This Q&A is an offshoot from Creative Loafing Tampa's Summer Guide 2017 where Cornette spelled out what jazz means to him and where to see it played in Tampa Bay.
Have a look at our feature piece — and see a list of places to catch live jazz — here.
Where should live music lovers look when wanting to take it Tampa Bay’s jazz scene?
Any number of locations. The Palladium in St. Pete has been doing a great job with jazz. There are also a number of local jazz nights and jam sessions around Tampa and St. Pete. The Ybor City Jazz House has just started a weekly jam on Wednesday nights. Ruby’s Elixir in St. Pete has had one on Thursdays for several years. My favorite is Monday night at the Hangar Lounge at Albert Whitted Airport. It’s sponsored by the Al Downing Jazz Association, a group with a deep jazz heritage in this area.
Are there young people making jazz in the Bay area? If so, who should we be checking out?
People of all ages are playing jazz in town. I just saw two high school seniors, Jason Charos and Kendrick McAllister, this week at the Monday night jam. They were fabulous. Some of the local high school bands are wonderful, too, and Ruth Eckerd Hall has a great jazz education program. Any number of folks at USF School of Music are impressive, as well. Jack Wilkins and Chuck Owen have done a wonderful job over there; some great players are currently studying there. And you can often catch those folks around town. Trumpeter James Suggs comes to mind; he’s phenomenal. Or there’s the local jazz trio La Lucha. Those guys are everywhere. They were Creative Loafing’s best Jazz Trio for several years. Also amazing.
How did (if it it did at all) “cool jazz” become a pejorative term?
I don’t think it’s a pejorative term at all. When I think about the word cool in the context of jazz, two things come to mind. First, the colloquial use of the word “cool” came from jazz saxophonist Lester Young. He was known as the “Pres.” He played with Count Basie and was Billie Holiday’s saxophonist on a bunch of recordings. He’s the guy that came up with the term as we know it today. He also coined the use of the word “bread” as a synonym for money. When offered a gig he would ask: “How does the bread smell?” This was back in the 1940s and we’re still using those terms today. The other thing that comes to mind is the “Birth of the Cool,” which was a classic recording from Miles Davis that transitioned jazz from bebop, where the music was hot and fast, to the cool era, where the music became more relaxed and focused on complex arrangements and mood. Miles later had the best-selling jazz album of all time, “Kind of Blue.” If you are just getting into jazz, that’s the one to start with. Then listen to recordings from all the guys on that recording.
Some folks always want to say that jazz is dying (and La La Land only served to unfairly romanticize the notion with mainstream audiences). Could you please debunk this for us?
When you see young people playing at the level as those I mentioned above, or when bands who appeal to a younger demographic like Snarky Puppy or artists like saxophonist Kamasi Washington, who was on Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly” recording, show up on the cover of Downbeat Magazine (the leading jazz fan magazine) it leads me to believe jazz has a big future ahead of it. I’m apparently not alone in thinking this. So far this year I’ve already received about 250 new jazz recordings. Jazz lives.
How difficult is it to listen to enough music to get you to 60 hours worth of programming a week?
It takes some discipline. I have a pretty wicked commute to the station. It’s at least an hour each way. My car gets to act as a bit of a music lab at times. My office is just stacked with CDs (yes…I still get CDs). I listen to a lot of music.
What do you do to cleanse your aural palette after listening to all that jazz?
Silence sometimes helps. Although I’ve been focusing on jazz a lot lately, I have a pretty wide musical palette. One never knows what I might be listening to. The change in “venue,” if you will, helps clear my mind. Other times it’s just Netflix, etc.
You get some help, obviously, at WUSF. Mind sharing who’s on the team that makes jazz on WUSF happen?
I have a great team. They are all jazz musicians. Whitney James is has probably been there the longest, off and on. She’s a wonderful vocalist who sings around town. She’s from Seattle but has been a Bay Area resident for 8 or 9 years. Then there are Richard Jimenez, Jackson Harpe and Dominic Walker. They each have masters in either Jazz Performance or Jazz Improvisation. Plus, I just hired a guy named Steve Splane. He just relocated from New York. He worked at the station back in the day. I’m lucky to have them. They know and love the music. They are a great sounding board and are always making suggestions to help us sound better.
You’ve been in your role at WUSF for a little over a year now, but you’ve been working there in some capacity for the better part of a decade. Can you talk about how you got in the door there and why you wanted to stick around?
It’s a lengthy story. I worked at the station a long, long time ago and went on to work in various aspects of the music business: retail, distribution, label management, and music streaming. All kinds of music, too, from rock to rap and a little country, as well. I was fortunate to work on several gold and platinum projects, which was pretty exciting but, sometimes came with a lot of pressure. I moved back to Tampa in 2008 and Bob Seymour (the former Jazz Director) asked me to come back part time.
It wasn’t on my radar but I thought, “why not?” Turned out to be a liberating experience. So, to come back to jazz radio was both nostalgic and cathartic for me. When Bob retired, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. It’s a great gig. I’m having a blast. I still get really emotional about jazz; love finding and hearing new jazz music. I’m really intrigued in how songs will sound next one another. Colors, tones and segues fascinate me. In my mind, it becomes sort of a social event where I bring out my old friends, the classics, and introduce them to the new ones to see if they play well together. I also dig thematic things. So we have our Jazz Trip@Ten every night at 10PM where we put together a themed set of songs about a specific place or thing. It’s been a year so I guess we’ve done 365 of those or so already. They’re fun to put together.
Do you miss Bob Seymour? Do you think he’s treating retirement appropriately?
Bob and I are old and dear friends. We miss him on the radio but I still see him all the time. As a matter of fact we had a beverage together last week. How does one treat retirement appropriately, anyway? Bob has a true passion for jazz. I don’t think he’ll ever lose that. Now that he’s not working full time I think he probably makes it to more gigs than I do.
Where did you get your radio voice?
Practice, practice, practice.
This article appears in May 11-18, 2017.