Tag: Jazz

  • Jazz Ready for Thursday Concert

    On November 1, the Poly Jazz Bands will have their first concert of the year in the Poly Auditorium. Each of the four bands will perform four songs, and each song will feature several improvisational soloists.

    Band director Chris Stevens said during Jazz “A” band rehearsal on Monday that he has been “looking forward to the concert for months”  and that the bands are “well prepared.” After several weeks of intense practice, he believes that each band is off to a “great start.”

    The concert will open with the “C” band, an ensemble of freshman musicians that are brand new to the Poly music scene and to jazz music. As the concert progresses, the age and experience of the players increases and culminates at the “A” band. Senior Jazz A trumpeter Adam Traut said that the band is able play “with lots of energy.” He’s proud to have made it to the top level for two years and will be a featured soloist tomorrow evening.

    While programming the concert, Stevens found a 1939 big band chart by the name of “The Bouncing Ball” tucked away in the Poly music library. As he unearthed it, he found the paper records from when the chart was last inventoried in 1940. Stevens handed it out to Jazz A and they will be performing it at the concert as a nostalgic nod to Poly’s long history of musical excellence.

    Junior trombonist Evan Hoover said that the piece would be a “great trip down memory lane” for the audience.

    Everyone in the Poly Jazz program is looking forward to another year playing in one of Southern California’s premier high school music ensembles.

    The concert will start at 7 p.m. in the Poly Auditorium and will run to approximately 9:30.

  • Poly’s Got Jazz!

    On November 2, 2017, Long Beach Poly’s Jazz program performed their annual fall concert at Hughes middle school.

    The night began with a performance from a Jazz C. Junior, Maya Cheav played the piano for Jazz C. “The concert was great. You wouldn’t believe the amount of talent at this school,” said Cheav. Jazz C performed four songs: “Second Line,” “Avalon,” “Sugar Train,” and “Tenor Madness.”

    Next in line was Jazz B, performing “Cheesecake,” “Butterfat,” “Teach Me Tonight,” and “Smackdown.”

    “We performed four songs, all pretty different. Two swing, one funk, and one ballad,” said senior Blake Leigh, who played the piano for Jazz B. “I think that the band’s hard work really showed in our performance.”

    Jazz A2 was second to last to perform. Drummer, junior Marcelo Murillo played for Jazz A and commented, “I felt as though from the beginning of our first rehearsal of the tunes, we struggled as a group. Then overtime, through practicing as a group and on our own, we developed the songs and shaped the music in a way that sounded amazing. On the whole, the concert sounded great.”

    Jazz A2 performed the songs: “Hey That’s Nacho Cheese”, “Body and Soul”, and “I’ll Be Seeing You”.

    Jazz A closed out the event with more spectacular performances.  Senior Kyle Van Lant played the saxophone for Jazz A. “We played New Mambo, Count Bubba, Duck Ankles, Helen’s Heart, and the Trolley song, which Jacob Wolff arranged. I had a ton of fun; we really pulled through at the performance, as did all the other groups,” said Van Lant.

  • Dancers En Pointe!

    Dancers En Pointe!

    Courtesy of Ashley Lopez

    On November 16, the Long Beach Poly dance program had their annual winter show. This year’s recital included various levels of performers such as PE 10, Dance 7-8 tech, and the Dance Team. Poly’s first hip-hop dance team, H2M, was also featured in the show and gave a great performance.

    According to dance instructor, Cynthia Negrete, the show was comprised of  “everything, all forms of dance.” The range of performance for the young girls ranged from lyrical and contemporary dances all the way to character dances and even to hip-hop and Bollywood.

    Senior Megan Villaverde stated that this show was different for her: “I was able to immerse myself in a different range of styles.”

    Villaverde was “really glad to work with new choreographers and their dances for the show.” After taking a long break from the spotlight, Villaverde was ecstatic to return to the stage with her fellow teammates and peers.

    Another Long Beach Poly senior, Adrianna Luna, is in her fourth year with the dance program. Luna said that she was “most excited to be the first event performing in Poly’s new auditorium.” Luna, who was featured in a jazz and contemporary piece, couldn’t wait to show “how hard we’ve been working on the final presentation.”

    Long Beach Poly’s new auditorium has been a long time coming– and the performing arts students were more than happy to jump back into the theater lifestyle.

    The hard work paid off in the end. All of the dancers experienced the rush of adrenaline when they were on the stage as well as off. An audience member, senior Natalie Hun, said, “I really liked the different styles of the show… I had a fun time cheering everyone on!”

  • Long Beach Jazz Festival

    Long Beach Jazz Festival

    Poly students performed at the Mayfair Jazz Festival on February 24 at Mayfair High School, where Poly’s Jazz C ensemble came in first place. They also played at  the Western States Jazz Festival on February 25 at Upland High School where Poly’s Jazz A2 ensemble came in third place and Jazz A came in fifth place in their own divisions.

    Those festivals are the oldest and most famous jazz festival in Southern California. Most of the best schools were there, as jazz teacher Chris Stevens said, “The Poly musicians played great!”

    For the first festival, the following four songs were played; “Sack O’Woe” by Cannolbal Addrley, “It’s Alright With Me” by Cole Porter, “Breathing” by Fred Sturm, and “Backjump” by Troy Andrews and Mike Ballard. For the second festival, the following four songs were played: “Low -Down” by Thad Jones, “Blue Skies” by Irving Berlin, “ Here’s Looking at You” by Charlie Haden, and “One Sided Coin” by Dan Radluaer.

    There were many solos at both festivals, each involving about two or more soloists per song.

    Freshman Alex Reams, one of the soloists at the Mayfair Festival, said, “There were about three judges there and I was nervous, but overall I think I did pretty good.”

    Senior Madison Alexander, another soloist, did not have that much time to prepare for the festival because one of the other piano players from Jazz A2 wasn’t able to make it. However, according to the judges, Alexander was still part of one of the “tightest rhythm sections” and that her solo had good licks. Alexander claimed that hearing that was “unimaginable and pretty elating to hear.”