Remembering Janis Stockhouse, The Great Band Director

In light of Janis Stockhouse's unexpected death at the tail end
of 2024, we're re-posting Kirk's 2019 interview with her for
anyone who might want to listen to it.


Janis started teaching at North high school in Bloomington,
Indiana, in the early 1980s. It was a time when "jazz education"
as a concept was still a relatively new thing. She retired 38
years later, having grown the North band program into a
well-known Midwest institution, winning countless awards at
festivals around the world and regularly turning out graduates
who would go on to become professional musicians, as well as many
others who would simply have a lifelong love of music.


On this episode she tells the story of starting out at North and
developing the program, along with her thoughts on how to get
students to practice, which composers she prefers for student
groups, women in jazz, funding for the arts, and some good
old-fashioned album recommendations.


For more information about Janis and the many tributes and
memorials to her, visit The Janis Stockhouse memorial concert
website.


REFERENCED ON THIS EPISODE:


Janis's 2004 book Jazzwomen: Conversations With Twenty-One
Musicians, which she co-wrote with Wayne Enstice - there are
used copies on Amazon, and you should really track down a copy
and read it


The late great jazz legend David Baker, whose NYT obituary
captured at least some of his legacy:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/arts/music/david-baker-who-helped-bring-jazz-studies-into-the-academy-dies-at-84.html


MUSIC ON THIS EPISODE:


"IU Swing Machine" by David Baker as played by the 2016 IU
Celebration Big Band

"Don't Get Sassy" by the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis big band

"Hang Gliding" by Maria Schneider from Alegresse

"Bright Eyes" as played by the Bill Holman big band

"Take the 'A' Train" by Billy Strayhorn as performed by the
Duke Ellington orchestra

"Vol. 6: All 'Bird' - Now's The Time" Play-A-Long by Jamey
Aebersold (featuring Kenny Barron and Ron Carter(!!))

"Laugh, Clown, Laugh" by Abbey Lincoln from Abbey Is
Blue, 1959

"Song Patrol" by Jane Ira Bloom from Early Americans,
2016

"Lingala" by the SF Jazz Collective from their 2005
self-titled album

"So What" and "Flamenco Sketches" by Miles Davis from Kind
of Blue, 1959

"My Favorite Things" as performed by John Coltrane on My
Favorite Things, 1966

"Mercy Mercy Mercy" by Josef Zawinul as performed by the
Cannonball Adderley quintet on Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, 1966



OUTRO SOLOIST: BJ CORD


This episode's outro soloist is BJ Cord, a fellow Bloomington
North graduate and fantastic trumpet player based in Portland. BJ
works at Monette trumpets making some of the most beautiful horns
in the world, and is a regular presence on their Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/monettetrumpets