Palmer High hosts inaugural Valley Jazz Festival

PALMER — Anyone listening in at Palmer High School over the weekend would’ve heard a whole lot of shoo-be-doo-bop-bops, dabada-bwee-daps and the like echoing down the halls.

On Friday and Saturday, the school hosted its first ever Valley Jazz Festival, consisting of dozens of workshops, clinics and concerts for Mat-Su students from 10 different middle and high schools. Palmer music teacher Stan Harris and the Palmer Music Booster Club decided to host the statewide festival as a replacement for the one typically held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which was cancelled this year due to funding and administrative changes.

“All the music teachers around here said we still wanna do this for our kids,” said former Palmer Music Booster President Tami LeCheminant.

Five professional guest artists from Outside were flown up for the occasion, three of whom are clinicians for the musical instrument manufacturing company Conn-Selmer: trombonist Tom “Bones” Malone, trumpeter Rich Wetzel, and saxophone player Mark Colby.

Washington State University Jazz Studies Program Director Dr. Gregory Yasinitsky and Staff Sgt. Rob Hyatt of the U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America were also booked for the event.

Harris said he, the students and the planning committee for the event were “very lucky” to have such high caliber musicians at the event.

“We really hit the motherload as far as guest artists,” Harris said at the school on Saturday.

Hyatt, whose arrangements of jazz pieces “Take That!” and “Just Goofin’” are frequently used or performed by Palmer students, said he was glad to make the trip to teach young people about music.

“Being able to communicate that stuff to kids … is one of the most satisfying things,” he said.

Wetzel, who worked with Palmer jazz students at the school a few years ago, was also happy to continue the cycle of music education.

“We all remember being those kids,” he said. “Every chance we get to give back to them, we love it.”

Harris praised all five musicians for being “really down-to-earth with the kids, and approachable.”

But the fact that the men were also all professionals was important. Palmer Junior Middle School music teacher Chris Loescher said that’s probably what got students to listen to their advice, some of which was already being given by Mat-Su teachers.

“It’s kinda like we’re their parents,” Loescher said. “We tell them something and they ignore it, then they hear it from someone else and go ‘OK.’”

Sixth-grade clarinet player Sophia Gimm — one of five or six of Loescher’s students who roped him into an impromptu rap session onstage after a Q-and-A with the guest artists — said she was most impacted by the improvisation clinics.

“I learned a lot of improv skills and solo techniques so maybe when I’m older I’ll be better at solo-ing,” she said.

For Palmer High senior Jenny Hawkins, it was the in-between moments that stood out most. While singing in harmony with a few friends in a stairwell on Saturday morning, Hawkins said they shared a “very spiritual experience” in blending their sounds together — something she might not have noticed or done on an average day.

Other students, like Wasilla High sophomore April Foster, latched onto more practical information. As a percussionist, she said she was impressed by instructor and former Mat-Su Borough School District teacher Barry Johnson’s attention to detail in his drum workshop.

“He knew a lot about being prepared and what to do if your set breaks down during a performance,” Foster said.

Students also had opportunities to get instruments or equipment fixed by Matanuska Music and even test and buy new ones from Alaska Music and Sound — “Home of the Horn Doctor” in Anchorage — at the festival.

“We want students to have the opportunity to play something that’s by-and-large a step up from what they’re playing now,” said Alaska Music and Sound President Barbara Kagerer.

Music on the mind

Hank Hartman, owner of Matanuska Music, was not only doing repairs and selling gear at the festival, but preparing to perform with Harris and the guest artists on Saturday afternoon. More importantly, he was spreading awareness of one simple but significant concept:

“Music makes us smarter,” he said.

That concept was expanded on by one instructor that at least three festival-goers referenced, whose name no one seemed to remember.

“Music class is the only class you take in school that uses your entire brain,”

LeCheminant said, paraphrasing the speaker.

From learning discipline to honing public speaking and leadership skills, to team building, the improvement of students’ abilities are clear in music class as well as festivals, Hartman said.

“Educationally it’s a no-lose situation,” Harris said. “The research is blatant that kids, when they play music, their brain lights up like a Fourth of July fireworks display.”

Seeing the smiles on the faces of his students and those from other schools, as well as the general excitement in the air over the weekend, he said, is enough to make him want to host an even bigger and better festival again next year.

“These kids have just been turned on the last two days,” he said.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.