Why the CJO?
As we celebrate our 40th year, we’re sharing stories and memories from CJO board members (current and former) and fans.
Norma Nelson
CJO donor
Norma Nelson
I’m happy to share my early association with jazz music, and honored to write about my high regard for the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra. –Norma McLaughlin Nelson, B.Mus.Ed., M.Ed.
What was your introduction to jazz?
In Mississippi where I was born, it was my Mother who noticed my childish, 3-year-old rhythmic movements to jazz music coming from our 1930s, floor-model radio. As a Howard University teen in 1950, jazz history was well-known, and dancing to jazz music was commonplace. Marriage to a music major who loved jazz also provided more listening experiences to that era’s jazz music.
Fast forward to the 2000s, when Hal Wyant, a talented Cleveland-born jazz vibraphonist invited me to a Cleveland Jazz Orchestra (CJO) concert; and later, when a generous neighbor furnished tickets to countless CJO concerts. Eight years of enjoying the highest quality jazz music I’d ever heard, prompted me to become an independent supporter of the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra.
“Eight years of enjoying the highest quality jazz music I’d ever heard, prompted me to become an independent supporter of the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra.”
What is unique about the CJO?
In my opinion, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra’s leadership and management teams have been successively committed jazz enthusiasts and knowledgeable of jazz idioms; its orchestra members are exceptional professional musicians by any standards; each concert’s repertoire is thematically appropriate and enjoyed by its audiences; and supporters are identified and much-appreciated.
Paul Ferguson, CJO’s present artistic director, is a multi-talented musical genius! His stage presence is confident, humorous and endearing; his introductions to each programmed work is concise; his acknowledgment of featured soloists is graciously given; and his original jazz compositions and arrangements are unparalleled.
When analyzing some of CJO’s music, I love hearing major and minor 3rds and 6ths and altered chords in romantic jazz music; discernible melodic lines, delayed harmonic and non-anticipatory chord resolutions; sequential modulations; polymeters and polyrhythms; a significant role of bass viol or bass guitar; and modulated but steady, dependable drum rhythms and other rhythm instruments.
What is one of your fondest memories of attending a jazz concert?
There are three "fondest memories" of attending CJO concerts: one is when an aspiring female jazz singer performed; another is of an aspiring female jazz saxophonist (Bria Skonberg); and the third is of Paul Ferguson’s arrangement and the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra’s performance of my composition, Tu Eres. Several family members, local friends, neighbors and personal supporters attended that Benefit Concert, and I continue to be very grateful for that memory and personal honor.
“Paul Ferguson, CJO’s present artistic director, is a multi-talented musical genius!”
What do you hope for the future of the CJO?
“I hope the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra will continue to accomplish its mission to provide...the truthful, original history of jazz for everyone.”
I hope the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra will continue to accomplish its mission to provide—among other things—the truthful, original history of jazz for everyone; public performance opportunities for talented, aspiring jazz musicians; free jazz music instruments; and music lessons for school-age youngsters.
Regarding CJO repertoire, I’d personally enjoy hearing more jazz arrangements of music genres from African, Latin-American and African-American cultures from which jazz music derived, initially.
Thank you for inviting me to share my Cleveland Jazz Orchestra story.