Free register and download UseNet downloader, then you can FREE Download from UseNet.

    Download without Limit " Arts & Design The Praxis System Guitar Compendium : Technique/Improvisation/Musicianship/Theory Volume 2 " from UseNet for FREE!

• Author: HOWARD ROBERTS
• Publisher: Advance Music
• Publish Date: 1989
• ISBN: 3892210209

Music Education

Westlake College of Music

Berklee opened its doors in 1945. The following year, a similar school was established in Los Angeles - the Westlake College of Music, founded by one Alvin L. Learned. The school was named after a park, Westlake Park, which was near its first location. Westlake is pretty much forgotten today, and that is precisely why I would like to discuss its existence. However, there is not much information to be passed on. Of all the subjects being discussed, Westlake is far and away the one that has been researched the least regarding any information in print, on the Internet or elsewhere; but it was a very prominent school in the jazz world in the 1950s. Remember, the 50s was the heyday of so-called West Coast jazz, and a lot of attention was given to all matters pertaining to jazz on the Coast, especially Los Angeles, and this would include Westlake. I first became truly aware of jazz in the mid-50s. I would guess in junior high school and I can remember reading of both Berklee and Westlake in Down Beat, Metronome, etc., at that time. I can't say that Westlake was as prominent as Berklee, but I can attest that it was very prominent. As I mentioned, Berklee and Westlake shared several similarities:

The general goal of establishing a true jazz conservatory.

Benefiting from the fact of the then-new GI Bill.

An emphasis on teaching the Schillinger System as a compositional technique. I will share with you what I can relate as fact: Of the Westlake faculty names I have seen, most were unfamiliar to me, but I can note that Russ Garcia, Howard Roberts, Dick Grove, and Bob Graettinger (private lessons) all taught there at one time or other. Students included Bill Holman, Gary Peacock, Bob Gordon, Charlie Haden, Bob Cooper, and Bob Graettinger. Reading a web site quote by Bill Holman that "we were all going to Westlake College of Music at the time," this implies that there were many students and a great deal of activity at the school, though there seems to be little surviving history. This would be another wonderful project for a dissertation. In fact, it seems to me a comparative study of Berklee and Westlake would be fascinating. Why has one so gloriously succeeded, while the other disappeared, pretty much without a trace? I am sure the reasons are a combination of artistic and business matters, but, again, it would be very interesting if someone would flesh out the details. Speaking of business, apparently Westlake struggled from a business standpoint from day one. A former student there told me that the school had eight different locations during its existence, most of them in Hollywood, including one period when it was in the abandoned Screen Cartoonists office building. It moved from Hollywood to Laguna Beach in the summer of 1960, continuing to operate for about one more year, but drastically reduced in size and scope. There apparently was no fanfare when it ceased to be, probably around the summer of 1961. This same person related that the last he knew of Alvin Learned years ago, he was running a piano studio somewhere up the Pacific Coast Highway called "Al Learned Piano by Ear," a rather sad fate for this man who was reportedly much admired for his valiant efforts at Westlake. Incidentally, readers may be familiar with a book entitled "West Coast Jazz" by Ted Gioia, published in 1992. Upon reading this book, I eagerly hoped for it to fill in some gaps about Westlake, but it does not do so. It does mention the school, but only from the standpoint of "Bill Holman attended Westlake," "Bob Graettinger attended Westlake," etc. Mildly critical, in one place it states that Westlake did little more than "churn out studio musicians." Despite Westlake's ignoble lifeline, from all indications, it did play a vital role in the jazz education world of southern California for over fifteen years, and I certainly think it should be remembered and credited for whatever was accomplished.