So where is all that jazz?

Alex Coolman

COSTA MESA -- A jazz concert scheduled to take place Sunday at Orange

Coast College has been canceled, and the behind-the-scenes wrangling that

accompanied the decision to cancel it has divided the college’s music

department.

The man who called off the concert, OCC adjunct music professor Charles

Rutherford, says he took the action because budget cutbacks have

strangled his ability to bring performers to the school.

On the other side of the debate are music department co-chairs John

McEnary and Dana Wheaton. Wheaton referred calls about the jazz program

to OCC’s dean of fine arts, Sylvia Impert, who declined to comment on the

situation.

At issue is a roughly 30% cut that was made to the jazz program’s

operating budget in a meeting last August.

Rutherford, who has directed the school’s jazz program for more than

three decades, contends the cuts are crippling to the program and were

made to take advantage of the fact that he had just changed to adjunct

status and lost his authority to vote on the budget.

“It’s certainly a black eye for us,” said Rutherford, sitting in his

office at the college. On a cork-lined wall of the room were dozens of

photos of musicians he’s brought in for concerts over the years --

legendary players like Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea and

Freddie Hubbard.

The days when he had the resources to bring in such great names are over,

he says.

“What’s happening to the jazz department? We’re slowly going downhill,”

he said.

OCC President Margaret Gratton disputed the notion that Rutherford had

been forced into canceling the show.

“The jazz program was adequately funded for this year,” Gratton said.

“Charles Rutherford canceled the concert on his own volition without

consultation with the college. He had sufficient money in the budget to

conduct his concert. In fact, he has a fairly healthy balance.”

Gratton said she expected that the two sides would settle things within

the department.

“They have traditionally met among themselves and worked these matters

out in a system that is agreeable and equitable,” she said. “I am

confident that they can continue doing that in the future.”

About $2,500 was lopped off the budget for the jazz program at the August

meeting. A few weeks later, the Friday Big Band, a performance group for

jazz students, was canceled.

The combination of these events, Rutherford said, convinced him that he

would be unable to put on the “Jazz Extravaganza Concerts” he had

scheduled for Sunday and for last Halloween.

Rutherford issued a statement canceling both shows last October.

But the message seems not to have reached many ears around campus. OCC’s

community relations office was still publicizing Sunday’s jazz show at

the beginning of March, and notices in the Coast Report, the school

newspaper, still spoke about it as if it were a live entity as late as

last week.

Now Rutherford is making sure people know the concert is dead. And he’s

drumming up support from some of the musicians he’s worked with over the

years to suggest that the jazz program is under siege.

“I don’t know why they’re doing this,” said Harold Cannon, an OCC-trained

jazz trombonist who wrote a letter to the media protesting the budget

cuts. “He’s had such apparent success with the program. It’s probably one

of the few programs in Southern California where you can go and get an

education in jazz.”

Gratton, though she disagrees with the idea that jazz is endangered at

the school, said the departmental flap is unfortunate.

“Doc Rutherford built the jazz program at OCC,” she said. “He was

involved in it over 30 years, and he built an exemplary program. It is

unfortunate that we have arrived at this situation.”