Forest Serenade: A Week of Jazz and Reverie among California Redwood Trees
Immersive Moments and Music Magics at Jazz Camp West 2024
On my way back to San Francisco from the rolling hills and lush forests of the mountainous La Honda area, where I attended the 7-day music immersion program Jazz Camp West for the first time, I experienced nothing but dreamlike images and emotions.
This past week, full of music, dance, towering redwood trees, and memories with so many lovely souls, simply feels too surreal. It is like a dream, and the vividness of this dream still lingers…
Soulful notes and rhythms serenading and echoing among the redwood trees.
First Day of Arrival
I love nature and being outdoors but honestly speaking, I have zero knowledge or passion for setting up my own tent — in fact, I have never in my life slept in a tent before. So when I picked up my camping equipment and arrived at the grass field reserved for campers and RVs, I felt clueless and a bit anxious.
My tent neighbor Susan, who flew all the way from the Pacific Northwest to the Bay Area to attend this program, walked to me with her beautiful and calming smile, offering to help me set up the tent.“Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” she said with a reassuring smile. “Setting up a tent is easier than you think!”
When asked whether she’s a vocalist or an instrumentalist and what classes she planned to enroll in, Susan told me she doesn’t identify with a specific musician role and she’s going to just explore a bit of everything: singing, dancing, percussion, history. Fair, I think.
My spacious studio apartment with a bed and living room! Thank you Susan :)
Thanks to Susan, my tent looked much more modern than I originally expected — it’s spacious, clean, and even has a bed! (Officially it’s called a foldable “cot”, which is a word that’s never been in my dictionary. I initially thought it’s a table, lol).
After the Welcome BBQ lunch, we were given a walking tour of the camp site.
The uniqueness of the site map lies in its annotations: buildings and venues are named after famous musicians or faculty members; little icons of pianos and drum kits are marked across the map indicating the availability of jamming equipment.
My jaw dropped not when seeing a grand piano and microphones quietly sitting among beautiful California redwood trees, but when I was told there are over 50 similar setups scattered across the entire forest waiting to be discovered and played.
We spent the early afternoon signing up for classes and auditioning for advanced vocal programs. Attendees can sign up for as many as six one-hour classes per day. It was like designing your own mini semester and we were encouraged to take classes outside of our typical disciplines.
For example, as a vocalist, apart from enrolling in classes focusing on singing and vocal techniques, I could opt for diverse beginner-level subjects including
Percussion classes for rhythm and timing
Dance class for body coordination
Theory class for developing more professional musical vocabulary
Songwriting for awareness of song forms and composition
Ensemble & Combo programs for hands-on collaboration experience
“Transforming Lives Through Music”displayed at the Main Amphitheatre
Later on the first day, I was completely blown away during the first faculty concert and late-night jamming session. Our faculty members presented their masterpieces in ways that maximized the interactivity aspect of the performance, which fascinated me so much as they reminded me of the 5 key principles of engaging the concert audience when launching my own concert.
So when I learned how reputable and highly achieved our music and dance faculty are in their fields, I wasn’t even surprised. (It was really ALL-STAR faculty, period! Just imagine attending classes and workshops directly with GRAMMY®-winning artists or musicians who received awards from DownBeat magazines!)
Class Highlight
Highlight #1: Overcoming Stage Fright
This is the very first class I took during the entire week, and it was instructed by Stacey Hoffman, the Director of Jazz Camp West and founder of the Oakland-based non-profit organization Living Jazz. This class open to vocalists and instrumentalists of all levels, and our classroom is really one of a kind: in the forest!
Stacey preparing to start the 9am class “Overcoming Stage Fright” in the forest
There are two key insights from Stacey that I found particularly helpful not just for musicians but also for everyday life.
Growth Mindset: Performance anxiety is unavoidable, and even the most talented performers can still have anxiety. Just like learning an instrument or singing, stage fright can be overcome through learning, exposure, and practice.
Leaving Room for the “Worst” Cases: Counterintuitive as it may sound, performance anxiety comes from the resistance to things that we’re afraid of the most, instead of those things themselves. Thus, the first step to tackling that anxiety is to leave room for those imaginary scenarios. Tell ourselves, it’s okay to forget about a piece of lyric, be off-key, miscommunicate with band members, tell an awkward joke before singing, have unnatural body movements, or mess up with the vibrato. So long as we can accept these scenarios to happen, we’re going to have a much calmer state before, during, and after each performance.
The technique that I enjoyed the most from this class is called Visualization. We can practice this technique simply by closing our eyes and imagining two contrasting scenarios.
Visualize the “stressful” performance venue: Find a quiet space, close your eyes, and take deep breaths. Imagine a performance venue that is likely to make us feel stressed and nervous. Picture the crowd, such as their demographic and familiarity with jazz music. Picture the stage setup, your instrument, lighting, environmental noise, and even the smell of the environment. Use all five senses of your body to perceive and identify what elements are inducing the most stress. Describe what part of your body is feeling the least at ease. Try to analyze what exactly is making us so nervous. Remember how it feels. This can help us become more mindful of the root cause and sources of the anxiety. Once we identify those roots, we practice acceptance.
Visualize the “comfortable” environment: Now picture another environment that can make us completely relaxed, comfortable, and confident. For me, it’s being on a mountain top in Hawaii, overlooking Honolulu with the stunning sunset and boundless ocean, with close friends and family sitting right next to me. Remember how it feels. We can practice this right before the performance to get our body and mind to a more relaxed state.
Highlight #2: Advanced Vocal Jazz Ensemble
Ten vocalists were selected based on the audition to partake in this vocal ensemble that sings tight harmony in a jazz setting. Our group is comprised of 2 Basses (which I’m a part of), 2 Tenors, 3 Altos, and 3 Sopranos.
We were extremely lucky to have Christine Guter as our instructor, who has received numerous internationally and nationally acclaimed awards including the prestigious “Jazz Education Achievement Award” from DownBeat magazine.
Daily rehearsal of the Vocal Jazz Ensemble with our wonderful music director Christine Guter
Vocal Jazz is my favorite form of group singing, and I haven’t been able to perform in such a setting for an entire year since I sang with The KeyNotes A Cappella choir at Apple.
I enjoy how singing in an ensemble helps me practice detachment from the egoistic self, and as Christine shared with us, this form of performance requires actually more active listening than singing. Specifically, we’re listening vertically and singing collaboratively for each note as a chord instead of singing horizontally as individuals.
That said, she reiterated that detachment from the ego isn’t equal to the entire removal of individuality, and our performance is the most beautiful and moving when all ten of us can really pour our respective hearts and souls together into a harmonious unity.
“Painted on Canvas” [Watch on YouTube] is the song we performed at the closing concert of the camp.
Its lyrics, composed by the acclaimed jazz singer and songwriter Gregory Porter, reached our soul deeply as Christine guided us through the meaning behind the lyrics:
“We are all like canvases. Sometimes in our life we don’t have full control over what paint we’d like to be added to our canvas, thus there could unfortunately be dark hues that don’t spark joy in ourselves or others.
However, we all have the ability to repaint the canvas with different colors, and those darker layers will eventually be replaced with hues that convey stories of thriving and flourishing.
And we too have the ability and responsibility to protect others from receiving unwanted dark paint or add some colorful layers to those who are in need.”
Practicing the beautiful melody of Gregory Porter and singing to the trees.
Just like within this camp, I have received kind and encouraging support from 300+ artists and fresh air produced by the redwood, adding some of the most beautiful layers to my canvas.
Beautiful people and voices under the guidance of wonderful Christine.
Highlight #3: Groove Theory
“Don’t move to the music. Let the music move you.” — Samara Atkins, instructor of Groove Theory
Having been bullied in middle school for having poor body coordination, I always have a lot of frustration with different parts of my body. Those dark memories have always induced self-doubt and internalized helplessness when growing up, thus I never was able to have a good time in clubs or dance floors with my friends.
So with this class, I learned to dance for the very first time in my whole life, and it has changed me forever, for the better!
Our instructor Samara Atkins, a GRAMMY®-wining recording artist, always has the brightest smiles for her students, and the whole dance studio is filled with happiness and positive energy the moment she enters the room.
From zero knowledge and familiarity with grooving, to thriving in the dancing studio in just 5 days!
We learned with her the basic mechanics of grooving to music and how to use our body as our instrument. We listened to all the great dance music from the 70s to early 10s while practicing some groovy sequences.
There’s not a single moment when I wasn’t wearing a natural big smile on my face when I danced under her guidance. I felt free, powerful, and so confident, even with just the basic 2-step grooving.
And my eyes were literally filled with tears when feeling parts of my shoulder, back, and even butt being activated in brand new ways, because to me that is me overcoming those dark hues from the past.
Just after the first class, I was able to immediately dance to the faculty concerts and jamming sessions later that night, which was so satisfying. One principle that Samara reiterated every class is “Don’t move to the music. Let the music move you.” And I can only see how being able to access my body via dancing will further contribute to my understanding of different sounds and various musical nuances.
If there’s one class that I’d be willing to retake when returning to the camp in the future, this is that class.
When the Night Comes, Music Just Begins
The Small Dining Hall was transformed into an intimate jamming venue, available starting at 10pm…
You may think that we campers probably wrapped up the whole day of classes with a concert of some sort. If the truth be told, it was much more than just a single concert!
Jamming music with wonderful buddies at 1am at the Large Dinning Hall, another venue that’s available 7/24.
5:30 to 6:30 pm Open Mic Talent Showcase featuring students who can perform in front of a 300+ audience.
8:00 to 10:00 pm Daily Evening Concert with breathtaking performances curated by all-star faculty members.
10:00 to midnight Music Jamming Sessions hosted by professional musicians, with multiple themes including Jazz, Blues, Funk, Latin, and Vocal. The venue for Vocal Jam is particularly enchanting thanks to the blue lighting which introduced a sensual and tipsy tone to the environment.
Midnight to … up to you! Additional Music Jamming Sessions at selected venues, including a venue called Golds’ Gulch that has the dreamiest setup that I’ve ever seen in my whole life: piano, drum set, marimba, audio equipment, chairs, carpets, and microphones sitting among a bunch of redwood trees with lights thoughtfully programmed to evoke a dream-like illusion.
I Live Dreaming, Night and Day
I feel so lucky to collaborate with some of the most amazing musicians in the camp during the Midnight Jam at Golds’ Gulch with Jobim’s timeless bossa nova piece “Vivo Sonhando” [Watch on YouTube] (Portuguese-to-English Translation: “I live dreaming”).
“Golds Gulch”, the dreamy midnight jamming venue that begins at 12am and lasts until … forever
I couldn’t find a better song to sing at 2 am inside a forest with such a fascinating setup. The song speaks of a dreamer living far away from pains and hard realities of life, a sort of a meditation on escapism and the beauty found in moments of quiet introspection.
Its lyrics, such as “One is to dream, two is loving you,” so was mixed with our instrument sounds and echoed in the forest in the most surreal way. And the audience told us afterwards that, when we performed it, all they felt was like actually residing in a dream.
Ohlone Bowl
Another special musical highlight of the week, that of course also happens at night, is called the “Ohlone Bowl”.
It is a tradition that dates back to the inception of Jazz Camp West 40 years ago, where all the campers hiked towards a hill eventually culminating at a Greek Amphitheatre setting which was once upon a time sacred Ohlone land (“Ohlone” refers to the indigenous people who originally inhabited the central coast of California, particularly the area that is now the San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding regions.).
Every instrument imaginable was transported to the Greek Amphitheatre setting at the mountain top.
As the sun sets, the magnificent bonfire sculpture is lit and we all settle in for a magical acoustic evening of music and communal unity.
Following the direction in which the bonfire sparks fly towards the sky, I saw the most starry night sky that is exactly what Jobim described in his song “Corcovado” (1960):
“Quiet nights of quiet stars, quiet chords from my guitar, floating on the silence that surrounds us.”
Echoes of the Redwood Serenade
Music is like the oxygen produced by photogenesis of the redwood trees
Driving back home on Highway 101, as the city skyline begins to emerge on the horizon, the serenade of the California redwood forest fades into memory, yet its echoes remain vivid and alive within me: The melodies played among the ancient redwoods, the laughter shared under starlit skies, the groovy dancing steps with new friends and music partners, and the quiet moments of reflection beside crackling campfires under starry night, have all woven themselves into the very fabric of my soul (or shall I say, canvas?)
This journey was more than an immersion in jazz; it was a voyage into the depths of human connection and self-discovery. The camaraderie of kindred spirits, the wisdom imparted by masters of their craft, and the freedom to explore and express without restraint have all contributed to a transformative experience that words alone really cannot fully capture.
Beautiful souls. With Jazz Pianist Kimiko, Gospel Choir Director Terrance, my buddy Peter, vocalists Antoinette, Shelby, Andy, and Pandeiro Teacher Ami (from left to right, top to bottom)
As I prepare for my upcoming music programs over the summer, including The Jazz Course in New Orleans and Vocal Program at Stanford Jazz Institute, I carry with me the serene essence of the redwoods and the boundless inspiration drawn from the community of artists I was privileged to join.
This dream will linger. More pretty dreams will rise up. And we shall meet again.
About Honolulu Mailman
Honolulu Mailman 島嶼郵差 is a San Francisco-based Jazz vocalist on a journey in search of authentic voice and sound that inspire and then deliver those stories to the world. He has a penchant for delicate and sensual tones in the Jazz, R&B, Bossa Nova, and Neo-Soul genres. He enjoys bringing people together through organic music experience curated with notes, rhythms, melodies, and love.
He is currently receiving extensive voice training from Carolina Santos, a professional Jazz Vocalist based in Buenos Aires. In Summer 2024, he is engaging in multiple professional programs including the Jazz Vocal Program at Stanford Jazz Institute, Jazz Camp West in a Californian redwood forest, and The Jazz Course: An Orff Certification Course in New Orleans.
Jazz Camp West in the setting of a Californian redwood forest
The Jazz Course: An Orff certification course in New Orleans
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