Secrets of a Great Band Director, with Janis Stockhouse

In this Patreon-funded special episode, Kirk sits down with his former high school band director Janis Stockhouse to talk about her life as a music educator.

Janis started teaching at North high school in Bloomington, Indiana, in the early 1980s. It was a time when "jazz education" as a concept was still a relatively new thing. She retired 38 years later, having grown the North band program into a well-known Midwest institution, winning countless awards at festivals around the world and regularly turning out graduates who would go on to become professional musicians, as well as many others who would simply have a lifelong love of music.

On this episode she tells the story of starting out at North and developing the program, along with her thoughts on how to get students to practice, which composers she prefers for student groups, women in jazz, funding for the arts, and some good old-fashioned album recommendations.

REFERENCED/DISCUSSED:

Janis's 2004 book Jazzwomen: Conversations With Twenty-One Musicians, which she co-wrote with Wayne Enstice - there are used copies on Amazon, and you should really track down a copy and read it

The late great jazz legend David Baker, whose NYT obituary captured at least some of his legacy: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/arts/music/david-baker-who-helped-bring-jazz-studies-into-the-academy-dies-at-84.html

MUSIC ON THIS EPISODE:

"IU Swing Machine" by David Baker as played by the 2016 IU Celebration Big Band
"Don't Get Sassy" by the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis big band
"Hang Gliding" by Maria Schneider from Alegresse
"Bright Eyes" as played by the Bill Holman big band
"Take the 'A' Train" by Billy Strayhorn as performed by the Duke Ellington orchestra
"Vol. 6: All 'Bird' - Now's The Time" Play-A-Long by Jamey Aebersold (featuring Kenny Barron and Ron Carter(!!))
"Laugh, Clown, Laugh" by Abbey Lincoln from Abbey Is Blue, 1959
"Song Patrol" by Jane Ira Bloom from Early Americans, 2016
"Lingala" by the SF Jazz Collective from their 2005 self-titled album
"So What" and "Flamenco Sketches" by Miles Davis from Kind of Blue, 1959
"My Favorite Things" as performed by John Coltrane on My Favorite Things, 1966
"Mercy Mercy Mercy" by Josef Zawinul as performed by the Cannonball Adderley quintet on Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, 1966

OUTRO SOLOIST: BJ CORD

This episode's outro soloist is BJ Cord, a fellow Bloomington North graduate and fantastic trumpet player based in Portland. BJ works at Monette trumpets making some of the most beautiful horns in the world, and is a regular presence on their Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monettetrumpets

--------------------

SEPTEMBER 2019 WHOLE NOTE PATRONS

andrew walters - CALEB ROTACH - Chad Barnard - Dan Apczynski - Dave Florey - Glenn - Jared Norris - Mark Schechter - Sara Walsh

SEPTEMBER 2019 HALF NOTE PATRONS

Alexander Polson - Andre Bremer - Andrew Lee - Arjun Sharma - Bill Thornton - Brett Douville - Brian Amoebas - Chas Lednicky - Chris Brown - Cyrus N. White - Dominik Schmitt - Earl Lozada - Eero Wahlstedt - Elliot Jay O'Neill - Emily Williams - FlSHBONES - Forrest Chang - Jaehoon Jeong - James Johnson - Jasmine Fellows - Jeffrey Olson - John and Sharon Stenglein - Jon O'Keefe - joujou - Juan Carlos Montemayor Elosua - Jules Bailey - Justin Liew - Justin McElroy - Kate Albury - Kevin Morrell - Kevin Pennyfeather - Kyle Simons - Matt Gaskell - Max Schechter - Melanie Stivers - Michael Blackwell - Miriam Juskowicz - Mueller - Nate from Kalamazoo - Nicholas Schechter - Richard Toller - samuel gardner - Shane DeLeon - Shaun Wiese - Tim - Tom Clewer - Tom Lauer

--------------------

💃STRONG SONGS LIVE!🕺
July 11, 2026 | Portland, OR
Buy Tickets Here

----LINKS-----

💰 SUPPORT STRONG SONGS!
Patreon | One-Time Donation

🏠 HOMEPAGE

👚 MERCH

💬 DISCORD SERVER

📬 KIRK'S NEWSLETTER

🎸 KIRK'S GEAR & INSTRUMENTS

🎶 KIRK'S MUSIC

📷 KIRK’S SOCIAL MEDIA:
Instagram | YouTube | Bluesky

🎧 EVERY STRONG SONG:
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music