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Marsalis when he comes to town, but you are perfectly free to book yourself into a club, get on stage, and sound like a dying rat without fear of having your instrument wrapped around your neck.You cannot, however, get away with that at a school like Capilano College, when your peers, teachers and instructors are Juno award-winning innovators with very high standards. Sure, you say, but don't a lot of schools have prestigious, well-known artists on their faculty? Yes, but as Tarry mentions, Two time juno Award winners M e t a l w o o d perform at Centenntial Theatre March 3. Photo by Rob Tarry N o t likely, when they're dealing with private instructors like Chris Tarry o r teachers like Brad Turner, both of w h o m have also been nominated as musician of the year for the 1999 W e s t Coast Music Awards for their w o r k with Metalwood... A h , yes, Metalwood: possibly the hottest emerging outfit on the Canadian Jazz music scene. Definitely w o r t h looking at here.The band started back in 1996 when Chris Tarry (bass guitar) and Brad Turner (trumpet and keyboards) began toying with the idea of an improvisational fusion project in the vein of Brand X , Weather Report, o r 70s era Miles Davis.They contacted D r u m m e r Ian Froman.an instructor at Berklee School of Music, Boston, w h o m Tarry knew from his own days studying there, and Mike Morley, a saxophone player who made his name with the pop/jazz band The Shuffle Demons. Despite the fact that everybody lived in different cities (Morley was in Toronto and Froman in N e w York) the chemistry was strong enough that the band made a record.This first recording, titled 'Metalwood I,'won the 1998 Juno award for Best Contemporary Jazz Recording.Their second album, 'Metalwood 2,' won the same for 1999. They've just finished a third studio album (yup, Metalwood 3) and Capilano College were voted Jazz Report Magazine's 1999 Electric G r o u p of the Year. There is no doubt that this band is breathing vitality back into a form of music that has arguably been in stasis for twenty years. For their students, then, the mere act of studying plugs them into a very exciting jazz scene. A n d innovation in jazz has always happened because the innovators were working together, inspiring and prodding each other for excellence. For example, there's a story that one night in N e w York back in the forties a young trumpet player got up to play with Dizzy Gilespie.This young trumpet player was so bad that, within minutes, he was pulled off stage, taken out into the lane behind the club, and beaten senseless with his own trumpet.That's how much the club-level jazz community, more than any educational institution, demanded excellence. Times have changed. You cannot just jump up and jam with W y n t o n Ronan Reinart is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist (specializing in guitar), and a member of the band Spike. "the ratio of instructors to students is not as small [at other schoolsJ.At someplace like Berklee you might have two hundred students per teacher. A n d at Cap you have maybe ten, fifteen.That's much more personal, more accessible." That kind of ratio builds a very tight-knit community with what Lachance calls, " a really good, constructive vibe." So it's no wonder that these Capilano College students go out into the world and make a mark. They're not just learning from the best, but hanging out, shootin' the breeze, and exploring the territory with the best. A n d that's how, eventually, you become the best.