Click here for additional article on Wycliffe Gordon.
Classical and gospel music were the earliest influences in Wycliffe Gordon’s life.
“Our father introduced us to music,” said Gordon, the Waynesboro, Ga., native and award-winning jazz trombonist who has played in concert halls all over the globe and released more than 20 solo CDs.
The first instrument he played was the piano, but when he was in seventh grade, he found the trombone. His older brother played in the school band. Gordon had his sights set on the drums, but when his parents nixed that idea, he took up the trombone.
“I begged my parents, and they finally gave in,” he said.
He fell in love with classical jazz after an aunt died.
“When I was 13 or 14, my great aunt passed away. She had a five-record set of jazz music,” he said.
[adrotate banner=”23″]
He’ll never forget those albums. He played them so many times that he practically wore them out. It wasn’t a contemporary sound like Herp Alpert or Chuck Mangione, but of the earlier era of jazz with its ragtime and Dixieland sounds.
It was the Dixieland jazz that originated in New Orleans that struck a chord in the young Gordon.
He went to junior high the last year before Richmond County changed to a middle school concept. With the last band concert of junior high, Gordon and a friend decided they’d go out in style.
Dixieland jazz has an improvisational component to it.
For the concert, he and a friend each had a trombone solo. They decided to play what was on paper first, then improvise.
Those experiences sparked a desire in him to pursue music full time.
Gordon has a lengthy resume. He’s been named the Jazz Journalist Association’s Trombonist of the Year about a dozen times. He received the Louis Armstrong Museum’s Louie Award in 2018
He’s taught at several colleges, most recently Augusta University and has taught numerous workshops.
The pandemic has kept Gordon in one place for the longest time in his life, he said.
“I’ve been doing a lot of recording. There are virtual projects I’m working on,” he said.
The Douglass Theatre in Macon is celebrating its centennial this year. Among the jazz greats who played at the newly restored venue were James Brown, Otis Redding, Ma Rainey and Little Richard.
The theater commissioned Gordon to create a piece for the centennial.
Jazz has taken Gordon to places he never dreamed of going, but the most rewarding parts in his stellar career have been the lives he’s touched and the students he’s worked with.
Getting emails or phone calls from people he’s taught mean a lot to him.
“They may not remember what you taught them, but they remember how they felt,” he said. “When we love what we do and teach students, it shows.”
They may not have gone on to have careers as stellar as Gordon’s, but some have become teachers and others have passed on their love of music to their own children, he said. To him, that is a measure of success.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
[adrotate banner=”15″]
