Chicago Jazz Magazine

Feature Interview with Nick Schneider

Nick Schneider is rated as one of the top bass players in Chicago. He has performed with such greats as Randy Brecker, Eddie Higgins, the Buddy Rich Big Band, Johnny Frigo, Frank D'Rone, Teddy Wilson, and the Tonight Show Band, and has toured the United States and Europe. While in the service he also spent time touring Asia, including performances in the jungles of Vietnam.

Schneider sees jazz as America's art form, and recognizes the importance of passing on the tradition of jazz and the arts to young people. Throughout his career he has dedicated himself to educating younger players. Schneider currently is on the faculty at Shell Lake Arts Center in Shell Lake, Wisconsin. For the past twenty-one years he has spent six weeks each summer educating young musicians not just about music, but about the practical business side of music that Schneider feels is sorely lacking in most education venues. He also finds time to run a private teaching studio.

Schneider has put together an extensive listening and playing clinic designed for the beginner as well as the advanced player. and he is also a member of the Arts Center Collective, a septet of musicians residing primarily in the upper Midwest. The Arts Center Jazz Collective performs a series of clinics and concerts. The group not only has an abundance of professional performance experience but they are also well known educators who are devoted to passing the rich traditions of jazz on to up and coming musicians. Additionally, Schneider is a member of the Bruce Oscar Trio, which for over a decade has hosted a series of jam sessions, designed at giving musicians, especially beginners, the chance to learn and play with professional musicians.

One of Chicago's "first-call" bass players, Schneider recently sat down with Chicago Jazz Magazine and shared his thoughts on the state of jazz and behind-the-scene stories of what it's like being a jobbing musician.

Chicago Jazz Magazine: How did you end up in Chicago?

Nick Schneider: I was born here. I never left, except for military service, and shortly after I got out of the service, when I lived in San Francisco for a while.

Chicago Jazz Magazine: Did you start playing bass at an early age?

Schneider: Switched from drums. I played piano-took piano lessons-and then I switched to drums when I was maybe thirteen.

Chicago Jazz Magazine: Where did you grow up?

Schneider: I grew up on the Southeast Side of Chicago, Burnside was the neighborhood. Messed around, played a little accordion and piano. The Chicago Park District used to sponsor accordion classes, and they had all different kinds of accordions-they had the smaller ones with the high-pitched alto, tenor and they had a bass accordion. The guy said, "Hey, since you're so big, you'll play that one." So, I wound up playing the bass accordion. We used to have accordion choirs back in the early fifties. I was also studying and playing piano at the same time.

Chicago Jazz Magazine: Was that at your school or was it private?

Schneider: The piano lessons were private, but the accordion choir was at the Chicago Park District. And then right after that came the guitar thing…you know, Elvis. But before that, it was the accordion in Chicago! [laughs]

Chicago Jazz Magazine: Did you come from a musical family?

Schneider: No, not really. My sisters played piano. My father bought a piano and made us all take piano lessons, which was a blessing in disguise as I look back at it. I didn't want to take piano lessons but since he bought a piano and paid 700 dollars for it, he said everybody here is going to take piano lessons. The only one that skated on that one was my mother. [laughter] We had maybe three different piano teachers. We didn't think to call up the Chicago Conservatory or get somebody from the symphony. We lived on the Southeast Side so we would get a neighborhood teacher. I had this one lady, her name was Mrs. Peterson. She was very cool, because one day she said, "You're going to have to come back here at eleven o'clock in the morning on Sunday. I have surprise for you." There were maybe ten or twelve of us students, and she brought us to the Civic Opera House. We took the bus and the train downtown and walked from there. That was the first time I saw an opera-I was maybe ten. So there's some great teachers out there. We would probably have never gone to the opera, being from the neighborhood. She also brought us to the symphony. She was a good teacher, mostly classical: with the metronome and playing scales.

Chicago Jazz Magazine: When did you get involved with jazz?

Schneider: In high school. I went to Chicago Vocational on the Southeast Side. There wasn't any jazz band or jazz teaching at that time-it was the late fifties. Jack DeJohnette was the drummer in our band-he played marching band drums, I played bass fiddle in the combo. Even then he could play anything. I think at that particular point he was maybe only fourteen or fifteen, a freshman in high school. He could play bass both left-handed and right-handed, and he could play drums either left-handed or right-handed, and could play piano of course. He was great. There were a lot of talented musicians in that time period.

Chicago Jazz Magazine: Did you hang around with Jack?

Schneider: Well, we were in the band together, but as soon as he graduated, he was in New York. Next thing I know, I pick up a paper-he was seventeen or eighteen-and he was with Miles Davis. He was already playing with some heavy hitters at that point, like Eddy Harris. Actually, I got a chance to play with Eddy too, because Eddy lived kind of in my neighborhood. I worked a couple of dates with him at the In Time Lounge on Cottage Grove. We had a high school quartet and we worked at Mr. Lucky's in Stony Island. They raided the joint one day.

Chicago Jazz Magazine: They raided the club?!

Schneider: Yeah, they raided the joint. There was a little gambling going on, so they raided the joint. They were going to lock us up. [laughs] I said, "I'm not leaving unless ...

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