Where does Jazz Band fit in?
We had our first Spring semester jazz band rehearsal today after school. I would like to have a Jazz Band class but the students just don't have room in their schedule for it. I could probably get 8 or 10 of them but for most they just couldn't schedule it and their concert class. I got to thinking about what others think about how jazz band fits into a band program. Is it essential or is it something extra? Right now mine is something extra. We only meet one day a week and really take it pretty lightly. Today we read though four pieces. They were all swing. One student even came up to me afterwards and said it was a lot of fun and that he really enjoyed it. That made me feel good because this is a student in which I have tried to get more involved to participate more fully in the band program. So maybe this is a way to get him more in tune with what we are really about. Certainly anything that motivates a student to play their instrument is a good thing.
posted by Jon Brady at 6:34 PM
2 Comments:
Jazz band was something I looked forward to every week when I went to Dutch Fork; it gave me another setting to play the bari. Even if it's not a class, it's good to hear that jazz band is still alive.
I think Jazz Band could and should be the most important ensemble. In my school our Jazz Ensemble meets every day, and it's made up of my best musicians - including my best clarinets and flutes! ( I do usually end up re-writing all of our rep!) I reserve this band for my best musicians and I focus on treating them like a professional band - we are not the greatest Jazz Ensemble out there, we don't play two tunes and cream other bands in competitions, but we do perform a full rep of standards and other tunes - not all big band stuff - swing, be-bop, west coast, fusion, and pop (yes pop music too), and we perform all over our town including restaurants, clubs, malls, etc. The Jazz Ensemble is a chance to see how the real world of music works - we tour, have roadies and student sound engineers, the whole nine yards. We do two tours a year - a winter holiday tour and a spring tour with about 5-6 performances in each tour. Our concert band/wind ensemble classes during the day miss out on having these great musicians in class, but that allows me more time and better ears to help them in class. Once a week we meet at night to rehearse all of the ensembles together.
I also think that teaching improvisation is really important and concert rep just doesn't allow for that kind of student creativity.
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