School Board Recognizes High School Jazz Band

At the March 3, meeting of the University City School Board, the Board recognized the following University High School students for receiving Outstanding Musicianship Awards at the February 4, Jazz Festival at the University of Missouri-Kansas City:

• Ben Aronberg, piano
• Terrance Childs, trombone
• Nate King, trumpet
• Zach Morrow, drums

These awards continue the tradition of success for the jazz band program at UCHS, presently led by Mr. Stanley Coleman, who has been teaching in the University City School District for 11 years.  Mr. Coleman won a Yale Distinguished Music Educator of the Year award in 2009. In addition to jazz band at UCHS, he presently teaches music theory, concert band, and jazz band at Brittany Woods Middle School.  Mr. Coleman teaches students the art of improvisational jazz soloing starting in junior high.  By the time they reach high school, many of them are quite comfortable standing up for extended solos – and are a joy to listen to.  

Mr Coleman’s jazz band students listen to and play a wide variety of jazz works by many of the biggest names in the genre. For example, one recent performance included: “Birth of a Band,” by Quincy Jones: “Land of Make Believe” by Chuck Mangione; “Chameleon,” by Herbie Hancock; “Salt Peanuts” and “Manteca” by Dizzy Gillespie; “All Blues,” by Miles Davis; “Red Clay,” by  Freddie Hubbard; “Bags Groove” by Milt Jackson; “ and “I Wish,” by Stevie Wonder.

The high school and middle school jazz bands regularly travel to out-of-town competitions -- and regularly receive accolades. In addition, his bands play at a variety of venues where they perform under conditions more typical of professional jazz artists than of students playing in a school auditorium.  These "gigs" outside the school district have included performances at the Millennium and Moonrise hotels, the Sheldon, and BB’s Jazz, Blues and Soups.

The UCHS band often performs at Robbie's House of Jazz in Webster Groves. On January 22, the band, accompanied by a few special guests, played for nearly 4 hours at Robbie's.

That night, after directing the band through a big band set featuring 16 musicians, Mr. Coleman sat down. He had turned the show over to the students.  A self-selected smaller combo then directed themselves for much of the remaining time, with the big band returning to close out the show.

During the combo part of the show, the students led themselves in song choice, tempo, solo order, etc.  Part of the pleasure of watching live jazz is glimpsing the spontaneity.  It was on display here in a manner that contributed positively to the audience experience, as the band members chatted briefly before numbers to decide what to play next and set up solos.

A highlight of the January performance at Robbie’s was when trombonists Terrence Childs and James Lenard surprised the crowd by both standing up to solo at the same time, listening and responding instantly to each other’s riffs.  Not to be outdone, moments later alto sax aces Jo-e’l Williams (a guest) and Sam Katz similarly shared a lengthy solo.

Twice at Robbie’s I’ve seen some of these young musicians refuse to quit playing, hanging around and striking up another number after the end of the performance had been announced and the audience begun leaving.

One might wonder how such a young band plays for such a long time.  The answer is twofold. First, it is obvious that they love to play.  Second, they’ve been schooled to play real jazz, full of creative spark and spontaneity.  Just like any good jazz club performance, their shows are loaded with improvised solos, extending each number into an extended jam. 

Robbie’s House of Jazz (http://www.robbieshouseofjazz.com/) is located at 20 Allen Ave., Ste. 150, in Old Webster.  Dorothy Edwards, who opened Robbie's about a year ago, said she is very impressed with the performance of the University City students.  Robbie's has a regular Tuesday night jam session, a house band led by Dorothy’s husband Robert Edwards, and is planning to continue to showcase local high school and college talent.