Jazz Home Children college students
Chris Drukker
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Chris Drukker
For over 20 years, Montclair, N.J.’s Jazz Home Children has constructed a status for excellence in music schooling. Promising younger musicians stroll via its doorways and obtain the form of coaching that may set them on the trail to jazz stardom. Artists like Isaiah J. Thompson, Julian Lee, Immanuel Wilkins and Matthew Whitaker all benefited from the one-of-a-kind expertise Jazz Home affords.
However simply as essential because the prodigies are the scholars who arrive having by no means heard jazz earlier than. Some is probably not musical virtuosos or pursue music past highschool. Not like different comparable packages, Jazz Home Children welcomes all college students, no matter talent degree. As founder and president Melissa Walker advised Jazz Evening, “Jazz Home would have its door swinging large open to everybody.” That philosophy has all the time been central to her imaginative and prescient. Her dedication to inclusivity has led not solely to dozens of standout musicians, but in addition to a whole bunch of alumni who realized what it means to be a great particular person via the values of jazz.
I am certainly one of them.
After I joined Jazz Home Children at 14, I wasn’t simply hesitant — I used to be utterly resistant. I could not have imagined that 11 years later, I would be working in jazz journalism, impressed by a program that reshaped how I take into consideration music, individuals and myself. Producing this episode of Jazz Evening in America seems like coming full circle.
SET LIST
- “Chinoiserie” (Duke Ellington) carried out by the Jazz Home Large Band from the album Swinging with the Jazz Home Large Band
- “The Extra I See You” (Harry Warren) carried out by the Jazz Home Large Band that includes Melissa Walker from the album Swinging with the Jazz Home Large Band
- “Gettin’ to It” (Christian McBride) carried out by the Jazz Home Large Band that includes Christian McBride from the album Swinging with the Jazz Home Large Band
- “Blue Rondo à la Turk” (Dave Brubeck) carried out by Matthew Whitaker stay from the 2022 Montclair Jazz Pageant
- “Enjoyable” (Nat Adderley) carried out by the Jazz Home Legacy Band* stay from the 2024 Montclair Jazz Pageant
- “Yessaah” (Matthew Whitaker) carried out by Matthew Whitaker from the album On Their Shoulders: An Organ Tribute
- “Clementine” (Julian Lee) carried out by Julian Lee from the EP Clementine
- “The Prophet” (Isaiah J. Thompson) carried out by Isaiah J. Thompson from the album The Guide of Isaiah: Fashionable Jazz Ministry
- “Spring Flower, Sprung Flower” (Isaiah J. Thompson) carried out by Isaiah J. Thompson from the album The Guide of Isaiah: Fashionable Jazz Ministry
*Jazz Home Legacy Band: Caelan Cardello, piano; Wallace Roney Jr., trumpet; Julian Lee, tenor saxophone; Zoe Obadia, alto saxophone; Coleman Hughes, trombone; Lex Warshawsky, bass; Zach Adelman, drums.
Credit: Emily Springer and Sarah Geledi, writers and producers; Simon Rentner, consulting senior producer; Michel Martin, visitor host; Ron Scalzo, episode combine; Steven A. Williams, govt producer; Suraya Mohamed, govt producer at NPR Music.