its performance was strictly banned. As a consequence, Hungarian audiences were deprived of experiencing that particularly valuable period when modern jazz music became a podium form. During the cultural thaw that occurred in the sixties, there was considerable misunderstanding about jazz. The task to overcome was twofold: enlighten the general public to the fact that jazz was significantly different from popular light music; and convince the powers that be that their assessment of the genre was a profound mistake, because – although it has exerted its influence on many aspects of Western music culture – it evolved from Afro- American folklore, which was and remained the folk music of the American black community, which had been brought to America as slaves.

Although there were abundant problems, jazz life began to take shape in the first half of the sixties, although admittedly within a modest framework. Groups and clubs were created, small scale concerts arranged and the ‘Modern Jazz’ record series was launched, and articles and studies were written about the genre. Two specialist books were also published. The creation of the jazz faculty strengthened this process. Its formation was even more significant given that, at that time in Europe, such education only existed in the Graz Academy in Austria and a few other places. I was entrusted with organising the faculty and then to lead it – which is what I did for decades. Teaching began in seven different branches: six instrumental and one vocal. Naturally we chose those instruments which had a leading role in jazz. Among the founding teachers who taught in the faculty were the likes of Balázs Berkes (double bass), Tamás Deák (trumpet), Gyula Kovács (drum), Dezső Selényi (trombone), Miklós Siliga (saxophone), and György Vukán (vocals). Owing to the number of those wanting to study piano, I taught it jointly with Béla Szakcsi Lakatos. We judged important subsidiary subjects to be jazz theory, jazz history, aural training adapted for jazz improvisation, and practice with small and large groups. To the surprise of many we introduced parallel teaching; the classical equivalent of the principal subject and some subsidiary ones were included in the curriculum. Many asked whether this was necessary. According to a witty definition, jazz is a ‘crafty combination’ of improvised and non-improvised music. This music is not free imagination but an organic improvisation based on internal relationships paired with composed material.
 

The Big Band of the Jazz Faculty led by Attila László (photo: Liszt Academy / Sándor Benkő)
 

Also, because of its improvisational past, jazz is open to every direction: it enjoys a continuous and ever strengthening mutual influence with modern compositional music, with folklore, and to a degree, with popular music. Alongside the most characteristic mainstream jazz we find contemporary jazz, which touches on the world of composition; we find ethno jazz, which adapts folklore elements, and electronic fusion trends, which integrates rock elements. So a creative, well-trained jazz musician today must be informed about the world of traditional and modern compositional music, as well as Hungarian and international folklore. This genre, which unifies improvisation as ad hoc creation with pre-recorded elements, in addition to uniquely practical performances, requires a new kind of pedagogical approach alongside traditional teaching. Let me mention just a few: structuring and improvisational practices with characteristic melodic, harmonic and rhythmic jazz figures; transcription, which is noting down the improvisations of the masters, analysing and learning them; and the much-loved and useful playback ‘music minus one’ game: playing and improvising to a backtrack recorded by a professional group. This meant that improvisation received more pedagogical attention than ever before. In the progressive music teaching systems of the past century – for example the Orff, Dalcroze and Willems methods – improvisation plays an important role without exception, in the same way as in other art forms and alternative workshops. The pedagogical attitude to improvisation, which can be characterised as ‘if you can, do it, otherwise leave us in peace’, is particularly mistaken. Creativity development is inseparable from the idea of using and exploiting improvisation for teaching. This naturally strongly affected the formation and development of jazz teaching.

During the course of the past fifty years, teaching methods have developed, and the faculty itself has changed considerably. New instrumental courses and subjects have been introduced: the guitar faculty with Gyula Babos, the bass guitar faculty with Béla Lattman, composition with Béla Faragó, and collaboration with specialist piano teachers. Another novelty is the teaching of percussion-vibraphone, augmenting the jazz drumming faculty, which is taught by Béla Zsoldos. The jazz faculty was not created to be an exotic novelty amid the teaching of music but to facilitate the organisation and nurturing of all of Hungarian jazz culture, including jazz teaching. Adhering to this spirit, teaching began primarily in the lower classes of music and arts schools. Since the jazz faculty gives priority to teacher training, without exception the musicians and teachers employed in the new faculties graduated here. Later a new kind of teaching was introduced in professional specialist middle schools. Over the course of time it became evident that following the lower, middle and higher structural framework, the jazz faculty, which had the character of a college but operated within the framework of a specialist middle school, needed to be transformed. The conversion to a college began in 1990 following various changes and expansion: the faculty first was placed within the realms of the Budapest Teacher Training Institute, then it became an official faculty at the Liszt Academy. Many factors contributed to this welcome process. Over the decades the status of the genre changed fundamentally: audiences and musical society became better acquainted with, and acceptant of, jazz; many recognised its importance and began falling in love with it.

Of course, the activities of the faculty and the results it achieved naturally contributed to this, a linkage proven by both the domestic and international successes of the students who graduated here and by, no less, their playing. The best known figures of Hungarian jazz, who have blazed the trail over the last few decades and continue to do so, with few exceptions graduated from the faculty. There is no room to name them all, but we should make mention of the following: Károly Binder (the current head of the jazz faculty), László Gárdonyi, Kálmán Oláh, Frigyes Pleszkán, László Süle, Dániel Szabó (piano); Viktor Hárs, Béla Lattman, Pál Vasvári (bass, bass guitar); Elemér Balázs, István Baló, András Dés, András Mohay, Ferenc Németh (drums, percussion); Gábor Gadó, István Gyárfás, Gábor Juhász, Attila László, Ferenc Snétberger (guitar); Kristóf Bacsó, Mihály Borbély, Gyula Csepregi, László Dés, Mihály Dresch, Tony Lakatos (saxophone); István Fekete, Kornél Fekete-Kovács (trumpet); Károly Friedrich, Ferenc Schreck, Béla Szalóky (trombone); Tamás Berki, Kati Bontovics, Veronika Harcsa, Myrtill Micheller, Gábor Winand (vocals).