Bass Players Gain a Solid Base in Classical and Jazz
Two professors collaborate to provide more options for graduates
The one thing Ben Williams wants to do when he graduates from Michigan State University in the spring is to be able to support himself as a jazz musician. Thankfully, he has given himself a good shot at that dream with a curriculum filled with both classical and jazz studies as an undergraduate in the School of Music. That may not sound unusual, but studying both genres is something you won’t find everywhere. It is encouraged at MSU, however, and two of the world’s outstanding artist/teachers of double bass are collaborating to make it happen.
Rodney Whitaker is director of jazz studies and associate professor of double bass. Jack Budrow is associate professor of music, co-chair of the string area, and teaches classical double bass. Together, they have formed a unique alliance that challenges students to excel in both jazz and classical bass performance.
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| Rodney Whitaker and Jack Budrow |
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“Really, several of my students were interested in jazz and they began studying with Rodney and of course they liked him very much,” says Budrow. “He’s a wonderful teacher and a wonderful player. And then the School of Music instituted a jazz major and some of the jazz students were interested in studying with me. So, what has evolved here is what we call a studio collaboration in classical and jazz.” The idea is still new and Budrow adds that not all of the bass students want to study the two genres, but there are a number of students who are interested in both. With 28 bass students currently between them, Whitaker and Budrow focus on developing a curriculum that prepares students for a great variety of performance opportunities.
Whitaker, an internationally acclaimed jazz bass player who has performed throughout the world, joined MSU in 1995 and has helped the Jazz Studies Program, which officially be came an undergraduate degree program in 2001, grow into a program that attracts quality students from around the country. Budrow, a highly regarded classical double bass player with more than 30 years of professional experience nationwide, has current and former students performing in symphony orchestras throughout the world.
“Our program is geared toward preparing students for what life is like (as a freelance musician),” says Whitaker. “We collaborate in terms of recruiting students, but Jack sees a great need for his students to learn how to play jazz so they will be more versatile musicians. He encourages his students to pursue both jazz and classical primarily because it creates more opportunities to earn a living.”
“The programs here mesh so well,” says Budrow. “At many schools there’s a separation between the jazz and classical areas in terms of double bass. There’s very little crossover.” But today, he says, professional bass players don’t always stick to one genre. “There seems to be a shift in the professional market and there’s a new kind of bass player emerging.” Proficiency in both genres is a definite advantage, he adds.
“I’ve got a few new students who are doing both options this fall,” says Whitaker, “and the reason they chose our program is because of how open we are toward each other and how we encourage students to do both. I think what happens at a lot of places is they force the students to choose.”
Ben Williams, a 21-year-old music education major, is fully entrenched in the jazz program with Whitaker. He plans to make his living as a jazz bass performer and eventually a teacher. And while he’s not officially a double major in jazz and classical, he has studied classical bass with Budrow throughout his college career and loves performing both genres. He is a member of MSU’s Philharmonic Orchestra as well as Jazz Band I, Jazz Octet I, and Vocal Jazz Ensemble. He also earns a living performing with jazz ensembles in the community and says his two professors work well together.
“They definitely have a good relationship and have a lot of respect for each other’s playing and teaching styles,” says Williams. “Studying with both of them is complementary – because they have different approaches to playing and they’re teaching two different genres. Being a student of both keeps you well rounded, definitely, and gives you more options as a player.”
Williams is a shining star for the school, having taken first place in the jazz division at the International Society of Bassists Competition in June 2005. His future plans include graduate school and he will work professionally at the same time. Williams grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended a performing arts high school there. He was initially considering other colleges, but was drawn to MSU because of Whitaker.
“I actually met Rodney when I was in the 10th grade,” he says. “He was playing with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and they had done a work shop at the Kennedy Center.” Williams decided to fly to East Lansing with his mother for a school visit and ended up bonding with Whitaker during the trip, even getting to perform with his mentor onstage at one of Whitaker’s performances in Detroit. “He was just so warm and inviting, and I felt so comfortable already just from my audition,” says Williams. “He made it really comfortable to be here so far away from home.”
Whitaker, who grew up on the east side of Detroit, seemed destined for a life with music. “When I was a kid I had a neighbor who saw me carrying the bass violin one day and gave me some records. I was 13 years old and fell in love with jazz. That’s what I wanted to be from that day forward, a jazz musician.”
Whitaker’s honors are numerous, the most recent being a Canadian Juno Award nomination for collaborative al bum work. He performs throughout the world when he’s not teaching, directing the school’s top jazz ensemble, performing with the MSU Professors of Jazz, or conducting the Detroit Symphony Civic Jazz Orchestra.
“My teaching style comes very much from the African-American tradition of blues-based improvisation where I teach kids to develop their ears, but I’m also teaching them how to be leaders,” says Whitaker. “I really believe our job as educators is to help them grow up, and to give them an insight. You have to embrace your ancestors. That’s part of the culture. And through embracing the ancestors you find your own voice.”
 Spencer Phillips, 22, a performance major in classical bass, says your teacher means everything in the music world. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, where he studied both classical and jazz, Phillips took classes as a high school student with Budrow, who has been teaching at Interlochen in the summers for the past 28 years. Phillips looked at other colleges, but MSU had Budrow, so that’s where he wanted to go.
“With a music education degree you can walk out with a diploma and you’re guaranteed a job. But with performance, that really doesn’t get you anything in the end,” says Phillips. “It’s totally based on your playing and that’s why you choose really carefully who you study with. It’s your lineage, kind of. When I say, ‘I study with Jack Budrow,’ people know right off the bat that I received some great training.”
That isn’t surprising, given the fact that Budrow has been a well-known, highly respected classical bass performer and teacher for years. He has been principal bass of the North Carolina Symphony, Santa Fe Opera, and the American National Opera orchestras, a member of the Houston Symphony, and has taught at Indiana University and Interlochen Summer Arts Camp. Budrow has been a member of MSU’s faculty for nearly 11 years.
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 Students who make up the bass studio at the MSU School of Music enjoy the collaboration between classical and jazz training. |
Phillips, who recently graduated from MSU, is now attending graduate school at Mannes College of Music in New York. He also took part in the International Society of Bassists Orchestral Competition last June, winning third prize. Out of all the musicians who auditioned in the competition, three of five finalists were from Budrow’s studio at MSU. Phillips also spent a semester studying jazz bass with Whitaker and loved it. “I mean, he’s huge, you know?” he says. “I’ve been focusing more on classical but there’s no way you should pass up the opportunity to study with Rodney.”
Phillips was active professionally throughout Michigan while maintaining a full course load at MSU. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Rachel, a jazz trumpet player he met at Interlochen who is finishing up her degree at Wayne State University. Together they performed in small jazz ensembles around the state but Phillips was also associate principal bass of the West Shore Symphony Orchestra in Muskegon, a mentor at Detroit Sym phony Civic Orchestra, and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Michigan-Flint.
Budrow says he and Whitaker are excited about their collaborative efforts. “The outcome of this is that students are going to have more employment possibilities because they can play both classically and in the jazz field. They’re going to have the work once they graduate.”
Experience in performing and auditioning is emphasized, required actually, within the two programs, and having the guidance of two outstanding bass players can be quite an advantage for these young musicians. The MSU School of Music has many different performance opportunities for students – and many students take full advantage of them. The close, supportive environment within the school also helps as students spend hours practicing and studying their craft. “Everybody knows each other and we have our own little community here,” says Williams. “It’s definitely a family type of vibe.”
Both students and teachers agree that passion is the overwhelming key to success as a professional musician. If you are dedicated, if you know you simply couldn’t do anything else with your life, then the money will take care of itself. “This is what I do,” says Whitaker. “It’s my life.”
“The best thing about music, whether it’s somebody like me or an upcoming musician, is it affects your inner geography in a way that nothing else can,” says Budrow. “It’s a lively art. It produces a good feeling within you, a sense of well being.”
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