Clark College’s retiring director of bands will go out on a high note

A few weeks ago, as Jazz Ensemble rehearsal wound down, Richard Inouye gave his students a little pep talk.

“You set the tone,” he said. “You decide what you want this program to do. They’re going to hire a new director, but it’s not the director. It’s you.”

These weren’t actual parting words, yet — just some more heartfelt rehearsal. Inouye, 59, will retire at the end of this quarter after 11 years as director of bands at Clark College and 50 years, he said, as a working musician.

“I’ve checked the last box” on his list of things to accomplish, Inouye said. “I’ve taught music in college. I was a playing professional for a long time. I traveled all over the country, I performed with famous people, I even played at Carnegie Hall.”

Carnegie Hall sure didn’t seem in the cards when Inouye was a Colorado farmboy. “Quite honestly, in fifth grade all I cared about was motorcycles,” he said. “My dad looked into my eyes and saw two motorcycle wheels.” But his biker dream ended when Inouye sweated through a motorcycle mechanics course. Meanwhile, his other passion had become blowing the oboe and the saxophone.

Which wasn’t what his father wanted to hear, he said, but when Inouye auditioned into the Disneyland College Musical Experience and got paid to play for a whole summer at the Magic Kingdom, his parents realized he was onto something.

“Play as much as you can and travel as much as you can” is what Inouye urges his students today.

“These are the kinds of musical experiences you can’t learn in a classroom. If I’m an effective teacher, it’s because I’m not trying to teach from my degree, but from practical experience.”

Before he retires, Inouye looks forward to providing many high school and even middle school jazz musicians with an invaluable practical experience: the 56th annual Clark College Jazz Festival, three full days of big-band performances by 60 different groups from Washington and Oregon schools.

Trophies will be presented to the top three bands in each division, middle school and A through AAAA high schools, along with individual awards for outstanding musicianship. And on the night of Jan. 27, the Dale Beacock Memorial Sweepstakes Award will be presented to the festival’s most outstanding band. All of these awards are decided by a panel of professional musician adjudicators.

“I’ve tried to make the emphasis education, and I don’t promote competition in jazz. Jazz requires teamwork and communication,” Inouye said. “But, the festival is very competitive. And I do see how competition encourages the students to work hard and play their best.”

Fluffy yet optimistic

Inouye’s Clark College Jazz Ensemble isn’t competing in the festival — it’s the “host” band that takes the stage to show ’em how it’s done, just after each division is done performing and just before the awards are announced.

When The Columbian stopped by earlier this month, the 20-piece ensemble was rehearsing two truly tough pieces: “Inside Out” by contemporary composer Matt Harris, and “Optimistic” by the alt-rock band Radiohead, many of whose works have been arranged for large ensemble in an ongoing, international effort called the Radiohead Jazz Project.

Both tunes launch quietly and gently, slowly building a groove and some volume, until the listener realizes they’re bursting with noisy excitement of the sort that only a bunch of brassy horns can make (when bolstered by bass, drums, percussion, piano and guitar, that is). It may sound like near-chaos, but sitting in on rehearsal proves just how meticulously detailed that out-of-control sound really is.

Over and over again, Inouye starts and stops and starts the buildup. Entrances are “too fluffy,” he says. The energy needs to be both livelier and tighter. “Don’t get so busy so soon,” he tells the drummer. “You’ve got to back way off while this guy is taking his solo.”

And, Inouye leads a round of applause for the pianist, whose gorgeous waterfall of a solo in “Optimistic” “was all improvised, not written,” he said.

Optimistic is a good word for the capable and serious-minded musicians getting ready to for this year’s festival.

“I always looked forward to it. We worked toward it all year,” said trumpet and flugelhorn soloist Dennis Baciuc, 19, a graduate of Hockinson High School — which won the AA division most of the times Baciuc was involved, he said. Now a student at Clark, he plans to pursue a career in music performance and education.

“When I was younger, I was a little scared,” Baciuc said, “but the way to overcome nerves is to keep doing it. Just keep doing it.”