CHSJE 1.0

The jazz program at Ann Arbor Community High School has earned an international reputation for the highest levels of jazz musicianship. It is currently directed by Jack Wagner. He was preceded by the twenty-eight year tenure of Michael Grace. But before that, there was me. As I've been reminded, Bart was the start. This is my story of the earliest years of the Community High School Jazz Program.

CHSJE 1.0

by Barton Polot

The seeds for the CHS Jazz Ensemble were planted in the winter of Community High School's second year. A volunteer jazz group directed by University of Michigan students Dwight Andrews and Marcellus Brown served as a sort of beta test, demonstrating to school administrators Wiley Brownlee and Connie Craft a high level of interest and talent among Community's students. Brownlee posted a full-time Jazz position for the Fall of 1974. Several people recommended me for the position, including Brown, Andrews, and Ann Arbor music coordinator Lew Wallace. I interviewed for the job that summer, and then waited to hear.

I never heard. I was not offered the job. As September came and went I became despondent that I was without a job in my chosen profession (although I was still working 32 hours per week in my third year as house pianist at the Gandy Dancer restaurant). It took a phone call from CHS choral director Betsy King to explain that the position was not funded and thus was never filled. King recruited me to serve as jazz director through CHS's Community Resource program, whereby the students could earn credit through work with a member of the community — as they had done the previous semester with Andrews and Brown.

And so it began. That week I introduced myself to a collection of students who seemed willing to do virtually anything to make the nascent group successful. We began rehearsing twice weekly using original arrangements crafted to accommodate any instrumentation. And what instrumentation! A trumpet, two saxes, a flute, four clarinets, a violin and two cellos (plus a full rhythm section). This became an early hallmark of CHSJE 1.0: we would accept all instrumentalists...they needed only to know which end to blow in. In subsequent years, oboes, bassoons, violas, French horns, baritone horns and more joined the ranks.

Eventually we formed a second group that met on Saturday afternoons. It de-emphasized score reading and focused more on improvisation. Improv became another hallmark of CHSJE 1.0, and distinguished us from the traditional big band programs at Ann Arbor's traditional high schools.

Our first performance was scheduled for CHS's annual Multi-ethnic Festival, Thanksgiving eve. We had to scramble to obtain equipment — in particular, amplification that would allow the delicate woodwinds and strings to be heard in balance with the rocking rhythm section. Somehow it came together, and I remember the screams of adulation from the student audience. I also realized how far we needed to come as a group and how much I needed to improve as a director.

At some point in the fall, we held a secret ballot to choose the band's name, and the vote was close. We were one vote away from being "Murphy's Law."

The Community High School Jazz Ensemble performed several more times that year, including a visit to Slauson Jr. High School's cafeteria and our three-hour (OMG) marathon spring concert, presented three times in consecutive days in May. But you never forget your first time. I confess to being infatuated with CHSJE that year, my first full year as a "teacher." The end-of-the-year party (live lobsters for all!) conveyed the affection I had for the group collectively and individually.

Starting with Nothing

If you are familiar with CHS's jazz program you know how well equipped it is. And you cannot imagine how we started with nothing. Nor can you imagine the spirit with which CHSJE students persevered. We started in the first year sharing the vocal rehearsal room, moving to our own rehearsal space in the fall of 1975. Of course, our rehearsal space was a converted elementary classroom, as was the rest of Community High School. Kudos to all those students who painted the room, installed acoustical egg cartons on the wall, mounted shelves in the corners for speakers, and stood day-in day-out on cafeteria tables serving as risers (thank god nobody tumbled backwards into the windows).

We had no instruments. Everyone brought their own, including bass players, drummers and piano players (I shared my own growing keyboard arsenal). Our amplification system consisted of one tiny, ratty, Kmart-quality guitar amp, tricked out with Radio Shack splitters to accommodate all our guitars and electric instruments. And our library consisted of whatever I had written up at home after midnight, after having gotten off work from the Gandy Dancer.

No one should take for granted the speed with which the Ann Arbor Public Schools equipped the program. Within a year or two we were given our own drum set and a full complement of Latin percussion, a few saxes, an electric piano, and real amps. Then came the PA, with a twelve-channel mixer, audio snake, mikes, Barcus-Berry pickups, speakers and monitors — all this bestowed on a music program that had been abruptly dropped in the lap of the AAPS. I am grateful for the financial support from CHS Deans Wiley Brownlee and Connie Craft, music coordinators Lew Wallace and Victor Bordo, and Assistant Superintendent Richard Stock.

Before long, the egg cartons came down (we had never pondered the egregious fire hazard) and up went floor-to-ceiling acoustical treatments and new carpeting. All in all, the room became a pretty cozy place to rehearse. Nonetheless, a few years after I departed, the architects came in and designed from the ground up the wonderful custom rehearsal space the jazz program enjoys today.

Everyone involved with the program should pause to appreciate how a special group of kids back in the day made some amazing music, with nothing.

The Second Year

In the Fall of 1975 I accepted an offer from the Ann Arbor Schools to teach three periods of chorus at Slauson Jr. High and two periods of jazz ensemble at Community.

Those assignments, plus my Forum (CHS's version of homeroom) and travel time, amounted to a 140 percent position. And — and — I was still playing the piano nightly at the Gandy. Way busy!! But I was hired, thank goodness...my first teaching job. And suddenly everything felt official. In May of 1976 the CHS Jazz Ensemble was asked to perform the finale of Spring Music Night, Ann Arbor Schools' showcase concert. The implications of the invitation were palpable: the alternative high school, the fledgling program, the first-year teacher, asked to provide the capstone for the evening. Before an audience of thousands of students, parents and teachers at Crisler Arena, as well as a live radio broadcast, the group played a challenging set (Airto's "Tombo in 7/4," my "M Brown / C Brown" in, huh?, three plus three-and-a-half) and had a blast doing it. We all sensed it: CHSJE had arrived.

As the school year ended, I was spent. The hours and the educational challenges had taken their toll. That summer I did something that in retrospect seems absurdly bold and naive. I wrote a letter to Superintendent Harry Howard informing him that I was resigning from the Slauson portion of my job. In the next paragraph I asserted that Community High School's jazz program warranted a full-time instructor, and moreover, I should be that instructor. This, from a first-year teacher! I was as surprised as anyone when the administration said yes to all my conditions. I was now full-time at CHS, enabling me to add to my schedule classes in music theory and collaborative theatrical projects.

The Third Year

The reputation of the group was growing, and so was enrollment. In a stunning precedent, Superintendent Howard ruled that an extant policy allowing CHS students to attend classes at Huron and Pioneer High Schools should be reciprocated — specifically, that Huron and Pioneer students could enroll for credit in CHSJE.

CHSJE's first appearance in a competition was at a festival sponsored by Washtenaw Community College. The performance wasn't comfortable, and the group did not compare well with the traditional bands from other high schools. Nevertheless, Morris Lawrence expressed his appreciation for our unorthodox approach: "That was bold, man, very bold."

The group performed on the road several more times this year, including memorable concerts at Forsythe Jr. High (where veteran jazz great Lou Smith was band director) and Grand Valley State College. I devoted the summer of 1977 to becoming the best jazz instructor I could be, studying in Texas with Leon Breedon and Rich Matteson, in Kentucky with Jamey Aebersold, and in several local clinics. I was ready for the fall.

The Fourth Year

Enrollment in 1977-78 exceeded what could reasonably fit in our classroom. I received permission to create a third band. And a new policy struck many as very un-CHS-like: I assigned students to bands by audition. The groups were identified by their rehearsal slot: the novice One O'Clock, the experienced Two O'Clock, and the elite Three O'Clock bands.

CHSJE 3:00 performed in MSBOA's Jazz Festival in Livonia that year. Too large to be a combo, but too small and nonconformist to be a big band, the group was still struggling to find a niche in competitions. The judges awarded the band two IIs and a I — the I coming from a very complementary Michael Grace.

With its demanding repertoire and high levels of improvisation, the 3:00 Band represented new vistas for the program, demonstrating the challenges that could be met by a select group of young musicians. The 2:00 Band started the year as a quasi-big band, with traditional big band charts and styles. In retrospect this was a mistake, an attempt to make us "the same" rather than celebrating our differences. We finished the year as a large combo-style group, and CHS never again experimented with big band jazz. The 1:00 Band proved to be a wonderful proving ground for students getting acquainted with jazz and improvisation. It allowed students to matriculate through the program over the years.

The Fifth Year

Among the highlights of the 1978-79 year was a performance of the 3:00 Band opening the University of Michigan Jazz Band's concert in Rackham Auditorium. Our group more than held its own sharing the stage with collegiate jazz musicians.

The Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association held big band and jazz combo festivals every spring. In past years the 3:00 Band wanted to perform in MSBOA's combo festival, but the group's enrollment exceeded the festival's official limit of eight. Strongly desiring to be viewed as a large combo rather than a small, malformed big band, we made a tough decision: we would enter the combo festival, but leave four members at home. We practiced our music, we practiced our improv, we even practiced setting up our equipment (each group was allotted 20 minutes to set up, perform and get off). We felt well prepared. Imagine our disappointment when our festival performance was cut off in mid-song by the time-keeper. We were nevertheless pleased to be awarded a I at the festival — our first ever.

Our pleasure turned to elation the following week. MSBOA phoned to say that CHSJE 3:00 had been named the best of the 36 combos competing from around the state in 1979. For us it was a major achievement, and we used the honor to promote the program in subsequent years.

Along with the honor came an invitation to perform at the annual Michigan Youth Arts Festival in Mt. Pleasant. Here we were allowed to bring the entire ensemble, not merely eight members. The group entertained the festival participants during dinner, performing its extensive, sophisticated repertoire from memory, and then performed in concert the following afternoon.

In May CHSJE made its first appearance at Picnic Pops, on the grounds of Pioneer High School. The year concluded with the 2:00 Band celebrating graduation on the front steps of the school, as depicted on the front page of the Ann Arbor News.

The sixth Year

The core of last year's award-winning 3:00 Band returned in the fall of 1979 and set off on their own, forming the Student Jazz Workshop. The 1:00 and 2:00 Bands remained strong and committed. This year I introduced a new emphasis on sight reading. Each week the band read a fake-book tune, and was expected to perform the song accurately, improvise to the chord changes appropriately, segue soloists without pre-assignment, and conjure up a tight ending. It seemed like folly in the fall, but by May had become routine.

This year's solution to MSBOA's eight-player combo limit was to split the 2:00 Band in half: one group with winds playing lead, the other with three violins.

(One advantage was that the two groups could share the precious setup time). Both groups earned a I at the festival. At Community High, outstanding festival performances had now become routine. The last official performance of CHSJE 1.0 was at Picnic Pops. The last song, "Turkish Bath," — a blues in 7/4, featuring the woodwind and string sections, and accompanied by Clavinet and an electrified sitar — summarily conveyed everything the group had been about for the past six years.

There was one more performance. CHSJE was invited to perform at the 1980 Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival during Labor Day weekend. Over subsequent decades, Detroit's annual jazz festival has invited many regional high school jazz groups, but that year, that day, Community High and Ernie Rogers' Northwestern High School were the first. The Student Jazz Workshop represented CHS and played a knock-out set.

The Transition

Several factors led to my decision to leave Community High School. My long-range plans were to teach at the college level, for which I would need graduate degrees. Indeed, University of Michigan faculty were already recruiting me aggressively to their doctoral program. I knew also that I'd need my Gandy Dancer gig to pay my way through graduate school; that clock was ticking.

One major influence was the day in 1979 that CHS math teacher Ed Herstein invited me to his classroom. What he showed me were two desktop computers — a Commodore 64 and an Apple ][ — each connected to a piano-like keyboard. What he showed me were 15-year-olds making music with computers in real time. (My previous experience with music and computers involved punch cards and time-sharing on the University of Michigan's sole mainframe.) What he showed me that day was my

future: my professional focus thereafter shifted from jazz to music technology. To the combined membership of the 1:00 and 2:00 Bands I announced my plans to leave CHS, and to me the rest of the school year seemed so somber. At my last spring concert, the students presented me with a plaque, one of my valued possessions. The Ann Arbor Schools posted the position during the summer, and I was invited to participate in the interviews. I recruited several people I knew, including Michael Grace. Mike and I had taught together in a wonderful summer jazz program at Henry Ford Community College. I knew him to be a talented musician, a committed teacher, and an inspiring mentor. No one could have duplicated CHSJE 1.0, but no one could have come closer than Mike Grace. His version of the jazz program attained heights that were beyond my imagination.

Since 1980

I resumed my studies at the University of Michigan, completing my masters in 1981 and my doctoral coursework in 1986. I defended my dissertation, thus completing my doctoral degree, in 1992. Doctor Bart.

My first position in higher education began in 1987, when I joined the music faculty of the University of Toledo. This necessitated moving to Ohio, which necessitated departing from the Gandy Dancer after more than 15 years. The Toledo position was described initially as Music Education, but I soon took on more: Music Theory, Jazz History, classroom keyboard and guitar, and Jazz Improvisation. I also joined the UT Faculty Combo, which performed regularly.

In 1992 I joined the faculty of the University of Michigan, in the areas of music education, music technology, and class piano. This brought me back to Ann Arbor, where my family still lives. It's fair to say that at Michigan my versatility was less valued, and over the span of nine years I was asked to do less rather than more.

Since 2001 I have been at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, where I oversee the music technology program, and also teach music theory and aural skills courses. We have a terrific Music Technology Lab, which is always kept up-to-date with the latest hardware and

software. In 2005 the college approved the creation of a Synthesizer Ensemble — and I have been re-living CHSJE ever since. The fledgling group, check. The initial lack of equipment, check. Writing charts at two in the morning, check. Managing the PA system, check.T-shirts from Elmo Morales, check. Patiently building a national reputation, check. And I've been pulling out songs from the 40-year-old CHSJE library. You would be just as amused hearing my current students jamming their electronic version of "M Brown / C Brown" as they are hearing about high school students who played the same song back in — are you kidding? — the 70s.

Over my career I must have taught over two thousand students. I confess that I often forget names the day after the semester ends. But you never forget your first. There are about 120 students who experienced CHSJE 1.0 and I remember them all. Dearly.