It’s been an honor teaching at the Great Basin Jazz Camp for the third year in a row. I’ve had a lot of fun giving clinics, leading rehearsals, and playing in faculty jazz groups all week. I’ve had the pleasure of leading a student jazz combo, the Birdland Jazz Combo, which had it’s first gig tonight! We played at the Twin Falls Municipal Band Shell at 7pm tonight. We had a full rhythm section (piano, guitar, drums, and bass) as well as 2 alto saxophones, 2 tenor saxes, one bari sax, and 5 trumpets. It’s more like the size of a big band than a jazz combo, so I’ve had to be creative with my resources.  I wrote this arrangement of Charlie Parker’s tune “Blues for Alice,” for my group.  They did a nice job, especially considering our limited amount of rehearsal time. I’m putting the recording online for us to listen to the performance. We have another gig tomorrow night, with two more charts written by myself and Devon Yesburger, another member of our faculty at the Great Basin Jazz Camp.  The group is talented, but we still have some work to do before tomorrow night! I’ve been quite pleased over all with the great attitudes and work ethic of the band.

It was fun for me to kick back and just listen to group! I just kicked them off and went and sat down in the audience. It was sink or swim for them; they ended up floating pretty well overall!

Here is their live recording of Blues for Alice. It’s a little rough in places (some of them were a bit nervous, and it had gone a little better in practice), but I’m proud of their efforts! You can tell there is a lot of talent in the group. These are mostly high school students with a few college underclassmen.  A couple of the kids just finished the eighth grade!

Blues for Alice (click on the title to hear)

I love how the ending turned out!  I like how the arrangement turned out, and we’ve got a couple of trumpet players with some serious high chops!

You can learn more about the Great Basin Jazz Camp at:

http://www.greatbasinjazzcamp.com

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