DHS JB at IMEA All-State Convention in Peoria

Last week, the Jazz Band went to the Illinois Music Educators Association All-State Convention in Peoria to perform "Cholic Clown," Aaron Zemach's award-winning piece in the jazz instrumental category of the Secondary General Music Composition Contest. Eight musicians traveled south for the gig, which began with a full, professional sound check on the Peoria Civic Center auditorium stage. After lunch at Bennigan's (and after I went back to the restaurant where I left my bag with all of the music and the drum brushes), we went to the showcase concert.

The show began with a keynote by motivational speaker Tim Lautzenheiser. He was followed by an interview with Michael Salvatori, co-composer of the music for the very popular Halo video game series. As soon as he was done talking about his music and sharing examples of his work, we went backstage to our dressing room to get our instruments. Unfortunately, the room was locked, and we had several anxious minutes waiting for security to let us back in. With seconds to spare, we were warmed up, tuned, and waiting for our cue. Then the band went on stage and played Aaron's piece for about 2000 students and teachers. Afterwards, Aaron was invited to share some of his background and thoughts about his work with the panel, which included Brayer Teague, IMEA Vice-President for Secondary General Music, Tim Lautzenheiser, and Michael Salvatori. Aaron and the band were very well received, and it was an excellent way to spend a long Thursday away from Deerfield.

Music in Haiti

Since the tragic earthquake and heartbreaking aftermath in Haiti, the news media has been providing almost non-stop coverage of the situation on this Caribbean island. I thought it would be appropriate to honor and memorialize the Haitian people with a post about their music.

First, here is a link to an NPR story in which we hear how music helps people in grave circumstances to survive, heal, and pull through:

NPR

Second, here is a Canadian jazz saxophonist and composer, Jane Bunnett, who has been incorporating Caribbean sounds and musicians into her music for years. She and her band were to play the 4th Annual Haitian Jazz Festival this week, spending time in the country performing, giving clinics, and distributing donated instruments. Instead, she stayed in Toronto and put together a fundraiser for the relief efforts. Here is the full story along with some video clips of Bunnett playing with the Haitian choir, Grupo Vocal Desandann:

Jane Bunnett and Grupo Vocal Desandann

Finally, when world music aficionados speak of Haiti, the first band that comes to mind is the legendary Boukman Eksperyans. Their exotic name comes from an 18th-century vodou priest and the Kreole word for Experience, a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. They are known for their exciting party music with strongly worded political messages, creating enough controversy that they went into exile during the 1990s. Listen below to their revolutionary single, "Ke M Pa Sote," which became an anti-government rallying cry in 1991.

Ke M Pa Sote - Boukman Ekspery...

Music Theory Free Listening Day

Today in class, we ended the semester by sharing favorite pieces from our iPods. Here is a summary of what we heard, along with my brief impressions of each:

"Desire Be Desire Go" by Tame Impala from the album Tame Impala
...Beatlesque pop with a thick veneer of late 60s psychedlic grunge...

"Your Hand in Mine" by Explosions in the Sky from the album Friday Night Lights
...instrumental rock with lonesome, Big Sky guitars over a military snare drum...

"Wooden Ships" by Crosby, Stills & Nash from the album Crosby, Stills & Nash
...exquisite vocal harmonies over laid back classic rock organ and a bubbling bass groove...

"All Bodies" by Between the Buried and Me from the album Alaksa
...mid-tempo metal with gravel-pit vocals and constantly shifting meters that segue in and out of thrash like a 10-year-old with attention issues...

"Another Believer" by Rufus Wainwright from the album Meet the Robinsons
...over-the-top poppy carnival music with sunshiney vocals and suprisingly chromatic harmonies...

"Africa" by Alyce Mtwalo et al from the album Impressions of Africa
...a pastiche of traditional African vocals, balofon, and percussion woven into a dance track...

"Lost in the Supermarket" by The Clash from the album London Calling
...legendary punk band makes depressing but unabashedly mainstream music about commercialism...

"Bicycle Race" by Between the Buried and Me from the album The Anatomy Of
...a lovingly crafted cover by a progressive metal band of a typically outrageous Queen song...

Hey, kids, it's DHSBMWPCC!

That's right, it's the Deerfield High School Band Mid-Winter Practice Commitment Challenge!

We have only three weeks until our concert, and final exams are looming, so in order to make sure that our performance is the very best it can be, I am challenging every one of our band students to make this commitment to practicing, and thus to excellence! It would be too easy to pack up our instruments and music for nine straight days during finals, so I want avoid that at all costs!

I have broken our remaining time into six shorter intervals, and I expect everyone to practice at least twice during each one. Here are the guidelines for practicing:

• Practice must be done outside of class.
• Each session should be at least 20 minutes long.
• Each should include some warm-up, including long tones/rolls, and some technique, including scales/rudiments.
• The bulk of the session should be on the two concert pieces.

At the end of each interval, the section leaders will report to me how many students did the two practice sessions (the honor system prevails here). After the concert, the section out of all three bands that has the highest percentage of commitments kept will win some tasty treats. Of course, I expect that every section will have 100% every time, but this might add that extra incentive you need to stick to it!

Good luck! Let's make our commitment to excellence!

Jazz Band Videos to View

For our upcoming performance at the ETHS Jazz Festival, we will be doing "Cause and Effect" by Nicole Mitchell. You can listen to the original recording here:

Cause and Effect - Nicole Mitc...

Here is a video of her Black Earth Ensemble live from 2005:



We are also playing our own version of Brad Mehldau's cover of the Beatles' "She's Leaving Home." His recording is on Day is Done, and the original is on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Here is a video of Mehldau and his trio performing it live:



Soak it all in!

Welcome to 2010!

Although our concert is a month away, we are really in the home stretch! We school starts again, we'll have two weeks before finals, then a week off (during which you should be practicing diligently!), and then a week and two days to the concert for CB, SB, and WE. For those of you in MAJ and TAJ, that's three rehearsals to go! For JB, we have four weeks of rehearsals to get ready for the ETHS Jazz Festival.

In addition, all of you honor-level WE and JB students have your recital on January 13. North Shore Honor Band students have rehearsal on January 13 at DHS and the festival on the 14th and 15th at LFHS. As is all of this wasn't enough, we'll be taking a small jazz combo to Peoria on January 28 to perform Aaron Zemach's first-place jazz composition, Cholic Clown, at the IMEA All-State Convention.

This is, of course, in addition to Pep Band games, musical pit orchestra, a major orchestra concert on 2/4, and preparation for solo and ensemble festival in March. Let's get ready to hit the ground running!