C McGhee 2
Editor’s Note: Over the past 27 years, more than 300 teenage musicians have been transformed by the Vail Jazz Workshop. Many have become professional musicians, including six returning to Vail this Labor Day weekend to perform as the Alumni Sextet during the Vail Jazz Party. Vail Jazz shares their stories here.
With his big, winning smile and affable demeanor, it’s impossible not to believe Christian McGhee when he says he’s in love with the Vail Jazz Workshop – the annual 10-day intensive jazz education program for 12 of North America’s most musically talented pre-college teens, capped by their performance at the Vail Jazz Party over Labor Day weekend.
One of two drummers in the Workshop contingent of 2014, McGhee’s debut at Vail Jazz was warmly received by an enthusiastic audience, and rightly so: McGhee, then just 16, had already been playing the drums for 14 years, with a raft of “outstanding soloist” awards to his credit. Now 23 and working on his Master’s at Manhattan School of Music on full scholarship, the St. Louis native lives in New York City and is an in-demand touring and session drummer. He has performed with such jazz notables as Joshua Redman, Joe Lovano, Sasha Berliner, Sean Jones, Tia Fuller (another alumnus of the Vail Jazz Workshop) and Warren Wolf, and in prestigious venues that include the Newport Jazz Festival, Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the SFJazz Festival, and the Blue Note NYC. Lately, McGhee has been performing with 1997 Workshop trumpeter Keyon Harrold’s band.
Since attending the Vail Jazz Workshop, McGhee has expanded his musical repertoire as a composer and multi-instrumentalist, mastering piano and keyboards along with the drums. He’s also branched out into a wide variety of genres, including film and documentary scoring.
One of McGhee’s goals in attending the Workshop as a teenager was to gain insight about the drummer’s role in energizing a band. Judging from the long and impressive roster of major festivals and venues where he’s performed, he seems to have nailed it.
McGhee cites Jeff Hamilton and Lewis Nash among his major drum influences, the latter his mentor during his participation in the Workshop. “But I can’t leave out,” he’s quick to add with a warm smile, “Marcus Gilmore and Obed Calvaire, who both set a pretty high bar in the drum world.” Gilmore and Calvaire, now both highly-acclaimed drummers, predated McGhee as students at the Vail Jazz Workshop by 12 and 16 years respectively. McGhee also recounted his excitement at the chance to work with all the jazz legends – instructors as well as Festival performers – during his Workshop stint.
“I learned a tremendous amount during my 10 days at the Workshop,” McGhee said, “and my eyes were really opened to what separates great players from the good ones. Part of that is developing the skill and confidence to create great music on the spot, like Wayne Shorter or Miles Davis.”
At the heart of the Vail Jazz Workshop, now in its 27th year, is the art of ensemble playing and improvisation, without relying on any written music. No wonder the Workshop, unique in this teaching philosophy, recently received the prestigious Jazz Education Achievement Award from Downbeat Magazine.
And now McGhee relishes his return to Vail to perform in a sextet of Workshop alumni during the Labor Day weekend. These musicians from different Workshop years will take the Vail Jazz Party stage together as the “Alumni Sextet,” as well as with members of this year’s Workshop class, the Workshop’s instructors, and other world-renowned jazz musicians who will perform throughout the weekend.
Through it all, McGhee continues to hold dear what he learned as a budding musician when he first came to Vail.
“Among the great lessons I took away from the Workshop,” said McGhee, “was the idea of always playing like it’s your last time to play … the importance of giving it your all every time you get to perform.”
“Vail made that easy for us,” McGhee added. “The support and sense of community … not just at the Festival but in the community at large … made us all feel like we have a family there. I can’t wait to perform in Vail again; it’s such a special place.”
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