Professor brings his jazz to USU
With his personal music and unique teaching paradigm, new professor on campus, Jon Gudmundson, is showing jazz students how to ‘jump, jive, and wail.’
Jon Gudmundson, originally from Bellingham, Wash., has been a full-time musician, lecturer and now a jazz instructor in Utah State University’s music department.
Gudmundson, who began his music career playing the saxophone in sixth grade band about 30 years ago, started out playing in show bands and his high school jazz band.
“I grew up playing rock ‘n’ roll mostly. It wasn’t until I get out of high school, that I realized that, as much as I loved rock ‘n’ roll, it kind of stops,” said Gudmundson.
“I needed something that did more things. I knew that jazz was supposed to have more complexity to it and develop more. So, I started listening to it. It was kind of like taking vitamins, I thought it would help. It took me a while, but I started to get it and I started to love it,” he said.
Gudmundson’s instrumental abilities include playing the clarinet, flute, baritone sax (his favorite saxophone to play), bass clarinet, alto saxophone and a few notes on the piano.
It wasn’t until he was in graduate school that he decided to become a teacher.
“Originally, my goal was just to become a better player,” Gudmundson said. “When I got to Indiana University, I wanted to study jazz with David Baker, and he just became a mentor to me. He was a great teacher, one of the greatest jazz teachers of all time, and I was so inspired by him that I wanted to be just like him.”
Gudmundson started teaching at his alma mater as an associate instructor.
“When I started teaching I thought, ‘This is cool. I like this,’ and I got so excited and inspired,” he said. “I loved being a student, and I love to learn, because there is always so much to learn. And being a teacher I still get to learn. I get to sit around and think about music all day. It is an amazing job.”
One of Gudmundson’s favorite parts about teaching is when a student doesn’t understand something and he is able to help them find another angle to better understand it.
“When I can get a student to finally get something they have had difficulty with, it is extremely satisfying,” he said.
The only dislike he has about his job is the administrative part.
“In a perfect world, all we would have to do is teach and play. But there is a lot of administration stuff that has to be done. You need to do it to make the good stuff happen,” he said.
Gudmundson taught at Brevard College, N. C. and has been at USU for a year now, taking the place of music professor and jazz musician Larry Smith, who retired in 2003.
“Dr. Larry Smith was an absolute icon around here and everybody loves him. So, it’s hard to step in, after he had been teaching here for 38 years,” Gudmundson said. “It is impossible to take his place, because he is such a legendary figure, so that has been a challenge. But he has been great and the students have been good, even though I am new and different.”
Kris Ann Palacios, a junior majoring in liberal arts, is enrolled in Gudmundson’s History of Jazz class.
She said that he is fulfilling her expectations of the class and enjoys the teacher a lot.
“The thing that has stood out most in my mind about the class was on the first day, for the first 10 minutes or so, Professor Gudmundson played his sax for a little while, and it was pretty cool,” Palacios said. “We get to listen to a lot of audio samples and we have watched some videos, and we also get lectures. He is a funny guy and he keeps me interested in the class.”
Gudmundson’s classes include: History of Jazz, Jazz Improvisation, Jazz Orchestra and two jazz combos where he team teaches with other members of the jazz faculty. He also coaches a sax quartet.
Gudmundson still performs pretty regularly, but has found it to be a little different here.
“Back East I played a lot and then I came here and it’s a whole new part of the country and I don’t know anyone. It’s gonna take me a while to really get my name out there,” he said. “But I have been doing some things, and playing with some local groups.”
One of the groups he is enjoying most and playing in right now is a horn band, called “Way, Way East Bay.”
“We play ‘horn band tunes’. The name refers to a certain style of music that comes out of the east bay of California. It is kind of a gritty, urban, funky horn band sound. Anyone that plays horns and likes rock and roll, loves that sound,” Gudmundson said.
Gudmundson began giving lectures while he was working on his doctorate.
“It was exciting to see all of the people that, in my world, are very famous and I have always looked up to and see them in the audience while I gave my lectures, it was really cool,” Gudmundson said.
Among Gudmundson’s favorite jazz musicians are his teachers, David Baker and Roger Greenberg. Others include Jerry Mulligan, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis.
“The way that jazz works, is that you listen to a lot of different players, and you choose what you like, and leave what you don’t, and it all just sort of cooks inside of you, and you eventually become what you are and what you love,” said Gudmundson.
Gudmundson said he is excited about the jazz orchestra’s first concert, being held Oct. 20 in the Kent Concert Hall.
-kbanks@cc.usu.edu