When jazz bassist Brandon Robertson began teaching at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Bower School of Music, he immediately saw the potential for growth.
“When I first got hired here, I walked into the Bower School of Music, I walked in the lobby, I looked around, and I said to myself, ‘this place is a gold mine!' We have not tapped into the diamonds and pearls that coexist here at this school yet.”
As Director of Jazz Studies, Robertson leads the FGCU’s Basketball Band and jazz ensemble.
Over the past decade, he’s also taught jazz clinics, workshops and master classes at K-12 schools throughout the state and he’s taught at his alma master’s summer jazz camps for middle and high school students at Florida State University, where he earned a master’s of music in jazz performance.
He also garnered an Emmy nomination for ‘Best Documentary for Educational Collegiate programs,” for his doc featuring the FGCU Jazz Ensemble.
Currently, students studying music at FGCU don’t have the option to major or minor in jazz studies, but Robertson is working to change that by building out a full-fledged jazz studies program.
One step toward that goal will be a concert on Saturday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Moe Auditorium and Film Center at the Center for The Arts Bonita Springs featuring the Brandon Robertson Quartet performing music from Robertson’s first solo jazz album “Bass’d on a True Story” as well as arrangements of works by Ray Brown, Charles Mingus, Chick Corea, Miles Davis and others.
“I’ll be presenting some music of theirs that I know the public doesn’t normally get to hear often, especially being presented by a bass player,” said Robertson.
Other members of the quartet, like Robertson, are passionate music educators in their own right, including trumpet player James Suggs who teaches jazz studies at the University of South Florida and St. Petersburg College; pianist Zach Bartholomew who’s a professor of jazz piano at Florida Memorial University; and drummer Paul Gavin who serves as director of the Gulf Coast Symphony Jazz Collective, of which Robertson and Bartholomew are also members.
Robertson said the concert is a step toward building a broader relationship between the Center for the Arts Bonita Springs and the Bower School.
“We’re working on a partnership with the center for the arts through the Bower School of Music to have more collaborative efforts to feature concerts and, or collaborative efforts between our students and performers there at the Center. So, this is going to be the start of a beautiful partnership,” said Robertson.
Robertson said recruiting area high school and middle school students is key to building out a jazz studies program, and that an endowment secured last year is helping him do that. He said the Dorothy and John Guigon Endowment for Jazz Studies at the Bower School of Music is a game changer.
“This endowment’s really going to help open up those different resources that I can tap into to get further up the coast … between here and as far as Sarasota County. So, I’m trying to really get all the counties in Southwest Florida bridged together,” said Robertson.
“Through this endowment, I’ve been able to partner with the Charlotte County Jazz Society, which allowed me to go into those schools in Charlotte County. We did eight school visits. We had a huge, huge successful turnover for that. So, everything’s going in the right direction in terms of plans for the program.”
Robertson also started a Saturday morning jazz class through the Gulf Coast Symphony to build a jazz ensemble of young musicians in the Lee County School District.
“I essentially want to grow the program into an area where students can then start coming to school here [at FGCU] for jazz and building faculty and all that, but that’s down the road,” said Robertson.
Robertson is also looking to recruit potential future FGCU jazz music students through his involvement in local summer jazz camps for middle and high schoolers.
Robertson, along with saxophonist and interim director of the Naples Philharmonic Youth Jazz Orchestra Lew Del Gatto, will lead the Music Makers Youth Jazz Camp at Artis-Naples June 26-30.
Robertson will also serve as a jazz instructor for Gulf Coast Symphony’s Summer Music Camp June 12-23.
Local budding musicians can also participate in the North Naples Church Middle School Jazz Band Camp June 5 – 15.
Robertson is also excited about another endeavor he says will propel FGCU’s jazz program, but he’s keeping details under wraps until next week.
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