University of California Jazz Ensembles

Although a big band had existed briefly on the U.C. Berkeley campus in the late 1950s, the long-lasting UC Jazz Ensembles itself had its beginnings in 1966. The response was heavily loaded with guitar players and the project was put on hold. In 1967, Bob Docken, the first trombone player with the Cal Band and a respondent to the ad, followed Leslie Golden's lead and placed his own ad in the Daily Californian. The response was more favorable and with Rick Penner, a trumpet player in the Cal Band, rehearsals of the big band began on Sunday mornings in the Cal Band band room.

The first concert of the then-named ASUC Jazz Ensembles was in May, 1968, an event heralded by an article in The Daily Californian.[3] The article included commentary by educator Dr. Herb Wong, Ph.D,[4] a disc jockey at KJAZ-FM[5] radio, jazz historian, jazz critic, album liner author, and jazz festival adjudicator, who was to form a lasting supportive bond with the UC Jazz Ensembles and a strong friendship based on common interests and mutual admiration with soon-to-be-named director David W. Tucker.

The UC Jazz Ensembles became an official student organization under the auspices of the Associated Students of the University California in 1971 with Dr. David W. "Doc" Tucker as its first director. Pianist Susan Muscarella was appointed to the position of Associate Director in 1974. Student interest led to the formation of three big bands, all under the direction of Tucker, with the Wednesday Night Band being the premier group.

Tucker also reached out to Milton Williams, the director of choral ensembles under student activities. Several jazz vocal groups were created, some of which performed with the UC Jazz Ensembles at various concerts, notably the spring concert.

Several major events signified the maturity of the organization. By March 1971, Tucker believed that the Wednesday Night Band had reached a sufficient level of musicality and took it to the first jazz festival in which the UC Jazz Ensembles participated, the prestigious Reno Jazz Festival,[6] the band being housed at the "legendary" B-Gay Motor Lodge. The guest artist at the festival was vibist Gary Burton and the band performed on Friday, March 19.

In the spring of 1972, the Wednesday Night Band traveled to southern California and performed at its first Pacific Coast Collegiate Jazz Festival, the Northridge Collegiate Jazz Festival, part of the American College Jazz Festival,[7] performing on March 25, 1972. The Wednesday Night Band returned to the Reno Jazz Festival, performing on March 23, 1973. On this trip, the band was housed at the Towne House Motor Lodge, the B-Gay, to the disappointment of band members, being sold out.

In 1974, after the ensembles began hosting the Pacific Coast Collegiate Jazz Festival, the Wednesday Night Band won 3rd place, having performed on April 27. This placed them among the elite bands of the west coast, able to compete with the Los Angeles college bands notorious for seating "ringers", professional studio musicians taking a minimum of courses.

The first of its international tours occurred in the summer of 1979. The Wednesday Night Band embarked upon a four-week tour of Europe, playing several major jazz festivals in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Poland. In the summer of 1981 the band traveled to the Far East, touring Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka. In 1984, it was invited to tour again in Japan. Notably, the 1979 European Tour band appeared on the same bill as Dizzy Gillespie, and the 1981 Japan Tour band performed in, among other venues, Korakuen Stadium, home of the Tokyo Giants baseball team. This was most likely the largest UC Jazz performance venue in its history.

In the 1990s, the UC Jazz Ensembles extended their international associations by building relationships with foreign jazz groups. Visiting bands have performed either in evening concerts on the Berkeley campus or at the weekly Thursday noon-time venue in Lower Sproul Plaza. Such bands included The Australian Performing Arts Unit Big Band, The Rare Sounds Jazz Ensemble from Japan, and The Dunedin City Jazz Orchestra from New Zealand.

In 1984 Tucker took a sabbatical and he announced his retirement in 1985. Susan Muscarella became the director, appointing saxophonist Dave Le Febvre as Associate Director. Dave LeFebvre and Robert Calonico were co-directors between 1989 and 1995, Michael Stryker was director in the 1996 school year, and Bevan Manson was director from 1998 to 2000. The big bands and combo programs continued the ambitious programs begun under Tucker, winning awards at jazz festivals throughout California. After years of lobbying of the academic department of music, music majors can earn academic credits as members of the UC Jazz Ensembles.

The UC Jazz Ensembles expanded to include seven part-time instructors, creating the structure that remains in place. Each instructor coaches one of the combos or big bands as well as conducting master classes in his own instrument. The UC Jazz Ensembles is currently directed by drummer Ted Moore.

Dr. David W. "Doc" Tucker (1929–2003) was the force behind the success of the UC Jazz Ensembles and is inextricably associated with it. A native of Cerro Gordo, a small town in central Illinois, he was graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.S. (1950) and M.S. (1951) in Music Education. In 1965, he both began teaching music at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento and began studies toward a doctorate in Music Education at U.C. Berkeley. In 1966, at the request of the Sacramento school district, Tucker assumed the position of Director of Bands at Sacramento City College. While in Sacramento, Tucker played trombone in the pit bands at Lake Tahoe casinos. He completed his Ed.D. at Berkeley in 1969.

In the fall of 1968, Tucker was hired as an arranger and composer for the Cal Marching Band. He was appointed Associate Director in 1969. His responsibilities with the Cal Band included rehearsing, auditioning prospective new members, and directing on the football field opposite director James Berdahl. For the 1971 season, during Berdahl's sabbatical year in Japan, Tucker was named Acting Director.

In 1969, he was asked by members of the ASUC Jazz Ensembles affiliated with the Cal Band, most notably Docken, to direct the big band in his spare time, a role Tucker, with his jazz trombone background, eagerly accepted. His personal skills led numerous Cal Band musicians to join the big band, with the result that personnel issues were never to be a problem again.

At the end of the 1971 season, Tucker left the Cal Band to accept the newly created position of Director of the UC Jazz Ensembles under Cal's musical activities department. The band faced continual financial hurdles, with minimal funding from the university and low staff salaries, but prospered and grew in influence and popularity in the campus community. Within a couple years, with the increasing interest of more student musicians to join the big band, two additional big bands were created, the Tuesday Night Band and the Thursday Night Band, with the original big band, composed of the most skilled of the jazz musicians, named the Wednesday Night Band.

It continued to expand its programming, adding combos to the big bands and, beginning in 1974 sponsoring the Pacific Coast Collegiate Jazz Festival (PCCJF). The organization now had two sets of student administrators, the officers of the band itself and those running the PCCJF. Under Tucker's guidance, the PCCJF, later called the Pacific Coast Jazz Festival because of its inclusion of competition among high school bands, became the largest collegiate jazz festival in the country in terms of number of student participants and number of musical groups. These grew to include big bands, combos, and vocal ensembles.

Under Tucker, the various bands began to perform at various venues on the U.C. Berkeley campus and in the Bay Area. These include the Thursday noontime concerts on Lower Sproul Plaza, in the Bear's Lair, at a spring concert, at the Oakland Art Museum, and for official receptions and parties at the university president's home on the U.C. Berkeley campus. An annual spring concert, entitled "Spring Thing" included various bands from the UC Jazz Ensembles, vocal jazz groups from UC Choral Ensembles, and guest stars. Pianist George Duke was featured at the first Spring Thing in 1971.

Tucker directed the UC Jazz Ensembles until he retired in 1985 to pursue other interests, having mentored, befriended, supported, and provided performing as well as management opportunities for hundreds of musicians. His student musicians remember "Doc" fondly, how he served as a mentor to many and always took time to advise, lend a hand, or just chat. The organization has proven to be an effective recruitment tool for U.C. Berkeley, with many high school musicians interested in attending U.C. Berkeley but also interested in performing jazz finding it to fit both interests. The PCCJF itself promoted U.C. Berkeley, surprisingly to many high school students attracted to the campus mainly because of its academic renown, as a jazz education and performance center.

Current instructors and the groups they lead are: Ted Moore, Director of UC Jazz Ensembles, Percussion, Advanced Combo and Intermediate Combo; Steve Campos, Trumpet, Big Band; Frank Martin, Piano, Advanced Combo; Glenn Richman, Bass, Intermediate Combo; Marty Wehner, Trombone, Intermediate Combo; Dann Zinn, Saxophone, Advanced Combo; Joseph Escobar, Piano/Trumpet, Beginning Combo; Joshua Perline, Bass/Guitar/Saxophone, Beginning Combo; Jessie Salas, Saxophone, Beginning Combo; Owen Chen, Guitar/Drums, Beginning Combo.

Under the management of Sam Lind and the direction of Paul Siebel,[17] the Cal Alumni Big Band has rehearsed and performed at various Bay Area venues for more than two decades. It regularly donates income derived from its frequent public performances toward support of UC Jazz programs.

The alumni club was formed in the 1980s, with George Gaebler one of the primary driving forces, to keep graduates and staff of U.C. Berkeley who had performed in the UC Jazz Ensembles connected to each other and the program. It sends out periodic newsletters and emails to members. Its current president is Sam Lind. The UC Alumni Jazz Band has a provisional website with one CD listed: http://calumbigband.8m.com/ Contact Sam Lind for other CDs and how to get copies

In reaction to budget cuts for education from the State of California, alumni and members of the UC Jazz Ensembles formed the UC Jazz Club.[18] Its goal is to support the work of the organization by acquiring private and corporate funding to purchase teaching materials, sheet music, instruments, studio equipment, and recordings for the Duke Ellington Memorial Library.