Wow! Can we use Meng Hall for ALL our concerts?

Friday evening the OCHSA Symphony and Ambassador Jazz Orchestras performed together for the first time. And what a place to do it...the new concert hall at Cal State Fullerton, Meng Hall. The place is not only beautiful, but was able to wonderfully handle the acoustic nuances of each performing group. The Symphony Orchestra performed first and they were excellent as usual, but this is a jazz blog site so I will move right to the post intermission performance by the jazz orchestra. The overhead sound thingy ( how's that for serious technical knowledge of sound systems) lowered for the jazz performance to change the acoustics for the smaller jazz ensemble and the ensemble did the rest. They started with Groove Merchant, which is a piece they performed last year and followed it up with a selection played at the last concert by Duke Ellington. Ryan Konovaloff played the part made famous by Johnny Hodges during his Ellington big band years and man-o-man, did Ryan kill it (that's a good thing). I am sure Johnny was listening somewhere with huge smile on his face. The band then went into a three-movement piece by Oliver Nelson called Sound Piece. They performed the third movement at the first jazz concert, but are preparing the whole piece for the Reno Jazz Festival in April. It is a very challenging selection, but they already have made great strides towards making it their own. Kalia, Paul Farber, and Sara Sith-Amnuai all had nice solos. I look forward to them playing this at Reno. The last selection of the evening was a Matt Harris arranged, congo version of It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing. It was our closing number in Reno last year and is my favorite arrangement of the piece. Sara and Paul repeated their amazing solos from last year (well, not repeated as in exact notes...you know what I mean) and Paul dealt with a little drama as his neck strap broke during his solo.

There were a couple notable holes in the group last night. Mr. Fiddmont was in NY performing with the Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra in a battle of the bands versus Wynton Marsalis' Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. I bet that was smokin!. Another huge hole was left by the absence of our drummer, Francisco Orellana. His Father passed away earlier in the week and the funeral was Friday night. A drummer from CSUF filled in nicely, but it just wasn't quite the same without Francisco on the skins. We look forward to his return and continue to support him and his family any way we can.

All in all it was a great evening. Would have still liked to have seen more people in the seats, but it was a decent sized crowd.

Next up: Alumni Jazz Concert on January 10, 2009. This ought to be a great night as many alums have already committed. This along with the tremendous parent support and infusion of new ideas are helping to build great momentum heading further into the school year. I, for one, am enjoying the ride.

First Concert Sets Tone!

I thought overall things went well last night, especially for it being the first concert of the year -- and first performance of any kind at OCHSA for the 2008/2009 season. The combos all played well and showed early in the year, in true jazz fashion, that they can adapt when things don't go as planned. AJO, in my opinion, was in mid-season form, but I am sure Mr. Fiddmont would disagree with me and argue that they still have a long way to go. However, based on last year, I'd say we're way ahead of schedule. Gary Foster was a great addition as the the guest artist and seemed to work well with the students.

I love hearing the details of the concert from Felicia and Kalia. We usually discuss them the morning following a performance as we did this morning. We have done this for years and it is always interesting to hear how things went from the students' perspective, who struggled, who triumphed, etc. I also like to throw out my own thoughts, questions, and insights on combo member communication, solo breakdowns, and a host of other aspects of the evening. I do this because I am a jazz geek and my daughters play along. It would be great if the students shared some of those insights on this blog.

Still like to see more folks attend the concerts, but those who were there made tremendous impact both with enthusiasm and raffle ticket sales. We also had strong volunteer and raffle prize support. I look forward to building from the momentum from last night.

Oh yeah, my apologies to Mr. Fiddmont. Last night during my intermission announcement, I stated that we are heading to Reno to take first place. Well, as Mr. Fiddmont tells the students, it's not about going to Reno to win, it's about the experience of performing in the midst of other musicians and learning from that experience (I am paraphrasing). I agree. Mr. Fiddmont is right, the experience and journey along the way far outweigh the prize...but it would be nice to win, too.

Fill Those Seats!

Those of you who stayed after the IM back-to-school night to attend the jazz meeting, "Thank you". I think it was a good meeting and believe we are getting off to a great start. One of the things that stuck out most to me was Mr. Fiddmont's request to get more people to the concerts. This is my fourth year with the program and we've always had trouble filling the venues. Part of the problem is that there are only 20, or so, students involved in the program, but another problem, in my opinion, is the lack of exposure. One of things we've tried in the past was to send ticket sales sheets home with each student and challenge them to invite and sell at least 10 tickets. This worked to some extent, but still didn't fill the venues. We've also performed at various venues such as the Coach House, Segerstrom High School, and Laguna Beach High School to name a few. This seemed to help increase exposure and attendance, but is much more difficult to pull off on a regular basis.

We used to do theme-based concerts (latin, funk and fusion, legends, etc). and I remember OCHSA's Spanish department giving extra credit to any student who attended our latin concert. That helped "put butts in seats" -- as was the battle cry back then.

So, what can we do this year? Maybe advanced ticket sales by the students can work again and as well as some local advertising in the OC Weekly, on KJZZ radio, etc. Maybe the IM department can offer some extra credit to jazz theory/history students. With only 20 students in the program, we have to get creative.

Any ideas? Please share them.

a new AJO year

I'm sure the kids will agree that this summer has gone by very quickly. Mr. Fiddmont did a fantastic job last year and I'm looking forward to the kids having new experiences this year. Seeing AJO students graduate only reminds me to enjoy every moment! Soon my own kids will be graduating and off to college.

Welcome to the OCHSA Jazz Blog

We have a web site, why not have a blog, too. This will be a place to chronicle the OCHSA Jazz year, share your experiences, and provide your thoughtful insight. Don't be shy, tell us what you're thinking.