By Myki Jones
Sopris Sun Correspondent
At age 92, Clay Boland Jr. is still going strong creating original jazz music. Boland was an accomplished professor of communications and humanities at Colorado Mountain College (CMC) from 1973 to 1995, all while writing, recording and performing as a professional musician.
Since age 5, he has written original jazz pieces and authored several books. With many albums under his belt and more projects still ahead, nothing is slowing him down. He spoke with The Sopris Sun about his life, what led him to teach and the role that music and writing played for him.
Born Dec. 7, 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he grew up in the suburbs and comes from a long line of gifted musicians. His grandmother played piano professionally for the silent film industry, and his parents were both gifted pianists. Clay Boland Sr. was also a practicing dentist during the Great Depression and played music in speakeasies to help support his family.
Boland’s father taught him to play piano at the age of 3. “At age 5 my first composition was what my father named ‘A Wake of Destruction,’” Boland said. “You can imagine what it sounded like: a lot of banging on the piano, but it was a composition.”
He went on to attend the University of Pennsylvania, taking his love of music with him. He first pursued dentistry like his father, but that simply was not for him. He studied English instead while still pursuing music. Boland wrote the music and words for two summer stock musicals, one titled “Clarence,” based on Booth Tarkington’s 1918 play, and another called “New Bridge Acomin” based on the stories and lives of Irish workers who built the Brooklyn Bridge.
It was while he was in college, getting his master’s at The City College of New York, and also completing all his doctoral studies at The City University of New York, where he met his beloved wife, Mary, who was an accomplished journalist.
One day, during their courtship, Mary foretold what he described as a prophecy of their adventurous lives together.
“We’d been going out for a few months, and one day we were in Central Park South walking, and she turned to me and said, ‘Either we’re going to get married or I’m going to Aspen to ski.’ So that’s what happened of course, we did get married, then we went to Aspen and did a lot of skiing,” Boland reminisced. Together they had two daughters, Jennifer and Wendy, who both fell in love with music as well.
Boland was a professor at Northampton College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania from 1969 to 1973. “An interesting thing about careers is how people can start in one direction and end up in another. It is not usually a straight line,” he said.
In 1973, the Bolands vacationed on the East Coast with Clay’s stepfather, a playwright, actor and book collector. The book his stepfather was reading at that time was “Safe Places to Live; USA,” which is how he discovered Glenwood Springs. He later applied for a teaching job at CMC.
“I came out for the interview and turned green from altitude sickness,” he said. “They had to send me to the hospital to make sure they were hiring someone who was going to be alive. Going from sea level to nearly 6,000 feet is quite a shock to the system. They offered me the job and gave me a medical examination.”
Mary encouraged him to take the job after he described the Roaring Fork Valley. Then, the family moved and resided in Carbondale for a few years before building their forever home.
“The early days of CMC were quite interesting,” Boland explained. “We didn’t have official buildings, so I taught music in a laundry room. Then, when we moved into teaching in Carbondale, I taught speech in a former butcher shop at the corner of Fourth and Main, which is now Main Street Gallery. Classes at the college were taught in all sorts of strange places.”
Boland told us that writing his first book was a challenge he was happy to accept. During his sabbatical period, he and Mary went to South Padre Island, Texas, where they would play in the sun by day, and he would write at night.
“I wrote 600-some pages, which I reduced to 200,” he said. “Writing is something that can be challenging but enjoyable, which is a good combination. When something is challenging you don’t get bored of it.”
Regarding his music, “Perhaps the most enjoyable concert I gave was a benefit concert at CMC in the 90s,” Boland said. “It’s on YouTube under the heading ‘Jazz 101.’ It was a concert in which I tried to explain to people what jazz is and how it works and then demonstrate that by performing. If anybody wants to hear me play jazz, that is the best place to go.”
Boland’s music is also available to stream on Spotify, and he still makes CDs in his home. Chances are, if you were to see him around town, he would give you one. He is also happy to share sheet music of all his work with anyone willing to learn. To learn more, visit www.claybolandjr.com