Pottstown High Jazz Soloists Bring Home Awards

Outstanding Soloists Chloe Herbert and David Hicks

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottstown School District.

Pottstown High School Jazz Band members David Hicks and Chloe Hebert brought home Outstanding Soloist awards at the 1st Annual Doc Mulligan Get JazzEd Festival held at Reading Area Community College Miller Center Auditorium.

The band competed against seven area schools including: Governor Mifflin, The Hill School, Reading, Tulpehocken, Manheim Township and Wilson West Lawn.

The Pottstown High School Jazz Band is conducted by Michael Vought, who is retiring this year.

Pottstown Jazz Bands Are 'Superior' All Season Long

Pottstown High School Jazz Band at Methacton.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottstown School District.
If it is Spring time you can count on the birds and flowers coming out and in Pottstown you can count on the sweet sounds of Jazz music from the Middle and High School 

Jazz Bands. Directors Katie German and Mike Vought took the Pottstown Sound on the road. 

The Pottstown Middle School 7/8 Jazz Band at Wilson.

The Middle School band traveled to Wilson High School, where they received a rating of Superior. 

High School Jazz Band Director Mike Vought,

and soloist winner Chloe Hebert.

The Best Trumpet Section award went to Trojans (Akira Love, Gabe Roseo, Colin Dellaquila, Gabe Hicks, Fredy Rodriguez). 

In a section or solo Middle School students show their talent,with Best Trumpet Solo (Akira Love), and Best Piano Solo (Allison Ormston). 

The High School band also made a road trip to the Methacton School District to compete in the Woody Herman Division of the Cavalcade Of Bands 30th Annual Jazz Championships. 

After 11 bands performed 3 selections each, Pottstown received a "Superior" rating (highest possible). Garry Oberholtzer and Chloe Hebert each received honorable mention soloist awards. 

Soloist winner Gary Olberholtzer

The High School band includes;

SAXES
Julianna Roseo – Alto 1, Hannah Shankle – Alto 2, Kishan Patel – Alto 2, Chloe Hebert – Tenor 1, London Aquino – Tenor 2, Avery Heverly – Bari

TRUMPETS
Nick Wilson – Trumpet 1, Will Minnick – Trumpet 1, Abby Welder – Trumpet 2, Mitchell Aquino – Trumpet 3, Donny Marte – Trumpet 4

​TROMBONES
David Hicks – Trombone 1, Caitlin McLaughlin – Trombone 2, Darion Miller – Trombone 3, John Stilwell – Trombone 4

RHYTHM SECTION
Garry Oberholtzer – Guitar, Alyssa Rulli – Vibes, Julian Weber – Piano, Anthony Russo – Bass, Emily Weber – Bass, Gabe Francis – Drums, Dylan Thorne – Drums, Terrell Taylor-Williams - Percussion

The Pottstown Middle School 7/8 Jazz Band performs in Emmaus.

Earlier this month, playing jazz classics like "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" and "Footprints," the Pottstown Middle School Jazz Band continued to build it's reputation of excellence.

The Best Trumpet Section award winners.

Under the direction of Katie German the 7/8 Jazz Band performed at the Emmaus High School Jazz Festival along with six other middle school bands. 

The Trojan band was awarded the highest rating of "Superior". The Trumpet section of Akira Love, Gabe Roseo, Colin Dellaquila, Gabe Hicks and Fredy Rodriguez received the Best Trumpet Section Award and 8th grade member, Akira Love, was named the best soloist. 

German said "I am very proud of our students. They are learning that their hard work and dedication is paying off and will lead to future success." 

The Curtain Closes on Another (Last) Music Season

Crappy photos by Evan Brandt

The Pottstown High School Jazz Band performs at the school's Instrumental Spring Recital Thursday.

Yes, I know.

I said these videos and photos would be posted Saturday and its Sunday. Turns out there are only 24 hours in a day.

Besides, now you get the added advantage of videos of the Pottsgrove High School Jazz Band performing at the Cavalcade of Bands Jazz Championships in Chichester Friday as a bonus.

Senior Kyke Kratzer, who I am now told will pursue a career
in music technology at Millersville, NOT music education,
thanks Pottstown Band Director Mike Vought for four years
of fun and music.

(I did not shoot videos of Pottstown because I shot them at the spring concert the day before.)

As the father of a senior, and many of you out there know what I mean, Spring is a season of "lasts." The "last spring concert," the "last jazz band championships," the "last time I yell at you for sleeping too late."

You know how it goes.

The Pottstown High School Jazz Band performs
at the Championships at Chichester High School.

It seems that it tends to take on extra weight with the seniors, who are looking ahead to new horizons.

For teachers, it seems to be the end of a cycle they have experienced time and time again.

For parents, it is a milepost we will never pass again and one which inevitably has us looking backward.

But I will spare you those reflections. You're here to see videos. So here they are:

Pottstown Senior Casey Mest performs his solo on 

baritone sax at the Jazz Championships.

Herein you will find four of the five tunes played by the Pottstown High School Jazz Band during the spring concert and two of the four compositions played by the Concert Band.

I'm afraid my phone does not have enough space to have recorded performances by the clarinet and flute ensembles. (Sorry Mrs. Mest.)

The Pottstown High School Concert Band stands at the end of their concert Thursday.

You will also find three tunes performed by the Pottsgrove Jazz Band at the championships, which, by the way, stretched on until midnight and I did not stay to see final results.

 (Although I do know senior Kyle Kratzer won yet another solo award and Pottstown earned a rating of "Outstanding. And Pottsgrove earned a "Superior" rating although I do not know if they received, or any other awards. If you know, please email me at ebrandt@pottsmerc.com and I will add them to this post.)

Anyway, TO THE VIDEOS!



Next up was a new number: "Hurricane Season:"



Followed by "West Coast Blues:"



The Jazz Banded ended with "Hit the Bricks:"


Then the Concert Band came out and played four numbers. Here is the third:


And, as they traditionally do, the Concert Band ended the night with a salute to the five armed services, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.



And now, on to the Cavalcade Championships and Pottsgrove's performance at Chichester which, I must say, is a terribly inconvenient place to get to from Pottstown.

The Pottsgrove High School Jazz Band stands at the end of their performance in Chichester.

They followed with the obligatory slow number:

 f

And finally, the big finish!



The Pottstown concert season may be over, but the Pottsgrove season is just getting started.

Here are the dates and locations:

• 5/2/17 - High School & Middle School Orchestra Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - High School
• 5/4/17 - Middle School Band & Handbell Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - Middle School
• 5/8/17 - Elementary Beginning and Advanced Orchestra Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - Middle School
• 5/11/17 - High School Band Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - High School
• 5/13/17 - Lower Pottsgrove Elementary Art Show & 5th Grade Musical @ 7:30 pm 
• 5/15/17 - Lower Pottsgrove Elementary Beginning & Advanced Band Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - Middle School
• 5/18/17 - Middle School Choral Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - Middle School
• 5/24/17 - High School Choral Spring Concert @ 7:30 pm - High School

And so another music season goes by the boards and the seniors head off to their next chapter.

I will confess that without having a child in the schools, I cannot guarantee I will continue to perform this service, particularly as it costs money because I ain't paid to do it and each performances has an admission fee.

Hopefully others will share their videos with me, in which case I would be more than happy to share them with you.

An 'Outstanding' Outing for Pottstown Jazz Band

Photos courtesy of Missy Weber

The Pottstown High School Jazz Band with all their awards from Friday night's competition.

Best of all, they had a lot of fun. Seen here, Julian Weber
Eddie Butler and Dylan Thorn on drums

The Pottstown High School Jazz Band had an outstanding outing at Perkiomen Valley Middle School West Friday night.

The overall performance earned a rating of "Outstanding."

In addition, three sections won best section awards.

They were best saxophone section, best trombone section and another best

Best Saxophone section. From left, Hannah Shankel,
Yuliza Cruz, Casey Mest, Dylan Brandt and Chloe Herbert.

trumpet section.

The trumpets won the same award last week during a performance in West Chester.

Better than that, senior trombonist Kyle Kratzer won another soloist award.

Als0,trumpet player Will Minick won an honorable mention for his solo as well.

You can see the Pottstown High School Jazz band in their next performance on Thursday, April 27  at the Pottstown High School spring concert.

Pottstown also won the Best Trombone Section award. From left, are John Stilwell, Kyle Kratzer, Caitlin McLaughlin and David Hicks.

Pottstown Makes Memorable Musical Moments

Pottstown student musicians in the state capitol building.

No one can accuse Pottstown students of a lack of esprit d' corps.

Whether its in Harrisburg, West Chester or Kutztown, Pottstown student musicians are making names for themselves, as well as making music.

Most recent, the halls of the State Capitol were alive with the sounds of music thanks to the Woodwind and Brass Ensemble groups from Pottstown Middle and High Schools.

The ensembles are under the direction of Nancy Mest, Rachel Ficca and Katie German.

They were part of Music In Our Schools Month.

The ensembles participated in a lunchtime concert series held in the East Wing of the capitol building in Harrisburg.

State Sen. Bob Mensch, R-24th Dist., attended the event and talked with the Pottstown students.

State Rep. Tim Hennessey, R-26th Dist. arrived in time to get into the photo shown above.

After the performance, students were given a guided tour of State Capitol Facility.

The Pottstown High School Jazz Band in West Chester

The Pottstown High School Jazz Band showcased their talents at the West Chester University Jazz Festival on March 25.

The overall band received the coveted "superior" rating, while the trumpets won the "outstanding trumpet section" award.

Pottstown's "Outstanding Trumpet Section" at West Chester. 

That section is comprised of Nick Wilson, Will Minnick, Mitchell Aquino, Abby Welder and Jacob Eagle

In addition, trombonist Kyle Kratzer won an honorable mention soloist award.

Not to be outdone, the Pottstown Middle School Jazz Band, along with, Spring-Ford, and Boyertown Junior High, won outstanding performance recognition at the annual Kutztown School District Jazz Festival on March 18.

Jazz Bands 'Superior' and 'Outstanding' in Boyertown

Photo courtesy of Missy Weber

The Pottstown High School Jazz Band performed at the 47th Annual Jazz in B-town Jazz Festival at Boyertown Area Senior High School on Saturday.

Hello faithful readers, and welcome to another season of Pottstown High School Jazz Band coverage in The Digital Notebook -- a little bit later than it should be, and a little bit lamer than it used to be.

But we'll get to that later.

Thanks to the Twitter account of the Middle School's 7-8 Jazz Band, I learned late Sunday that our junior jazzers not only earned a "Superior" ranking at the 47th annual Jazz in B-town jazz festival Saturday at Boyertown Area Senior High School, but also Best Rhythm Section and a solo award for Alto Saxophonist Kishan Patel.

Good going. Unfortunately, the videos posted of the 7-8 Band on the Pottstown "Band Peeps" Facebook page could not be captured for inclusion here.

Photo by Evan Brandt

Jazz band representatives Eddie Butler and Casey Mest
are congratulated on their ranking by Boyertown Band
Director Brian Landgon, a former Pottstown music
teacher and friend to our program.

Later in the evening, the Pottstown High School Jazz Band received a rank of "Outstanding," which, for the uninitiated, is above "Excellent" but below "Superior," in the world of jazz band rankings.

They were up against some stiff competition Saturday, particularly from the Quakertown and North Penn Navy Jazz bands, each of which were ranked superior and captured most of the section and solo awards.

"I hate them, they are so good," one envious Pottstown Jazz Band member was overheard to say of North Penn.

The three pieces played by Pottstown were, "Things Ain't What they Used to Be," "Summer Never Ends," which is a feature piece for senior trombonist Kyle Kratzer (who I have known since I coached him in soccer, many, many, many years ago) and ending with "Hit the Bricks.")

And this is where technology failed me as it did last week in Phoenixville.

Photo courtesy of Missy Weber

Pottstown senior Kyle Kratzer, who intends to
attend Millersville University to become a music
teacher, performs "Summer Never Ends."

In Phoenixville, I tried an experiment.

For those new to our Jazz Band coverage, know that I live-stream videos of the performances on a Twitter-related program called Periscope, for those who may not find the blog or only follow me on Twitter, and might not be able to make it to the performances.

So in Phoenixville, the first festival of the season, I tried live-streaming Pottstown's entire performance, instead of stopping between songs like I usually do.

It broadcast but did not save to my iPhone as it is supposed to, I'm not sure why.

You see the problem with Periscope video is it expires after 24 hours, so I usually upload it from my phone into my YouTube account so the videos can be watched any time after the 24 hours are up.

The visual quality ain't hot, but hey, you go a jazz performance for the sound right?

So that's why I did not post about the Phoenixville performance, where the band received a "Excellent" rating. That and the fact that Pottstown was on about 5:30 p.m. and the event did not end until 10 or later. A guy's gotta sleep you know.

I often try to record or at least broadcast some of the other area schools The Mercury covers because I'm nice like that.

Photo Courtesy  of Missy Weber

The rhythm section of the Pottstown High School Jazz Band.

So when it came time for Boyertown, I resumed my old ways and broadcast three different songs individually but the last one, "Hit the Bricks" was not saved on my phone for reasons I won't pretend to understand.


So I did some Internet searching and found a program called "webrecorder" which allowed me to preserve the Periscope video of "Hit the Bricks." Like the other YouTube videos, it is embedded in the Storify of my Tweets down below, but I warn you the sound quality is poor.

Photo courtesy of Missy Weber
Some of Pottstown's brass and sax players at work in Boyertown.

I also recorded all three performances by Boyertown, even though, as the hosts, they were not graded as part of the competition.

Also because director Brian Langdon, who cut his musical educator teeth as a Pottstown music teacher, always has so much fun and elicits great performances from his students.

It may also have something to do with a great feeder program, like the one Langdon initiated for Pottstown. The Boyertown Elementary Jazz Band played between some of the high School performances and they were pretty darn good for little kids!

Photo by Evan Brandt

The Boyertown Elementary Jazz Band played a few tunes between high school performances.

Of course, because technology likes to taunt me, all three of Boyertown's performances saved to the iPhone and are posted the usual way below.

Photo courtesy of Missy Weber

She was even kind enough to shoot a picture of my son,
senior Dylan Brandt, during one of his solos. Thanks!

And, as an extra treat, I also recorded (and posted below) one of the three pieces played by Pottstown's own Sunnybrook Dance Band, of which Langdon is a member, and which has closed out ever Boyertown jazz festival performance that I've ever attended.

As an additional note, perhaps you've noticed that some of the photos here were taken by Missy Weber, whose son Julian has gamely moved from the trombone to the keyboard and whose daughter Emily is the bass player for the band.

She posted it on Pottstown's "Band Peeps" Facebook page and graciously allowed me to grab them for this post.

I urge others who take photo or video to contact me and make it available to help promote and celebrate the jazz band. The email that is attached to this blog is evanbrandt01@gmail.com

As you might imagine, it's hard to take photos and shoot video at the same time, as things move along at a pretty good clip at these jazz events. So if you have photos or video that you think are good, I would be happy to use them.

Chances are if you've shot full video, it's better than mine and I would just as soon preserve yours as mine. I just like to get them as quickly as possible so the coverage can be immediate.

And, you'll get the same pay I do ... that would be the satisfaction of throwing a spotlight on our school's musicians in something remotely reminiscent of the way we so breathlessly cover high school sports.

So without further ado, here are the Tweets and video below from Jazz in B-town.

More Cowbell With Your Concert Sir?

If Christopher Walken wasn't present for this year's Pottstown High School Spring Concert, he was at least there in spirit.

To get that joke, you need to be familiar with the infamous Saturday Night Live skit in which Will Ferrell plays an over-enthusiastic cowbell player at the recording session of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper."

No matter how over the top he gets (not including how his stomach is over the top of his pants), producer Christopher Walken wants more -- as in "I've the fever, and the prescription is more cowbell!"

And to understand why you're reading about this in a blog post about Pottstown High School's spring concert, you need to know that Director Michael Vought gave the band some freedom this year to have input into the program -- and that's what they came up with.

As the band played a medley of "Don't Fear the Reaper," "Tequila" and "Oye Como Va," some members armed with cowbells did what cowbell players do best.

The Jazz Band added a new number to their repertoire,

Trombone Shorty's "Buck Jump."

But that was at the end.

Before we got to any of those shenanigans, we heard first from the Jazz Band, which added a new number to their repertoire, as well as from a spin-off of the Jazz Band, a trio who call themselves "The Gentlemen."

They are comprised of trombonist Kyle Kratzer, baritone saxophonist Casey Mest and guitarist Gary Oberholtzer. As is evident in the video below, it is definitely something different.

The Pottstown High School Flute Ensemble

Then veteran music educator Nancy Mest took the stage with her flute and clarinet ensembles, students she has taught since they were wee little musicians.

After a nice intermission, we came to the main event, which was the full concert band, which played five numbers, the last of which featured quite a bit of cowbell.

The Pottstown High School Concert Band

Another example of input from the students was the selection of the theme from
"Avengers: Age of Ultron," just in time for the release of the next Captain America movie.

For extra authenticity, some of the low brass donned masks and helmets that Tony Stark would have been proud to call his own.

Senior Awards await presenting.

Before closing out with said cowbell feature, and an impromptu and spirited rendition of the marching band anthem, "Horse" -- which had the band members spelling out "Trojans" at the top of their lungs -- there were the senior awards.

And without further ado, we present the Tweets (and some cowbell).

Would You Like Some Jazz With Those Pancakes?

A panoramic photo of the Pottstown Middle School 7th-8th Grade Jazz Band playing to a packed cafeteria at Pottstown High School Saturday at the 1st-Ever Jazz and Pancake Breakfast fundraiser.

There was facepainting too.

In some places, you have to sing for your supper, but here in Pottstown we do it a little differently;, sometimes you have to "perform for your pancakes."

That's what Pottstown student jazz musicians did Saturday with the high school and two middle school jazz bands all performing for a capacity breakfast crowd at the Pottstown High School cafeteria.

The occasion was the first-ever Pancake and Jazz Breakfast fundraiser hosted by the Pottstown Schools Music Association,

The breakfast was in place of the Jazz Spaghetti dinner the PSMA held for the past two years as a way of trying something different.

(It also meant all the instruments and sound equipment did not have to be transported across town to the Good Will Firehouse.)

We had so many people that we had to run out and get more pancake mix, after we served up more than 1,000 pancakes and people still wanted more.

"The Gentlemen" are, from left, Casey Mest, Gary Overholtzer

and Kyle Kratzer.

No word yet on how much was raised to help pay for all those other costs music education incurs that
is all too often not in the school budget.

What we can say was that once again, the word was spread about the quality and vitality of the district's music education program.

Perhaps some of the best evidence of that was a somewhat impromptu performance by "The Gentlemen," a three-man high school jazz band spin-off comprised of baritone saxophonist Casey Mest, guitarist Gary Overholtzer and trombonist Kyle Kratzer.

Two Pottstown teachers who help instill that love of

music, Nancy Mest and Ben Hayes with two likely

future musicians.

So enamored are they of playing music that they even do it on the side, presenting a surprising and spot-in interpretation of a Green Day tune and another by Trombone Shorty.

And anyone who heard the two middle school jazz bands perform can tell how that love of music, and the desire and ability to play it well, is fomented.

Both those bands rocked the house and kept people in the hard seats of the high school cafeteria.

But don't take my word for it, troll down through the Tweets and photos below and listen to the limited videos my iPhone battery allowed me to shoot and judge for yourselves.

These kids have got swing.

Navy and High School Jazz Bands Cruise Pottstown

If your anchors were not taken aweigh Tuesday night, then you must not have been at Pottstown High School.

Because that's where the U.S. Navy Band Commodores Jazz Ensemble performed in a free concert as part of Berks Jazz Fest.

The opening act was the Pottstown High School Jazz Band, who played a four-song set.

As usual, the battery on my iPhone was not up to the task.

I "live-streamed" the high school performance and part of the Commodores' performance on Periscope, (You can see alerts and links in my Twitter feed), but it was too much to get the whole thing.

Sadly, I did not catch any of the Navy performance featuring their vocalist, Musician First Class Kristine Hsia, who was pitch perfect, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

Photo by Fred Remelius.

Pottsgrove High School music teacher Victor Holladay, right,

introduces Pottsgrove students to a former student of his,
Musician 

First Class Ben Ford, a member of the U.S. Navy
Jazz Commodores 

and a student of Holladay's
when he taught in Coatesville.

She began the show with the "Star Spangled Banner," which she sang without musical accompaniment, and ended it with America the Beautiful. In between, she had some lovely tunes.

One highlight was when high school percussionists Dylan Thorne and Gabe Francis were invited up to play with the band for an arrangement of Maynard Ferguson's "Nice and Juicy."

Anyway, as usual, the videos, which I saved and posted on YouTube, are embedded in the Storify below.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

A Capitol Showing by Pottstown School Musicians

The Pottstown School District musicians who graced the halls of the Capitol building in Harrisburg last week.

Well, some of you might have expected to find a post here about yesterday's Pottstown High School Jazz Band performance at West Chester University.

You would be wrong, and not just because we like to surprise you -- which we do.

Because yes, while the expansive Digital Notebook video squad was on hand, and did broadcast it live (to two viewers as it turns out), the team lamely failed to save it to their iPhone.

So if you're reading this Sunday morning, you can find the link on Evan Brandt's Twitter feed (@PottstownNews) and hear the performance for the next few hours.

But after that, it's gone forever. 

Flute ensemble.

This is all the more regrettable since their performance was, according to the video team, the Jazz band's best to date.

Rest assured, the team has been severely reprimanded and had their pay cut by two-thirds.

But the blog must go on, and so we move on to plan B, made possible by the ever-productive John Armato, who sent along another chapter of Pottstown's exemplary music program, complete with photos:

"This week the halls of the State Capitol building in Harrisburg were alive with the sounds of music thanks to Woodwind and Brass Ensembles from both the Middle and High School under the direction of Ms. Nancy Mest and Mr. Ben Hayes.  The performance was part of the "Music In Our Schools Month" lunch time concert series. The students enjoyed lunch at Strawberry Square followed by their performances and a tour of the Capitol Building. Our Music Department is another reason to say Proud to be from Pottstown. Share the news.  Lets hope the soothing music helped our Governor and Legislators come closer to settling a budget for 2015-16."

An 'Outstanding' Way to Spend an Evening

The next stop on our non-stop 2016 Pottstown High School Jazz Band parade occurred Friday at Daniel Boone High School.

Unfortunately, this event begins at 5 p.m. on a Friday which makes it hard for people with jobs to see the whole thing.

Sadly, this meant we missed the performance by Daniel Boone Middle School, Boyertown Area Senior High School and the Daniel Boone elementary jazz bands, arriving only in time to see the last three bands.

Our apologies to Boyertown band director, Brian Langdon, former Pottstown music teacher and friend of this blog.

But apparently he didn't need our support, as the performance by the BASH Big Band earned a "superior" rating from the judges.

Also earning a "superior" rating was the Pennsbury High School Jazz Ensemble, the only other high school jazz band to be rated other than Pottstown, which earned a rating of "Outstanding" for what I believe to have been their best performance this season.

Although Daniel Boone performed, as host, they received no rating.

Boyertown received the best saxophone and best trumpet section awards, while Pennsbury walked away with the best trombone and best rhythm section awards.

As for soloists, Boyertown tenor sax player Adam Helmer was recognized, as were Pennsbury drummer Mike Angelucci and vibes player Wesley Dierolf.

Pottstown trumpet player Chloe Francis received her second consecutive honorable mention soloist award.

Representatives of each of the high school jazz bands accept their awards.

As in the last jazz band blog post, I have embedded the YouTube performances of local bands in the Storify below.

What's different this time is they are the entire performance, without breaks, seeing as I was broadcasting their performances live on Periscope.

If you follow me on Twitter, you will see a notification of the performance and you can click on the link and watch the performances live.

If you don't follow me on Twitter, I can only ask what did I do to make you hate me?

I thought perhaps some of the parents and students who can't come to the performances would like to see them as they occurred.

But the links expire after 24 hours, so I saved those from local schools onto my phone and uploaded them on YouTube so you can enjoy them 24 weeks or 24 months from now.

Here are the Tweets and videos:

Experiments in Jazz at Boyertown High School

So I saw this bear in one of seemingly 100
lobbies at Boyertown Area Senior High School.
He was a little dusty, no doubt due to the
construction project there,
so I named him 'Dusty.'

So it wasn't the music that was experimental last night, it was my video technique.

I recorded the first couple of performances at the Jazz at B-Town affair as I always do, on the iPhone.

And I have always regretted that the phone does not have the capacity to record all the performances.

I try to restrict myself to those in The Mercury coverage area.

Also, since uploading to YouTube takes a ton of time, I would not sleep after a performance even if I could record them all.

But after I got the Boyertown Elementary Jazz Band (yes, both performances) and Pottstown High School, it occurred to me to use the live-video streaming app called Periscope.

So I did one and although I did not save it to my phone, I found that if you click the link on the Storify down below, you can still see a video and audio of the band.

The Boyertown Elementary Jazz Band
entertained us during intermission.

It took me a few turns to get the hang of it and (sorry Mr. Langdon), I failed to save one of the Boyertown performances and one of them is sideways, because I wanted to see if YouTube would fix it. It didn't.

But we're learning, we're learning.

The upside of using Periscope is, people who can't make the show can watch it live and because the video is lower quality, it uploads to YouTube super quick.

The downside is the video is not so hot. But since you go to a Jazz band

Pottstown High School Jazz Band was the only local
band competing Saturday. As hosts, Boyertown played
in exhibition only.

performance mostly to hear the music, that should be OK.

Let me know what you think about the lower quality video, but perfectly adequate audio.

I did not make it to the first half of the event, which featured performances by Pottstown, Spring-ford and Pottsgrove middle school jazz bands. I do not know the results of those. If anyone does, send them along to me and I will update this post.

Now for the high school jazz band results:

Time for the awards!

North Penn received an "Outstanding rating; Easton a "Superior;" Quakertown's HJoe's Jazz Cafe received an "Outstanding;" Pottstown received an "Outstanding;" Quakertown received a "Superior" and North Penn Navy Jazz

Pottstown's Chloe Francis with her
soloist award.

Band also received a "Superior."

Best Trumpet Section: Quakertown;
Best Trombone Section: North Penn;
Best Woodwind Section: North Penn;
Best Rhythm Section: Quakertown.

Unfortunately, the program at Jazz at B-Town does not list the songs or the soloists, or even the songs frankly, so I would only be guessing if I tried to name who won the soloist awards from the other schools.

But I certainly know how to spell the name Chloe Francis, a senior trumpet player who received a soloist award.

The evening wound up with a four-song performance by the Sounds of Sunnybrook Dance Band that was, as always, awesome and featured a solo by Boyertown Band Director Brian Langdon.

Those videos are down below as well.

That's the scoop as I know it at 1 a.m.

Anyway, here are the Tweets and video. Again, like last time, I embedded the performances I loaded up to YouTube in Storify, because it makes it easier.