Famed for his style, his skill, and his use of the word “rooty-poot,” Clarence Acox is a legend at Garfield. He’s also a pillar of Seattle’s jazz community. Here he delves into his life as a teacher and musician.

Tell me about the award you just won.

Well, it’s the mayor’s award. The mayor chooses people in the community that he would like to recognize as outstanding artists – it doesn’t have to be in music, it can be in visual art, fine art, just the arts in general. And the event actually happens to kick off Bumbershoot, which is Seattle’s arts festival.

Cool. Do you know specifically what they’re giving it to you for?

For my years at Garfield, for working with the jazz ensemble, and the marching band, but primarily the jazz ensemble. I think that’s how the award reads: the director of jazz band.

How long have you been here?

A looooong time. About thirty-five years.

How did you get started at Garfield?

Well, I was recruited here many, many years ago. At the time, Garfield had really gone down, academically and in every aspect – sports, athletics, you know… the good kids left, the good teachers left, and so what the principal wanted to do, the principal wanted to recruit a guy up here to redo the band program, so that they could use that as a catalyst to jumpstart the school spirit… And so he saw the band that I was with when I was in college at Southern University – we were playing in the Super Bowl, and he saw the band in the Super Bowl, and he said, “Yeah, that’s what I want.” That was his dream. And so that’s why he hired me up here. We started the band program and we got it rolling, and then a few years after that we started the jazz band and it really took off.

Are you from around here originally?

New Orleans, Louisiana, born and raised.

How did you start playing jazz?

That’s a good question. First of all, I’m from New Orleans, which is kinda like the jazz center of the world. But after I got here, I started playing drums, and I started playing with musicians in the Seattle area. I’ve really been doing jazz ever since the early ’80s. Myself, professionally, I was playing in funk bands before that, and R&B bands, but the years around the late ’70s and the early ’80s is when I really started playing jazz, and I’ve been doing it ever since. Right now I play with a group at the New Orleans Grill restaurant, and I have my own group called the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, and I have my own sextet that plays from time to time. And I play with a variety of singers. I do a lot of different things in the Seattle jazz community.

Did you have a musical childhood?

My first instrument was the piano. And in the town that I’m from, everybody in my neighborhood played an instrument. Everybody. And so I first started on piano. My dad liked Benny Goodman – he wanted me to play clarinet. I love clarinet, but I hate to play clarinet. So I was very short playing clarinet. And then I got into high school and I started playing drums. Then I went to college and I majored in drums at college, at Southern University. So I started on piano, and then eventually it evolved into drums.

What was your life like in high school?

I played in the marching band at Saint Augustine High School, and that was one of the best marching bands of its kind in the nation. In New Orleans, bands are the big thing. Up here, it’s more orchestra, but bands are very, very big in New Orleans, Louisiana. So that was my life. I still took piano lessons, but I played in the band and that just took off. I graduated from high school and then went off to college to play in the band. I was playing football games and parades and all those types of things, band concerts. At my old high school, the band concert every year had a little under 5000 people at it. That was how big it was. We raised $65,000 in one night. The band concert, that was the biggest fundraiser for my high school. That gives you an idea of what it was like.

So then you came to Garfield. How do you feel about Garfield?

Garfield’s a very special place… a very unique school. It’s the one school in the state where you can have a touch of what the real world is like, ‘cause you have people from all different races, all different economic backgrounds. You have some of the richest kids that go to school here, and then you have kids that are below the poverty level. You have real bright kids here, and you have kids that are not so bright. You have a lot of kids that are different. It’s not by any means a homogeneous society like some schools are, all one kind of kid – you’re all from the same economic background, you’re all one race – you know, it’s all the same. Garfield, you get the best of everything, and you get a sense of what the world is really like. If you can go to Garfield, you can survive anywhere. A lot of the East Coast schools – Garfield, we’re really popular in a lot of the East Coast schools because of that reason: it’s a school that has high academics, but it’s right in the heart of the city. And so when kids apply to schools and they say they’re from Garfield, they’re looked upon highly because of that. They like the multicultural aspect of it, and they like that academic portion of it as well.

Can you give me an idea of what your day-to-day life is like?

Well, last year I directed two jazz bands in the first semester and directed the marching/concert band, ‘cause the guy that was supposed to do it got sick. This year, I’ll only be doing jazz band. I’ll do jazz band one first semester, and second semester I’ll do jazz band one and two.

Do you any really good stories about experiences you’ve had in jazz band?

I have so many stories, I don’t know where to begin. I could give you some of the highlights. The band’s won a lot of awards. I think that the main highlight is winning the national championship two years in a row, in 2003 and 2004. So that has to be a highlight. Playing with [Wynton] Marsalis on TV on the Today Show, that was real special. We’ve done that many, many times. So those would probably have to be the main highlights. And working with Carol Burton.

What’s your favorite thing about working at Garfield?

The diversity, and the staff people, and the type of kids that this school attracts – very special kids, very neat kids. That’s very special to me: the kids, and the people that work here as well. Very special people.