When Cyrus Chestnut released his most recent studio outing, last year’s Rhythm, Melody and Harmony, it was about seeking out the basic elements of music while working to “… use these pieces as vehicles to put sound into the atmosphere.”
It’s part of a creative journey dating back to growing up in a household filled with the music of the church, along with more secular influences like Jackie Wilson, Aretha Franklin, King Curtis and Little Richard. But having been bit by the jazz bug ever since fishing out a Thelonious Monk compilation album at the local F.W. Woolworth store as a child, the Baltimore native continues to be a highly talented adherent to the genre.
“I didn’t know anything about jazz, but I just looked at the picture on the record and told my mom I had to get that record,” Chestnut said. “At the age of 9, I started listening to ‘Crepuscule with Nellie,’ ‘Rubie, My Dear’—all of the Monk classics. It really changed my life.”
Fast forward to today, where Chestnut’s solo career has blossomed. He’s shared the bandstand with a number of jazz legends including Wynton Marsalis, Donald Harrison, Jon Hendricks and Dizzy Gillespie.
“I was just telling the students that I got my master’s degree out of the School of Betty Carter,” Chestnut said. “During that time, there was the Art Blakely School and the Betty Carter School. Once you got to New York, if you were able to get into one of those schools, you made it through. You had a stamp of approval.”
He’s notched a number of critically acclaimed albums including 1994’s Revelation and 2001’s Soul Food. But his experience with Betty Carter not only had a major impact on his development as an artist, it fostered the idea of never forgetting the influence of musical ancestors while honoring them as mentors to future generations.
“Usually, the master’s programs these days are something like two years. Basically, I spent two years training with Betty Carter. In a sense, it might not be an academic master’s, but I got a master’s on the street,” Chestnut said.
His passion extends to his role as an educator at Howard University, where he shares his creative wisdom with the pupils in his jazz-improvisation class. “All of the jazz elders have said one way or another that you have to be who you are,” Chestnut said. “When I play, I tap into being my authentic self. If you do that, everything will be all right. That’s what I tell my students to this day—be your authentic self. Study all of the processes, but you find yourself and find a way to use all of academia to tell your story your way.”
Expect plenty of that authenticity when Chestnut and a local rhythm section, Jaimeo Brown on drums and Marcus Shelby on bass, hit the Paul Mahder Gallery stage in Healdsburg on Sunday, Oct. 11, at 7pm.
Free Family Shows
The Cyrus Chestnut concert follows by one day the return of Healdsburg Jazz’s Family Matinee Series, the first of five free family concerts presented by the jazz nonprofit over the winter. On Oct. 10, it partners with 6th Street Playhouse to present Carlitos Medrano and Sabor de Mi Cuba, in “Discovering Afro-Cuban Rhythms.”
The hour-long, free concert will begin at 11am on Saturday at 52 W Sixth St., Santa Rosa. To learn more or reserve seats, visit healdsburgjazz.org.
