Living big-band legend plays final active-duty performance with the Airmen of Note

Published May 10, 2016
By Tech. Sgt. James Bolinger
71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs

VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- "Is that Alan Baylock?" an awed jazz student asks her professor at Texas Christian University, in Fort Worth, Texas, after a performance by the Airmen of Note, the Air Force's premiere jazz ensemble.

Her professor, an alumni of "The Note," smiles, and says, "Hey, Alan Baylock, I'd like you to meet somebody."

Dressed in his ceremonial tunic -- long dark blue pants with a silver stripe down the outside of each leg, a long coat with silver buttons and a high collar, Master Sgt. Alan Baylock, turns around. A broad smile over takes his face and he greets his old friend, retired Chief Master Sgt. Joe Eckert.

They exchange introductions, and the young woman dressed in a purple TCU polo shirt begins to glow, absorbing the energy emanating from Baylock. His enthusiasm for music is infectious.

Baylock is quite famous within the world of jazz, although he jokingly brushes off such compliments with, "My mom thinks so."

However, a Google search of his name brings up his own Wikipedia page, a slew of photos, and many videos of high school and college bands from around the country performing his arrangements and original compositions.

He has written more than 300 for the Airmen Note, his own band, the Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra, and other bands and symphonies around the U.S. over the last 30 years.

He played his final performance with the Airmen of Note, April 21, for his peers and future students in the student union building at his alma mater, the University of North Texas.

"It was incredible. It tied everything together," said Baylock. "It ties my time here 20 to 25 years ago - to all through 20 years in the Air Force hanging out with (the guys in the Airmen of Note). To have it culminate here is the next best thing to home court advantage - the familiar surroundings, a super supportive crowd, lots of friends and colleagues. It's really a thrill."

Baylock is due to take over duties as the director of the One O'Clock Lab Band at UNT in the fall of 2016.

In the 90-minute set, Baylock only played a handful of songs with the band. He is officially the arranger, but joined the ensemble for several songs including his favorite of the night: "Some Skunk Funk," a tune written by Randy Brecker and arranged by Vince Mendoza.

It has five trumpet parts and Ben Patterson just sounds incredible on trombone in that one, said Baylock after the show.

A musical beginning

Holding a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from UNT, earned in 1994, Baylock knew he wanted a career in music by the age of 10 when he first started playing a trumpet.

"I was in grade school band starting in fifth grade," said the Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, native. "I had an advantage that my older brothers and sisters were in band or were taking piano lessons. I'm the youngest of all those six kids, so it was a really musical environment at the house. Once I hit the fifth grade, I had a really great band director."

His band teacher likely saw in Baylock the potential to become one of the most prolific and influential writers of big-band music in the modern jazz era.

"There is just a lot of depth to his charts," said Craig Marshall, the manager of the jazz bands at UNT. "What is going on motivically, what he does with time, structure, harmony and re-harmonization -- you can study his scores and really find a lot.

"That's the sign of a really genius writer, and I'm sure that people will do that for many years to come, as they do with iconic writers like (Bob Brookmeyer)," said Marshall.

Marshall and Baylock attended UNT together. Marshall was playing the trombone in the One O'Clock Lab Band while Baylock was writing and arranging songs for it.

Joining "The Note"

"My high school director was in the (Air Force) Academy Band," said Baylock. "He retired from there, and started teaching at my high school, which was a really cool connection. So I knew about the Air Force Band programs."

The influence of Air Force musicians on the aspiring trumpeter's career continued past his high school years.

When Baylock was earning his undergraduate degree at the Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia, he met Jim Eckert, now a retired Air Force chief master sergeant and then the lead alto saxophonist for the The Note. Eckert was teaching part time at Shenandoah, so Baylock often heard The Note play.

After one gig Eckert introduced Baylock to now retired Senior Master Sgt. Mike Crotty, an arranger for The Note for the better part of two decades. Baylock began taking lessons from Crotty, and nearly three years later, he enlisted.

"I had never really considered a career in the military, I just wanted to be a musician," said Baylock. "But, Mike kept talking about how great the band was and how great the job was. He said, 'I'm getting ready to retire, go ahead and apply.' I got the gig, and we overlapped for a couple of years."

That introduction was more than 20 years ago, and Baylock has been arranging for The Note ever since.

The art of arranging

As a composer one basically starts from scratch with a new melody, new chord progression and new rhythms. An arranger takes rhythms and melodies that are already formed and does new things with them.

It can be any song. For instance a Beatles tune or "Stars and Stripes Forever." An arranger will take that existing material and put a new spin on it.

"I think of it like a ball of clay," said Baylock. "When you are composing you are actually creating the ball of clay and forming it, but when you are arranging the clay already exists. You are just molding it into something new."

Baylock's favorite arrangement is "Hey Jude," originally by The Beatles. It is on his newest album, "Primetime," by the Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra with special guest Doc Severinsen.

"I like it because it's quite long epic and long like the original Beatles version," he said. "And, the band gets to sing!"

Many of his band mates prefer his arrangement of the song, "Stella by Starlight."

It plays to all of his strengths as an arranger, said Kuebler. It was played several times on this tour.

"Torque" is another popular Baylock tune, said Master Sgt. Ben Patterson, a trombonist for The Note and a fellow One O'Clock alum. It is played by high schools and colleges around the world.

On top of being a creative genius, he is really just a pro through and through, said Marshall. The way he prints off his charts is meticulous. He showed me his formula once. It has about 10 steps, but then you end up with this beautiful thing.

"They shouldn't be on little eight and a half by 11 photo copies," said Marshall. "They should be on the big card stock. He take pride in that. It's like going to a symphony orchestra and renting music at great expense. It's beautiful."

Memories

Twenty years goes by in the blink of an eye. A thousand concerts are played. Hundreds of classes are taught. As the old guard retires, new Airmen join and pretty soon you are the old guard. In all those memories from a career spent spreading joy and patriotism across the globe, there is one thing that sticks out to Baylock about his career.

Some would think that it would be playing with the Airmen of Note, which is always a thrill, said Baylock. "Others might thing it is writing for them, or being on stage as I'm conducting a new piece with a guest artist.

"But, the thing that I remember most is the first time I played taps at Arlington Cemetery," he said. "Solo bugle, and it was such a beautiful, incredibly moving experience. It really put any ego or any self-serving thoughts aside, because you are there with this family grieving, and this honor guard that looks incredible, and everything is so beautifully coordinated.

"And you are off in the distance -- you hear the firing squad and then you play taps," he said. "It's just such a serene, surreal moment.

"I was a little nervous, but it worked out really well."

Baylock was captivated with the care that was taken to fold the flag before it was handed to the family.

"It's like man, this is really, really heavy," he said. "I thought, this is why music is important, for moments like that. To transcend and just go soul to soul."

More than his music

Music that transcends is something Baylock specializes in, although the impression that he has left on his fellow musicians is his compassion.

He was very generous over the years, said Marshall. Occasionally, he sends charts for the One O'Clock to record.

"I've also worked with him outside of this particular gig," Marshall said. "He wrote some beautiful symphony orchestrations for my vocal quartet that we did with the Dallas Symphony. It was really sweet of him. He cares enough about what he doing that he took time off and flew himself from D.C. to Dallas to come hear us. His orchestrations were beautiful."

"To a fault I'm a nice guy," said Baylock. "I enjoy getting along with people and conflict often makes my hands sweat. I think above all I'm creative, I'm passionate, but I'm kind of a nice guy. I can be mean if I have too, and I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, I really don't."

The next 20 years

The era of the independent band leader and his orchestra is a thing of the past, said Marshall. "The Count Basie's, the Woody Herman's, the Buddy Rich's, the Maynard Ferguson's - they don't exist anymore. But jazz is the quintessential American art form, and The Note is the premiere big band in America in my opinion.

"What pleases me is that Alan has been writing for an ensemble of this caliber which is what it takes to do justice to what he has written," said Marshall. "What you have are all these thoroughbreds in this ensemble, and they need arrangements to play. He is giving them a voice."

"I've been able to be up in D.C. with the Airmen of Note for 20 years, and my goal is to be with the University of North Texas for 20 years at least," said Baylock.

"One of the main directors who really got the program off the ground, in addition to Gene Hall, was a guy named Leon Breeden. He directed the One O'Clock for 24 years," said Baylock. "Then Neil Slater, who I just got to hang out with, was here for more than 27 years."

Baylock wants to keep the tradition of the One O'Clock alive, but also propel it forward.

"Kind of like what the Airmen of Note does, where there is a deep tradition, and they play Glen Miller music so respectfully and so well. But they also can push the envelope," said Baylock.

"I want that to be the same at North Texas. There is a deep tradition here for great music, and there have been so many hundreds and hundreds of pieces written. I want to pay tribute to that legacy, but at the same time, I want to continue to push the program forward and do newer works as well."

Traditionally, the person running the One O'Clock needs a deep knowledge of big band music as a writer and a director, said Patterson, the Airmen of Note trombonist and fellow One O'Clock alum.

Baylock will bring a wealth of knowledge about writing and he has been in front of big bands for decades, so he has a lot of experience, he said.

"He has real positive attitude about music, and that will be a little bit of a change for that school, and I think it will be really good for them," said Patterson.

A lasting impact

For the time being, Baylock is the last of a long lineage of talented arrangers who have worked for The Note. Unfortunately, due to the Air Force-wide personnel cuts several years ago, the position of arranger will disappear when Baylock retires.

Positions at the band were cut back and as people leave or retire, certain positions won't be filled, said Senior Master Sgt. Tyler Kuebler, the lead alto saxophonist and also the Airmen of Note musical director.

The current solution is to have a band member take up arranging as an additional duty.

Having a world class arranger, like Alan, has been such a boon for the band, said Patterson, the additional duty arranger. More with less may seem like a good idea on paper, but the band has a lot of arranging needs, he said. "It's going to be difficult to produce the volume of work that The Note needs."

Another solution is to buy music.

The band has a budget for commissions, and purchases music based on the needs of a performance or if they are playing with a guest artist, said Kuebler. But, they prefer to produce their own material.

Fortunately, all the work that Baylock has done over the last 20 years belongs to the Air Force. The Airman of Note will be able to play his arrangements for another 20 years.

That's quite a legacy, said Kuebler.

Master Sgt. Alan Baylock, the arranger for the Airmen of Note