By Mary-Justine Lanyon
If guests at the Bump Up the Band fundraising event had closed their eyes, they might have thought they were in a jazz club in New Orleans.
But, no – they were at the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa where the Rim of the World jazz band was performing.
“This is our third annual Blue Jay Jazz benefit concert,” Kari Stebbing, the music director at Rim of the World High School, told the large crowd. “All funds received today will come to these kids.” She sent out a big thank you to Chris Levister, president of the Blue Jay Jazz Foundation, for sponsoring the event.
“I’ve been asked why I do this,” Levister said. “We put together opportunities for kids coming up through the pipeline. We want you to help these young people. We fix instruments – kids need instruments to play. Help us make it possible for kids to rent or buy an instrument.”
Karissa from Music & Arts helped Bellamy, 7, and her sister, Kensington, 4, blow some notes with trumpets from the instrument “petting zoo.”
Prior to the concert, Karissa and Kirk from Music & Arts had a variety of instruments on display in a “petting zoo” for children to try.
Karissa and Kirk from Music & Arts watch as 8-year-old Reuben tries his hand at the trumpet.
As the jazz band prepared to play their first piece – “Tadpole Blues” by Dean Sorenson – Stebbing noted that every student would be improvising a solo. When they finished playing this piece, a little girl in the audiences yelled out, “Thank you!”
Stebbing encouraged the audience to get up and dance to the second piece – “Bossa Madeira” by Dean Sorenson and Bruce Pearson. Levister and her husband, Ernie, did so, as did a group of children who danced in a corner of the ballroom.
The jazz band played three more tunes: “They Went Thatta Way,” also by Dean Sorenson; “Dream a Little Dream of Me” by Wilbur Schwandt, Fabian Andree and Gus Kahn; and a cover of “Radio/Video” by System of a Down.
“What you heard,” Levister told the audience, “is what jazz is all about – improvisation.”
Stebbing added that the students “put their hearts and souls out there.”
The jazz band will be among the other music groups from the high school performing at the spring concert this Friday night, May 17 at 6 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center at Rim High. Admission is free.
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