Jim Culbertson is an award winning high school band leader who has mentored many young musicians, the one nearest and dearest to his heart is his phenomenally talented son, Brian. Jim now spends his weekends and summers traveling around the country with his son's band.

SJN: We know that Brian grew up in a musical family, but what about you?

JC: I did as well. Both of my parents were not school musicians as such, but they were both very, very much into the big bands. They were products of the war; my father was in the service for six years. They would go to the places in Norfolk, Virginia and see all of the big bands come through because they were great dancers and consumers of music. When I was growing up, we had a lot of music playing in the house and I was very fortunate to have had that experience.

SJN: When did you first become interested in music?

JC: From listening to all of the recordings my parents had playing all of the time and I became very attracted to the sounds of the trumpet. When I was real young I wanted to play trumpet, I wanted to start when my older brother started playing trombone at the age of eight, but I had to wait four more years, until I was nine. It is common practice across the country to start in fifth grade. Here in Illinois, we have a very strong music program throughout the state. In the Midwest, in the public school system, we still have healthy support from the school districts. We are always looking out for ourselves because when money becomes tight; music is the first to be cut.

SJN: Do you play any other instruments?

JC: As a music teacher, I can play all instruments to some degree. (ha-ha) But I am pretty limited. I’m really basically a trumpet player.

SJN: Where was it and what were your thoughts when you stepped onto a stage to perform live for the very first time?

JC: When I was in sixth grade, I played the Stars and Strips Forever for a contest and I was scared to death. But I had a lot of confidence in myself because it seemed natural to me. We had a pretty good band program where I grew up in Springfield, Illinois so I was involved early on with stage bands, as they were called then. My parents took me to live concerts, the Stan Kenton Band and the Woody Herman Band. That was a huge turn on when I was in early high school.

SJN: How does that compare to what you feel today?

JC: Most of my performing is as a conductor. I conduct our municipal band here in Decatur 3 or 4 nights a week during the summertime and have for 29 years, and I do all the school bands here as well. But then, I turn around and am a trumpet player and I face the audience in Brian’s band and the other groups I play in as well. There is always that anticipation when you go on stage, you want to make this as great as you can.

SJN: Do you remember the first time you knew that music was your passion?

JC: That was early on when I started playing trumpet. It seemed very natural to me.

SNJ: Who would you consider to be your biggest musical influences when you were growing up?

JC: I listened to Billy May Big Band, Doc Severenson, Maynard Ferguson, Miles Davis, and Lee Morgan.

SNJ: How does that compare to today?

JC: My taste in music is completely eclectic….straight ahead jazz, smooth jazz, the concert band idiom, big time. Since I spend so much time teaching in my professional career, as a conductor I have to be well versed, so I spend the majority of my time with classical music in terms of researching what pieces are great to do and which ones will work for the different groups I conduct and perform with. Playing trumpet in smooth jazz is really a very small part of what I do as a musician.

SJN: How and when did you first “discover” smooth jazz?

JC: In the early seventies there was a band called Steely Dan and Bob James came out with kind of a genre of what Brian is emulating. Bob James was on the fore front of smooth jazz back in the seventies and as time went on, Dave Sanborn was part of that process.

SJN: What is the best thing about playing smooth jazz?

JC: The best thing for me performing in this idiom is the fact that I am on stage with my son and I am able to look out at the audience and see the incredible response that his music gets from all of these people. I get to be part of that incredible music making process. So I am part of the show as well and I have to take care of business as a trumpet player, but I am in the unique situation of being able to sit back and watch people love the songs my son has created.

SJN: What do you see as the future of smooth jazz?

JC: I think that it is like any kind of music, it has it’s time and place. Certainly all music has to develop and mutate and change to stay fresh. Since I’m not one of the creators of it, I hope that the people that are very much involved with that idiom acknowledge this; I know Brian is completely immersed into it. It’s going to take some changes and turns and hopefully it will be received well by the public, because that certainly is the bottom line. Is there anyone out there who wants to listen to that type of music? It’s like all music has always been, it has to continually develop and change to a certain degree to remain fresh.

SJN: What do you think about the current discussion about adding vocals into smooth jazz?

JC: Maybe that can be part of the mutations of what we call smooth jazz today. As I look at smooth jazz, it does incorporate all lot of vocals and instrumentals. It’s the groove and the feel of a lighter sense. I’m not sure that vocals are going to be the savior of smooth jazz. It has always been a part of it and will probably continue to be to a certain degree.

SJN: You have a day job as an award winning high school music teacher at the high school that Brian attended. Please tell us a little about this?

JC: I have been a high school band director for 35 years in Decatur Illinois. I have taught at Decatur Macarthur High School for close to 30 years. We have had much success. We have been the recipients of 32 Downbeat Jazz magazine’s student awards, the best band in the country four times and the best combo twice. Brian has been the recipient of the competition award and the best jazz soloist award, as well as being involved with a couple of our best band in the country. We toured Europe five times and have played Japan and at the North Sea, Montreux, Umbria, and Vienna Jazz Festivals. We are really proud of the fact it has been a real strong music program, not just the jazz part, but the concert part as well. We work with the same kids from 5 th grade through high school and we have an enormous amount of influence over students and an enormous responsibility to make sure we are great role models for them, both from a musical stand point and a personal standpoint, teaching them a great work ethic, developing self confidence, and always reaching for the sky. I have always tried to teach by example.

SJN: Let’s talk about your personal life for a minute. Please tell us about your wife, Carol?

JC: The love of my life, I’m the luckiest guy in the world. We met when I was 16 years old, we were high school sweethearts. We went to college together for a couple of years and got married when we were 19. We are best friends, have been always, and now we are in a great place at this point. We have been married for 37 years. Being in music and being gone a lot on weekends, I am very lucky that I found a great lady. Since day one, I was playing gigs when I was young, so she has been completely supportive of everything that I have ever done as a musician. I know that half the success I have had is a result of her being so cool.

SJN: Does she come with you often when you play with Brian?

JC: No, I usually get up at 3am, leave the house at 3:30 to get on a plane by 5:30, travel all day, get there, have a sound check, play the gig, get in bed at 1-1:30 and getting up at 3 am to do it all over again. So, that doesn’t really interest my wife. Traveling is very difficult for all musicians. She is coming on the cruise.

SJN: Is your daughter, Jaime coming on the cruise?

JC: She probably won’t be. She is busy with her job in Chicago.

SJN: Is Jaime a musician also?

JC: She is a big music consumer and she did play French Horn, she was in the drumline, and she played a little electric bass in high school, but it didn’t go any further than that.

SJN: Describe your perfect day?

JC: A perfect day is when I get up in the morning and the sun is out, I go and teach eight great classes and I come home at night, practice a little bit and my chops feel great as a trumpet player, sit down and have a great meal with my wife and a nice bottle of wine. On the weekends, it would be getting up and having a nice flight to a Brian Culbertson show, having a great lunch and a great hang with all of the guys in the band, playing for a show with great trumpet shots and the people loving it.

SJN:Thank you, for sharing your time… for allowing us to get up close and personal.