Master and Apprentice

Trumpeter Terell Stafford will bring his quartet to Newtown, Pa., for an April 9 concert.

By: Matt Smith

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The Terell Stafford Quintet will perform at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pa., April 9.


   Trumpeter Terell Stafford was studying classical music in a Rutgers University master’s program when, following the advice of Wynton Marsalis, he devoted himself more fully to his other love — jazz. Mr. Stafford was soon invited to join Bobby Watson’s group, Horizon, and spent the next few years performing alongside Mr. Watson, co-leader Victor Lewis and Shirley Scott. His "apprenticeship" continued in pianist McCoy Tyner’s Latin All-Star Band, which also featured trombonist Steve Turre, flutist Dave Valentin and percussionist Jerry Gonzalez.
   "To me, it’s almost a lost art now," says Mr. Stafford, who will bring his quintet to Newtown, Pa., for a concert at Bucks County Community College April 9, "because there’s not many gigs to get to apprentice under great, great, great musicians and old-timers, so to speak… From Bobby Watson, who worked with Art Blakey, I got to learn about how to run a band, how to treat your musicians, how to put a set together, how to write for your band — lessons you can’t get from a college or out of a book or anything like that."
   Born in Miami but raised in Silver Spring, Md., Mr. Stafford now lives in Princeton. He has released four CDs as a bandleader, with the latest, the blues- and gospel-inspired New Beginnings (MaxJazz Records), coming in 2003. Since the mid-1990s, he has performed with groups led by Cedar Walton, Sadao Watanabe, Herbie Mann and Kenny Barron, and played in New York City-based big bands such as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band and the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. He also is director of jazz studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he shares all that he is still learning with his students.
   "In playing under these musicians, it’s helped me as a musician," says Mr. Stafford, calling from a tour stop in St. Louis, Mo., "and it’s helped me as an educator because I can continue to educate some of the young people on things I’m learning every day.
   "Temple is really supportive of my travel," he continues, "and my students are as well. When I come home, I have different things to bring them, and now, for example, my students keep in contact with me even though I’m in St. Louis. If they have a question, they e-mail me or they call me. It’s almost as if I’m there, they just don’t see me in person. They all have my cell (number) and sometimes that’s great, but sometimes this thing vibrates off the hook."
   Mr. Stafford actually began his teaching career at the urging of Temple University’s most-famous alumnus. "It wasn’t my lifelong quest," he says. "The person that kind of guided me into teaching was Bill Cosby years ago, and from that point, I taught at Cheyney University (in Cheyney, Pa.) and then switched over to Temple… The teaching thing feeds the playing thing and vice versa. When you have to explain what you do, I think it solidifies what you play."
   Currently, Mr. Stafford is getting ready for another album. "In June, I’ll be in Minnesota at a club called the Dakota Bar & Grill (in St. Paul), and I’ll be recording my next CD for MaxJazz. It’s going to be a live record, ‘Live at the Dakota.’ I’ve written a couple tunes. I wrote a song for my dad, who’s always been a huge supporter of myself and of jazz, and I’ve never written anything for him. I’m getting the tunes together now. I’m here (in St. Louis) with my quintet, and I’m writing during the days and at rehearsals while I have the band at my access."
   Although Mr. Stafford’s jazz career is in full swing, he continues to take advantage of his classical pedigree.
   "I still maintain a lot of classical playing," he says, "because it really helps my jazz — the fundamentals of my instrument… and it helps my teaching, because I still teach a couple classical students, and I like to stay up on the repertoire and all the techniques involved."
   Still, he seems to have chosen the correct career path. "I’m glad I took the initiative to learn jazz on my own," Mr. Stafford says, "because I couldn’t even imagine not playing this music."
The Terell Stafford Quintet will perform at the Library Auditorium, Bucks County Community College, 275 Swamp Road, Newtown, Pa., April 9, 8 p.m. Tickets cost $17, $13 BCCC students/faculty/staff, seniors, children 12 and under, and military personnel. For information, call (215) 968-8087. On the Web: www.bucks.edu/jazz