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About The Band:
In the spring of 2006 a very enlightened board of directors for the Great Connecticut Traditional Jazz Festival asked me if it would be possible to assemble a youth band, using students from many different schools in the area, to perform at this summer's festival. I replied that I would love to do it if somebody could help scare up suitable participants. They put the word out and found a wonderful group of kids for me to work with, and also lined up a big air-conditioned room in a community center for us to rehearse in. We ended up with three trumpets, two reeds, two trombones, two tubas, piano, guitar, and drums. I dug up some of my old traditional jazz arrangements, and the kids loved them.
We had five rehearsals on Monday nights, starting right after school got out. My experience with other youth bands had shown that you can never expect all of the kids to show up at rehearsals, but they always make it somehow to the performances. This group was no exception; they all showed up for all three performances at the festival, in spite of a colossal thunderstorm on Friday afternoon and power failure on Saturday.
After their final set on Sunday several of the band members found a place to jam near the pool; I've been told that members of other bands came to join them for a spell. Apparently during that session the students and their loyal parents passed the hat; they sent a delegation into the Club House during my last set with the Galvanized Jazz Band to present me with a very generous gift to replace my wristwatch, which had been soaked during the rainstorm. In my thank-you letter I expressed gratitude for that gift, but pointed out that no timepiece could ever mean as much to me as their performances did. I am especially grateful to the parents, who were very supportive in this project; they put a lot of time and effort into getting the kids to the rehearsals and to the festival.
After hearing the band, Bill Sinclair asked me if they would like to play during his band�s intermission on any Friday evening at Bill�s Seafood in Westbrook. On August 11 we took him up on that kind offer. Replacing the sax and piano players, who were unavailable on that date, we had two amazing young students who had participated in the Neighborhood Music School Jazz Camp in New Haven during the week after the festival; I was able to convince them to sit in without rehearsal.
-Art Hovey-
VIDEO CLIP 1 (Arab Strut)
VIDEO CLIP 2 (C. C. Rider)
The band has returned to Bill's Seafood several times since then, sounding better than ever. Members of the group are always asked to sit in with the house band; they have a ball trading fours with the pros! We are all grateful to Bill Sinclair for the invitation. (Please scroll down for more photos.)
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