{"id":210243,"date":"2024-02-21T16:07:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T21:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/?p=210243"},"modified":"2024-02-21T16:07:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T21:07:58","slug":"documentary-spotlights-promising-montclair-state-university-vibraphonist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/2024\/02\/21\/documentary-spotlights-promising-montclair-state-university-vibraphonist\/","title":{"rendered":"Documentary Spotlights Promising Montclair State University Vibraphonist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Documentary filmmakers set out to tell the story of a world-famous jazz vibraphone player, but\u00a0 they began to change the narrative after reviewing footage they shot at Montclair State University, where the vibraphonist, Steve Nelson, had recently started a gig as an adjunct professor in Jazz Studies at the John J. Cali School of Music.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething in the room was happening,\u201d recalls Nathan Siegelaub, a writer and documentary filmmaker based in New York. \u201cThere was electricity. There was excitement. There was good camaraderie between the students.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Montclair student in particular stood out, a young vibraphonist, Pierce Sparnroft, who prefers to be identified with they\/them pronouns and the name \u201cSparni.\u201d \u201cThey\u2019re incredibly talented and there\u2019s something about them, how expressive they are,\u201d Siegelaub recalled his professor at Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism, where the film was produced, telling him. \u201cThere\u2019s something there that you should dig a little deeper to find.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the filmmakers continued their work on Nelson\u2019s influence on jazz, they also followed Sparni, now a senior Jazz Studies major, throughout the spring 2023 semester as the student prepared for a recital. \u201cOnce we learned more about Sparni, we discovered a story that needed to be told right now,\u201d Siegelaub says.<\/p>\n

The result is the documentary titled\u00a0Sparni<\/i>, directed by Siegelaub and Ania Gruszczy\u0144ska. It was shown at DocFest \u201923, a showcase of work from Columbia\u2019s Graduate School of Journalism. Among the audience, Sparni watched the film for the first time. \u201cI was like, \u2018Wow, here\u2019s a culmination of a bunch of work that I\u2019ve put in this year.\u2019 It was gratifying to see it in front of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sparni<\/i>\u00a0is the story of a promising young musician, and also of the healing powers of music and the repercussions of mental illness. Sparni is open about their serious mental health struggles, something the filmmakers were sensitive to in telling Sparni\u2019s story.<\/p>\n

\u201cSparni by nature is expressive and open and has a need to express themselves and to share,\u201d says Gruszczy\u0144ska, a journalist and documentary filmmaker living in London. \u201cWe were transparent and clear about our intentions. We were genuinely intrigued, and I think it showed Sparni that we were curious, we were empathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m lucky in the sense that we, as a society and a culture, are a lot more accepting of openness towards mental health problems,\u201d Sparni adds. \u201cPeople were like, \u2018Hey, we respect your honesty and this is stuff that a lot of people go through. Hearing another person talk about it, makes us feel more seen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the documentary was made, Sparni\u2019s second album,\u00a0Sparni Plath\u2019s Lament<\/i>, was released \u2013 on their 22nd birthday \u2013 on January 29, the music, a mix of hip hop, rap, spoken word and poetry,\u00a0 taken from journals written during a period marked by mental health challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t make a habit of oversharing, but I also feel, in my music, I talk about some dark stuff. At this point I\u2019m desensitized to having that kind of information out about me. If it\u2019s for an artistic reason, it doesn\u2019t really faze me,\u201d Sparni says.<\/p>\n

The album comes with a warning. \u201cI don\u2019t want people to listen to my music and feel triggered or upset. But I\u2019m also not going to water down what I have to say. I look at modern music right now and there\u2019s all this emphasis on talking about your mental health, but nobody actually talks about what\u2019s going on,\u201d Sparni says. \u201cPeople reference that their mental health is bad and people talk about coping, but nobody talks about what the actual symptoms of what you\u2019re feeling is. Nobody talks about how to grow after going through a really rough place.\u201d<\/p>\n

To share those feelings, sections of the album feature voice recordings playing at the same time, stylistic choices that coincidentally mirror the editing techniques used in the documentary to express manic episodes and sensory overload.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Sparni
Sparni performs in concert with jazz legend Arturo Sandoval, a visiting artist who headlined the University\u2019s annual Crawford Concert in December. Sandoval had high praise for Sparni. \u201cHe told me my soul was amazing.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It was the efforts of Jazz Studies Coordinator Oscar Perez, who ultimately brought Sparni and the filmmakers together when he matched his promising student with Nelson at a time when the young vibraphonist was thinking about changing instruments.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve Nelson is one of the premier vibraphonists of his generation,\u201d Perez says. \u201cThey have formed a special bond over their shared love of the music and the instrument with which they express themselves. It\u2019s an honor to have him teaching our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sparni is grateful for the opportunity. \u201cI\u2019m studying with somebody who is a piece of the progression of my instrument and also a mover and shaker in the evolution of the music. And then on top of that, he\u2019s a phenomenal teacher,\u201d Sparni says.<\/p>\n

Sparni grew up on Staten Island, New York, and says they chose Montclair for its affordability and high caliber of the Cali School program. As they prepare to graduate, Sparni plans to keep gigging. Over the past year, Sparni had debut performances on jazz radio station WBGO and NYC jazz clubs, including Dizzy\u2019s Club and SOB\u2019s (also known as Sounds of Brazil), and joined Dick Griffin\u2019s jazz big band. Long term, Sparni plans a career as a jazz educator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was something really organic that I found amongst the Cali students,\u201d says the filmmaker Siegelaub. \u201cThere\u2019s a real collaborative spirit that music certainly can and should bring, but which doesn\u2019t always show. But at the Cali School, and especially in the Jazz Studies department, all of the students were generous toward one another, and worked hard late into the day. There was just something that you would feel in the hallways that said something here is going right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story by Staff Writer\u00a0<\/i>Marilyn Joyce Lehren<\/i><\/b><\/a>. Photos by\u00a0<\/i>John J. LaRosa<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bond between jazz student and professor unfolds against a backdrop of challenges<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":210244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-153_music","category-news-and-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210245,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210243\/revisions\/210245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/arts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}