Valerie Capers and her Portraits in Jazz
Melding Musical Traditions and Triumphing Over Physical Limitations
May 30, 2009
Valerie Gail Capers was born May 24, 1935 in New York City. Her father was one of the first African-American postal supervisors, and her mother was a civil servant for the New york Department of Hospitals.
Her paternal grandmother, who was a member of the Salem Methodist Church, had an immense influence on her, and years later , Salem Methodist's Phillis Wheatly Club sponsored her first of many concerts. In 1941, she lost her sight due to a misdiagnosis of viral streptococal infection, better known as a sore throat. She eventually attended New York institute of the Blind, where she began piano study and graduated valedictorian.
Capers' Early Piano Study
When she was 11, she began formal training in classical piano with Elizabeth Thode, whom insisted that she learn to read music. Since Braille music requires both hands to read, making it impossible to sight-read in the usual manner, Capers had to take little sections, memorize them, and then piece it all together. Though Braille is a cumbersome music system, she learned to read music very well. In 1959, Capers became the first blind graduate of julliard and went on to obtain her master's degree there in 1960.
Capers' Initiation Into Jazz
Capers was encouraged by her brother Bobby, to explore the jazz idiom. Because it was so different from classical music, she felt it necessary to take a sabbatical from that tradition, to concentrate on jazz. Her brother taught her chord changes and she eventually created excercises for herself. After two years, she gave her first jazz performance at Kenny's on Boston Post Road in New York City. In 1967, she recorded her first jazz album, Portrait in Soul.
Compositional Output
Capers' compositional output falls into two categories: pieces for jazz ensemble, numbering around 20, and other instrumental, choral, and vocal works, of which there are 10. The size of her body of work is directly correspondent with the difficulty of notating her music. Her system includes writing it down in Braille, reading in out loud on tape, and then having someone transcribe it for her. Because she dictates her music note by note, this system long and tedious.
Portraits in Jazz
Capers' Portraits in Jazz was composed in 1975 and is a set of 12 pedagogical piano pieces. She began writing the set while she was convalescing after back surgery. She intended them to be pedagogical in the vein of Robert Shumann's Album for the Young and Bartok's Mikrokosmos. Their difficulty ranges from easy to difficult. Each piece is dedicated to a legendary jazz musician whose spirit it evokes. Their performance time is approximately 20 to 25 minutes, but they can also be effectively executed in small groups.
The first piece, Ella Scats the Little lamb, is arranged arround the the nursery tune "Mary had a Little Lamb" in Ella Fitzgerald's improvisatory singing style. Waltz for Miles, pays tribute to Miles Davis, and emphasizes his manner of phrasing and warm, impressionistic style. Sweet Mister Jelly Roll pays homage to Jelly Roll Morton's ragtime style. The Monk and Straight no Chaser are written in the keyboard style of Thelonius Monk.
Blues for the Duke is suggestive of Duke Ellington's early music in traditional 12-bar blues form. A Taste of Bass is reminiscent of bassist Ron Carter, and the seventh peice, Billies Song, dedicated to Billie Holiday, is a simple melody over deliciously complex harmonies. This peice evokes her beautifully wam voice a midst her tragic and complicated life. Mr. Satchmo, is dedicated to and imitates Louis Armstrong's early trumpet playing.
Cancion de Havana, is dedicated to Mongo Santamaria, and is written in the Afro-Cuban idiom. This peice also includes a guaguanco passage and a combination of flamenco and West African influences. Bossa Brasilia is clearly influenced by the Brazillian bossa nova style, and Cool-trane, which is the most difficult, is harmonically adventurous and imitates John Coltrane's saxophone style. This peice closes with Cousin Mary Blues, which is a musical quote from John Coltrane.
Valerie Capers has been on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, Hunter College, and the Bronx Community College of the City University of New york, where she served as chairperson of the department of music and art from 1987 until her retirement in 1995.
She currently resides in the Bronx and is an artist-in-residence at Bronx Community College. She keeps busy with workshops, concerts with her jazz ensemble and her publishing company, Valcap Music. Her work in progress is a tribute to John Coltrane called Celebration. It is a one movement orchestral work based on the first four notes of A Love Supreme along with a narrated text of Coltrane's quotes from his later albums. Capers is also considering composing a grand opera based on the Greek myth of Medea.
Sources
- Walker-Hill, Helen. From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music. University of Illinois Press; Chicago. 2007
