sonorities

A Tale of Two Chips

Anne M. Heiles

Tenor saxophonist Charles “Chip” McNeill and pianist John “Chip” Stephens, two sparkplugs in Champaign-Urbana’s jazz scene, seem almost joined at the hip in their careers. The two have worked together under three very special band leaders: Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson, and Arturo Sandoval. Each experience helped pave the road to the next. And now they are again working together, enlivening UI’s jazz program.

McNeill, associate professor and chair of the jazz division, gives his synopsis: “Chip was in the Woody Herman band in the late 1980s when we first met. After some time he left the band; then I left the band a few months later. I got on Maynard’s band, and was in Cleveland one night when Chip came to the gig. Afterward we were hanging out, and I thought, well, this guy would be perfect for Maynard’s band. Sure enough, he came on a while later. Again, he left and then I left, both of us to start teaching. Then he got Arturo’s gig and maybe a year later I got on. Then he left, then I left….”

Taking over the narrative, Stephens, UI’s newest addition to the jazz division faculty, elaborates: “Woody’s band differed from the traditional big band setup in that he used three tenor saxophones and one bari sax (as opposed to the more standard two altos, two tenors, and baritone saxophone line).” A typical big band is eighteen pieces, with 5 saxophones, 4 trombones, 5 trumpets, and 4 rhythm section (piano, bass, guitar, and drums).

Maynard Ferguson was “one of Sandoval’s idols,” Stephens says of his next boss. “Maynard could play high notes all night long. He actually gave Arturo his trumpet one night on a gig in Florida. Arturo has it displayed in a big oak cabinet in his house. Maynard got his first gig at the age of sixteen with Stan Kenton’s orchestra, which made him an instant star.

“Chip [McNeill] had a long history with Maynard. He was with the Big Bop Nouveau band when he called me in Maine—on the second night of my honeymoon—and said, ‘You want a gig?’ So I asked my wife. She’s always felt that if something is a good decision creatively and artistically—and pays good money (let’s not forget that)—hey, let’s do it. Her father’s a great jazz pianist in his seventies, though he sounds thirty years younger.” Knowing a jazz player’s life, his wife accepted what came next: “I was married for two weeks and then went on the road for a year.”

Stephens says, “It was a great experience; Arturo is one of those artists who wears his heart on his sleeve. You always know how he feels.” McNeill adds, “It shows up in his playing.”

Picking up the beat, Stephens continues: “It sure does. He’s a passionate man and a passionate player. It was an absolute ball playing in his band. Latin music isn’t a style indigenous to my heritage, so I was glad to have already played in a Latin band in Cleveland. Arturo had a six-piece band, much smaller. Its rhythm section is piano, bass, drums, congas, and timbales. Arturo played the timbales and trumpet, so the front line was just saxophone and trumpet. It was very exposed, and there was a lot more room for improvisation with the smaller group.

“I had some wonderful times with him—and some heated moments, which you would expect with anyone who’s under the kind of pressure he had.” Sandoval’s nerves were frayed over small and big issues, “variables” Stephens calls them. He fretted over getting to the gig on time, how he might personally feel about a band member, a missed flight, a club not paying him the deposit, and more. Stephens is quick to point out that Sandoval was hardly alone in reacting strongly to pressure. While he was in Woody Herman’s band, Stephens saw the same strong reactions to stress in Frank Tiberi, the band’s leader after Herman’s death: “There were nights when Frank had so much on his mind that it was hard for him to be himself. But he and Arturo were professionals, and this wasn’t communicated to the audience.”

Stephens stayed with Arturo Sandoval almost three years, touring the world more than once, from Hong Kong to Australia and everywhere in Europe. “Lots of frequent flyer miles in those days,” he sums it up. “Sure, travel is hard on you, being away from family and all that you know and love. But playing music on that high a level every night made it worthwhile. And I’ve always loved playing with Chip; we shared the stage so many times in our careers together. That’s always been a joy.”

Both Chips were in Sandoval’s band when it recorded the Grammy-winning Hot House album. Chip McNeill “wrote the chart on the title cut and was arranger for several of the songs (Mambop and Cuban American Medley),” Stephens points out. “Chip’s a great writer.” McNeill’s three songs were nominated for individual Grammy awards, but it was the record as a whole that won.

There were no rehearsals for their performances, a common practice where budgets are limited and studio time so costly. Stephens says they recorded the rhythm section players in Miami’s Criteria Sound, a “beautiful studio” and popular venue, which, McNeill notes, was built by Max Immerman, inventor of the Ampex multitrack tape machine. “Basically, we got to the studio, read through it a couple of times, and recorded it,” says Stephens. And he shares that knowledge with his students: with so little rehearsal time available in professional situations, he says, “they must develop the ability to read. Not being able to sight-read is like an author not knowing the alphabet. There was a period in jazz history when you could get away with not being able to sight-read, but that isn’t true today.”

According to McNeill, the horns were recorded in Sandoval’s home, a small section that used overdubbing to create a big band Latin sound. The section included Sandoval and one other trumpet player, two trombone players (one handled three parts, and Joe Barati did the bass trombone), McNeill and Ed Callé as saxophonists. At these two sessions the musicians started with charts but improvised much of the recording. “Arturo is a keyboard player, and he had put together a demo on a synthesizer, with overdubbing of the tracks, and he gave that to us. A lot of it ended up drastically different than what he had originally shared. You get in there and hear someone playing, and say ‘Oh, that was cool, let’s do that,’” Stephens reminisces. “It was a great experience.”

The two Chips also participated in For Love or Country, a sound track accompanying an HBO movie about Sandoval; that work won an Emmy Award. Stephens remembers receiving one day’s notice to get from Cleveland to Los Angeles to play in the band for that movie.

Stephens and his wife, Carol, moved to Urbana in August. They have two young sons, Colson (“Cole”) and Clayton (“Clay”), so the family shares its initials of CS. He says his mother enjoyed the TV show “My Three Sons” so much that she nicknamed him after the character Chip (officially short for Cortland). McNeill received his nickname in childhood after his brother started calling him Chip. Around the UI Music Building, the two are sometimes referred to as the “Chipsters.” Trombone great Paul McKee once jokingly suggested to professor Dana Hall that he, too, change his name to Chip. And there’s jazz bassist Chip Jackson, McNeill points out.

Stephens has a full teaching load, including a carefully sequenced series of jazz improvisation and theory courses as well as applied jazz piano, and he coaches a jazz combo. Spread over four semesters for undergraduates and two for graduates, the new improvisation courses begin gently, with the Blues “because that’s primarily how we all learn to play. The form is accessible, and students are able to succeed and even excel at it fairly quickly. We go on to more contemporary tunes, like Giant Steps or Moment’s Notice, modal concepts, all the way up to free jazz. Some people say ‘I’d like to play Misty free,’ or maybe ‘I want to play Satin Doll free,’ but that’s a contradiction. Free playing is no defined parameters, no changes, no tune, no chord structures. Satin Doll has a melody and harmonic form.” He likes to refer to theory as jazz’s “math,” including common chord progressions and structures and the chord-scale relationships. McNeill chips in that those also are part of the jazz keyboard studies. In addition to the applied jazz piano that Stephens and Joan Hickey teach to jazz majors, the jazz division also offers class jazz piano for other music students (horn players, classical pianists, etc.).

Unlike the early days of jazz at UI, when John Garvey began the UI Jazz Band in the 1960s, the jazz division now comprises five faculty members: McNeill, Stephens, drummer-composer-ethnomusicologist Dana Hall, pianist Joan Hickey, and saxophonist Ron Bridgewater. McNeill: “Really, our goal has been to revitalize the jazz program. The Jazz Band was John Garvey’s ‘baby,’ but he didn’t have a full program. But even then, it’s important to remember, UI turned out some amazing jazz players, including tenor saxophonist Joe Ferrell (who was originally a flute major here), alto saxophonist Howie Smith (now directing the jazz program at Cleveland State University), composer and arranger Jim McNeely (now a major jazz pianist and composer in New York City), and saxophonist-composer Kim Richmond (now in Los Angeles).

McNeill waxes enthusiastic: “In the late 1980s and 90s Tom Birkner and Tom Wirtel started a small program with a few courses. But now we have a major in jazz studies, officially called jazz and improvisational music. In two years we’ve gone from zero to about forty students, all the way from bachelor’s and master’s degrees to a doctor of musical arts in jazz. It’s been a lot of work and a lot of fun, too. We already have our rhythm section, with Chip Stephens and Dana Hall. We’re working on getting a jazz bass teacher next, and eventually we’ll have a guitar and jazz brass person. When I came to Urbana, one of the first things I noticed was the rich tradition of jazz in the area clubs, with an amazing number of true jazz players, improvising being their primary source of music,” enthuses McNeill.

Stephens, who began his career after getting degrees at the University of Akron and Cleveland State University in classical piano, says classical studies are terrific background for high school students to bring to their jazz studies. He emphasizes also the importance of “getting a teacher who understands the jazz idiom, a really good teacher who can point you in the right direction, noting deficiencies but also building on strengths. Many young musicians don’t understand the importance of listening to music and getting the sound in their mind’s ear; it really is an aural tradition.” Although he says young people should listen to “everybody,” he suggests starting out with some “marquee players”: Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Art Tatum (“he was so sophisticated harmonically, not to mention a technical wizard”), and pianist Bill Evans (“an absolutely beautiful player”). Evans, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, and Brad Meldau (a younger player) all are fine jazz artists with a classical music background, Stephens adds. “A lot of younger jazz musicians have embraced the Western classical tradition because there are so many things you need now to succeed. It’s not just about playing the blues. Playing in tune and having the ability to read music is vital in today’s music world.

“A lot of students ask, ‘Can you make a living in music?’ Professor Stephens points out: “I’m more convinced than ever that if all your basic musical skills are in place—if you’ve got a good sound, can play in tune, and can read, if (as a reed player) you can double, and if you can play with other people, you can do really well in this business. I’ve got dozens and dozens of friends who are doing it.” Typically people don’t hire someone unless they know the playing and the person, Stephens warns. “Especially with road bands, where you’re working and living with people, it means being able to play in certain contexts and getting along with others. The tape or CD is just preliminary.” Both men perform in the Urbana area as they have time. Late this summer they played at the Iron Post, a club in town. “It’s cool to be a part of a faculty that’s out there doing it, “ Stephens says. “To cut to the chase, that validates our existence. When I was a student, the professors I respected most were those who played and those who had a history of playing.” McNeill concurs: “The crux of it is your ability to play. When you see that your instructors can stand up and reproduce what they’re talking about, that’s the quickest, most powerful lesson.”

Chip 1: “You learn how to play by playing.”

Chip 2: “That’s right. There’s no substitute for experience. The act of going out there physically and playing with all kinds of bands on the road forces you to deal with all sorts of musical situations and players. In reality, that’s what our students are going to be doing.”

McNeill sums it all up: “This is our way of giving back to the students what we’ve learned in our playing experience. It’s all about them.”

Get Here Sooner

The University of Illinois Concert Jazz Band’s debut CD! Featuring The Long Road To Nowhere, In This Moment, Maybe You Don’t, Nothing Doing, The Forrest, Greenpiece, Just Friends, and Get Here Sooner. Available in the School of Music Jazz Division (217-333-9703), and at Champaign-Urbana bookstores.

WINTER 2005