Bob Athayde didn’t get the memo on retirement.
After 45 years within the classroom, together with a perpetual-motion run as Stanley Center College’s band director since 1986, he’s method overdue for a bit relaxation and rest. There are fish to catch, books to learn, and a comfortable straightforward chair to supply respite from gravity.
However the one sitting that Athayde appears to have deliberate includes a piano bench (you may catch him taking part in solo at La Finestra piano lounge in Moraga and holding down the Thursday jam session at Bonehead’s Texas BBQ in Lafayette).
“After I get up within the morning I apply for a few hours and usually would go to highschool,” Athayde stated about his impending schedule change. “That’s been my life’s work. I’m hoping vitality comes into me as a substitute of vitality going out. I undoubtedly need to play extra.”
His closing weeks at Stanley have been marked by a number of celebrations. It continues on Could 22, when family and friends have organized a day dangle at St. Perpetua Church in Lafayette. Hosted by the Lafayette Summer time Music Jazz Workshop, the progressive program that Athayde based in 1998, the farewell encompasses a jazz combo led by his son, multi-instrumentalist Kyle Athayde.
“My sister Ellie will probably be there too,” stated Kyle, 34, referring to bassist Eliana Athayde, the youngest of 4 musical Athayde siblings. “She’s getting off the highway simply in time.”
A gifted improviser and composer who leads the talent-packed huge band Kyle Athayde Dance Social gathering, he got here by the Stanley Center College music program and bought to witness his father at work up shut. For a lot of center schoolers the thought of attending the identical campus as a college dad or mum, not to mention sharing a classroom, would induce an epic cringe.
Relatively than frightening angst, Athayde stated the expertise “was superb. I beloved having him as a instructor. All the methods he offered alternatives and impressed different college students, it was all there for me too.”
The music alternatives obtainable at Stanley Center College are the results of Athyade cultivating assist from all through the group, together with
the Stanley PTA, the Lafayette Companions in Training, the Generations in Jazz Basis, and the Julia Burke Basis, which has additionally paved the best way for one among his major post-Stanley endeavors.
Relatively than winding down, he’s getting set to mark his post-retirement profession by launching a brand new instructional initiative. With assist from the Julia Burke Basis, he’ll be consulting with faculties that may make use of his program-building insights.
At a gathering with the Julia Burke Basis, “They requested, ‘What are you going to do after Stanley?’ and I stated ‘Assist faculties and academics in want.’ ‘Who funds that?’ ‘No person.’ ‘We’ll fund it.’ For the reason that pandemic occurred all of the music packages are in want. I can go anyplace within the U.S. and work with them.”
Athayde has a present for attracting folks with one thing to provide and a shrewd eye for figuring out stellar musicians who're additionally efficient educators. When he launched the Lafayette Summer time Music Jazz Workshop his first transfer was to recruit veteran saxophonist Mary Fettig, a universally esteemed participant who offered this system with on the spot gravitas and made it straightforward to draw different proficient academics.
“If she calls somebody, they’ll be part of,” Athayde stated. “She was the primary director of curriculum. At first we had just a few wonderful gamers who weren't engaged academics. However little by little we stored bringing again the individuals who might train.”
Success has bred success. College students who got here by program and went on to turn out to be skilled musicians return summer time after summer time to show and coach Stanley college students throughout the faculty yr. Moraga-raised trombonist/composer Alan Ferber, 47, credit Athayde with altering the course of his life by connecting him with trombone instructor Dean Hubbard.
A Grammy-nominated bandleader primarily based in New York, Ferber has been instructing on the Lafayette Workshop for the reason that mid-aughts, observing how “Bob is basically an advocate for getting individuals who grew up in his orbit to return again to show. I’ve additionally completed just a few workshops in his Stanley class and he’ll have some music blasting for his college students earlier than they begin, getting them pumped up.”
Athayde feels he’s leaving the Stanley music program in good arms, and he’ll proceed on the Lafayette Workshop. His unretiring retirement appears to be like like a complete new musical journey.
Contact Andrew Gilbert at jazzscribe@aol.com.
MR. ATHAYDE RETIREMENT CELEBRATION
When: 2-6 p.m. Could 22
The place: St. Perpetua Church, 3454 Hamlin Highway, Lafayette
Extra data: RSVP to Ginni Reynolds ginreyn@comcast.web, www.fb.com/occasions/2800669926901353/