Last night, the Garfield High Jazz Band played its annual “Farewell to Seniors” concert. My son Emmett is among the 20 musicians who are graduating from high school (tomorrow night-yikes) and leaving this amazing program. As I sat in the Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center, I was flooded with an odd mix of melancholy, pride and satisfaction. It almost feels like waking up from a beautiful dream. As I write this today, I seem to…
Over this past weekend, I had the immeasurable pleasure of taking a road trip with the Garfield High School Jazz Band. (Well, to be more accurate, bands, as in I & II.) Our destination was the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho in Moscow. I signed on as a chaperone for the trip. By some anomaly in nature, Emmett, who plays guitar in Band I, had no issue with his goober mom coming along for the ride, even if it meant she…
UNIVERSITY DISTRICT JAZZ WALK-SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2010 One of the cool things about the Earshot Jazz Festival is the big line-up of outstanding artists and the plethora of performances to choose from. The downside is that it can be difficult to find the time to hit all the shows you want to and it can also get a little spendy. This is just one of the reasons that the University District Jazz Walk is such a great offering. This year, Earshot has teamed up with…