A Day in the Life of a Jazz Musician

A Sax Player Comes Full Circle

First-year master’s saxophonist Alexa Tarantino grew up in West Hartford, Conn., and thrived in the city’s strong public school music program. When she was in third grade, her parents took her to a local high school’s jazz concert and one of the soloists was a student named Erica von Kleist, (who would go on to be in the first Juilliard Jazz class. “She was playing this amazing ballad on the alto saxophone,” Tarantino recalls. “It was so empowering—I’m not sure I realized how much so at the time—to see a woman playing that saxophone solo and expressing herself through the instrument.” Fast-forward to the present. Tarantino got her bachelor’s in saxophone performance and music education at Eastman and spent a few years freelancing before enrolling at Juilliard this fall. She chronicled a busy day in which, among other things, she performed with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola and played “one of the classic ballads from the jazz tradition for the alto saxophone. It truly felt like everything had come full circle” from that childhood memory of von Kleist, (who became a mentor and friend and with whom she’s released an album). Check out this video version of Tarantino's Day in the Life.

8am I generally try to get some practicing in each morning, but today I’ve scheduled time to work with a saxophonist who’s visiting Juilliard with a group from a music school in Brazil. She wants to get my advice about a ballad she’s working on and asks me to teach her a tune.

9am Every week in Jazz and Business class we have a guest lecturer from Jazz at Lincoln Center. Today it’s Ed Buller, who works in the finance department, and we learn about taxes for musicians, forming our own corporations and organizations, and other elements that are key to helping us move on as professionals after school.

10:30am In Advanced Jazz Improvisation, all the first-year jazz master’s students are together as an ensemble, and we get to know each other well. Marc Cary, the teacher, is so warm and open to wherever our performance takes us—the environment he has created for this class is really unique. He’s asked us to prepare some difficult tunes and he throws ideas at us—like let’s add an extra bar here or try it in an odd meter or at an accelerating tempo—and it spurs our creativity. Marc emphasizes that he’s training our musical reflexes, since not everything will go as planned on tour or in a performance. And we’re also learning how we can shape a performance to make it our own and move away from the run-of-the-mill jam session performance format.

Noon Time for my weekly private lesson with Dan Block. He’s a specialist in early jazz, an incredible woodwind doubler who is active in Broadway musicals, and a top-call musician on the jazz scene today. He was also active in the world music scene earlier in his career, so it’s remarkable to get his insight into how someone can shape a career and maintain their unique voice while staying marketable. Today we work on my doubling skills (on clarinet, flute, and tenor sax). We’ve been digging deep into the crucial elements of my sound concept, approach to time, and understanding of and improvising in the many jazz styles that make up the history and tradition.

1:30pm I cram in a quick lunch and catch up on phone calls and emails and update my calendar—and just recharge for a minute.

2:30pm Time for Ear Training, which is one of my favorite classes. It’s kind of like boot camp. It’s a small group, which is awesome because we get a lot of individual attention This morning I have to play the bass line of a Bach chorale with my left hand while singing the soprano line, written in treble clef. After we’re done, everyone high-fives each other.

3:30pm For Saxophone Studio Class, all of the Juilliard Jazz saxophone students and faculty get together. The faculty rotates—today Ron Blake is talking about implementing vibrato and swing into our general musical playing.

4:50pm My parents have come into town to see us perform at Jazz at Lincoln Center tonight, and I meet them by the fountain for a quick hug on my way to Dizzy’s for sound check.

5pm At the sound check we run what we need to rehearse, get the mic levels set up, and then take a quick break to have dinner and recharge. Dizzy’s is one of my favorite clubs to play at—the vibe is so warm and welcoming. Tonight we’re playing a mix of pieces from throughout jazz history, and I’m performing Duke Ellington’s ballad “Isfahan,” which Johnny Hodges is known for. Hodges had an instantly recognizable style that was as expressive as the human voice—full of scoops and glisses and bends. That’s a large part of the Juilliard Jazz philosophy— having the tools to express yourself and your emotions through your instrument as if it were your own natural voice. I’m taking some of my favorite aspects of Johnny Hodges’ rendition and putting my own spin on them.

7:30pm I love playing in the big band setting! In this rotation I’m playing lead alto, but it’s a blast to play each of the different roles in the saxophone section. One of the highlights of the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra for me is working with various conductors and guest artists. Tonight it’s our resident conductor, Jerome Jennings.

11pm It feels great to finally present music that you’ve been working on for so long. In the end, it’s all about connecting with the audience through the music. As much as we sit in practice rooms and classrooms for hours and hours to hone our craft, seeing the audience respond to the live performance is what fuels me at the end of the day. Now I’m going to go home and have a nice cup of tea and get ready to start over again tomorrow.

To read about more Juilliard women in jazz, see the Journal's spotlight on alum Sharel Cassity