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Photo by Devin Courtright/The Advocate
Above: Mitchell Saint Germain practices on the trombone in jazz band practice.
Natural Talent
Mitchell Saint Germain finds place in Jazz band
The Advocate
MHCC musician Mitchell Saint Germain will be overseas this week for the first time since being born in Italy as the MHCC Jazz Band performs in Taiwan.
(The band, directed by Susie Jones, is performing Feb 17-23 in two cities in Taiwan: Taipei and Gausung. It is the latest in a series of trips the MHCC musical group has taken to Taiwan.)
Saint Germain, 18, said he has been able to mold and craft himself into the person and musician he is today by being around positive role models and influences throughout his life.
Both his parents were in the U.S. Navy and Saint Germain was born in Naples, Italy, where he lived there for the first eight months of his life. “It’s still pretty cool that I could tell people that I was born in Italy,” he said.
Saint Germain’s family moved to Maine for a year, and then moved to Vancouver, Wash., where he has lived most of his life.
Saint Germain began playing music when he was in the fifth grade, starting with the trumpet. He recalls a moment with his music teacher, Mr. Adams, that inspired him to play music.
“I’ll never forget him because I was the first one who could play ‘Jingle Bells’ and all these kids are making these fart noises through their instruments and it just sounded awful. All of a sudden you hear ‘Jingle Bells’ come though and so he decided to give me private lessons. I never had recess because in elementary school I had my lessons. I played music and he gave me my first trumpet,” said Saint Germain.
After fifth grade, Saint Germain continued to play trumpet through his young school life and recalls playing “officially paid gigs” when he met his trumpet teacher Andy Fuller. He says before he met Fuller, he “played wrong on the trumpet for years and years and years.”
“I developed all the wrong habits people do because I didn’t have a teacher to guide me. Then when I met Andy, he fixed all that and I just took off from there. My first official gig was probably in my junior year of high school,” said Saint Germain.
Fuller was Saint Germain’s trumpet teacher but as time when on, he also became a father-like figure. “My dad was never in my life for 10 years, so Andy ‘adopted’ me.”
Fuller didn’t “officially adopt me but it’s more of a kind-of-an-adoption on our own terms,” Saint Germain said. “I call him Dad, he calls me son.”
Another influential person in Saint Germain’s life was Fuller’s brother, Mic Gillette, the horn player for the band “Tower of Power.” As a result of being connected to Fuller, Saint Germain has the opportunity to call Mic “Uncle Mic.”
“I didn’t know Andy until about five years ago and I didn’t get acquainted with Mic until a couple years after that,” said Saint Germain. “I haven’t known them my whole life but it feels like I have.”
Being well known as a trumpet player and a trombone player on the side, Gillette inspired Saint Germain to further play the trumpet and last year pick up the trombone. “He said, ‘You need to buy a trombone,’ so that’s why I picked up trombone and it’s got me a lot more opportunities playing both instruments,” said Saint Germain.
“It was a pretty amazing experience for me the first time I picked up the trombone; it was just easy. For most people it’s really difficult to get it down but I just picked it up and I played it. It was one of those things that came natural to me and I was lucky.”
Saint Germain graduated from Battle Ground High School in Battle Ground, Wash,, in 2009. He went to Hudson’s Bay High School in Vancouver for the first two years of high school and then transferred to Battle Ground for the remaining two years.
“I transferred because the Battle Ground music program was better,” said Saint Germain. “I wasn’t really going anywhere with Hudson’s Bay; I just decided to transfer.”
Being “fresh out of high school,” Saint Germain enrolled at MHCC last fall term. In the Music Department, Saint Germain plays the trumpet for the Symphonic Band and Jazz Band 2, and then plays the trombone for Jazz Band 1. He also plays both instruments in combos, but mostly playing the trumpet.
“The trumpet is my favorite instrument but I do love trombone; it’s a blast,” said Saint Germain. “If there’s a band with a trombone and trumpet, they don’t have to pay both people; they can just have me in because (now) I could play both.”
When comparing both the Symphonic Band and the Jazz Band, Saint Germain says, “The Symphonic Band is more for my scholarship; actually I have to take it in order to get my scholarship. I’m not too into classical music but I enjoy the Jazz Band and the Jazz program here is awesome. “I am honored to be in the jazz program. I’m really enjoying it.”
“I like funk, jazz, that kind of stuff that gets in your face, exciting stuff. I don’t really enjoy classical very much at all,” says Saint Germain. “I can do it, I just don’t like to.”
For being involved in the music department for a term in a half, students and instructors alike have commented on Saint Germain’s musical ability.
David Miller, a trumpet player on the Jazz/Symphonic Band and music major, said, “He has perfect pitch. He denies it but he does. He’s a really good soloist, particularly because he has a good ear. I may have heard him screw up a rhythm once but other than that, he’s a really good sight reader.”
Stan Buck, part-time music instructor, said, “He’s a good young talent, he’s got a lot of ability already. We’re trying to focus his thinking, so that he can be more deliberate about what he does, because he has a really good feel for the music right now.”
Jackson Brannon, a drummer in Jazz Band 2 and childhood friend, said, “He’s incredible. All throughout middle school and high school, he was by far the best musician I have played with. He’s impressed me a lot with is trumpet playing and how he plays trombone good, too.”
With all the comments, Saint Germain says, “The things that came naturally to me was the trombone, reading music because I was always good at that, and I’ve always been told I have a fantastic ear,” said Saint Germain.
“People say I have perfect pitch but I don’t really believe in perfect pitch. I can listen to a note and know that the trumpet (for example) played an e. That’s the way my ear works, it tells me what note it is.
“That was a jump start for me when I was playing gigs because I could read the music and I knew exactly what to play. It’s trouble for a lot of people. It was one of those things that I was born with. My ear takes me where I need to go. It’s a cool talent to have. I was gifted with a great ear from the start, luckily. I’m not an amazing musician by any means but I’ve had some gifts passed down to me that I really appreciate.
“It’s a gift and a curse because if somebody is playing off-pitch or if I hear something awful, like listening to American Idol, that’s painful to me because that’s like nails down a chalk board. Listening to somebody off-pitch is terrible.”
Asked how many hours he practices his musical instruments, Saint Germain said, “Just to be straight up and honest, I don’t practice that much; I really don’t because I play so much outside of school: I got gigs going on, lessons, I play music with friends, and I rehearse so many hours here a day that it’s my practice time.”
Saint Germain plans to stay at MHCC for three years and then transfer to OSU to major as a pharmacist. “It’s a lot of work; it’s eight years of school, it’s medical school and it’s a lot,” said Saint Germain. “I’ll have my doctorate in pharmacy and it’s basically just to make money. It will allow me to live comfortably and do my music on the side at the same time.”
Asked why he chose to major in pharmacy, Saint Germain said, “I was researching, experimenting, and looking at what would make me some good money and what I would enjoy. I enjoy science. Pharmacy is largely science, so that’s why I picked it,” said Saint Germain. “It’s reliable, you can get a job close to home, and you would never be really out of a job because everybody needs drugs.”
Saint Germain says his “big brother” Glenn Lamb, who he’s known for about 10 years in the “Big Brothers and Big Sisters” program, was also influential in deciding to pursue a pharmacy career.
“I’ve grown up with him and he works at an organization called ‘Columbia Land Trust’ and what they do is conserve land for wildlife and they conserve it forever. I’ve done a lot of volunteer work with them and he knows a lot of people, including pharmacists and the works; I’ve worked alongside him and got over 50-60 hours of community service work with them. That’s where my career interests have sparked up is with Glenn. He’s been a really good influence for me; him and Andy through the recent years, too.”
Saint Germain said, “It’s through Andy and Mic that I get a lot of opportunities. I’ve been very lucky to have these people in my life.”
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