Column #7

Jeff Campbell

July 25, 2007

With stars in thier eyes

Last week I had the opportunity to travel from Green Bay to Door County with some of our newly arriving Birch Creek jazz students. The trip was interesting for several reasons. First of all, the six travelers represented five different states: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Missouri, and Wisconsin. I was the oldest person on the trip; the other five were of high school or college age. It was fun to hear these young people talk about each other’s ‘accent’ unique to their respective states or region. We talked about the way people in Wisconsin say the word ‘bag’ (which to non-Wisconsinites sounds like ‘bAyg’).

The person from New Jersey told us that he was anxious to see the night sky and its many thousands of stars. “In New Jersey,” he said, “We can’t see the stars because of the light pollution.” “What’s light pollution?” someone asked – to which our New Jersey friend replied, “It’s when there are so many electric lights that they mask or obscure the light from the stars.” We assured him that the night sky in Door County would provide plenty of contrast for stargazing.

Since we were traveling to Birch Creek to be part of our jazz session, it was natural that the conversation turned to music. The students asked each other who their favorite musicians were. With excitement and great passion, the youngsters eagerly shared the names of their favorites and why they liked them so much. One of the travelers extracted an iPod from his backpack and soon jazz music was emanating from a small set of battery-powered speakers as my companions began to discuss the wonders and joys of the music being played. One kept singing along with every note of a saxophone solo. “This is my favorite part!” he would say. “I just love how the saxophonist makes that note sound so cool.”

The joys and optimism of these young people began to remind me of my days as an enthusiastic and passionate music student and I was reminded about what got me interested in music in my early days. I was so grateful to see their boundless excitement about life, the future, and music.

As we turned east out of Egg Harbor onto County Highway E three miles from Birch Creek, the kids became silent; they knew we were getting close and that soon, all of their energy would be focused on playing and learning about music in a very real and intense environment.

Their enthusiasm was like a shot in the arm for me, and after 19 summers, I was reminded of one of the most important reasons I come to Birch Creek each year.