April 13, 2006
Enter the Street Man — time to open up and play
Theater-like improvisations helped spark musical creativity when Seattle-based folk-blues singer Chic Street Man visited the School of Music last week to hold a master class.
“It was basically like a freedom of expression (workshop), helping us be more open,” said junior Jenny Hanna, a trumpet player recruited for the master class. “It was kind of like an acting improv clinic, with music.”
Street Man is an acoustic folk-blues singer and songwriter with a lengthy resume of work as a performer, composer and educator.
He said in a phone interview, “What I like to do, what I am dealing with, is trying to get people to understand that they are working with their internal instrument. The peripheral instrument is their piano, or cello. It’s even appropriate for doctors — anybody who is communicating to another — doctor-patient, mother-child. The internal instrument is who you are.”
Toward this end, he had students improvise musically, based on what they said. Hanna said, “He had us play little games and held improvised conversations. Then he said, ‘Get your instruments and have the same conversation, only with music.”
Hanna said, “There was one part where he had all of us stand up and tell a story, and compete for his attention.” Later, he had them retell stories he’d told, but without words.
It’s all part of what this performer likes best: Opening people up through music. “One of the things I wanted to do was to help make the students comfortable and involved in the class. And there were places where I incorporated the audience into the class.” He said the audience at the Brechemin Auditorium would provide feedback, and he’d include that in his critique of the students’ efforts.
Seven students worked through the master class with the musician. “It was very courageous of them to show up, and to have the audience put them on the spot,” he said.
Hanna said the class was fun and that she “really felt comfortable all the time.”
Street Man’s Web site describes his work and music, stating, “Chic’s music transcends cultural and attitudinal barriers, bringing home his message of equality and racial harmony through acoustic bluesy ballads, funky rhythms and jazzy upbeat originals.” His motto, the site states, is “Even vegetarians have a little bit of ham.”
Robin McCabe, director of the School of Music, said in an e-mail that Street Man “is a gifted musician, communicator and into active collaborations about creativity — helping people realize their natural expressivity.”
