Practice, practice, practice pays off (as submitted to Highestwire)

Submitted by Tracy Rosewarne on Sunday, May 15, 2005 at 11:51:17 AM EST.

By The Communicator Staff
Community High School
Ann Arbor, MI

Next time you attend a Community Jazz concert, try to keep a few things in mind.

As the bass player develops those sought-after calluses, remember they met with their band for one hour during or after school to help in their efforts.

When the pianist solos, remember that they spend a good amount of time doing countless repetitive drills with the rest of their band in class.

When listening to an “advanced” band, remember that during their past 1st semester, eighty-five gigs were played.

When you think you have it hard studying for your French test, it’s probably not as much work as you would put into the jazz program at Community High School. The jazz students have been busy this last semester, and intend to keep it up.

Nate Lutz is a senior at Pioneer, but is in an advanced band at Community.

“Mike (Grace) expects more out of his students than most other music teachers. The time commitment is so high,” Lutz said.

This is his first year in the program, but he’s already played countless gigs. “I don’t remember how many gigs I’ve played, but I’ve really gotten a lot of experience that I haven’t gotten with other music programs,” he added.

The reason for all the practice outside of school is based on Grace's philosophy of “getting out of the classroom.”

“If I just taught in class, and didn’t take it anywhere, the students would wonder why they’re even playing,” Grace said.

Getting out of the classroom means playing outside of the classroom. Tom Lutz, Nate Lutz’s father, was at the most recent CHS Dance Body recital where Advanced I combo played during intermissions.

“It was really nice to have those transitions between the dancing acts. The combo sound really good and I was impressed,” Tom Lutz said.

It’s comments like these that keep Mike’s phone ringing constantly for opportunities to play outside of school.

Mike likes to think that the program has become the “Mascots of Ann Arbor” because they’ve played so many places. Combos have played at the Ann Arbor Art Fair, graduation parties, UofM business parties, bank parties and weddings -- and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Piano player Noah Ginsburg has been in Mike’s program for four years.

"When I started I didn't know how to play. Now I’ve learned lots of theory, licks and how to play in a professional environment. I've also gained a lot of gigging experience," Ginsberg said.

He hopes to attend NYU next year and study jazz. That alone shows how much one can learn in the program here.

"No other high-school in the country gigs as much and consistently as this school does. We’re one of a kind," Grace said. "We had played 85 gigs at the end of last semester and I except to finish up with around 220 total gigs by the end of the year."

Wow.

And not only does the jazz program play a lot around town, they're also attending many jazz festivals this upcoming semester including the Adrian Jazz Festival, the Tri-C Jazz Festival in Cleveland and the Music Fest Canada in Vancouver. Community's program is the only program that actually gets invited to play at the Music Fest Canada; all the other schools have to audition.

Most recently, all five of Community's advanced jazz bands attended Western Michigan's jazz festival on March 12th. Advanced I -- which included Russell Malcolm on tenor saxophone, Noah Ginsburg on piano, Elliot Somethingorother on drums, and Nate Lutz subbing for Evan Taylor on upright bass -- was chosen as the top combo of the day.

Because they destroyed fifteen other groups, they were invited to play later that night at the evening performance. This performance included the outstanding trumpeter Randy Brecker who's played with such groups as Parliament and Funkadelic.

"Because we play so many gigs, [winning] wasn’t that big of a deal," Malcolm said. "Also they said I was better than everybody else, so it was less intimidating."

Malcolm said he is getting more and more serious about playing jazz, practicing anywhere from forty-five minutes to several hours each day. He plans to attend Cincinnati University to study jazz in the fall.

"It's far from home, and in a city," Malcolm said, adding that those were two of his requirements for choosing a college.

Mari Diem, one of Malcolm’s devoted fans, said she doesn't doubt his commitment to the jazz lifestyle.

"Sometimes he drums his fingers like he's playing his saxophone," she said. "He is the best."

Along with winning jazz festivals, the jazz program likes to document their hard work. Every year they record live sessions from some of the bands in the program and turn them into CDs.

"It's not for me, it's for the students. It's like a portfolio," Grace said.

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