After having rescheduled once already, I hoped that this interview wouldn’t be a waste of Dr. Joe Scozzafava’s time. I knocked quietly on his door and he welcomed me into his quaint office with a warm ‘hello’ and a genuine smile. I sat on a rickety wooden chair and was immediately comfortable in this unfamiliar space. Surrounding me were inspirational posters, framed photos of musicians, boxes of amplification cables, and musical instruments all enveloped in the sweet and soothing scent of incense and old books. Here, in a room I’d never been in and in the company of a man I knew very little about, I was at ease. I had expectations for this conversation, and I had a feeling that Dr. Scozzafava would exceed them all.
About five or six years ago, Thomas College’s Music Club was established by Dr. Scozzafava with one simple and noble intent.
“Initially, the intent for Music Club was to have students, faculty, and staff all get together and play music together, so it was both an interest to share music and have people be able to get together and work on their craft, but also as a way to try and bridge divisions so that students, faculty, and staff could get together and, as musicians, sort of play as equals.”, Scozzafava explained.
For about a year or so, the Music Club functioned just as it was intended to. Gradually, staff and faculty were losing free time and interest, so the club’s fate was left to the students involved its advisor, Scozzafava. The group spent much of their meeting time practicing their instruments of choice and honing their technical skills. One day, a student brought forward the idea of an open mic night. Thinking it would be a good way to get the word out about their club, Scozzafava went through with the idea.
“One night we tried it, and my God, people loved it!” Scozzafava exclaimed, the pride and excitement of that night’s success still in his voice all these years later.
At the time, the club only had a single microphone with a stand and an acoustic guitar. Open mic nights are now sponsored monthly by the club and are still a raging success. With substantial funding from the Student Senate, the Music Club now owns an electronic drum set, an electric bass and guitar (with two respective amps), a ukulele, several keyboards, and 3 different wind and brass horns. Not only does the Music Club encourage experienced and beginner musicians of varying backgrounds to participate, but now they can provide materials for people who may not have access to their own instrument, encouraging even more participation from students.
Getting in front of people and performing for the first or hundredth time is appealing to different people for different reasons. As explained by Dr. Scozzafava, there are two main causes. For some, the rush of performing in front of a crowd helps them take a step outside of their comfort zones and helps them prove something to themselves. For many others, performing is an effective way of expressing feelings not easily explained by words alone.
“As musicians, we have an advantage,” explained Scozzafava, “because we can sing our feelings... and I encourage students to find a song that explains how they feel, to sing the hell out of it, and say ‘this is what happened to me, and I’m strong and I’m still going on’.”
In Dr. Scozzafava’s personal life, he says that he’s been in bands for over 20 years. He plays guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, Native American flute, African drums, and admits that he isn’t very good at the banjo, but plays around with it anyways. A question I had been dying to ask though, among his musical preference and how important he feels music is to young minds, was how he implements skills that he’s developed during his time performing into his daily life, a question that he was pleasantly surprised by. His response was even more profound and compelling than I expected. Much like performing live in front of an audience, you use what you’re given in life and you make it work. He stated many times throughout our conversation that he uses music-related metaphors in his classes, and in this instance, he used one that particularly resonated with me.
“You pick the key, you pick the tempo, and after that, it’s all improvisation and jamming” stated Scozzafava.
A second example that he provided was that we often spend a lot of time listening to ourselves and what we want or feel rather than listening to those around us. In live music, you must find where you fit in the group and what you can do to showcase your own talents and, often more importantly, the talents of others.
In a twenty-one minute interview, I was able to not only gain an interesting perspective on an aspect of life that I hold very dear, but also get to know an amazing and knowledgeable man. Our conversation validated my interest in a future career in music journalism. A phrase that was repeated by Scozzafava multiple times during our chat was “music means so many different things to so many different people”, and I never realized how true this statement was until I heard it from a man with as much history and experience with music as him, and for that I am forever grateful.
