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Posted 12/20/02 • Tamara Steinert
Fred Haas '73
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While an undergraduate at Dartmouth in the early 1970s, Fred Haas '73 took a transcendental meditation class, which started him thinking about the methods he was using to access his creative energies
"I realized I'd already been using other unstructured kinds of meditation before I learned this technique, but this gave me a way to practice enhancing my creativity," says Haas, who now is a senior lecturer in the music department as well as a professional musician with four CDs to his credit, all on his own JazzToons label.
In the 30 years since then, Haas has developed a holistic approach to music education that integrates the mind, body, and spirit within the creative process. He uses techniques, including meditation, yoga, and tai chi, to help students free their creativity.
"Students often say to me, 'I wish I could play the music that I hear in my head.' They have good ideas but can't play them because of self-consciousness, fear of failure, or a disconnection from their instrument," he says. "Jazz musicians have a reputation for overusing drugs and alcohol, but they often do it for many of the same reasons I meditate—to relax or relieve insecurities or to free up their creativity. I want students to know there is an alternative way.
"Meditation gives people a real strong sense of where the music comes from and helps them express it in a really natural way. And, hopefully, it's a technique they can carry with them into the rest of their lives to express themselves more clearly—not just in music but in everything."
Haas, who has performed with such jazz greats as Oscar Peterson, Ray Charles, Clark Terry, Lena Horne, Dionne Warwick, and others, teaches both saxophone and jazz piano at Dartmouth, as well as improvisation and jazz history. He also has taken his techniques beyond Dartmouth to Interplay Jazz Camp, an intensive week-long jazz experience for all ages that he founded and that takes place at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass.
"I like to share my learning experience with the students," he says. "I've played with 70- and 80-year-old musicians who are still open to learning new things, and it just reminds me that being a musician is a lifelong endeavor.
More information about Interplay and Haas's music is available online at www.interplayjazz.com.
- Tamara Steinert
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