• Spring 2022 - SIGN UP HERE. Jazz Band will meet once/week for 90 minutes, mostly on Mondays. See the band calendar for details.

About Jazz Band

Jazz Band is an after-school ensemble. It meets once a week until 4:30, in the band room. All instruments are welcome! However students must have at least 1 year of experience on their instrument to participate or audition for Mr. Hanna. The Fall (Sept-Dec) and Spring (Jan-May) seasons have different focuses and expectations (see below).

Fall Jazz Band

The fall jazz band is a fun introduction to jazz playing for all eligible students. The music is easy to learn and fun, and the emphasis is on learning the basics of jazz, including simple improvisation strategies. This is Jazz 101. No audition required.

Spring Jazz Band

In Spring Jazz, the music is a mix of jazz, blues, funk, and even a little rock/pop music thrown in as well. The level of difficulty is higher, but all the effort is well worth it. The goal in the spring is to achieve a high level of performance in a variety of concert and competitions in April/May. There will be a short audition for the spring season following winter break.

Learn more about Jazz

Jazz is a melting pot of music and cultures from around the world. But it was born in the USA, and could only have been born in the USA because it's story is so deeply entwined into the history of our nation. The first jazz musicians down in New Orleans were fusing ideas from African and Caribbean rhythms, folktunes, ragtime music, the blues, and gospel music. Like any good chef would do, they mixed they ideas together and baked them into a new art form, Jazz.

There are 3 main ingredients upon which Jazz is built:

1 - The Blues (example: Ray Charles!)

2 - Swing (example: Louis Armstrong!)

3 - Improvisation (example: John Coltrane!)

Jazz is actually more than just another genre of music. Jazz is a unique musical language. It takes years to master the vocabulary and the grammar of jazz.

To start learning about jazz, LISTEN to some. Listen to the masters (Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Miles Davis...) to learn the language. And listen to the great performers on your instrument to learn how to play it (eg. Max Roach for drums, Louis Armstrong for trumpet, John Coltrane for sax).