No Middle Ground for this Jazz Band

The Pottstown Middle School Jazz Band with their "Superior" rating from a recent competition at Arcola Middle School.

Blogger's Note: John Armato, whose appreciation for the musical arts only continues to grow, provided the following.

The Pottstown Middle School jazz band proved that when it comes to jazz there is no middle ground in the Pottstown School District program which is recognized for outstanding bands at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels.

The middle school band, under the direction of Mr. Ben Hayes, earned the top rating of “Superior” at the Arcola Jazz event.

Will Minnick with his 

"Outstanding Soloist" award from 

the Arcola jazz completion

Competing against bands from Spring-Ford, Pottsgrove, Pine Brook, and Penndale, the band made its presence felt by performing “Groovin’,” “Freddie the Freeloader,” and “Blues Machine.”

The trumpet section of Mitchell Aquino, Will Minnick, AJ Ecker, Nick Wilson, Kiersten Heverly, and Jonathan Brusk earned recognition as the “Best Trumpet Section.” 

Will Minnick gained individual honors by receiving the “Outstanding Soloist Award.”

“This band has shown incredible growth over the course of this year," said Hayes. "They work hard as a team so that they can perform well on stage." 

"We are not the largest district in the area but we have proven that we are able to compete with much bigger schools and show how great our music department is," Hayes added. 

"Our students are beginning to believe in themselves and the idea that good work habits and determination will make any goal obtainable. Their performance makes me say I’m proud to be from Pottstown.”

Members of the jazz band include:

 

The "Best Trumpet Section" with their award from
the Arcola jazz competition.

• Saxes: Shane Duncan, Evan DeBlase, Hannah Shankle, London Aquino, Rashell Williams, Avery Heverly, Destyn Snyder

• Trumpets: Mitchell Aquino, Will Minnick, AJ Ecker, Kiersten Heverly, Jonathan Brusk

• Trombones: Caitlin McLaughlin, Julian Weber, Manny Paez, Ross Mather

• Rhythm Section: Gabe Francis, Dylan Thorne, Nick Wilson, Harrison Wolf, Madison Overholt, Claire Fetterman

And the Award Goes To.....

Photo by Evan Brandt

Daniel Boone Senior Alyx Blumstock, left, and Junior Megan Jolivette prepare to give out the awards at the end of the 43rd Annual Sound Spectacular Jazz Band Festival at Daniel Boone High School Friday.

If awards were given for best sound system (microphones work when they’re supposed to) and best program (handy fill-in sheet makes keeping track of awards easy) the Daniel Boone High School would win them both.

Both were awaiting those who stopped by for the 43rd Annual Sound Spectacular Jazz Festival, along with some stellar performances by area bands.

Photo by Evan Brandt

THE JUDGES TABLE: The judges for the evening were 

Chuck Dressler, Bill Powers and Bob Wagner.

Two bands, the Pottstown High School Jazz Band and the Boyertown Area Senior High School Big
Band, were both rated as “superior,” the highest rating given by judges.

The Phoenixville Area High School Jazz Band earned a rating of “outstanding” and the Daniel Boone High School Jazz Ensemble was the host, so it was not rated, although it did perform Friday night.

Boyertown earned both the outstanding saxophone section and the outstanding trumpet section awards while Pottstown earned the outstanding rhythm section award.

North Penn High School won the outstanding trombone section award.

Photo by Evan Brandt

There was a pretty good size crowd gather as the night went on.

Two saxophonists, Kelli Hess of Boyertown and Marley Bryan of Pottstown, earned outstanding soloists awards, as did Donnie Jackson of Phoneixville.

Honorable mentions for outstanding soloists included drummer Jake Wunderlich from Pottstown and
Bennett Stump, also a drummer, from Wilson High School.

Because I have posted the three songs performed by both the Pottstown and the Boyertown bands twice before on this blog, I will not embed them here tonight.

I will be uploading them to YouTube (Perhaps tomorrow, it’s very late) and you can view them on my YouTube channel.

Also, I will make a playlist of the area bands from the show.

Photo by Evan Brandt 

The ABC Select Jazz Band from Amity Elementary School also played.

Because I could slip out in between when bands like Upper Merion and Ephrata were playing, I was
able to re-charge the batteries in the mighty iPhone and so was able to capture a today of 12 performances on video.

Instead, I will embed the videos of Phoenixville and Daniel Boone, because many of you will not have heard them before.

But before we get to any of that, I should mention that two of the district's elementary school bands played in exhibition, the Birdsboro/Monocacy Elementary Band and the ABC Select Jazz Band from Amity Elementary.

I was charging my battery when the Birdsboro school played but I did get a video sample of the Amity group. Here they are playing "Salsa Special."



And now on to the high schools.

First up is Phoenixville, which began with a singer with a lovely voice for a piece called "Afternoon in Paris," and although they announced her name, it did not appear in the program, so I cannot share it with you.

The soloist names the program did share were Donnie Jackson on trumpet, Karl Sewick on guitar and Spncer Rakoczy on drums.



Despite what is said in the program, this was followed by a number titled "Lady Bird." The soloists are Nick Kissel on trombone and Jake Gould on alto saxophone.



And finally, a very nice work called "Living in a Dream," with some truly excellent trumpet work by soloist Donnie Jackson. It's easy to see (or, rather, hear) why he won an outstanding soloist award.



And now its on to the hosts, Daniel Boone High School and its Jazz Ensembl.

They began with a number named "Pegasus," by Hank Levy. Soloists are Alyx Blumenstock on baritone saxophone, Nichole Risley on flugel horn and Bethany Hallwell on Flute, as well as Justin Frey on alto saxophone.



This was followed by "Unit 7" by Sam Jones, which features Justin Frey as a soloist in alto saxophone.



And Daniel Boone finished up with "A Time for Love, which features James Kalenda on trombone as the soloist.



Oh yes, as for the schools outside The Mercury coverage area, they were rated as follows: Brandywine Heights High School earned an "outstanding," Reading High School earned an "outstanding," Wilson High School earned a "superior," North Penn High School earned a "superior," Ephrata High School earned an "outstanding," and Upper Merion High School earned an "oustanding."

All right, so its 2:15 a.m.

Here's your damn playlist of all the tunes played by Pottstown, Boyertown, Phoenixville and Daniel Boone:

Pottsgrove Jazz Fest This Saturday

Fully 10 jazz bands will be performing at the Pottsgrove Jazz Fest this Saturday in the high school auditorium.

Tickets are $5 for adults, $4 for students and seniors.

Patrons are free to come and go between performances.

Here is the schedule:

• 5:30 p.m. -- Pottsgrove Middle School Jazz Band
• 6 p.m. -- Springfield High School Lab Band
• 6:25 p.m. -- Sping-Ford High School Lab Band
• 6:50 p.m. -- Hatboro-Horsham High School Jazz Band
• 7:15 p.m. -- Penn Woods High School Jazz Band
• 7:40 p.m. -- Springfield High School Jazz Band
• 8:05 p.m. -- Boyertown High School Jazz Band
• 8:30 p.m. -- Spring-Ford High School Jazz Band
• 8:50 p.m. -- Pottstown High School Jazz Band
• 9:20 p.m. -- Pottsgrove High School Jazz Band (exhibition only, they will not be judged as part of the competition.)

The jazz bands are judged by the Cavalcade Of Bands and awards are given for: 

1. Best Saxophone Section 
2. Best Trumpet Section 
3. Best Trombone Section 
4. Best Rhythm Section

Each band is also rated in one of the following categories: 

• Superior 
• Outstanding 
• Excellent 
• Very Good

"This is a great event for longtime jazz lovers and newcomers to the genre," according to a post on the event's Facebook page.

All That Jazz (All Night Long, tonight)

Pottstown High School Jazz Band

The Pottstown School District is inviting the public to a night of free Jazz entertainment tonight,  Wednesday, April 25, 7 p.m. at Pottstown Middle School.

The night will be featuring all three jazz bands Pottstown School District has to offer starting off with the Elementary Jazz Band. 

The Elementary jazz band will be performing a number of original compositions and  arrangements by director, Mr. Brian Langdon.

These numbers include an arrangement of "Louie, Louie" which will be sure to get everyone rocking and a world premier of a Latin number titled "Devious."

Next up will be the Middle School Jazz Band under the direction of Benjamin Hayes. They will be performing a number of jazz charts including "Sweet Caroline" made famous by Neil Diamond and "Dynamite" made famous by Taio Cruz.

There's a pretty good chance the Middle School band will perform this little Duke Ellington number:



The night will be caped off by the award winning High School Jazz Band under the direction of Michael Vought.

If you haven't heard the high school jazz band yet, watch this video of them playing "The Running of the Bulls" and it might convince you to make time this evening for a great show:

 

This band has been awarded many superior ratings, section and soloists awards at local jazz festivals. 

They will be playing a few new charts that they haven't played in public so far.

These include "I Got You" by James Brown, "Free Ride" by The Edgar Winter Group and "Respect"  made famous by Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin.

If you need an early James Brown fix to get you started, here's an oldie and a goodie:



 Make sure you swing by for a great night of jazz that will feature all of Pottstown finest musicians.

All That Jazz (News, with video of performances)

The Pottsgrove Music League will present “Grove Jazz,” A Night of Great High School Jazz Music, held at Pottsgrove Middle School on Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 7 p.m.

Come and hear four outstanding high school jazz bands (Including Pottstown, The Hill School, Springfield Delco and Conestoga Valley) perform.

In addition, the Pottsgrove High School and Middle school jazz bands will also perform throughout the evening along with a special exhibition band.

Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students/senior citizens and sold at the door.

* * *

The Pottstown High School Jazz Band

Not enough Jazz news for you?

Fear not, there's more:

The Pottstown High School Jazz Band, under the direction of Mr. Michael Vought, was recognized with a rating of “Superior” during the recent Kutztown Jazz Festival.

This marks the second superior rating that the band has received in competition this year.

The “Trombone Section” consisting of Tyler Windish, Amy Moyer, Jeffrey Vontor, Sherif Mohamed and Ryan McMahon earned additional recognition as the winners of the “Outstanding Trombone Section Award.”

Drummer Jake Wunderlich was recognized with the “Outstanding Soloist Award.”

(Below: The Pottstown High School Jazz Band performs "Running of the Bulls."



Other schools taking part in the competition included: Muhlenberg, Emmaus, Saucon Valley, Easton, and Reading.

The band’s performance included “Blue Note Special” by Mike Tomaro, “Someone To Watch Over Me” arranged by Mark Taylor, and “Running Of The Bulls” by Doug Beach and George Shutack.

(Below: The Pottstown High School Jazz Band performs "Blue Note Special")



Mr. Vought’s pride was hard to conceal: "I am so proud of this hard working Pottstown jazz band,." he said in a release from the school district.

"This is the second ‘superior’ rating they received this year and is the second time the trombone section won the ‘outstanding section’ award," said Vought. "Congratulations to Jake Wunderlich for his second ‘soloist award’ for his drum solo in ‘Running Of The Bulls.’ Our school district and community can be proud of the excellent representation of the quality of our students and programs.”