On a recent Friday, five members of the Jazz Workshop launched into the Miles Davis tune “So What" before a lunchtime audience of more than a dozen students.
While the Jazz Workshop at the Amherst Regional High School has played before a lunch crowd before, this was the first time members were playing in the dark of the recently constructed black box theater and not in the well-lit cafeteria. With a pass, any student could listen during lunch.
And rather than talking through the band's performance, students ate their peanut butter sandwiches and bananas, tapping their feet and attentive to the music.
The combo played for three lunch periods while also recording tracks for a compact disc they will use to enter an upcoming Charles Mingus competition.
The students were so absorbed in their playing that when the third period finished, they thought they had only played for two.
A live audience helps their performance and a live audience with people who wanted to listen was even better. “You get a different vibe," said teacher Brian Messier. They wanted that energy captured on the recording.
The combo, which featured a trumpet, tenor saxophone, guitar, base guitar and drums, launched into the Mingus tunes “Better Get Hit in Your Soul" and “Pithecanthropus Erectus." They also played “St. James Infirmary Blues."
While the Jazz Workshop at the Amherst Regional High School has played before a lunch crowd before, this was the first time members were playing in the dark of the recently constructed black box theater and not in the well-lit cafeteria. With a pass, any student could listen during lunch.
And rather than talking through the band's performance, students ate their peanut butter sandwiches and bananas, tapping their feet and attentive to the music.
The combo played for three lunch periods while also recording tracks for a compact disc they will use to enter an upcoming Charles Mingus competition.
The students were so absorbed in their playing that when the third period finished, they thought they had only played for two.
A live audience helps their performance and a live audience with people who wanted to listen was even better. “You get a different vibe," said teacher Brian Messier. They wanted that energy captured on the recording.
The combo, which featured a trumpet, tenor saxophone, guitar, base guitar and drums, launched into the Mingus tunes “Better Get Hit in Your Soul" and “Pithecanthropus Erectus." They also played “St. James Infirmary Blues."
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