In New Orleans, we often recognize and celebrate our wealth of musical families—and rightly so. They are of huge importance to the continuum of this city’s heritage. With links to the past, members of such families are deeply rooted in the tradition yet are a part of the evolution that reaches forward to insure the music’s future.
Less is said, perhaps, about what might be described as “educational families,” those equally important entities that have produced generation after generation of folks dedicated to teaching.
Clyde Kerr, Jr., belongs to both of these esteemed groups. He carries the torch as a lifelong trumpet player and a devoted educator of 38 years. Kerr presently teaches jazz at the NOCCA Academy, a city-supported arts school for sixth through eighth graders. He’s also a member of Kidd Jordan and Alvin Fielder’s Improvisational Arts Quintet, the leader of his own ensemble, Univision, and is called on as sideman by numerous artists.
“That’s who I am, I’m a teacher and musician,” says Kerr, “whatever comes first on that day or both at the same time.”
Kerr, 59, remembers his family home at 820 North Rocheblave as always being filled with musicians. Artists like trombonist Benny Powell, saxophonists Alvin “Red” Tyler and Clarence Ford, and clarinetist Alvin Batiste crammed into the living room to attend his father’s, bandleader/trumpeter Clyde Kerr, Sr., Saturday workshops. At the weekly events, Kerr, Sr., helped prepare these legendary players skills like reading music and rhythmic concepts. The elder Kerr, a self-taught musician whose parents who established their own school, graduated from college with an English and science degree and taught at Booker T. High School, Priestly Jr. High School and Xavier Prep.
“Many, many days when I was at the dinner table as a youngster, I’d listen to my dad talk about the projects and the things he did in school,” recalls Kerr, whose sister and daughter also went into the teaching profession. “He made it interesting and kids loved his classroom because he made them want to learn. I picked up a lot of things related to youngsters at the dinner table. That’s something college didn’t teach me, how to relate.”
When Kerr was nine-years-old he woke up one morning to find a trumpet hanging from the light switch chord in his room. At first, he enjoyed the novelty of playing the instrument but soon the newness wore off, the horn went under the bed and Kerr was outside playing football. It wasn’t until he went to St. Augustine High School that he picked up the trumpet again to blow with the marching band.
“Little by little, I got interested in improvisation,” says Kerr, “but at first I wanted to be a high-noter—a lead trumpet player—because my dad was a lead trumpeter. But then I discovered people like [trumpeter] Clifford Brown and I heard the tone.”
Kerr had considered studying the visual arts in college but after receiving a scholarship to Xavier University, he majored in music education. Art, however, remains a resource to him in his approach to music and jazz improvisation.
“My idea about music is either straight lines or curved lines, shaded lines, dark lines and colors,” he explains. “It all depends on the direction of the instrument—up or down, sideways or whatever in terms of drawing something. So I see that in my mind. I teach from that too because music is so abstract you have to paint some kind of picture to connect with people.”
Kerr began his teaching career in Reserve, taking on courses in music, chorus and arithmetic. He then traveled from school to school in Orleans Parish as an itinerant band instructor. One of the six schools he visited was McDonald 36 where he taught the young Anthony “Tuba Fats” Lacen to play sousaphone. He left to teach in St. John the Baptist Parish and there encountered brothers, guitarists Tommy and David Malone. Kerr returned to New Orleans and taught at Colton, Beauregard, and Carver high schools. For 16 years, Kerr led the jazz program at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts and influenced such noted students as trumpeters Nicholas Payton, Irvin Mayfield and Marlon Jordan among many others. This fall he made the move to NOCCA Academy and was also recently appointed resident conductor of the newly established New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.
In the classroom, Kerr plays a supportive role, offering advice and instruction based on a lifetime of dealing with the music. Sensitive to his pupils’ needs, he does so in a very personable, hands-on manner, taking time to make sure they understand a problem or concept.
“I’ve seen a lot of kids when they see a teacher they’ll run the other way,” says Kerr. “I want kids to come running to me. The most important part of teaching to me is giving somebody the benefit of my experiences and having them value that and take it as far as they can. One of the things I tell my students, especially the ones that are very talented, is that much has been given to you, so much is expected.”
Like the living room of his parents’ home, Clyde Kerr’s life has been filled with music. He’s a jazz musician who was a member of rhythm and blues bands like Oliver and the Rockets and the Music Factory; he recorded with Paul McCartney and the Meters and played in the pit band for shows at the Saenger. He’s and educator of 38 years who never thought he’d make it through ten.
“New Orleans has given me a lot,” says Kerr reflectively, mentioning everything from watching the Mardi Gras Indians on Carnival Day to the encouragement he received from his father and fellow musicians and educators such as Kidd Jordan and Ellis Marsalis.
“I often think about all the things I’ve seen and heard. It makes me appreciate what has been given to me. And that’s the big drive that I have as a teacher—I just try to give something back. I had no idea that I was going to become a musician, but all those experiences that I draw from make me who I am today.
“Life is like playing the trumpet; it’s a matter of endurance. So if you can endure, then your thing will eventually come around to you.”
