Fall in Love with Your Life: The Levo League speaks with Sara Caswell, Jazz Violinist Extraordinaire.
Just under a year ago, the Bieber-sphere experienced a massive upset: the Grammy for Best New Artist in 2011 was passed to a female bassist and jazz singer, Esperanza Spalding. Completely contrary to the digital-era trends of ‘more auto-tune, less subtlety’ that have been compounded by the downfall of the music industry and the upswing of the Great Recession, Esperanza is unabashedly conscientious, educated, and perfectly apprised of her jazz lineage. There’s no “I should probably perform this set without my pants on”-type thought in Esperanza’s head that so many of our female musical role models embody today.
Spalding’s unexpected victory at the time made me wonder: was the Golden Age of the plastic pop star coming to a close? Was this as “whoa, that came out of left field” as it felt to me, or was there an undercurrent of musical change in the air? Just after the ceremony, NPR published a story called “Wait, Who is this Esperanza Spalding?” I noticed a woman featured in the article whose role in Esperanza’s group was interesting: she was a violinist in the background playing with technique that was clearly bridging the space between classical and jazz violin. That woman, I soon learned, was Sara.
Violinist, Strategist, Optimist
Sara Caswell, whose technical facility on the violin intertwined with her gift for lyricism have been heard around the world (and not just on everyone’s favorite radio program, NPR’s Morning Edition) toured internationally with Esperanza in support of her Chamber Music Society (Heads Up International, 2010) from 2010 to 2011. As a solo artist she also has received acclaim: albums she has made have been featured in Coda Magazine, Jazz Education Journal, and Strings Magazine. She straddles the worlds of jazz, classical, and folk music; in recent years she has also toured with violinist Mark O’Connor’s American String Celebration and violinist Darol Anger’s Four Generations of Jazz Violin, and performed or recorded with such artists as Charlie Byrd, Gene Bertoncini, Skitch Henderson, Bucky Pizzarelli, Lynne Arriale, and John Clayton.
Why did I find Sara interesting? Partially because she was not center stage in her work with Esperanza. While Esperanza is in many ways a very interested phenomenon in the music industry—her headstrong nature and independence represent a musician who is not tethered to the Katy Perry model of existence—the industry that springs up to support a woman so heavily differentiated from the Justin Biebers of the world is notable. Sara has also recently been on tour with first-time Grammy nominee Roseanna Vitro, whose album The Music of Randy Newman (Motema Music, 2011) features Sara on violin. While Roseanna did not take the Grammy this year, the album that did— “The Mosaic Project,” features vocalist Terri Lyne Carrington, with whom Sara also performed alongside Esperanza Spalding last year.
In the jazz world, Sara is everywhere. And she is a supporting character in many of her musical endeavors—though not all, by a long shot. A successful climb to the top for many of us in the cubicle-friendly world looks shockingly similar to Sara’s ascent: she is taking opportunities where they arise, seeing potential and going for it, and she maintains a compassionate and friendly demeanor throughout that evinces the passion she feels for her career. I asked Sara how much ramp-up time she gave herself from the time she moved from the Midwest to New York City to gauge her actual success level. “I was told by friends, ‘you should take about five years in the city. And if works out, great. But if it doesn’t, there are other cities where incredible jazz is being made.’ So I gave myself five years.” Sara told me. How long did it take before she started getting real traction in the city for her professional accomplishments? “Four and a half years!” she laughed.
Supporting roles, supporting development, supporting success
While many of us as female professionals are supporting characters in the same way—whether we’re assisting our superiors, adding insight and depth to our work output, or pounding the pavement and cold calling sales leads—it’s not always as easy in cubicle-land as it is in music-land to enjoy the ride up. I spoke with Sara at length about her involvement with Ms. Spalding and how it works into her view of herself and her career trajectory.
“You wear a lot of different hats as a musician—“ Sarah said in a tone that can only be described as effervescent during our conversation, just before Sunday’s Grammy Awards, “bandleader, teacher, orchestrator—but they’re all hats I love to wear.” Sara’s been wearing the hat of both teacher and performer well enough to have made a name for herself in both worlds, with teaching experience under her belt like the Manhattan School of Music, Mark O’Connor String Camps, the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops, the Indiana University String Academy, and her own private studio. Not a light commitment. In many musical communities teaching is a necessary part of existence—not for financial reasons, but because there just aren’t as many opportunities to learn from great performers as there are people who want to learn to play like those performers. This is a fairly unique dynamic to be true of an entire industry: that mentorship and sponsorship isn’t just a new trend—it’s a fundamental necessity to keeping a musical world alive and evolving (there are complexities here, but I’m glossing over them).
What can businesswomen take from the life of a successful violinist?
In many ways, Sara’s life work has been humble: teacher, bandleader, arranger. But in all of the ways that translate to the life of a businesswoman, her professional development has been extremely strategic and pointedly efficient. She’s allowed for investment in her own development in her five-year ramp-up plan, plowback into her community of fellow musicians in her teaching life, and has opened her social network in ways possible only with true talent and passion. And those features of her development have translated into notoriety in the jazz world and an amassed bank of talent and knowledge that’s truly rare in in the world.
So has the effort been worth it? Sara’s response inspired me:
“It’s a dream. That’s not always the case for jazz musicians – it’s not a profession you go into for the money. It’s a hard life. Oftentimes, you are living month to month and you just hope the schedule fills in, and that things will come through, and that everything will be fine. If anything, the music demands that you always be on your toes. But the nature of jazz itself is so much about spontaneity and creativity and communicating with the musicians with whom you’re performing. One of the most beautiful things about jazz is that you have ultimate freedom with your voice and what you want to say. You don’t need to sit into a framework in order to succeed. You decide. That kind of freedom of expression is certainly not something all musicians have the joy of experiencing.”
