John Sturm Wins The Inaugural Herb Pomeroy Award
Berklee College of Music is pleased to introduce the First Annual Herb Pomeroy Jazz Composition/Arranging Contest winner, John Sturm.
The winning piece will be performed by the Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra (under direction of Greg Hopkins) at the 43rd High School Jazz Festival on March 5, 2011. The contest was limited to high school students enrolled in grades, 9, 10, 11, or 12.
Greg Hopkins and the Berklee Jazz Orchestra will perform John Sturm's winning piece, "Autumn Lament"
John Sturm, the inaugural Herb Pomeroy Award winner, is from Princeton, NJ. John is a senior at Princeton High School. His winning piece is entitled Autumn Lament, a ballad that features the lead trombone. John’s hobbies include jazz piano, composition, ultimate frisbee, math, and philosophy. His music teachers include Neal Kirkwood, Laurie Altmun and Susanne Lehrer. He is planning on majoring in math and minoring in music in college. John Sturm’s winning piece will be performed by the Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra (under the direction of Greg Hopkins) at the High School Jazz Festival on March 5th at 2:00 p.m in the Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Second Level of the Hynes Convention Center.
In addition John Sturm will receive a full scholarship to the Berklee 5-week Summer Performance Program. The judges declined to indicate a runner up. The Poweroy Award is sponsored by Berklee College of Music, Jazz Composition Department, Professional Writing Division.
About Herb Pomeroy:
Herb Pomeroy was a Berklee Faculty legend and jazz great. A graduate of the class of ’52, his work as a mentor and musician helped make Berklee into the world’s leading institute of contemporary music.
He joined the Berklee faculty as a full-time teacher in 1955 and developed several courses that eventually cemented his reputation as one of jazz’s greatest teachers. Pomeroy’s appreciation for and endless study of Duke Ellington’s music informed much of his classroom work and helped spawn scores of talented musicians, including producer Arif Mardin, The Simpsons composer Alf Clausen, composer-arrangers Alan Broadbent and Rob Mounsey, vibraphonist Gary Burton, keyboardist Joe Zawinul, bassist Abe Laboriel Sr., film composers Mike Gibbs and Alan Silvestri, and many others.
Herb released many CDs as a leader and co-leader and appeared on dozens of recordings as a sideman, including sessions with Charlie Parker and Charlie Mariano. He began playing professionally in high school and went on the road in the early 1950s with bands led by Lionel Hampton, Stan Kenton, and Serge Chaloff.
Bandleader Interview: Richard Guillen of Arlington High School
“Constantly Growing, Constantly Learning…”
Arlington High School band director Richard Guillen has taken his school’s jazz band to Berklee’s High School Jazz Festival nine times over his thirteen years at the school, but the last three years have been especially good for the band. Placing third, then second, then first in their class, they’ve been getting increasing recognition. This year they return to “defend their title,” but Guillen says their focus isn’t on winning, but getting as much from the experience as possible. We spoke to Guillen about his students’ festival experiences; below is a condensed and edited version of that conversation.
RG: It’s very exciting, because there’s so much music going on. In the program Berklee lists the top three or four from each of the classes, and I encourage my students to seek them out, especially the groups that they play against directly. I also encourage them to go hear the Berklee groups, check out Berklee, check out some jam sessions, and just soak up as much as that weekend offers as possible. The more that they can get exposed to really good jazz, the better. The performance is great, and the evaluation is great, but the result is a byproduct. The idea of going there and doing well is certainly an incentive, but it’s more important for the kids to go there and have a positive playing experience, get some good feedback from the judges, and hear some great groups. That’s really what it’s all about.
What do you think they take away from this?
RG: I think they enjoy the camaraderie of being away for the weekend and just focusing on being jazz players.
We were fortunate enough to have Phil Wilson work with the kids for a three-hour workshop… he’s talking about playing with Louis Armstrong… talk about inspiring. That for me was probably the best thing about winning.
They don’t get that a whole lot. Our kids are immersed in all these other things. We have five concert bands; we have four orchestras—our kids are really involved. So for them just to get a weekend away with this kind of focus is fun for them.
What do you do with the students to help them prepare?
RG: The jazz band starts rehearsing usually in November. We wait until our marching band season is over, because a lot of these kids are involved in the marching band, and it’s pretty strenuous scheduling-wise. I put a lot of focus on picking great music to play at Berklee, but I also try to give them a well-rounded jazz experience, playing classics and standards, and at the same time exposing them to new literature. I encourage kids to do a lot of listening outside of rehearsals, because the best way for them to learn how to play jazz is just to listen to it over and over again. We rehearse one night a week for three hours and generally focus on style. The kids are generally good readers, because they audition for the group. We do some improv workshops. We have performances in the community and in the school throughout the year. A lot of bands really only put their energy into the three or four festival tunes that they play. My goal is for my kids to be able to perform anywhere from 12 to 15 tunes a year, and to be exposed to the history of jazz. I talk a lot about how it’s our American identity musically. It’s grown to become this amazing thing that everyone else in the world has taken on now, but it started here.
Did your students get scholarships to Berklee’s summer programs last year?
RG: We were able to send three kids. Savannah Blum, our lead alto player, went to the Five-Week Summer Performance Program. Jon Suh went to Bass Lines, and Matt Kranis went to the Percussion Festival. A percentage of the tuition was covered by Berklee, and our band boosters covered the remainder of it, so the kids didn’t have to pay too much out of pocket. The kids loved the workshops; they said they would do it again in a heartbeat.
Berklee also sends a clinician to your school, and last year we were fortunate enough to have [Berklee brass professor] Phil Wilson work with the kids for a three-hour workshop. Talk about inspiring. This legendary jazz trombone player comes to your school, and he’s talking about playing with Louis Armstrong… It was just the best experience for them to hear firsthand from somebody who’s been through generations of jazz players. He played for the kids, and they played for him. He worked with the High School Jazz Festival group primarily, but I had my other students sit in on the workshop. That for me was probably the best thing about winning.
What’s your background?
RG: This is my 21st year as a music educator. I’m a saxophone player. I love the marching band thing, and I really enjoy the concert band thing, but my teaching passion is probably jazz. It’s just so amazing to give the kids the experience and the history and the style. They don’t get that in their daily musical experiences. And I’ve really become a student of jazz. I don’t consider myself an expert at all. I’m constantly learning, constantly growing, and over the years I’ve come to gain even more respect and knowledge for the art form than I ever thought I could. The more questions that I ask and the more listening that I do, the more I can offer my students.
Have any of your students gone on to musical careers?
RG: Two of our students who are in the group this year have applied to Berklee, and one has been accepted, so we’ve requested an admissions representative be there. Berklee does the audition one-on-one, so the fact that they can hear them play with their school’s ensemble is pretty special. We had a kid last year go to Berklee, one of our percussionists. A lot of our kids go on to music, and a lot of our kids keep music as a really passionate hobby.
Jazz Top-100
What are your thoughts on the top tunes in jazz history? Share your thoughts on the best jazz songs in the comment section. Once we gather your thoughts, we’ll put them up for a vote! » Share here…
Top three in the jazz tune tree
Let’s see, who could it be, the greatest three tunes of our storied jazz tree. We poked around the history haunting halls of Berklee with the sole purpose of trying to figure this one out. In the end it was a knock-down, drag-out discussion which turned into an impromptu jam session — then a break for lunch — then a vague form of consensus.
Though tough to accept that a Duke Ellington tune wasn’t in the mix, I do agree with the finalists… do you? Who do you think should be in our pantheon of jazz greatness, and why?
Here they are… our take on the top three jazz tunes of all time.
1. “So What” – Miles Davis
Miles. Trane. Cannonball. Evans. Chambers. Cobb. The greatest lineup in jazz history. ‘Nuff said. (Note: this particular performance is missing Cannonball Adderley who was apparently sick at the time — the bonus being that Miles has two solos!)
2. “My Favorite Things” – John Coltrane
This interpretation of the Rodgers/Hammerstein classic tune turned on a whole new audience to the brilliance of John Coltrane. It also offered a glimpse of the path that Trane was about to embark upon.
3. “Take Five” – Dave Brubeck
The first jazz instrumental to sell a million copies. A song everyone, jazz fans or not, have heard. Timeless.
Stivers School for the Arts — 2011 Class 5 Large Ensemble Champ
Directed by Claude Lucien Thomas
Plymouth South High School — 2011 Class 1 Vocal Ensemble Champ
Directed by Brian Raymond
Wakefield High School — 2011 Class 4 Large Ensemble Champ
Directed by Thomas Bankert
Q. What are your thoughts on participating in the Berklee High School Jazz Festival and how long have you been participating?
A. The Berklee High School Jazz Festival is a great way for students to receive quality judging and performing experience, but more important than that, it is the best opportunity for students to connect with students from other schools and hear some of the best high school jazz bands in the country. As jazz educators, we always talk to our students about listening, and the Berklee High School Jazz Festival puts 200 bands, combos and vocal groups in the palm of their hands for the day. My students always come away with new ideas for charts and composers to go home and listen to. This year was the 21st year the Wakefield High School Jazz Ensemble has competed at Berklee.
Q. What tunes did you perform during the competition and at the showcase?
A. For the competition we performed Oclupaca- Duke Ellington; Whodunnit?- Gordon Goodwin; Everyday (I have the Blues) a vocal tune by the Count Basie Band, composed by Memphis Slim. At the showcase we performed Whodunnit?.
Q. What was the feeling when you were announced as the winner in your Class?
A. I was very excited. I immediately received text messages from my chaperones who were the students in the back of the hall. I knew the kids played great during the day, but when you are competing against 15 other bands from 6 states with fabulous jazz programs and directors, you never know how the judging is going to turn out.
Q. How did it feel to perform at the Showcase as the best among your peer-ensembles?
A. Another great opportunity for my kids to hear the best of the best from the day. As a high school jazz ensemble, it’s not often you get to play on such a big stage with all the microphones and the big screen behind the band. When we played the showcase last year, the band was really nervous and it showed during the performance. This year, they knew what to expect and played with the intensity and swing they played with during the day. I can’t wait for the DVD!!
Q. What can you tell us about your ensemble, your school, and your band members, or the jazz/band program at your school?
A. Jazz Ensemble at Wakefield High School is completely extra-curricular. There are no jazz combos, improvisation or ensemble classes during the school days. We start jazz ensemble In November after the marching band season, and meet two days a week until May. The students in the ensemble spend a lot of their own time rehearsing in sectionals and making sure they are prepared with their individual and section parts.
Q. What’s something that we don’t know about your ensemble that you’d like to share with us?
A. We have a wide range of musical and extra curricular backgrounds in the ensemble. We have seven varsity athletes in the band, and three students that play their secondary, not primary instruments. They’re also addicted to the tune “Sell Out” by Reel Big Fish. It is their default jam song before or after rehearsal. I wish I could get them to like more early 90′s music!!
Princeton High School — 2011 Class 2 Large Ensemble Champ
Directed by Joe Bongiovi
Norwood High School — 2011 Class 3 Large Ensemble Champ
Directed by Steven Conant
Camden Creative Arts High School — 2011 Class 6 Large Ensemble Champ
Directed by Jamal Dickerson
Winning was awesome because it helped my kids see that “if you work…you will be rewarded…
-Jamal Dickerson
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