[Dixielandjazz] Pep band: was Wrong impressions

[Williams, Bob]

I, too, was fortunate enough to be in a completely student-run high
school pep band in high school; if fact, I ran it my senior year.

Our high schoool "Stage Band" worked on about 5 or 6 tunes a year,
mostly in preparation for competitions, but a lot of the same kids were
in the pep band.  We had a jazz band setup, with electric bass and
traps, and we took a lot of the Bill Moffit marching band arrangements
of popular tunes but really hipped them up, opening them up for solos,
etc.  It was a lot of fun, especially since the band director (George
Gardner - Mike Vax, do you know him?) was not especially creative at
that time, and not very popular.  It was by far the most well-regarded
music ensemble in a town of 5 high schools... Cheerleaders from other
schools were delighted when we played for games because we were so much
hipper than THEIR lame pep bands! (five - six - seven - EIGHT!)

Also, because I had a band room key, a lot of the more devoted of us got
together on weekends and after school to jam - a lot of times doing long
long renditions of crap like "Chameleon" and "Little Sunflower," but it
was really fun, and much more educational than anything being taught in
the standard programs.  We really didn't have a keen sense of jazz or
theory or certainly trad jazz (it was Modesto, after all) but we had the
opportunity to stretch out what little we knew and experiment.  We had a
chance to make mistakes in a safe environment (very important!).  And,
perhaps as importantly, because we had ways to get beer, we got early
experience playing while inebriated, a vital skill that is sadly
neglected in nearly all of what passes as music education today.  

I kid, of course.  Ahem.

The point is, actually, that most of what I and my friends learned about
jazz, we taught ourselves.  A lot of my friends from those experiments
are still playing today.  I think it's really important that kids trying
to go outside the institutional box of music education get together
outside of those confines and exercise the right side of the brain.  Or
left.  (The side of my brain that knows which side of the brain is the
intuitive one don't work so good).  It's not enough that kids sit and
read big band charts and avoid clams.

I always encourage private students, when I have them, or kids who will
listen, to get stuff together outside of school if they really want to
play.  For lots of reasons.

Bob Williams
Trombonist Extraordinaire and 
The Worlds's Most Modest Man
mailto:slushpump1 at comcast.net


-----Original Message-----
From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
[mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com] On Behalf Of David
Richoux
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 9:38 PM
To: DJML Jazz
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Wrong impressions


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As background, I played in a High School "Stage Jazz Band" in the late 
1960s - not OKOM but still a lot of interesting things were taught. But 
the most important group I was in back then was the Pep Band - the 
students ran it, chose the music, set the rehearsal schedule, uniforms 
- everything! We had a great time and really played our a**es off!  We 
made sure that the band teacher had the absolute minimum input (and I 
think he was happier for it ;-)

My step-daughter is going through the high school music thing right now 
( chorus, not instrumental) and I try to refrain from commenting too 
much. The kids do get a whole lot of great training and performance 
experience and the really work hard. It does  seem like the most 
creative members of the choir have to strike out on their own to do 
anything approaching true jazz, but they are somehow rewarded for their 
extra effort.

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