10 bands take center stage for spring concert

With several hundred student musicians in grade 5 though 12 distributed into half a dozen jazz bands performing in the afternoon on May 4 and four concert bands—up one from a year ago—performing the same day in the evening, for a total of 34 songs, director Erik Hermanson could add project manager to his resume.

Jazz concert

Blue Jazz was first on stage at the jazz concert. Made up of seniors and junior percussionist Wyatt Williams, it received a superior rating at the state jazz contest at GAC.

After its opening number “Sundown,” it accompanied Vivian Hilfer singing George and Ira Gershwin's “Someone to Watch Over Me” (above). When the piece was written in 1926 for the musical “Oh Kay”, it was jazzy and up tempo, but in the 30s and 40s, it morphed into a slow, moody “torch” (sentimental love) song, which is how Hilfer performed it.

There's a saying old, says that love is blind
Still we're often told, seek and ye shall find
So I'm going to seek a certain lad I've had in mind

Before Blue Jazz closed with Maynard Ferguson’s “Birdland,” Hermanson presented senior saxophonist Carter Kern with the Louis Armstrong Award, which is given to the jazz performer who represents everything that a CHS jazz member should be. Kern has been performing in Clipper jazz bands since he was a sixth grader.

Next on stage was Thursday Jazz, a group of seventh graders that also included fifth grader Liam Baker on drums, eighth grader Parker Holicky on trumpet and sixth grader Ethan Traxler on bass guitar. It performed “Beginners Rock” and Dean Sorenson’s “Tyrannosaurus Charlie.”

Made up of eighth graders plus borrowed Thursday Jazz members Bella Baker on keyboards and Logan Baker on bass guitar tossed in for good measure, Wednesday Jazz was next on stage. It performed “Fatburger” and “Basie – Cally The Blues,” a piece that perfectly captures the quintessential Count Basie swing and blues style.

Green Jazz, a freshman group, took the stage next. It received a “superior” rating at the state contest. It performed “Little Sunflower,” “Open Arms” and “Hey Taxi!” The latter piece mimicked honking taxi horns in a traffic jammed city street.

Black Jazz was next to perform. It is mainly a sophomore group with freshman Clara Hilfer on bass guitar, freshman August Keltgen on trumpet and seventh grader Elijah Johnson on trombone also included. It received a “superior” rating at state. It performed “Get It On,” which featured a massive trumpet section, Laura Branigan’s “Gloria,” from the movie “Flashdance,” “I Sing the Body Electric” and “Cousin Mary.”

Although it didn't perform at the concert, a combo band, featuring Black Jazz members Hilfer, Johnson, Keltgen, Zander Hoechst, Kayla Hoffmann, CC Gair, Ben Traxler, Owen Lloyd, and Jackson Wille, performed “Sonnymoon for Two,” at the state contest and earned a “superior rating.

Red Jazz, which is composed of juniors and senior Elijah Mons on bass guitar, closed the jazz concert. It also received a superior rating at state. “It performed Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train,” “What Did I Do to be so Back and Blue” and “Cariba.”

As the jazz performer who was voted the top performer of the year by his peers, Mons took home the Woody Herman Award.

Spring Band Concert

In its first performance of the school year, the 6th-Grade Band opened the concert. It performed “Bugler’s Dream,” “Lightly Row,” “Beethoven’s Ninth” (widely referred to as “Ode to Joy”) and “Rock Medley,” which was arranged by Hermanson.

Next up was the 7th and 8th-Grade Band. It played “Achievement,” “Amazing Grace,” “Intensity” and “Good Neighbor March.”

Split off this year from the juniors and seniors, the 9th- and 10th-Grade band followed. It performed the the theme song from the 1960 Western film “The Magnificent Seven," a piece that must rate as one of the most emotive Western themes ever as, after more than 65 years, it can still cause goose bumps. Following were “They Led My Lord Away,” “Canterbury Tales” and “National Emblem March.”

The group earned a “superior” rating at the State Large Group Contest held at TCU. To achieve a superior rating, a band needs to receive over 35 points out of a possible 40 from the three judges.

The 11th and 12th-Grade Band closed the concert. It performed “Encanto,” Mozart’s “Ave Vertum Corpus,” which is based on a 13th-century Eucharistic chant, and “Star Wars,” which was arranged by Hermanson.

As the late Cleveland band patron Clayton Wolf (CHS 1959) always recommended, the juniors and seniors closed the day with a march, in this case John Philip Sousa’s “Semper Fidelis March,” which takes its title from the motto of the US Marine Corps: “Semper Fidelis”–“Always Faithful” and is regarded as the official march of the United States Marine Corps.

At the state contest, the juniors and senior band received an “excellent” rating, which is is over 30 points but fewer than 35.

As the outstanding senior concert band musician, Vivian Hilfer was the John Philip Sousa Award winner.

Kern, Anna Kawatski-Klein and Vivian Hilfer presented Hermanson with a Deep Purple album. Kern talked about the origins of the band’s signature song “Smoke on the Water” which is a standard cover for the pep band.

Before the concert, Clipper Rising Voices, a grade three through grade five select choir directed by Lacee Johnson, performed in the commons.

Music in the Parks competition on May 16

On May 16th, the four youngest bands competed at the Music in the Parks competition at Valley Fair.

Both Wednesday and Thursday Jazz received “excellent” ratings and 1st and 2nd place respectively in the Jr. High Contest. Seventh-grade alto sax player Leighton Entrekin received the top junior high soloist award. Red Jazz took second in senior high with an excellent rating.

With with their 95 out of 100 for a “superior rating, Black Jazz was the top senior high Jazz group and the overall highest rated group in the competition. It was the second highest score a Cleveland band ever received at a MITP contest, Hermanson said. The highest is the 97 recorded by the 2014 Jazz I in Texas and again by the 2023 Jazz I in St. Louis.

Sophomore alto sax player Gair was voted the top soloist.

Band award winners Vivian Hilfer (John Philip Sousa), Elijah Mons (Woody Herman) and Carter Kern (Louis Armstrong) with director Erik Hermanson