Our Jazzy Week

Our jazzy week began on Thursday with a visit from DHS alumnus Dan Kaufman, a professional jazz pianist living in NYC. He is very busy teaching and performing, accompanying jazz vocalists like Nnenna Freelon, but he was in town this week and stopped by to hear the jazz band. He gave us some great pointers on style and improvisation, which we put to use over the next two days.

Over the weekend we had two fun gigs. On Friday, we played for the opening night celebration of the District 113 Art Show at The Art Center in Highland Park. Since it was a very small space with no room for piano, we used only guitar, bass, and drums. Each horn player chose a tune to be featured on and was assigned as backup on another. Luckily, our two pianists
double on alto sax, so they were able to join in the fun. We played tunes from throughout the year, including some student compositions. The picture here is of our closer, Joshua Redman's "Can't Dance." The pianist/saxophonists each took a line from the piano voicings to create impromptu compings.

This type of gig is excellent experience for young jazzers. Unlike our concerts, where all of our forms and solo orders are scripted out, this performance was more loose and forced the musicians to think more on their feet and communicate back and forth for transitions and endings. We also had a very appreciative crowd enjoying our music. Mary Jo Papich, HPHS Fine Arts Department Chair and President of the newly formed Jazz Education Network, was very complimentary of the band.

On Saturday, we went to the Evanston Jazz Festival at ETHS. After a few scary moments getting our bass players from late-running ACT tests, we took the stage in an upstairs library. Our set was "This I Dig of You" (Hank Mobley), "Cholic Clown" (our very own Aaron Zemach), and "Can't Dance." Our clinicians, Joe Roman and our old friend Jarrard Harris, gave us a lot of helpful comments, especially for the rhythm section.

After our performance, we had a chance to see a few other bands, enjoyed Lauren's most excellent brownies, and went to a clinic with the guest performers for the evening show, Joey DeFrancesco and Henry Johnson. Mr. DeFrancesco is widely considered to be the finest jazz organ player in the world, and Mr. Johnson is a veteran guitarist who has performed with such legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, and Jimmy Smith. They opened with a wonderful jam session on Clifford Brown's Eb blues "Sandu." Afterwards they sat down for a Q&A with the students.

After dinner in Evanston, we returned for the evening concert, featuring DeFrancesco, Johnson, and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, directed by Jeff Lindberg. Their guitarist and assistant director, Charley Harrison, is an old friend of mine from Northwestern. The concert itself was a recreation of tunes from legendary albums which featured two pioneering jazz musicians, organist Jimmy Smith and guitarist Wes Montgomery, with big bands playing the arrangements of Oliver Nelson. The charts were wonderfully played by the CJO, and DeFrancesco and Johnson were on fire all evening, displaying bebop technique steeped in down-home blues. It was a very exciting night of wonderful music. If you would like to check out the original recordings, click on the album covers to link to Amazon so you can hear some sound samples. They are also available at iTunes.

Our next important performance will be at Jazz Nite 09 in late April. I can't wait!