It took five strong guys to move Conner Shaw’s family piano out of his grandmother’s house on South Main Street to his office in Western Colorado University’s Quigley Hall. Once there, he and his friend, local artist Julian Young, set to work putting new life into it, tuning and repairing the felt on the hammers.
“It’s actually my great-grandma’s piano. It’s been here in Gunnison now about 100 years,” Shaw said. “The hammers are original, so they have a really unique, warm sound you don’t get from a modern piano.”
Shaw grew up in Greeley and would visit his grandmother in Gunnison during the summers, becoming the third generation in his family to learn to play on that piano. That experience helped kindle a love of music that led him to Los Angeles, where he worked in the industry and earned a Master of Music degree from the University of Southern California.
Now in his second year teaching music at Western, he’s drawing on that experience to contribute to a musical community he’s known since childhood.
“I think with Gunnison and Crested Butte, it’s a very specific [musical] culture,” he said. “If you’re going to stay here long term, you have to know the culture and what people around here want.”
In the bars and venues of Crested Butte, Almont, and Gunnison, the sound tends to favor the heavy grooves and improvised riffs of bluegrass and jam bands. That creates ample opportunities for students eager to learn their craft and experiment in a low-risk environment.
“I have this grounding in coming from Colorado and knowing a lot about small towns and the culture in the state,” Shaw said. “But having lived in L.A. for six years, I have that wider perspective of the larger music industry and what’s going on in the world.”
His goal is to use that experience to help instill an entrepreneurial spirit in his students. He wants to see them develop their own musical culture, form bands, and play as many shows as they can.
“We couldn’t do the things we do here at Western, but specifically for my program with the music industry, if we didn’t have such a lively music community here,” he said.
Shaw’s classes offer a progression from group instruction for students developing their skills to a rock band, which gives them experience playing in an ensemble. Eventually, the students can move into jazz and improvisation, which force them to listen and respond to one another.
When he stepped into his role at Western last year, he rebranded the University’s existing ensemble into the 7710 Alpine Jazz Band and committed to developing the musicianship of the program’s most advanced players and returning the band to its former glory.
“Western has a historic program. The band program at Western is nationally known and has been since the late ’40s,” Shaw said. “Through the Gunnison Summer Music Camp, there were very famous conductors, including the Boston Pops’ own Arthur Fielder, who would give clinics and were part of the summer music program. It’s where the Colorado Brass Band started [by John Kincaid] in the 1970s.”
Shaw hopes to build on that tradition. Last year, the jazz band had just seven or eight players and performed at venues around Gunnison and traveled to Buena Vista and Greeley for festivals and other events. This year, the size of the band has doubled and has a busy schedule planned.
The 7710 Alpine Jazz Band’s next performance is Thursday, Nov. 12 at 6 p.m. in Western’s Kincaid Concert Hall, alongside the Steel Band, where the audience will have a chance to be a part of the musical community Shaw hopes to continue building on.
“Jazz is an art form that comes from the U.S. and represents Americans. It’s one of the most cherished and beloved cultural artifacts of the U.S. around the world,” he said. “There’s nothing as American as apple pie, but there’s also nothing as American as jazz.”
Seth Mensing is the media and communications manager at Western Colorado University.
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