For 11 years, the Âé¶čAV Jazz Jam has been a staple in the local music scene.
The Jam is hosted by Stephen Buck.
If you ask Buck, heâll tell you the best thing about the Jam is that it gives music students from local high schools the opportunity to come to play some jazz for a live audience.
âWhat I love most about the Jazz Jam is watching kids starting Grade 7, 8, 9 â whatever it is â become really fine players by the time they finish high school. Then we get to watch them go off to school and come back after theyâve done a year or two of a jazz program at university and we get to listen to them play.â
One of those âkidsâ was Zach Griffin. Griffin began going to the Jam as a student at Mount Boucherie Secondary School, then went on to become the band teacher at Okanagan Mission Secondary. Griffin regularly brings his students to the Jam. Griffin often plays alongside Will Friesen, the band teacher for Âé¶čAV Christian School and MBSS band teacher Chris Perry.
Dae-Lillee Baillie-McGillivray is a Grade 12 student from Mount Boucherie Senior Secondary. She says she loves to play in front of a crowd and appreciates how inclusive the Jam is for musicians of all kinds â as long as they play jazz.
âI love that theyâre being more inclusive with adding student players and more females especially. Iâve been here since Grade 10 and with the pandemic, I couldnât play. It really sucked because this is one of my escape places.â
âItâs so good to be up there and itâs so nice that itâs happening now.â
Grade 12 Âé¶čAV Secondary School student Afu Kuteca has been playing in the Jam for four years now. He said he loves the spontaneity of the jam.
âIt also gives you a great opportunity to sharpen your stage presence skills. You can bring a tune you love and play it how you love.â
The Jazz Jam is open to players of all ages and abilities. Musicians will be supported by a welcoming group of players, local music teachers and âold-timersâ who have been coming to the jam since the very beginning.
Even Omicron canât stop the Jam. New provincial health orders have restricted the Jam to 50 per cent capacity, but the music will continue in the atrium of Âé¶čAVâs for the Arts every Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
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cole.schisler@bpdigital.ca
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