After deciding as a Redondo High junior to pursue a career in music, Carly Stock earns a jazz studies degree and releases her debut single
by Garrick Rawlings
This past May, Carly Stock received her degree in Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas (UNT), which launched the first college jazz program in the world in 1947. She was also the first student to earn a minor in UNT’s new commercial music program.
Shortly after returning home to Redondo Beach, the Redondo Union High alum released her debut single, “Finally,” the first song she has ever written. And she began teaching at Coast Music in Manhattan Beach. This summer she’ll join the staff of the Stanford Jazz Workshop in Palo Alto, and serve as an instructor at the UNT Jazz Combo Workshop in Denton, Texas.
She’s also the newest member of Phat Cat Swinger, Hollywood’s favorite little big band, playing lead alto; she’s playing a festival with them in Chicago in August and going on a Midwest tour with them for six weeks in September. The band is well known for its residencies at Disneyland during the Festival of Holidays and the Food & Wine Festival.
Stock identifies her influences as Cannonball Adderley (she mentioned listening to Adderley/Bill Evans’ “Know What I Mean?” album more than any other over the last year!), Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Kenny Garrett, Antonio Hart, Braxton Cook and Terrace Martin.
“Finally” is a contemporary jazz song recorded in Denton by Seth Blitstein with a quartet composed of piano (Jake Nalangan), bass (August Bish) and drums (Colman Burks).
“I had the melody in my head for years, and I finally flushed it out through a songwriting course at UNT. It starts out as a ballad, and then it goes into [some] gritty, fast hard stuff, then back to the pretty ballad as a reprise. It’s a ‘me coming into myself,’ empowering thing. I was lucky enough to be studying with producer and mixing engineer Jeffrey Hepker, who helped me produce, mix and master my song. I owe him a bunch, I am very happy with how it turned out.”
Her number one horn is [what was supposed to be(another story to be told)] Edgar Winter’s 1963 Selmer MK VI.
While attending Redondo Union, Stock also attended Colburn School, a music conservatory in downtown Los Angeles.
“I didn’t really know if I was going to pursue music as a career until my junior year in high school. Until then it was extra-curricular fun. My mom sings and my dad plays guitar. They got me into music at a young age.
“I hadn’t heard of UNT until I was at Colburn, and we performed at the Next Generation Monterey Jazz Festival. Our assistant band director, trumpet player Walter Simonsen, is a UNT alumni. The Grammy nominated UNT One O’Clock Lab Band happened to be the touring artist for the festival that year. He told me if I was thinking about going into music then I had to check out this band. I was totally blown away because they were college students and they were playing at a professional level. That’s when I thought I could really see myself doing this, and from there I started working really hard on my music.”
After navigating UNT’s vigorous audition process, she was offered a four-year jazz saxophone scholarship. She later became the first female saxophonist in 30 years to earn a seat in UNT’s One O’Clock Lab Band. NPR dubbed the group “one of the most prestigious jazz ensembles in the world.”
Thanks to the inspirational nudging of her sax professor Brad Leali, Stock founded the Carly Stock Big Band. In addition to performing treasured jazz standards, the band performs its members’ original compositions. She’s currently working on forming an LA version of her big band.
Stock acknowledged encountering sexism and misogyny in the music world. In response, she became president of UNT’s Jazz and Gender Equity Initiative. She helped organize discussion groups; arrange jams with faculty, and students; book guest artists for master classes; and launch an annual fundraiser. With help from drummer and instrument repairer Ann MacMillan, she launched the Ann MacMillan and Carly Stock Scholarship for the Jazz and Gender Equity Initiative. The scholarship, the first of its kind at UNT, is awarded to women and non-binary individuals who pursue jazz studies at the UNT College of Music. MacMillan is an instrument repair person and drummer.
For more information, visit CarlyStock.com.
Read a 2014 Easy Reader profile of Stock at: easyreadernews.com/playing-heart-redondo-union-highs-carly-stock-taken-sax/
Listen to the NPR Interview at:
NPR.org/2023/04/05/1168199182/sense-of-place-jazz-mecca-denton-texas. ER
