Features

In full swing

Yvonne Aubert '08 and Dave Seiler

"IT'S TOO HOT in here to worry about pitch today," Dave Seiler tells the 21 members of the UNH Jazz Band as they gather for a late-afternoon practice. It's unusually warm for mid-November, the heat is on and the room in Paul Creative Arts Center is toasty. The horn players climb to the higher risers, the saxophones sit in front. Yvonne Aubert '08, the only woman in the band, is at the grand piano.

Seiler, UNH director of jazz and professor of clarinet, listens intently and stops the music frequently to make comments: "You gotta put the sound through the mute, man," he calls up to the trumpet players. He talks with the drummer about a particular beat. "Make those chords stubborn," he instructs Aubert.

"Dave's got a really strong intuition for music," says Aubert, who grew up in Londonderry, N.H. "And he's really good at connecting with musicians, saying things that get them to play what he wants."

Seiler has worked hard to make those connections since he arrived at UNH in 1972. "I individualize students," he says. "If you can't do that you're in trouble. They all have different needs, different levels of talent, different egos. You have to understand who needs more support; who is nervous. Some are good soloists; some are not. In the jazz band, I know where everyone came from; a lot of times, I know their parents."

Seiler talks fast and packs a lot in. His conversational riffs shoot out in many directions—making connections with people and events, past and future.

"When I first met Dave at a jazz clinic he ran at my high school, I was thrown back by how fast he talks," recalls Aubert. But she also was impressed with the relationship he had with the UNH musicians he brought along: "Everyone laughed a lot and seemed to be having fun."

The daughter and granddaughter of musicians, Aubert started to demand her turn at the piano when she was 2. Even then, she had a soft melodious touch on the keys. Lessons with her mother began when she was 6. Soon her father, a professional jazz pianist, was taking her along to his gigs and teaching her how to improvise. "I used to just sit there hitting the F note over and over, not knowing what to do and he'd be yelling, ‘Play anything!'"

Aubert was a self-described "psychotic" about practicing when she arrived at UNH. With the help of piano professors Chris and Arlene Kies, she cut her daily practice hours from six to three or four hours a day. They also taught her the fundamentals of classical music and how to better use her fingers, wrists and arms when playing. "I feel now that I'm really learning how to play the piano, not just the music," says Aubert.

The opportunity to play a lot with groups before audiences attracted Aubert to UNH. "If I was at Berklee [College of Music in Boston], I would probably only play in one jazz combo once a week." Instead, at the end of last semester she had three concerts in one week. She's also subbed with the Seacoast Jazz Band and was an accompanist at the New Hampshire All-State Jazz Festival. "Dave is a good connection," says Aubert. "He knows everybody. He has a very big heart and is willing to help whomever he can."

 Easy to print version