Published: December 5, 2011

The three will perform with former exchange student Phil Maniez on drums, who, after visiting UCLA last year, is now in his first year of graduate studies at the Paris Upper Conservatory. In addition to performing arrangements of jazz standards from the American songbook, the group will debut original compositions by each member of the group.

From December 6-23, 2011, the group will give public and private performances as well as workshops for high school music students in Lyon, France, Tirana, Albania, and Geneva, Switzerland. The tour is sponsored by the Herb Alpert School of Music and the Friends of Jazz at UCLA organization,

Donna Armstrong interviewed Owen Clapp and Julian Le about their plans. (See also the Daily Bruin's article: Global Grooves).

Q: How did you come up with the idea of “Jazz Ambassadors?”

Owen Clapp: The UCLA Jazz Ambassadors was conceived last winter quarter [2011] when the Jazz Ambassadors exhibit was at the Fowler Museum. The four of us played at the Fowler museum just about every Wednesday as a "live" element of the exhibit. Being in that environment and getting to share our love for jazz with all the visitors got us thinking that touring was something that we'd like to do in the future. That exhibit was the inspiration. We chose the name to represent UCLA and to try to carry on the tradition of the State Department ambassadors of the 50's and 60's.

Julian Le: An “ambassador” in a sense is a representative traveling around. When we started playing at this exhibit, we were inspired by the concept of being an ambassador. A big factor in us deciding to go to Europe was the fact that we had a drummer who was going back to France and it would be easy to communicate back and forth. The “ambassador” title became more official when the American embassy in Albania decided to fly us over to play a couple of concerts for the U.S. ambassador. One of these concerts is a Christmas party, for which we'll play Duke Ellington's arrangement of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite."

Q. What did you play at the Fowler and will that differ from what you will play when you go to Europe?

Julian Le: At the Fowler we did both originals and standards. It will be similar in France, but there will be a big emphasis on originals.

Q: Have you performed together previously in other venues?

Owen Clapp: Julian and I have been working together for about two years in various groups. And Jonah, Julian, and I have been working together for about a year. In various configurations we've had a residency at Angel's Piano Bar in Santa Monica, performed at Catalina's in Hollywood, and performed at Disney Hall. Additionally we have worked around L.A. as sidemen for pop artists.

Q: Tell me something about Philip Maniez.

Owen Clapp: Phil Maniez was on exchange last year from Lyon, France to study English at UCLA. He is a fantastic drummer, however, and became close with all the jazz studies majors. He will be drumming with us on the tour. He's done most of the booking for our group as well as far as dates in France go.

Julian Le: Philip is an incredible drummer, but what sets him apart from other drummers is his ability to grasp concepts in depth really quickly, and the fact that he has incredible harmonic knowledge and composition skills. Phil also has a very good ear and excellent taste in music.

Q: Who has helped you on this end?

Owen Clapp: Professor Newton has been a big supporter of ours, and Professor Burrell helped us get sponsorship from Friends of Jazz. We study with both of them; they've given us a lot of guidance and support. Tim Rice was also helpful in getting us linked up with funding from the Herb Alpert School of Music.

Q: In what types of venues will you perform in Europe and who do you expect your audiences to be?

Owen Clapp: We will give workshops at high school which will be for both jazz musicians and beginners.

Julian Le: We will also give master classes at conservatories (colleges) and perform at popular jazz clubs in France.

Q: How did you put the tour together?

Owen Clapp: We put this tour together on our own (with the generous funding of HASOM and Friends of Jazz.) Other than that, we have done everything else, business-wise and musically. And yes, we are not an official school-credit ensemble.

Julian Le: We put together a press kit which included some samples of recordings that we have done. Phil was telling me that in France they get very excited about people from the U.S. coming over to play jazz, and that helped. Phil is at one of the best conservatories in Paris right now and that gave us some connections as well.

Q: How could someone hear your music?

Julian Le: We will be doing a recording session in France and as of right now, we are not sure where those track are going, but check in with either our blog http://uclajazzambassadors.tumblr.com/ or individual web sites:

Julian Le's website: www.lejkeys.com
Owen Clapp's website: www.obicbass.com

Julian Le: We know for sure that these recordings will eventually be accessible to the public.

Thank you very much.

For more information about The Fowler Museum’s Exhibit Jam Session: America’s Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World (March 20 – August 14, 2011) go to http://www.fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/jam-session