The Changing Face of Private Lessons

I get calls from time to time from parents who are looking for private teachers for their children. I have a number of local musicians whom I recommend, but there's a growing trend around the country of taking lessons online via Skype video chat. As someone who completed his doctorate via distance learning (commuting virtually from my upstairs office here in Lake County all the way to Boston University), I'm intrigued about the possibility. Here's an article in the New York Times about one-on-one video lessons. Just imagine studying kora with a Malian griot or janggu with a Korean drummer from your own living room!

From the Archives

Here are two photos from the DHS Homecoming Parade on October 22, 1977 (click to see full size). In the first, we see Al Spriester out in front in his band director's uniform. This is what the well dressed bandmaster used to wear, back in the day. Personally, I'm fine in my sport coat and tie. The band is either headed north or south on Waukegan Road. Note the three gas stations, including the E-Z GO, selling regular for 61.9 cents a gallon and "no lead" for 65.9. Also notice how there is traffic moving in the opposite direction. I always hated this about the parade--it just never seemed safe.

In the next shot you can see the white marching band shoes (must have been a pain to clean) and the side-slung drum. The boy on the far left is playing a tenor drum with puffy mallets. That would have been a much darker sound than we get today, with our high-pitched snares and quads. The "DHS" sousaphone covers are a nice touch which we should really go back to, except I'd go with red covers with a white "D" on each. That way it wouldn't matter how many sousas you had. The red tongues coming out of the euphonium and trombone bells are a nice touch.

The uniforms are interesting. I don't think any of these are still around. When I began in 1988, we had a different style. These, with the long coat, white belt, and a single silver loop on the left shoulder seem very busy. The helmets look white and silver--there's just too much detail on them for my taste. Our current, understated, red and black uniforms still hold up well, style-wise.

I do miss the homecoming parade, which we discontinued about five years ago. The community and student body just weren't into it. There used to be floats, the homecoming court riding in a convertible, and a massed poms/cheers/band performance at the corner of Deerfield and Waukegan. We'd start at Kipling School and march all the way back to DHS, in time for a quick lunch and the 1:00 football game. Different times...

Vacation's almost done...

I stopped in at school today to do some straightening out in the band room. I finally put away the quads, which were last used on November 15, and I organized a batch of music so that the librarians can get it refiled. There were two cases that needed to be stenciled "Deerfield HS Bands," and I almost finished the second before my spray paint ran out. The bulletin boards have been refreshed, and there are more Downbeat magazine covers going up the I-beams (a ladder was necessary for this effort). There were concert papers to print out, emails to answer, and snail mail to sort through. The few hours of work I put in will make next week a lot easier.

My playlist for the morning:

The Indianapolis Saxophone Quartet, Jingle Sax
Nice arrangements and excellent playing--so many Christmas albums go overboard trying to be clever, but this one was very tasteful.

Pearl Jam, Ten
I was watching the Pearl Jam 20 documentary on Netflix last night. I can't believe that it's been twenty years since I started listening to them!

In other news, I saw Roy Hargrove's quintet at the Jazz Showcase on Tuesday. What a band! The place was packed with a diverse crowd--everyone from high school and college kids with their folks (like my son and me) to seasoned jazz listeners. Hargrove is a phenomenal trumpeter and a strong composer. He didn't say anything in between tunes; he simply stepped back from the microphone, played a quick lick, and the band kicked off the next tune. Although I didn't recognize most of the pieces, I was very excited that they played "Strasbourg/St. Denis." The DHS Jazz Band played this on the November concert, and it was one of our favorites. At this performance, they played the tune with a harder edge, not so much of a loose funk jam as on the original recording. They gave the pianist, Sullivan Fortner, an a cappella solo that he just tore up, with both hands jabbing back and forth as if in a well choreographed stage fight.

The encore of the first set had Hargrove and saxophonist Justin Robinson taking their blues licks into the audience and out the door. Then drummer Quincy Phillips left the stage, followed by Fortner, leaving bassist Ameen Saleem alone on stage to bring the tune to a close. It was quite a show, with Hargrove nursing a cold but resplendent in a purple cardigan over a colorful checked shirt and bow tie, with floppy winter boots to complete the look.

Hargrove will be at the Showcase through Sunday, 1/1. See details here, and read Howard Reich's review of the Tuesday show here. If you haven't been to the Jazz Showcase yet, I highly recommend it. It's a very classy room, and students are welcome if accompanied by parent/guardian.

So, until next Tuesday, enjoy your New Year's weekend! With the concert coming up on the 31st, you might want to do a little practicing...

Happy Holidays from the DHS Bands!

The Jazz Band has played its traditional front hall gig (see the set list below), the last rehearsal is in the books, and there's just one pep band performance to go. It's pretty much winter break now, so I'd like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season. In past years, I've used this blog to count down the "Twelve Days Before Winter Break" and to feature a series on my favorite winter/Chanukah/Christmas tunes, but this year I just have my humble greetings and a hope for a peaceful and musical 2012 to all of the DHS Band family and friends.

See you in January as we work towards our CB/SB/WE/MAJ/TAJ concert on the 31st!

JB Set List:

• Overtired Sickness Blues, David Leibowitz (DHS '12)
• Dig, Miles Davis
• Black Box, Nathan Weiskirch (DHS '14)
• Strasbourg/St. Denis, Roy Hargrove
• Christmas Time is Here, Vince Guaraldi
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (medium swing), arr. Brame
• Chanukah, O Chanukah (klezmer), arr. Brame
• Auld Lang Syne (funk), arr. Brame

Japanese Music Unit

This week, as part of our East Asian unit, we have been studying Japanese music in Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble. We began by looking at some traditional instruments and learning two pentatonic scales and the famous melody "Sakura, Sakura." The we talked about the school band movement in Japan and how the ensembles meet 6-7 times a week for two hours after school. To illustrate what that kind of dedication can do, we watched this video of an elementary school band playing Slava! by Leonard Bernstein. Not only is this a Grade 5 piece that challenges the best high school bands, but the kids in the video are playing it by memory!

Then we talked about the kumi-daiko, or taiko, movement. This is a fairly recent phenomenon in which traditional Japanese drumming that accompanied rituals or dramas was combined with the excitement and flash of jazz drumming. The result is a wild mix of drum corps, aerobic workout, and stage spectacle. The most famous taiko group is Kodo. Here are two samples of their work:

After winter break, we'll be examining Chinese and Korean music cultures. It will all culminate in our Winter Concert on January 31 at 7:30pm in the auditorium when we'll perform Spring Festival by Chen Yi, Warabe by Akira Toda, Variations on a Korean Folk Song by John Barnes Chance, and Festal Scene by Yasuhide Ito. Don't miss it!

Elliott Carter, Centenarian Composer

A few years ago, I realized that some famous jazz musicians were still active into their nineties, like pianist Dave Brubeck who contiunes to perform live in concert at age 92. I couldn't believe that a nonagenarian could still handle the physical and mental demands of improvising and touring at a world-class level. However, he's just a spring chicken compared to composer Elliott Carter, who celebrates his 103rd birthday this week with a concert of his music in New York. Mind you, this isn't music he wrote years ago. These are compositions he has written since turning 100! You can read more about this iconic American musician at NPR Music, and the New York Times.

Citrus 2011

Today was the annual citrus delivery down here in R-hall. The band, choir, and orchestra unloaded several hundred boxes of oranges and grapefruits weighing a few tons. Unlike past years when it's been cold and snowy, we had a gray, cool, rainy day, but we cleared the truck in about 50 minutes. Now the town of Deerfield will have more Vitamin C than they know what to do with!