New York ” A University of California, San Diego (UCSD) professor discussing her filmmaking efforts with jazz musicians in New York City may sound like an unlikely scenario. But it makes perfect sense when the professor is Zeinabu Irene Davis, whose celluloid subject is pioneering trumpeter Clora Bryant, and the setting is the annual conference of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE).”I felt incredibly comfortable with people here,” Davis said in an interview after her talk. “They’ve been very interested and supportive in what I’m trying to do.”Between 7,500 and 8,000 musicians, students, educators, music-industry professionals and jazz aficionados attended the 33rd annual IAJE gathering, held earlier this year at two bustling mid-town Manhattan hotels for four days of concerts, panels, clinics, caucuses and networking.The conference featured a number of performances by such well-known artists as pianist Chick Corea and San Diego-based sax great James Moody, as well as student bands and musicians just starting out. Meetings ran the gamut, from a women’s caucus to a jazz journalists meeting. Clinics and panels covered such topics as improvisation, orchestration, preparing classical string players for jazz, and using laptop computers as real-time instruments.In the midst of all this was Professor Davis’ presentation, “Preserving Women Instrumentalists: The Case of the PBS Documentary `Trumpetistically Clora Bryant’.” More than 50 people attended her talk that included several clips of her documentary, which will be shown on PBS in 2007.After noting that she’d have to sit down occasionally because she was seven months pregnant, Davis explained that she had met trumpeter Bryant at UCLA in the mid-1980s. Now 79 and living in L.A., Bryant was raised in Texas. She studied piano as a child and, at 14, taught herself how to play the trumpet her brother left behind when he joined the military in 1941. While attending Prairie View College ” one of the few U.S. colleges then open to blacks ” she became a member of the Co-Eds, a 16-piece, all-female jazz band.Bryant went on to forge a successful career, working steadily in venues on Los Angeles’ Central Avenue, a hotbed of jazz during that time. Over the years, she played with bebop legends Dizzy Gillespie (who appears in Davis’ film) and Charlie Parker, along with such greats as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Count Basie. Davis uses old photos of Bryant’s college and of Central Avenue, as well as vintage clips from Bryant’s concerts. Unfortunately, most of Bryant’s memorabilia, recordings and pictures were lost during the Rodney King-related riots in 1992. The filmmaker faced challenges in recreating Bryant’s life and encountered many financial hurdles.”Copyright costs are exorbitant,” Davis explained after showing a short clip of Bryant performing on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” That very brief clip cost thousands of dollars, she said.”I’m approaching filmmaking as an art form, not as a commercial venture,” she continued. “People think all filmmakers are rich, but that isn’t true. I’ve gotten $60,000 from grants and $30,000 from family funds, but so far, the project has cost $150,000.”While other support for the film hasn’t been monetary, it has been crucial. A group of stellar musicians from San Diego helped recreate some of the lost music from Bryant’s career. Among them were Kamau Kenyatta, who arranged the music; Richard Sellars, who did the drumming and audio engineering; Rob Thorsen on bass; and saxophonist Daniel Jackson. Jeannie Cheatham not only contributed the piano parts for the soundtrack, but also allowed her hands to be filmed while playing.Davis is close to completing the film, but has been asked by PBS to secure a big name for the narrator. She is searching for someone, ideally with Texas roots like Bryant, who would appreciate Bryant’s singular contributions to the history of jazz and the chronicles of women instrumentalists.While Bryant can no longer play the trumpet because of a heart condition, she teaches and conducts workshops about the Central Avenue scene and her colorful life. Her friend Davis continues to juggle the financing and finishing touches on the film with her position at UCSD and her life at home with her husband Marc and their 4-year-old daughter, Maazi. Davis’ IAJE presentation ended with a lively question-and-answer session, with several people commenting on how glad they were that she was telling such an important story. She was understandably pleased by the enthusiastic response of the audience.”It was really through Clora that I learned about IAJE. She has done a number of IAJE workshops,” Davis said. “She was so excited about my coming here. I have to call her and tell her about it.”The next IAJE conference will be held in New York in January, 2007. Performing groups and clinicians are selected from auditions and proposals, which are due this month. More information is available by visiting www.iaje.org.