By George Basler
Camille Thurman is a rising star in the jazz world as both a tenor saxophonist and singer. She has shared stages with jazz and R&B aristocracy ranging from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to Patti LaBelle and Alicia Keys.
But Binghamton University will always have a special place in her heart. “Binghamton was a place where I had a chance to figure out what I wanted to do with my life at my own pace,” said the 2009 graduate, who will return to campus Saturday evening (Oct. 8) for a concert in the Anderson Center Chamber Hall. She will perform with her husband, Darrell Green, and the Darrell Green Quartet.
The program will feature jazz standards, original compositions and jazz renditions of popular songs, notably the works of pop composer Burt Bacharach. “She has amazing vocal range and is stylistically beautiful,” said Michael Carbone, who worked with her as Director of Jazz Studies at Binghamton University.
Thurman’s road hasn’t always been a smooth one. Jazz has historically not been a welcoming profession for women musicians, she said. In an interview with DownBeat magazine, she recalled negative experiences at New York’s LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, where males in the saxophone section limited her playing time and heckled her with comments such as: “He should have got that chair, not you. You shouldn’t be playing here!”
The insults sabotaged her self-confidence. “Without a doubt I was ready to give it (music) up,” Thurman said. She entered Binghamton University as a geology major. But her detour from music ended when she met Carbone, who has been a fixture in BU’s jazz community for 25 years. Carbone encouraged her to audition for the jazz band when she was reluctant to do so, saying “I’m not that good.”
Carbone also brought Tia Fuller, a renowned female saxophone player, to the campus as a guest artist. Fuller encouraged Thurman to keep playing.
“She (Thurman) already had great potential,” Carbone said. “She felt support in the ensemble and (BU) music department that she hadn’t received in her high school experience.” Thurman returns the compliment. “Mike Carbone was a godsend. He gave me a chance to grow at my own pace,” she said.
The 36-year-old has received national and international acclaim. She was the first woman to tour and perform full-time with the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Orchestra in its 30-year history. Honors include a second-place finish in the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition and two first-place finishes in the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers competition. She also won a Fulbright Scholars Cultural Ambassador Grant.
Thurman grew up with music in St. Albans, Queens, N.Y. Her mother played the piano and sang in church. As a youngster, her dream was to play with pop singer Prince. “I was in love with him in school,” she remembered with a laugh.
Jazz took over, though. Her main influence was Dexter Gordon, the legendary tenor saxophonist who passed away in 1990. Thurman was exposed to Gordon’s playing at a music camp that she attended when she was 12. “It flipped my world,” she said. She began lugging a tenor sax around her junior high school although “all the cool kids” played flute or the clarinet, she recalled with another laugh.
“My friends made fun of me and said I sounded like a big old man,” Thurman said. She took it as a compliment.
Besides Gordon, Thurman’s influences include singers Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson and Bill Henderson, and jazz trombonists Benny Carter and Cannonball Adderley. As a performer, she considers herself an instrumental musician before a singer. “Whether I sing or play an instrument, I’m approaching it from a musician’s standpoint,” she explained.
Thurman and the Darrell Green Quartet performed in April at the Firehouse Stage in Johnson City. The Anderson Center Chamber Hall is a larger venue, though. The concert will feature set arrangements but also places where Thurman and the quartet can improvise.
“I like taking (pieces) people like and rearranging them through the prism of jazz,” Thurman said.
She said she feels humbled by the other great women who have come before her in jazz and welcomes being a role model for younger musicians.
“I’m very proud of her. She keeps getting better and better,” Carbone said about his former student. “She has studied and worked hard to learn jazz language. She respects what jazz is all about and has taken that information and run with it.”
IF YOU GO: Camille Thurman with the Darrell Green Quartet will perform 7:30 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 8) at Binghamton University’s Anderson Center Chamber Hall as part of the university’s Jazz Series. Tickets at $15 and $20 are available through the Anderson Center’s website, www.binghamton.edu/anderson-center (click on upcoming events) or by calling the box office at 607-777-2787.
Thurman will lead a master class at 4 p.m. on the Chamber Hall stage. The class is free and open to the public.
