Field trip exposes students to jazz

All 650 students from Hilliard Tharp Sixth Grade School will take a field trip to the Southern Theatre at noon Friday for an exclusive one-hour concert by the Columbus Jazz Orchestra.

"We've done this annually for at least the last 4-5 years," said Kent Hansher, music teacher at Tharp. "Before it, we have a two-week jazz unit we go over with the students."

The Jazz Arts Group, the umbrella organization for the CJO, sponsors the program, called "All That Jazz." They provide the school with a booklet that teaches fourth-through-sixth-graders about the musical genre. While at the concert, the kids will be part of a 12-bar blues improvisation, sing "Route 66" and learn about jazz's history, geography and vocabulary. They'll also hear the big band's instruments singly, in sections, and all together.

Hansher said the program also shows students proper concert etiquette and brings the music alive by hearing it after learning about it.

"It's been a great thing for the kids. Many of them don't have exposure to jazz, so even the art form itself is exciting, and there's also participation because they've already had this unit before going. They know the ins and outs of the instrumentation. I think more than anything else, they enjoy being active listeners instead of just passive ones when they go to this concert, because they're more aware of what's going on."

Hansher said the Parent Teacher Organization and student contributions are funding the $6 per student trip.

Judy Shafer, director of Jazz in Schools for the Jazz Arts Group's Jazz Academy, said this is the seventh year of the "All That Jazz" program.

"It was designed to give kids information about music that has been a big part of American history, big band jazz," Shafer said. "Jazz was a core part of our culture -- the music was actually the popular music of the day (during the swing era). Once they understand the music, they see why it was so popular."

The CJO is one of the few big bands of its type left in the United States.

"This is an experience to hear a sound that these kids will never hear and to understand the background," Shafer said. "They don't just come here on a field trip to hear a concert of an hour of jazz, they actually participate in it. They're into it, they get it.

"As a result of these concerts, the youth in our audience has grown. The number of young people coming in the past 5 years has increased. Next month, we're doing 88 Columbus City schools and 4,400 kids are coming through. We've had one administrator say to us, 'We left one secretary in the building and brought everybody else.' "

Jim Masters, a trombone player for the CJO and a professor at Ohio State, will lead the big band during the "All That Jazz" program.

"We introduce the sound of the jazz orchestra to all these wonderful kids that come in, and they get to learn a little bit about improvisation, a little bit of history and they get to hear the sound of the big band," Masters said.

"I absolutely love the fact that these kids get to hear this American art music, which was part of our pop culture in the 1930s and 1940s. It helps to expose them to it and get it into their world of possibilities. They're sharing a legacy of musical history, and maybe they'll embrace it and carry it on into the future. That's my main hope."

The Columbus Jazz Orchestra will also perform the pop music of 1970s horn bands like Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears in concerts Friday and Saturday (Jan. 22-23) night in the Southern Theatre. For more information, call 614-294-5200 or visit www.jazzartsgroup.org.