The cultural melting pot that was New Orleans in the 20th century brought us one of the most unique and coveted forms of art we know today: jazz music.
The introduction of soul-filled blues scales mixed with various drum beats brought the vibrant sounds that make up the jazz genre, but it soon evolved into far more than that. The latin and bossa percussion added ambiguity to the sounds, while the swing style soon overtook pop culture, both for leisurely listening and various dance styles. This style boomed in the mid-20th century, becoming a popular genre for any American looking for a good time.
Nowadays, Jazz music has taken a backseat in popular genres. However, it lives vicariously through the millions of people who still listen to classic jazz songs, and most importantly, the musicians who appreciate and perform the genre.
Our school has no shortage of Jazz-loving musicians, all of whom have come together to keep alive the art and spread the joy of Orleans-style funk through our school’s jazz program.
The vibrant sounds of jazz music from high school bands across the country grace the stage during the second semester, as jazz bands reach their peak season. Every year, starting in February, various high school jazz bands travel to other schools to play their songs that they have spent months practising for a crowd of their peers, adjudicators, and neighbouring schools.
Every school dreams of being the top band and not only winning awards, but communicating the soul feelings and emotions that are expressed through skilled jazz music.
This diversity of style and expression is defined by Band director Mr Steve Krumbine as he stated, “The point of a jazz band is to be able to teach a group of students how to play diverse styles of music.”
Part of this diverse style of music comes from the students themselves, as the inclusion of improvisation in jazz music adds a wide variety. When improvising, the musician uses a set of scales and chords over a set form and has creative freedom to combine the notes and rhythms that flow nicely in the song and complete the jazz sound on the spot. Krumbine comments, “Improvisation is the concept of creating something very personal, unique, and spontaneous within the structure of the music.”
With improvisation being a large aspect of the genre, many musicians find jazz music to be intimidating, but others find it to be meaningful and a way to express their emotions while connecting to the audience through music.
Over the past few years, our jazz band has expanded and advanced to the point where it has doubled in size and in skill. This has allowed for increased inclusion of jazz into our school community, as our advanced Jazz A Band, otherwise known as Lab Band, performs and competes with collegiate-level music, while our Jazz B band, or Studio Band, builds the foundation of the jazz sounds for competitions.
This addition to our jazz band has brought a myriad of new opportunities and improvements to the band, as they can take on harder music and display better comprehension of the style when learning new charts. Coaches and student leaders alike have noticed these changes, most notably the Jazz Captain and Senior Jordan Rodrigues, who states, “This year we have started to see more passion in our players that allows us to keep pushing and getting better as a band.”
This progress and upward movement in the Jazz Band promises a future of domination in the music community for our school and the consistent improvement of the students who wish to undertake the responsibility. Opportunities have arisen for our jazz band due to the increased motivation, most notably the Essentially Ellington Western Regional Competition that our jazz students will be attending in Las Vegas this February.
Competition season represents an exciting and slightly nervous time for our jazz students, as all of their hard work from the first semester will be placed in front of judges in a way that best showcases their talent and stylistic interpretation. Lead Trumpet player and Junior Christian Alvarez remarks, “I’m excited to not only showcase my own talent, but the band’s talent at a pretty high level.”
Attending competitions is not the only aspect of Jazz band that students constantly enjoy; many students also enjoy the community of like-minded musicians that they find within the class, and the memories that are made alongside bandmates. The connection of jazz music truly allows young musicians to showcase themselves, both their interpretation and their emotions, to make their own music that is shared amongst the band.
This is shared by Sophomore Jakob Peterson as he states, “We’ve got a good community, fun times, and fun music. I love playing jazz because it is really cool to make your own music.”
Regardless of whether or not you have heard the delightful sounds of old-style jazz music, make sure to try and catch one of our two Jazz bands this year to truly experience the progress that has been made in expressing musical emotion through style at any of the competitions of Jazz Night!