When we go to a live concert by mature musicians, we become part of the music. Inexperienced musicians focus on instruments, notes, fellow musicians, and sometimes even a conductor. But when musicians practice enough to make these qualities automatic, they communicate with their audiences. Hearing a Route 55 Jazz Orchestra (55Jazz) performance is reason enough to learn more about its musicians.
55Jazz practices and performs at their musical home, the Holly Springs Cultural Center. They play big band jazz—many songs most people know and a few new to most, but obscure sources and unrecognizable riffs are not in the 55Jazz vocabulary. A big reason to attend stems from the vision of Dave Reitmeyer, their leader since its 2008 founding, whose rich love of music communicates to all who care.
“Music is a terrible way to make a living,” he answered my interview questions with an honesty that mirrored my own experiences as a promising young classical flutist, “but a great way to make a life.” I had instant empathy with another Dave Reitmeyer quote. “Nothing can stop you from making music right up to the end of your life.” He used his degree in computer science for a career in software documentation, but his degree in music for the rest of his life. Even his lovely songstress wife, Debbie, balances Gremlina Vintage, her home furnishings store, with her love for singing.
Many fellow musicians taught me that to make music well, you need commitment, camaraderie, and collaboration. Dave’s story is a paradigm of their teaching. “I am very committed,” he revealed, “to the personal musical development of everyone in my band. It’s my ministry. A big reward is happy looks on audience faces, many who rarely have happiness or relief from struggles. My focus is on service—to enhance the lives of the people in the community and of the band itself.” Service is a fundamental commitment that mirrors most who have made a difference in our community.
Dave’s first principle of 55Jazz’s musical service is to remember “We’re not in the music business. We’re in the entertainment business.” He expanded, “Frank Sinatra tells jokes and so do we.” It doesn’t matter if the audience produces an occasional groan that Debbie readily upholds, especially when there are many more smiles and laughs. Also, wrong notes do not mean as much as the audience’s experience. As Dave instructs, “Practice for perfection, play for beauty.”
New players are chosen whenever a current player leaves. There is no audition. An interested musician is asked to come play with the group for a while. Some decide it is not for them. If others play too shyly, they get encouragement. “In jazz if you play a wrong note, play it louder.” Occasionally, a player will give ultimatums, like “If you don’t give me the lead, I quit.” Dave lets them. Members who stay, like the way he runs the band. “You’re constantly dealing with mistakes, so you need laughter rather than humiliation: “If you make one mistake, it’s classical, if you make 2 it’s jazz.” Those who stay are the ones having fun.
Irish flutists know the quiet pleasure of wafting an ancient wordless song across a hillside. But adding a harp, bodhran, and singer creates an exuberant pleasure that a lone person cannot duplicate, with or without a pint of Guinness. 55Jazz players show that same sort of uninhibited enthusiasm for creating together.
Developing along with the group takes time. “The single biggest requirement,” Dave insists, “is to listen and love jazz music. Jazz is a language and a lot of it is learned in an organic way. There are many parallels between learning language and learning jazz. The worst way to learn is in a classroom. It’s better to know your favorite jazz person.”
Dave plays the 55Jazz piano, but sees it like an orchestra’s triangle, having an important but transient role. His real instrument is the entire band. His biggest fear at rehearsals is an empty chair with no notice. All 17 players are essential to the sound they produce together. You might as well remove a string from his piano as a player from 55Jazz.
At a 55Jazz concert, most performers provide at least one riff or solo. There doesn’t seem to be a first chair playing all the solos, because all the stand-out work is outstanding. Yet each section has a leader and behind the scenes, choosing a soloist often happens from camaraderie. Section members make sure those who want, get their chance to shine.
There are a few inspiring members besides Dave. The lead alto sax player invariably creates good improvisations. He also listens to everybody. If the group is drowning out the singer, he is often the first to let the rest know.
Another long-time member creates arrangements. Somebody once asked Dave, “When you have the best, why use an amateur?” Not all the homespun arrangements have been used and sometimes orchestra members suggest changes. Such collaborative composition is common in popular but not classical music. 55Jazz draws on both because there is deep value in giving people opportunities to use their gifts, when they are committed to making the best use of those gifts that they can.
Musicians often wrestle with playing by ear or by reading music. In an Irish session, if you only read music, people say you are “paper trained.” They’ll call out one of their group’s 50-100 tunes and you’ll find the sheet music by the time they finished playing it. But good readers can easily access 10,000 pieces from across the world. Guitar players so often play by ear that Dave quipped, “How do you get a guitar player to stop playing? Give him a piece of sheet music.” He followed up. “For piano players, it’s the opposite.” In between, jazz players use “Fake Books” for melodies and chords like Baroque composers (e.g. Bach) used “figured bass.” 55Jazz musicians read most of the time, but improvise solos inspired from their experience with the song, the instrument, and the moment—what their fellow musicians have just done, the room, the atmosphere, the audience.
“Starting your own band is a big job.” It takes an entrepreneur. Dave would like to play more paying gigs and that requires networking and sales, as well as keeping players together and choosing among the 700 songs in the group’s repertoire to create a compelling performance. And there’s more. “Being a great player,” he teaches, “has little to do with playing great music. People go to see a concert, as much as to hear it.” Dave built and painted the group’s risers and music stands. Recently, at the end of a long day in his shop, he injured his hand on his table saw bad enough to limit his piano playing for months before fully recovering.
Adding to 55Jazz, Dave serves the community through teaching piano and guitar. Guitarists learn to strum chords, drum-like in proper sequence to support their songs, but when they can pick chords with accurately played melodies, the instrument becomes exquisite. Pianists spend years creating exquisiteness at the expense of spontaneity. To be able to do both with both instruments is like the person who knows four languages—a good guide when navigating the languages of music. Experience 55Jazz at “Remember When,” their May 18 concert.
