A saxophone. A drum set. A double bass. These are three instruments that can be played traditionally, but on Mar. 6, the jazz group Mysteries proved tradition wrong when they started playing these instruments during Colgate University’s continued program of “Jazz in the Library Series.” Mysteries consists of percussionist Phil Haynes, saxophonist Peyton Pleninger and double bassist Hilliard Greene.
Hosted in the flex room of Case-Geyer Library, the series allows jazz musicians to perform for the greater Colgate community. With the series conceived in part by Colgate Live Music Collective and Kara Rusch, artist and former partner at Cadence Jazz, Rusch searches for artists and invites them to perform at Colgate. This series has featured other artists in the past, including Brian Stark, Charlie Ballantine and Remedy. As an opportunity for Colgate students to get exposure to sounds they may not be familiar with, the event still noticeably occurs in a library, a relatively silent space.
Associate University Librarian & Director of Research and Scholarly Initiatives in the University Libraries Joshua Finnell attested to this pairing of music in a space such as a library, arguing that it provides a break to students after classes end.
“It’s both a study break and an opportunity to encounter the unexpected in the library,” Finnell said.
The group Mysteries is a relatively recent endeavor. Greene and Haynes are older, seasoned musicians, whereas Pleninger is decades younger. Haynes commented on how their chemistry as musicians transcends age.
“I realize that whenever I have this chemistry, this fascination with someone musically, it’s only happened two times in my life,” Haynes said. “To have it with somebody who is 30 years younger than me is exciting, and we need each other for different reasons.”
Unpacking the meaning of the group’s name, Mysteries, Haynes explained how a jazz performance is like a puzzle that the audience and performers can navigate together. At times, Haynes would play his drums with a violin bow, Pleninger would play bells and Greene would vocalize.
“When we’re playing like this, we’re exploring each others’ mysteries. We’re sharing them with other people. Not that anyone has the answer, but we’re exploring together with audiences,” Haynes said.
Pleninger expanded on the idea of jazz as a genre, reflecting the ethos of the group’s name.
“I don’t really believe in the genre thing,” Pleninger said. “The genre thing is just a way that they have of categorizing and selling music. At the end of the day, it’s all just music.”
One of the questions asked in the Q&A segment at the end of the event acknowledged the idea of not “getting” or “understanding” jazz. Pleninger shared his mindset regarding connection instead of understanding.
“It’s not about ‘What is jazz?’ and ‘Do I understand jazz?’ To me, it’s more about, ‘You were sitting in that chair, and you and I had the same image from the music,’” Pleninger said.
Haynes expanded on this idea that jazz can enable a visceral shared experience between performers.
“Jazz is a kind of freedom,” Haynes said. “Freedom entails responsibility to be your best self. If you’re your best self, you’ll know that when you’re around other people who are their best selves. There’s a collective thing where everyone’s putting out their best energy and all of a sudden we have a chance to be more than a sum of our parts.”
According to Greene, a double bassist who has an extensive discography, jazz is ever-evolving with this freedom.
“People have been bringing different things to jazz, and people will continue to bring different things to jazz,” Greene said.
As he addressed how he got involved with jazz, Greene recognized that jazz is a space for creative types.
“It gives an outlet to creative people,” Greene said. “A huge part of being a human being is being creative. Some people are really hard-wired with being creative. Jazz can really satisfy that for a lot of people.”
Pleninger additionally argued for music’s ability at large to foster connection among people.
“I believe that any music period has the ability to create a deep connection and offers people a deep experience,” Pleninger said.
In the midst of this search for connection with others is the story of believing in yourself, especially for aspiring musicians, from Greene’s perspective.
“It needs to come from yourself. You have to believe in yourself,” Greene said. “Everyone’s got stuff that they need to do and work on yourself. As a human being, not necessarily a musician, you have to believe in yourself.”
Pleninger elaborated on his argument that music enables a type of self-reflection, further emphasizing the importance of relationships that individuals have with themselves.
“I think that the way that the world is changing right now, there’s a huge potential for the world to lose touch with the importance of music, and I think it’s easy to look at music [as] more frivolous than things that are black and white and create business,” Pleninger said. “Regular people are not having these communal, community-based experiences that are really kind of cathartic and maybe psychedelic and [go] to another space where you’re able to look at a deeper part of yourself.”
Haynes even connected the collaboration necessary for jazz to what is required in a democracy.
“It’s one of the reasons why we compare it to democracies,” Haynes said. “When you have everyone pulling, even if they’re pulling different ways [or] if they’re collaborating and working toward the middle and agreeing at a midpoint, things happen, and it’s really exciting.”
Pleninger believes that a world without jazz and music would leave humans nowhere.
“A society that doesn’t have these types of things is a society that’s dead and flat, and it’s wildly important to then keep the respect for this,” Pleninger said.
