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TAMARA: Being able to work together on a constant basis whereas at most schools may have band
once a week, these kids are in here playing every day together all day sometimes when
they are not supposed to because they enjoy it so much.
TYLER: As a drummer the reason I find myself coming to jazz you're not just a supporting
role, like in a rock band the focus is all on the vocalist or the main guitar player
and you're just in the back laying down a beat. But in jazz you're more you're each
a soloist and you are all coming together to form one thing and so you have a lot more
freedom playing the drums and you can be more of a musical instrument a melodic instrument
if you choose. And I find that that freedom is what I thrive on.
CHAZ When I saw someone like this one person go up on stage and took a trumpet solo I mean
I didn't know that was a solo I thought he had memorized music but that's called an improvisation
and I was like whoa how's he doing that and he's doing that not just by music theory but
also with his emotions and when you solo it's all about creating a story but that's why
I really love jazz because I get to express my emotions if I'm mad I go grrr, I honk on
the horn you know that type of stuff.
JOSH It's a very alive style of music, it's not like rock you play a song straight through
and it's the same each time, jazz is more in the moment so you really get to play with
it a lot.
JOHN The way that we play a lot of ideas that we do or that we use like they can come from
forties jazz you know but you can bring em back and they change and evolve.
HARIM: Learning all of this theory and all of this science and all of this music academics
behind just jamming and playing and playing your instrument it's like breaking it down
and if you play a note and you harmonize it and you like how it sounds, why do you like
it? And why don't you like it? I mean what's the science behind it ? Why does it work?
Why does this not work? Jazz definitely plays around with your ear a lot. And it's super
interesting to try to recreate that yourself. And especially doing it with these guys who
are all super talented I mean it's really fun to do.
TAMARA: I've been very fortunate through our 21st century assets grant money that we receive
each year at the school to have an after school program in addition to the class so a couple
of years ago we had stars, people like Dan Regan, who plays with Mark Anthony who came
in and coached our brass and we've had Charles MacPherson and all kinds of, Ella Steinberg,
just all kinds of people that were able to come in and work with the students on a one
to one or in a workshop type of situation so it really helped to boost the skills
JOHN: Music is not rocket science, but if you're playing jazz it can be.