All That Jazz: Student Band Lights Up The Main Hall
21st November 24
Despite the darkness of an autumn night, there was a warm glow from the Main Hall for the inaugural KAS Jazz Club. Tables were crowded with members of the KAS community ready to enjoy an evening of entertainment as our 15 piece student Jazz Band took to the stage alongside professional jazz musicians.
As a school KAS is committed to helping shape well rounded individuals. Giving students opportunities to perform to an audience, whether that is at a concert, in a play, giving a presentation or during a callover, is something that helps to build confidence and independence.
Bringing Jazz to KAS
Head of Music, Neven was keen to bring this new addition to the performance calendar to life, saying: “This concert is part of a wider vision I have for music at KAS. A key philosophy of this school is allowing students to be themselves and to have their own voice. For me, jazz is about freedom and expressing yourself so it was a perfect fit.
“We already have the Soloist Concert for classical music, Axemonsters, Unplugged and KAStonbury for pop. I wanted to create a space for jazz because it serves as such a great platform for our musicians, perhaps those people who play music but can’t read music, or those who don’t fit into the other categories, to express themselves.
“To put together something like this we needed to have the right people in place and we are lucky to have two working jazz musicians as part of our teaching team, Leo Richardson (saxophone) and Sam Warner (trumpet), who have been running our jazz band for two years. They gather students from Year 8 to Year 13 every Wednesday lunchtime for rehearsals and are brilliant at including and encouraging students with different ability levels.
“The evening itself was brilliant. To see them all up there in their suits, playing a full 50 minute set and each taking on a solo was a great moment for me.”
Performers perspective
Performers perspectiveYear 10 students Reuben (piano) and Max (guitar) were still buzzing about the concert when we spoke to them about it a week later. Max told us: “the concert looked great, it felt great to perform in and it felt very professional. I mean, I eat lunch in that hall every day and I didn’t recognise it! People who weren’t even our parents came to watch! It was such a fun experience.
Reuben agreed: “I already loved jazz so this was great fun to be part of. The vibe was so different to all the other concerts, there was dim lighting, it was more chilled, and even though we had to learn more numbers, it was simpler because it was just one band. After we finished we got to watch the professionals and that was incredible, each of them were so skilled, it inspired us to improve. I hope we do it again.”
Jazz Band is open to any student in Upper School who has achieved Grade 3 in their chosen instrument but it’s just one way students at KAS can get involved with music. Whether it’s taking individual instrument lessons, forming a band to perform at Axemonsters, joining one of the many choirs, learning about music programming in Choice or just enjoying music as part of the curriculum in Years 7-9, there are options for all musical abilities and interests.
Huge thanks to: Pam Oliver, Claire Rasul and the Estates team on set up; Nikki Sullivan, Jill Salmon and Shirley Sum who ran the refreshments and Matt Cargill on sound.
