Rock Coup Triumphs!

[charloween]

Background
1. My brother goes to a high school that thinks A Lot of its extra-curricular jazz bands. Last year they had so many students audition for the top band that they formed a fourth jazz band, the "OJ Combo" out of those who were really good, but that they couldn't cram into the OJ1 band. Reed is a Combo-ite.

2. The Combo's numbers dwindled until it was 3 horns + rhythm, directed by a former student-current elementary school teacher. Lacking the direct involvement of the head jazz guy, and having not quite a full band, the members all arranged a song to fit a small group. Reed's contribution was an arrangement of a Big Sugar song.

3. Every year the school does something called 'Motor City Jazz', and this year's concert was called Swing Avenue. Every band/choir was expected to perform 4 swing tunes. They've been doing this for 20 years, and in the opinion of some it was fun but stale.

This is the story of what happened that night. Okay. Last night.

The Combo was the only band not under the direction of the Head Jazz Teacher, so they had considerable creative freedom. Nobody knew what they were planning. Reed said they were planning on kicking it up a notch, and the word 'funk' was mentioned.

Imagine the scene: Dimly lit hall, 500 people (450 ticket holders, sold-out crowd + various students who had already performed) milling about, eating, talking, not really paying that much attention to the Combo's first three numbers because they were playing the same ol' same ol' lite swing stuff that the previous three groups had done. Then every head in the audience snapped forward as... what did they hear? My darling little brother, ripping a guitar solo to signal the start of the only truly original moment of the evening.

They rocked out, but fully within the prescribed confines of jazz night. Or maybe not. There was a drum solo that did lean towards the metal-ish side of things, but the horns - they convinced their band leader to play tumpet with them to add more sound to the horns - played for all they were worth and by god it was incredible.

Even as they were playing I could see the various band members' looks of astonishment as they Actually Pulled It Off. They got the biggest applause of the evening for that song. No one had got any whistles or cheers or anything above cofeehouse-level applause, but the crowd went wild.

The rest of the evening sucked in comparison. It was back to big-band swing that, yes, I'd heard before. No one did anything matching that level of intensity, fun, originality.... I love my lil brother.

He told me later that they did it because the Combo was, basically, the jazz program rejects: good, but not good enough for the prestigious OJ1 top group. Mr. Top Jazz Teacher needed to get told, and he did.

It's all frightfully cinematic.

Comments

[deleriumd.livejournal.com]

lmao

a coup at ahigh school band

so deliciously 80's

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

Ha. I'm writing a screenplay as we speak. School of Rock has nothing on this. Actually, I was telling Karen about this and another woman at school came in halfway through the conversation and thought I was talking about School of Rock (which was a decent movie, but Reed *is* sexier than Jack Black).

Too bad it was sold out or you too could have experienced a true-life John Hughes moment. So cheerfully heart-warming. To be in the audience and just watch everyone's face (esp the emcee) just sag into violent incomprehension... pure gold. I missed CSI but it was worth it.

Can you tell I'm proud of my little brother?

[pyratelady.livejournal.com]

excellent!

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

It *was* brilliant.

Now I have to find someone who videotaped it to send to my sister. :)