It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got that Swing

Members of the Pottstown High School Jazz Band, shown here at the Boyertown Jazz Festival, are: Pierce Bertoti, Marley Bryan, Sam Dudley, Glenroy Greiss, Aaron Kemmerer, Ryan McMahon, Amira Mohamed, Sherif Mohamed, Tamer Mohamed, Amy Moyer, Sara Pargeon, Frank Scaltrito, Joseph Schaaf, Marisa Somich, Miranda Somich, Jeffrey Vontor, Brandon Wilson, Tyler Windish, Jacob Wunderlich

 
OK, so I had the info for how the Pottstown Middle School Jazz Band did at the Boyertown Jazz Festival last weekend, but could not stay for the high school performances.

Then, ta-da! Like magic, director Michael Vought provided the info to Pottstown School District's Minister of Information, John Armato, who passed it along to me and voila! We have a complete report.

Since I've already reported on the middle school performances (see below) on our web site, we'll put the high schoolers results up top here. This the release Armato sent:

Recently the Pottstown High School Jazz Band, under the direction of Michael Vought, participated in the annual Boyertown Jazz Festival. They received a “Superior” rating for their performance.  The “Trombone Section” was recognized for receiving the Outstanding Trombone Section Award.  Members of the trombone section included:  Tyler Windish, Amy Moyer, Jeffrey Vontor, Sherif Mohamed and Ryan McMahon.

Individual honors were gained by Tyler Windish, as the Outstanding Soloist player (trombone) and drummer Jake Wunderlich also received an Outstanding Soloist award.  Mr. Vought had high praise for his entire band.  “Our young people have been working very hard at perfecting their performance.  Many hours were spent individually and as a group to ensure that we represented our school and community with a quality performance.”

Other schools taking part in the event along with Pottstown were Boyertown, Wilson West Lawn, Easton, Governor Mifflin, and Reading.

Here is the middle school stuff:
(Blogger's Note: If you read this already on The Mercury web site Monday night, my apologies. But hey, the video is new!) 

BOYERTOWN — Seven area school districts sent jazz bands to this year’s Seventh Annual “Jazz’n In B-town” Jazz Festival Saturday.

I was present for the middle school portion of the program (sorry high schoolers. but hey, it was my day off).

Participating were bands from the middle schools in Governor Mifflin, Spring-Ford, Pottstown, Wilson West and Boyertown.

Because Boyertown hosted, it was not part of the competition, but it did perform nevertheless.

The Governor Mifflin “Diplomats,” under the direction of Heather Griffin, performed “Living in America,” “Cool, Joe, Mean Joe (Killer Joe),” and “Cantaloupe Island.”

The Spring-Ford Middle School Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Kris Jennings, performed “Perdido,”  soloist was Brian Doman on electric bass; “My Funny Valentine,” soloist was Max Reese, alto saxophone and Hannah Flood on trumpet” and “Grooved Pavement,” soloist was Max Reese on alto saxophone, Evan Truckley on trumpet and Luke Smirga on trombone.



The Pottstown Middle School Jazz Band, under the direction of Ben Hayes, performed “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” “Pure Imagination,” soloist was Justin Beasley on alto saxophone; and “Oye Coma Va,” soloist was John Johnson on trumpet.

Wilson West, under the direction of Jon-Thomas Houser, performed “Gospel John,” “All the Things You are,” and “Salsa Nueva.”



The Boyertown Junior High Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Michael Jordan, performed “Shiny Stocking,” soloist Ty Botts on piano; “Cold Duck Time,” with soloists Adam Helmer on tenor saxophone and Amber Strohl on alto saxophone and “Second Line,” with soloists including Cameron Crider on trumpet, Adam Helmer on tenor saxophone, Amber Strohl on alto saxophone, Zach Talis on trombone and David Ziegler on trombone.

Mifflin, Spring-Ford and Pottstown all earned a rating of “Outstanding,” while Wilson West was deemed “Superior” by the judges.

Here are some of the other results:
• Pottstown — Best Trumpet Section;
• Wilson West — Best Trombone Section;
• Spring-Ford — Best Woodwind Section;
• Wilson West — Best Rhythm Section;
• Vaughn Golden of Governor Mifflin; Max Reese from Spring-Ford and John Johnson from Pottstown were all named “outstanding soloist; and Robby Dalton of Wilson was named “Overall Outstanding Soloist.”