On Working and Performing with the Liberty High School Jazz Band

I had the pleasure this past week of spending a few days with the Liberty High School Jazz Band, under the direction of Phil Donley. At his kind invitation, I spent some time with them Monday working with the band, performed some lunchtime concerts at the school on Friday with a short Q-and-A for the band members, and performed with them as guest artist at the Eighth Annual Liberty Jazz Night. Phil has done a great job getting his students to deal with some complex arrangements in a musical way, not just technical. Their rhythm sections are solid, the band features a few fine soloists, and they seem to dive in head first to whatever music Phil throws their way. They peaked at the performance Saturday night, so what more could you ask for!

It's always nice getting good feedback from students, so I was delighted to get mentioned in a few posts on Twitter by some students from Liberty High School's Jazz Band:

My thanks to director Phil Donley for the invitation, and to all the band members of the Liberty High School Jazz Band for making my time with you so fun and easy. The performance Saturday night was a blast, to be sure! For those of you not in attendance, here's the program from the concert: