Wickliffe High School Jazz Band is one of 21 bands who will benefit from receiving critiques and feedback from professional jazz musicians after performing for them in the 46th Lakeland Jazz Festival.
The Jazz Festival taking place at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland from March 16-18 gives area students the chance to perform for and learn firsthand from professionals in a noncompetitive event.
“Our mission is for education. We feel that jazz is an art form and we want to keep that art form continuing into the 21st century and beyond,” said Stephen Stanziano, Lakeland professor and co-coordinator of the jazz festival. “Chuck Frank is our founder and this is our 46th year. We started in 1973 and we are trying to keep his legacy going, the mission of educating about America’s music.”
>> Photos: 2018 Lakeland Jazz Festival
While the majority of the performances are by high school bands, there also are some middle school and college bands participating.
Each band has a half-hour in which they perform three songs. After the performance, the music educators and professional musicians from Northeast Ohio acting as adjudicators critique the performance and give them feedback. The bands then spend a half-hour with one of the professionals for individual guidance and to help refine their music.
“I think this is a really unique experience because we are adding to their (the students) knowledge of what they already know about music. We are trying to add to that specific pieces of style, of jazz and the history,” Stanziano said. “A lot of the judges are talking to these guys about what they played, who recorded it, where it was recorded and what year it was recorded.”
For the 29 members of the Wickliffe High School Jazz Band directed by Pamela Graves, the feedback provided by Kent Engelhardt — member of the Jazz Education Network, performer, artist and composer — was good.
Engelhardt said that the band’s dedication was amazing and that they did a great job. He complimented them on their choice of really good music said they had a good balance of selections. He addressed the percussion section, saying they were good, but they needed to relax and be heard more. They needed more presence.
Engelhardt also complimented them on their ability to balance the sound of music with that number of people, which he said is something that is really hard to do.
Following their performance, the band met with Mark Mauldin who is an instrumental music specialist in the Solon School District and a director for Cuyahoga Community College Jazz Preparatory Department. Mauldin spent a half hour with the band going over their performance and offering guidance on how to improve.
Wickliffe High School Jazz Band meets one day a week after school.
“It’s an opportunity to perform and hear other styles of jazz music and to continue to allow students to play,” Graves said. “It lets the students express themselves musically through improv and that sort of thing.”
After the performance and critiques, Graves hopes the students bring back different ideas on performing and music they would like to perform.
Wickliffe has participated in the Jazz Festival for the past 10-12 years, only missing one because of a snow day.
For Jaclyn Riedthaler, trumpet player, this was her first time to perform at the Jazz Festival and she thought it was a lot of fun and a great experience.
“I’m glad to enjoy it with my friends,” Jaclyn said. “I was proud to receive critique from professionals because we are a small school, we don’t have a lot of opportunities to be judged like that,”
Saxophone player Tyler Hasul has performed three times at the Jazz Festival and finds it to be a lot of fun.
“Our main thing is normally marching band and concerts and stuff,” Tyler said. “I like this, it’s nice, its a different outlet that you can just let go and have more joy and independence with the music and getting your own feel for how you play.
“Feedback from the professionals, it’s awesome, because they know what you need to do to be good in this line of work. Just to have their input so we can improve, so we can actually have a chance in music industry, is awesome.”
Aliyah Davis, a trumpet player who performed in the event for the third time, also thought it was fun.
“I just think it’s really fun to play with the band and my friends and to be able to do more with jazz music, to be able to play jazz more freely and more independently,” Aliyah said of the independent session.
In addition to the student performances, the Lakeland Jazz Festival will hold concerts all weekend.
The event is free and open to the public. For a schedule of performances, visit www.lakelandcc.edu/jazzfestival.
