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>>Hi, I'm John D'earth.

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I'm a musician who lives 
in Charlottesville.

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I play trumpet, I write 
music, I teach music.

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I've lived here 
for about 43 years,

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and I feel like I 
just moved here.

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I always say I have 
learned more from teaching

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than from any other thing,

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because it's easier for me

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and for many people 
to do for others

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what you are having a hard 
time doing for yourself,

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like learning something.

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So I'm coming up with 
stuff for my students

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that turns out to be 
me teaching myself.

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I have been teaching 
since I was 19 years old.

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I love to teach, but I come 
from a family of teachers.

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I have to say, my grandmother, 
my father's mother

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was a real little red 
schoolhouse teacher.

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My father was a natural teacher

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who wasn't a 
professional teacher,

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but I learned more 
from him about music.

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And he was not a musician, 
his ears were unbelievable.

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But I had many great teachers 
and I copied the teachers.

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Partly I love to teach or 
I'm good at teaching maybe

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because I am very understanding

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of having a hard time 
with certain things

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because I have a hard 
time with certain things.

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So that helps teaching.

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But also it's just 
a crystal in me

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I think that I just 
delight in seeing people

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take off with music

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because I feel like 
people are cheated of it

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because music is the 
most conservative art.

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That's what Nietzsche said.

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He said it's the most 
conservative art form.

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It's the last art form to 
catch up with innovation

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because there are 
so many gatekeepers.

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How many people do you know who 
thrive on listening to music

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and say they're not musical?

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How can you not be musical if 
you love to listen to music?

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But the message that they got 
is clear when you hear that.

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Wrong message.

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>>Part of your approach too,

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is this whole idea of letting 
people jump in the deep end.

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>>I had that with my teachers.

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That's a big part of studying 
with real jazz musicians.

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And I was so lucky to 
meet real jazz musicians

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who really played jazz 
in the real world.

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Made records in the real 
world, knew Charlie Parker,

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knew Dizzy Gillespie, played 
on the Stan Kenton Band,

50
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and the standard was very high.

51
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So they would give you 
impossible things to do

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and then say, you're 
only doing 60%

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of what I'm asking 
you to do here, John.

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I'll never forget when my 
teacher Boots said that to me.

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I was just devastated.

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He only spoke badly like 
that to me about twice,

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but it made an impact.

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I think we're stingy 
with the information.

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When we teach music, 
we withhold the means

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of production from the workers.

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We need to share the means of 
production with the workers

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and tell kids right away, hey, 
somebody wrote this music.

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You can write music.

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Anybody can write music.

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Let's write some music.

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It puts it on a whole,

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it puts it in a different 
perspective to think

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that you're gonna create.

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You give a kid a sheet of paper.

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You know that joke I like 
so much about the mother

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and the little girl says, where 
do you go to work every day?

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I go up on the hill

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and teach the university 
students how to paint and draw.

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And the little girl says, 
what you mean they forgot?

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Well, we do that in 
the UVA Jazz Ensemble.

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We step out of the comfort zone

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because we have all 
semester to rehearse.

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So I give 'em stuff 
that's really hard.

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Well, my role at UVA is to be

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the Director of 
Jazz Performance,

81
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and I have given 
myself a virtual trophy

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for never having called a 
meeting of the jazz faculty

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at UVA, because it's all 
of us who are friends

84
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who play together all the time,

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and we know intuitively what 
we need to do for our students.

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And that's a very 
special thing at UVA

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because we teach very 
gifted, brilliant people

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who probably aren't gonna 
play music for a living,

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who really want 
music in their lives.

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And we want them to keep that 
for the rest of their lives.

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So that's the goal.

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And learning to respect 
a person like that

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and not expect 
that they're going

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to pursue their music like 
a conservatory student

95
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is something we've 
all had to learn

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and address in ourselves.

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The thing that I'm proud 
of as a private teacher

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with people who are serious 
is they don't sound the same.

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They end up finding 
their own thing.

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And that is one of the 
first rules of jazz.

101
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There's two rules, basically.

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Master the vocabulary 
and be yourself.

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Everyone else is taken, 
whoever said that.

104
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How do my students perceive me?

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People don't know how 
to take me sometimes.

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So that's interesting 
working with that.

107
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I think they go through a 
progression with me where they,

108
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hopefully, this is what I hope.

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First of all, I think they're 
usually intimidated at first

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because it's just somebody 
who's over the top in some

111
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way, and they think that 
I have this reputation

112
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and blah, blah, blah.

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I teach at UVA, made a 
record, whatever the heck.

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So they start with that.

115
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Then they realize, 
oh, this guy's,

116
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he's not that intimidating.

117
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In fact, he's funny.

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I think they think that I'm 
really serious about the very,

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very basic things of playing.

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And they get that 
and they take it.

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And the ones who are 
gonna play run with that,

122
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and then they come 
back to me and say,

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you're not serious enough.

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I think they think that 
I've got their backs.

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I hope they think that.

126
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I'm not competing with them.

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I'm retiring from UVA.

128
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What am I gonna do 
with that extra time?

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That is the million dollar 
question that I'm asking myself.

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And I'm really trying to sort of

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bootcamp my way towards that

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with a little more 
personal discipline

133
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and not just have to show up

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because you're 
scheduled to be there.

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That's the hope.

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But I also hope 
to get very mobile

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in a van and drive 
all over the continent

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and visit cities, visit 
people, friends, play music.

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This thing, try to 
figure out a way

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to do music in a meaningful 
way that doesn't involve

141
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a lot of hype and doesn't 
involve a lot of self-promotion,

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because I'm terrible at that.

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I'm gonna keep playing gigs and 
I'll keep composing, I hope,

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and actually a lot 
more composition.

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So yeah, I'm hoping 
it'll just unfold

146
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into much more 
music all the time.

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(upbeat jazz music)

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(band member laughing)

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(upbeat jazz music)

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(gentle music)