Today we began the 9th annual South Delta Jazz Workshop. This year we have a very full load of students and are running six student bands all day, every day. Some students have come for many years (a few of the adults since the very beginning) and some are showing up for the first time. I find both groups and all the variations in between equally interesting and challenging. It is always fun to hear how people have improved and grown musically over the space of a year, or to hear students who are just at the beginning of their musical journey. Some of the younger kids have grown so fast I hardly recognized them from last year. Both of my children are involved in the workshop for their second year as is Rob Kohler's son and this adds another dimension to the experience of teaching and organizing the workshop. When I started this thing way back in 2003, the kids were just toddling around and going to preschool and kindergarten. Now they are teenagers learning to play jazz! Our faculty members have become like a family over the years as well - a very weird family maybe - but I really enjoy seeing the different ways that they approach playing and teaching the music.
The first day was a success overall. There were some shaky moments in our noon hour concert with missing charts and funny transpositions, musicians trying to remember how to play in the giant community centre hall where we hold those events etc... but people pulled through somehow and made music. The best thing was that the students had a great time and I have rarely seen a happier group on the first day. I didn't have one student in my beginning ensemble who was afraid to improvise. Everyone just jumped right into it. A few students had to be moved around to bands which suited their abilities better, but generally there was a good fit in each group. This is always a tricky thing to achieve when we don't know many of them and don't audition them beforehand. I guess my mixture of little bit of luck and lots of careful planning worked out this time.
I will try to post a short message each day. If you are reading this and feel like coming out to Ladner to hear some noon hour concerts or our other concert events on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, please check our website for details www.southdeltajazzfestival.com
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