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What should the audience expect from the LAUSD All City Jazz Band tomorrow?
“They should expect great music and a great time,” said 16-year-old Shai Golan. “It's going to be really fun—I guarantee that.”
As part of L.A. Unified's big band jazz ensemble, Golan and 21 other high school students and recent graduates from all over the district will open the 16th Annual Central Avenue Jazz Festival, taking place at Central Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Street.
The band is set to play compositions by Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Eddie Harris, Jeff Jarvis and Albert Nelson.
“We play the classics and try to put our spin on them,” said Tony White, founder and codirector of the All City Jazz Band.
The All City Jazz Band was started in 2010 through a partnership of the Beyond the Bell branch of the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Despite being in its second year, the ensemble has played some high profile gigs: last year's Central Avenue Jazz Festival and the 2010 and 2011 Playboy Jazz Festivals.
“The unique thing about this whole program is that the fact that the kids are coming together from different walks of life to work together to create a product that is really outstanding,” White said. “It embodies the model of what we should be doing in the world: coming together, working together, putting aside our differences and trying to do something positive.”
The students were hand-picked by White and co-director JB Dyas or were recommended by teachers.
Golan, who plays lead alto saxophone in the ensemble and goes to El Camino Real High School, was plucked from the All Southern California Jazz Band by White.
Golan first picked up the saxophone because he saw his father playing jazz and thought “it was really cool.”
Pianist Anthony Lucca was recommended to White and arrived via Hamilton High School, which has its own comprehensive jazz program.
For 18-year-old Lucca, playing the piano started out as an accident.
In ninth grade, he was taken out of P.E. due to surgery and was put in a piano class, simply to fill out his schedule. However, what first started out as an elective soon became a passion.
“From the minute I started playing, I just realized just how much I enjoyed it,” Lucca said. “I couldn't get enough of it. It consumed me, and I would spend hours and hours practicing.”
Weekends were no exception — from sun up to sundown, he said.
His passion is similar for the other students. White said he sees it in their faces, their dedication and through their performances.
