PBS Wisconsin Music & Arts

At this time, I ask that you please stand as you are able, and join in our national anthem, conducted by the Honors Jazz Ensemble Coordinator, David Dunning.

"The Star-Spangled Banner"

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And now it is my distinct privilege to introduce the 2022 WSMA High School State Honors Jazz Ensemble and their distinguished conductor, Barb Catlin.

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Barb snapping

One, two, a-one, two, three, four.

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All right!

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How about this great band? Whoo! Thank you ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed an honor to stand in front of these fantastic young musicians. We have had such an incredible experience together. I do wanna reiterate my thanks to the parents who have supported their children so much. Thank you for sharing them, and allowing them to participate in this great musical experience. And band directors, all right, we love you up here. Thank you so much for your encouragement of these young musicians. This was a 1942 arrangement that was done by the great Duke Ellington Band, and was one of his best bands. And it's a wonderful way to start a jazz concert, because we have a lot of musical hellos that you heard from. So let me introduce some of the soloists, and they will sort of wave and say hello so you know who they were in order, there were many of them. Luke Mahoney on trumpet, Jackson Omar on alto, Edward Jones on trumpet, Kyle Mealey on trumpet, Josh Mealey on trumpet, Liam Jakubowski on tenor, Thomas McGowan on trombone, Dylan Halom on on tenor saxophone, and Levi Mathias on trombone. Help me thank them for getting us started.

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If you couldn't tell, it's a fun tune, and we appreciate all of the clapping in for the soloists. Jazz is a very social art form, as far as we react to the audience participation. So go ahead and hoot and holler and clap for your soloists, and your child that's up here. It would be great to feel it. It's so wonderful to be able to be performing again for a live audience after a few strange years that we've all lived through. So this is a celebration today. We're gonna move on, I wanted to create a program that featured a diverse range of pieces that offered a little bit something different for each tune in terms of teaching and in terms of, of course offering a musical program for you to listen to. I live now in the Los Angeles area and I thought I'd bring a little bit of LA out here to Wisconsin. The composer Bill Holman started in 1950 with the great Charlie Barnet Orchestra, perhaps you know that name. He was a great tenor saxophonist, and wrote and arranged for many of the big bands, including a huge chunk of the library of Stan Kenton. He wrote for Maynard Ferguson, and has his own band in Los Angeles and at 95 years old is still performing on Thursday nights in LA, and writing music. So he tends to write music that is very intricate. And this next piece is called "Woodrow", and it is actually a nickname of his. And he wrote this piece, it's swinging, and will carry on that groove that we sort of had on the first tune, but Bill is known for his twists and turns in his compositions. So just sort of pay attention to what you're hearing in all of the intricate call and response, and sort of contrapuntal writing that's going on and occurring. It's always interesting when you play one of Bill's charts. This is gonna feature Adeline Goeltl on the trumpet, Tim Davis on the piano, Levi Mathias on the trombone, and Bridger Wenzel on the drums back there. This is Bill Holman's "Woodrow".

Barb snapping

One, two, one, two, three, four.

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All right, what a fun tune. I also wanted to feature in our program something that was written by a female composer. We tend to be underrepresented in band programs and in jazz band programs. So I thought because we do have some gals in the band,

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that we would honor them by featuring a female composer. This composer Magali Souriau is French, she's very French, and she came to the United States to study music at the Berklee School of Music and then was sort of discovered, she's a pianist as well, wonderful pianist as well as a composer. She was discovered and taken under the tutelage of the great jazz pianist, Tommy Flanagan and sort of went from there, and now has a big band and a group in New York City. And, so if you ever get a chance to catch that, please do. This next arrangement is a tune that is very difficult to pull off if I don't have the right personnel sitting in the seat. So I'm grateful that we do. We have been able to perform this somewhat quirky tune. It's an arrangement of Thelonious Monk's "Ask Me Now", and if you know anything about Thelonious Monk, you know that he was indeed a bit quirky himself. Imagine if you will, we're sitting in Paris at a cafe, perhaps sipping a little afternoon wine, and we're watching people come by and we're hearing these different conversations that are popping up on the avenue. This is a story, and this piece will paint a musical picture of that scene. And the reason that we were able to pull this off, is we have one of the best lead alto saxophonists I've heard in a long time, and he will be featured on this next tune, Mr. Neji Khang. So help me think Neji for that.

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You'll also hear some interjections and some melody from our wonderful pianist, Tim Davis, who you heard from a minute ago, as well as Piper on the guitar playing some melody offerings, and a wonderful baritone saxophone dialogue that's happening throughout, which you don't often get to hear, some little solos by a baritone saxophone. And we happen to have a great baritone saxophonist, Mr. Obi Chavolla. And so this tune is a story and so we hope you enjoy it.

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Yeah.

Barb snapping

One, two, three, four.

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Neji Khang on lead alto.

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And as a tune like that demonstrates, you probably noticed all the little various solos going on throughout the band. In jazz band it's one on a part, so the responsibility is great, but also the interpretation is open to personalize each part, and that's what makes jazz band fun. We're able to put our own spin on things a little bit more, because it's one on a part. And at this time I would like to introduce the entire band, because while we have lots of soloists, there's inner parts that are equally as important. And sometimes if you're playing bass trombone you may never get an introduction, if you're waiting for a soloist introduction. So these students have really risen to the occasion. Honestly, we had a wonderful time in the summer at camp, but I wasn't sure really what to expect when we came back. And I am being completely honest when I tell you that I was blown away from the first note that they played. They came back so much higher than we left off in the summer. And I realized then, "Okay, this is gonna be fun." In fact, we finished our rehearsal,

we could have left last night at 5

00, right band? We were doing pretty well. So they really came to play, they really put the time in. It's a lot of work, they rose to the occasion. So I wanna honor them by introducing each of them right now, and I'll have them stand as I read their names so you can see them. So we will start with the saxophone section here, as soon as I get the right page up here. And we'll go in order of the way that the section is organized. So Neji Khang on lead alto, Jackson Omar on second alto. Good, I wanna make sure they're standing. Liam Jakubowski on lead tenor, Dylan Halom on second tenor, and Obi Chavolla on the baritone saxophone. You can thank them.

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Our trombone section, which is filling the room with sound, aren't they? Lead trombonist, Thomas McGowan, Levi Mathias, who is one of our soloists, Mira Torbey, who you haven't heard from yet, and Kaliyah Garania on the bass trombone. Thank the trombone section.

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And I have to look because as you notice, the trumpets are sharing the duty. They're great team players, and they're moving around the section, giving a chance for everyone to play some lead trumpet and some solos and so on. So I'm gonna watch, and I'm gonna start from the end here with Edward, so you know who, which one is which, but I have to be able to see you. So back there in the trumpet section, we'll start here on the end with Edward Jones. Adeline Goeltl back here in the middle. Josh Mealey, and one of two brothers, his brother standing next to him is Kyle Mealey, and on the end is Luke Mahoney. So help me thank the trumpet section.

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And this next tune that we're going to do will really feature this rhythm section, this fine rhythm section, and I'm gonna introduce them next but you're gonna hear them really do their thing on this upcoming tune, which I'll tell you about in a minute. So we have on piano Tim Davis.

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The unofficial second leader of the band. Piper Vetting on the guitar.

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And it's appropriate that we clap for each one, because they often are the ones who do the heavy lifting and don't always get the acknowledgement. We heard a really interesting bass melody happening on that last tune and just in general, holding down the band and keeping the time, and really the heartbeat of the band on the bass back there is Ryan Hoganson.

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We're very fortunate to have two fine drummers and percussionists, if you noticed, they're moving back and forth on the vibes and will be particularly important on this next tune, is Bridger Wenzel, and he also plays drums.

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Hope you can see him back there. A fine drummer, one of the best I've heard in a long time. Mr. Jacob Cole on the drums.

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All right, I couldn't come to Wisconsin without honoring one of the greatest music educators of all time, and you're very fortunate to be able to claim him as your own here. Fred Sturm was the Director of Jazz Studies at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. He actually graduated from Lawrence, and went on to teach at a little music school called Eastman, which is a very prestigious music school. And then he left the great big city of New York and came back to Appleton, because he loved Wisconsin so much. I don't know a music educator, and certainly not a jazz educator that doesn't still talk about Fred, and remember all the wonderful things that he taught us. He was an incredible human being, a wonderful composer, great trombonist. He formed a band called Matrix, which is fairly legendary. And so I was fortunate enough to know Fred, we had him out to Arizona when I was living there, and he had me back to Appleton. In fact, I'm going there next week again. Fred, we lost Fred a few years ago. So I wanted the students to know who he was to keep his memory alive, but also just honor him, and the state of Wisconsin, and how lucky you are to have had someone like him here. This piece is a very challenging piece. It was organized by Fred. He created a project called the Radiohead Project which you should know the band perhaps, the rock band Radiohead. And he had different composers write and score this rock band, these rock band tunes, for big band. And they're very unusual in some cases. This one in particular is sort of a bit further away from the original if you know it. This tune is called "High and Dry", and it has a lot of open space for the rhythm section to be very free. So we've learned a lot about how to trust one another, and how to fill, let some of the space come into the music which can be very interesting. It's gonna feature our wonderful lead tenor saxophonist Liam again. This is a Bob Washut's version of "High and Dry" by Radiohead.

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Tim Davis on the piano, Liam Jakubowski on the tenor saxophone.

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This wonderful rhythm section, wonderful rhythm section.

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I can't believe we're to our last tune. That went by faster than I wanted it to, didn't it? Yeah, I feel like I have new friends here, I hope for a lifetime. I told them that these relationships that they make during this wonderful project here with the Honors Allstate will remain with them for 50 years. I have friends from 50 years ago that I started playing music with, and it's a wonderful thing. It's a beautiful thing, and it's a sacred thing. So welcome to the club. Welcome to the wonderful club of being a musician.

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I want to thank the WSMA one more time for creating such a unique experience. I coordinate the All State in California and I'm taking notes, because it's just a great experience for all of us. I couldn't have done it without the support of our wonderful coaches that they introduced. So band, I would like us to thank our trumpet coach. I don't know where you are, but Abby Mazza, if you could stand and let us thank you, thank you for doing that wherever you are. And there she is in the back, help me band,

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and thank Abby. Joe Coughlin also is back there, I think running sound, but he was wonderful with our saxophonist, so thank you Joe.

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And my new friend Doug Syme who, Dr. Doug Syme, who will be helping me out in a clinic,

and very shortly at 1

00. So thank you Doug, for rhythm section, we thank you.

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And the person who has just taken care of everything, from picking me up from the airport to printing out things, to being such a wonderful musician and offering insight that way. He could have easily stood up here and and done this. Mr. David Dunning, thank you Dave, wherever you are, thank you.

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All right, we're to our last tune and of course it's gonna be upbeat and a swing tune, that was written by the great Sammy Nestico, who we also lost recently, who wrote and arranged for the Count Basie Band. So we're gonna put it back into a space where you can dance if you want, and dance out the room and sing along. Let's see, who is this going to feature? We have a saxophone battle by Neji Khang and Obi on the baritone saxophone, and Liam again on tenor saxophone. And we have a great solo at the end by Levi. Who am I forgetting? We have the Count, the Count Basie, Tim himself, leading us off, getting us swinging. So thank you all very much. It's been a absolute privilege and super fun. This is the Count Basie recording, and arranged by Sammy Nestico, the one and only. This is, "You Gotta Try".

Barb snapping

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Yeah? - Yeah. Yeah. - Okay, here we go. And one, two, one, two three.

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Hey!

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