Terell Stafford has been hailed as, "one of the great players of our time, a fabulous trumpet player" by piano legend McCoy Tyner. He is known for being a gifted and versatile player with a voice all his own. Stafford combines lyricism and a deep love of melody with a spirited, adventurous edge. He has performed with groups such as Benny Golson's Sextet, McCoy Tyner's Sextet, the Kenny Barron Sextet, and many others, and is currently a member of the Grammy-nominated Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. Terell has recorded four albums as a leader, and his latest release, Taking Chances (MaxJazz 2007) has been called his best album yet.

Stafford currently holds the positions of professor of Music and director of Jazz Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia and is a clinician for the prestigious Vail Foundation in Colorado and Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington Program. He has also served as a member of the faculty for the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies in New York.

JAZZed: Thank you for your time, Terell—we are so glad you could spend a few moments with us at JAZZed In the Classroom.
Terell Stafford: It's my pleasure.

JAZZed: Like most of our readers, you came up through the ranks of public school bands. Can you tell us a little bit about what that was like—a little about how you got your start?
TS: My first instrument was viola—I started playing when I was in the Elk Grove Village area, right outside of Chicago—and it was a disastrous experience. I wasn't very good, and my teacher was not very patient with me. He would actually hit my fingers with his bow every time I played a wrong note. After a few of these relentless beatings, I retaliated one day: though I only meant to block his bow, I actually hit him in the face with my bow. I got suspended from school, and my parents were called in. I was suspended from participating in the music program for a year. The string teacher told my parents that their son has ...no musical talent whatsoever: keep him as far away from music as you can.

JAZZed: Unbelievable!
TS: Yeah...so my fifth-grade year I studied a little guitar with my math teacher, and then in sixth grade I was able to join the instrumental program. So for students that may not hit it off with their music teacher right away, I'd say: Don't give up—follow that passion. I've always loved music, but I just hadn't found the right area to express it.

JAZZed: All of that must have been tough on you. What got you interested in music again?
TS: At the time I used to spend summers in Florida with my grandparents. I was a curious kid, and one day I was looking around in a closet and found that there was a trumpet in there. I took it out and started to play it. I would hear different things and would try to play them on the trumpet. So, when school came around again, I knew I wanted to play it in the band.

I had an incredible teacher that year: his name was John Janusek. That name will stay with me for the rest of my life. He was such an incredible teacher. He encouraged me and supported me. He was the most incredible thing that could have happened to me back then. But my Dad worked for the railroad, so about the time I started to get in and really learn a lot from Mr. Janusek my dad announced that we were moving to the Silver Spring, Maryland area. I played in the middle school and high school band programs there, and then chose to go to the University of Maryland for my undergraduate degree in music education.

JAZZed: Reflect back a little on the differences between your string teacher and Mr. Janusek: what do you feel was the impact of those teachers on you?
TS: Well, I think there are those in the profession that have not had the training that others have had, or are just doing it for the pay check. And then I think there are those who teach for the love of what they do. I think that's the real difference between those first two teachers: the first one may have been in a position that he wasn't really happy with. I guess with different training, he might have seen that I had a real desire to play music. Mr. Janusek had such a passion to teach, and he expressed that. He made it fun and he pushed us.

JAZZed: You've come so far from those early days in the band room. What was it that you feel really made the difference between you and all of the other kids in the band; I mean, what would you attribute to your success?
TS: That's a good question. I know one difference is that back then everyone thought I was strange because I loved to practice—it was my passion. On my free time I would always sign out a practice room, and while other students were out playing around I would be in that room: everyday, practicing. The other kids would say things like, Something's wrong with him! But looking back, I think that's really what made the difference. I think that there's probably some God-given talent there, but I have always had this really crazy work ethic. The thing is, I wasn't working 'cause I wanted to be some famous trumpet player. I just wanted to work for the sake of accomplishing the lessons that were assigned to me; of coming in week after week and having things prepared, so that my teachers would really know that I was serious. Looking back, I know that I always want to keep growing and getting better, but I would have never seen myself in this role twenty or thirty years ago. The difference? I loved to practice, and I still do.

JAZZed: As an educator: what's one thing you try to really emphasize with your students—something about playing or about music that you really want to get across to them?
TS: Well, there are a few things, but I would say the main thing is that everything you play has to come from within—and when I say within, I mean from the heart. I think that in education these days too much comes from the mind. Students get into this, I have to think through this... mindset. The thing is that when you're in the practice room, you can think all you want. But when you get up onto that bandstand you're going to have to tell a story, and the greatest storytellers I've heard are the ones that can say it from their heart. This is so important because it's an element that's starting to disappear from the music.

I ask students to listen to as much music as humanly possible to get the sound of what they really want in their ear, and then to work to express those sounds. You can express them when you're working on your scales and patterns, or whatever you want, but make sure that what comes out of your horn is a message from the heart.

JAZZed: As a college band director and teacher, you have no doubt heard your share of auditions. What are some things that consistently trouble you about the auditions that you hear? What are some things that you wish students would pay closer attention to?
TS: You know, it's kind of the same answer. When I'm listening to auditions, the thing that discourages me the most is the people that are only there to impress the adjudicators. I just think that's the wrong mentality. I would like to hear students come into an audition and express who they are. I want to hear that they've spent enough time listening to jazz and absorbing the sound that when they come in, it's an expression—a twenty-minute expression of what they've listened to and learned—as opposed to something they've prepared just for the audition. It drives me crazy when people come in and have just enough material prepared for the audition, and if you ask them to do anything else, they start to freak out 'cause it's out of their comfort zone. As opposed to the situation where I can ask someone coming in: Could you play that a little bit slower, or Could you play that in a different key... and they're like: Sure! Those are the people that I know I'll see up there on the bandstand.

So to me, preparing for an audition is a waste; it's really about preparing yourself for what you want to do. And if you love jazz, and it's something that you really want to do, then prepare yourself for it: listen to the recordings, transcribe the solos, study the tunes, learn the tunes, and then when you have an audition, O.K.: express what you've learned.

JAZZed: Do you have some advice for our young trumpet players?
TS: My advice? Embrace the tradition. Don't do like I did; I wasn't really open to a lot of different kinds of jazz. I just wanted to listen to what my friends were listening to, and I think that's great, but we can end up with a narrow view of things that way. So, be open. Listen to music from the twenties and all the way up through 'till now. And the artists that you really are attracted to? Do some research and find out about the history of their playing, and where they were coming from.

And of course, never neglect the fundamentals. To me, the fundamentals are the key of life: warming up every day, and sound production, and scales, and finger exercises, and flexibility exercises: they should always be your first priority. Your fundamentals have to be there to express any idea on the trumpet 'cause people will always hear the sound before they hear the idea.

JAZZed: Finally, Terell: In your opinion, why is it so important for young people to study jazz? What does it give back to them?
TS: That's a really good question. I think the thing that's so great about jazz is that it can really move people. I listen to my Dad and my brothers go on and on about sports because they really love sporTS: they talk endlessly about the history of each team, and about each of the players, and on, and on. But they can talk about those teams 'till the cows come home and they will never affect anybody. I mean, they're not exactly going to get people screaming about all the facts they know. But with jazz, you can study the facts and the history; learn the licks and the tunes; and then when you can play it through your horn, you can really move people. You can change people's lives, and really heal people. My trumpet teacher is sick in the hospital right now with brain and lung cancer, and when I go and visit him—man, I'll tell you: I put on some Kenny Dorham the other day, and Kenny was playing Swing Can Really Hang You Up the Most, and in as much misery as my teacher is in he just started singing along—it completely took his mind from his pain and ailment. So, music is a way to move people. It's a way to express yourself, and to me, there's just no better way to do it.

Brad Howey is a doctoral student at the University of Idaho, is an award-winning author and an active performer. His most recent publications can be found in Downbeat and JAZZed magazine. While teaching high school music in Alaska, Brad founded and directed the Sitka Jazz Festival--bringing artists such as John Clayton, Steve Turre', Paquito D'Rivera, The Air Force Band of the Pacific, and others to Sitka to teach, inspire, and perform.