Peter Jazz

Peter spent last week at the Summer Jazz Program at Neighborhood Music School in New Haven. We have some video of his performances.

Peter has always been told by his teachers that he's a very good alto saxophonist, especially in a technical sense. Give him music and he'll play the notes very well. With Jazz, of course, playing the notes well is only the starting point -- then you need to be able to take off from there.

So we were hoping that the Jazz Program would sort of simultaneously humble and inspire him. There were about 35 kids in the program, ages 13 to 19. Peter was one of only three 13 year olds, so he got to play with some very good young musicians. They were divided up into small ensembles and also came together as a big band. Five days, eight hours a day of intense training in improvisation, music theory, sight reading, and other jazz topics, plus practices with the small ensemble and the big band.

At the end of the first day, he wrote on his Facebook wall, "I have a lot to learn." At the end of the second day, he told us there was no way he'd ever do this again. At the end of the third day, he said he was feeling more confident. At the end of the fourth day, he told us the day was "good" -- the first outright positive thing he'd said all week.

At the end of the fifth day, the ensembles performed. And you can see from the look on his face at the end of his solo in the first video that it finally kicked in. Our boy is officially a jazz musician.

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Friday night, the end of the fifth day of the program, the small ensembles got to perform. Peter's ensemble was made up of kids who were in the Jazz Program for the first time. Peter was on alto sax, and there was also piano, bass, guitar, drums, and trumpet. Their first song was "Watermelon Man" by Herbie Hancock. Each kid got at least one solo during the ensemble's three songs, requiring them to improvise. Peter was a little concerned about this at first -- and so were we, frankly -- but he was proud of himself after the solo, and the crowd was appreciative. It comes at about the 1:35 mark.

Their second piece was "Some Other Blues" by John Coltrane. Peter's solo comes earlier in this piece.

They also played a jazz version of The Flinstones theme song.

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On Saturday, the Jazz Program's Big Band had the privelege of performing on the New Haven Green as the opening act of the annual New Haven Jazz Festival. They performed five songs, three of which are below.

Peter doesn't have any solos -- they go to the older, more experienced kids -- but he did enjoy the experience. He's hard to see behind his music stand, but he's recognizable.

One song they peformed was Gershwin's "Summertime," which featured a vocalist named Erica Bryan. Remember the name. She's 18 years old and outstanding:

They also played "Trofeo de Bolos" (which translates as "Bowling Trophy"):

Peter's favorite piece was "The Creeper":

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We're very proud of our boy, not only because he's so talented (that's genetic, after all; he has that Juiceboxx DNA), but because he really got knocked back a little by all of this at first, but took up the challenge and did very well with it. It's given him the inspiration that we'd hoped it would.

Plus, he wrote on his Facebook page, "I've got a lot to learn." How many parents of a teenager can say that their kid admitted that?