Kentridge Jazz Band: Winning and playing to the same tune

It’s all coming together this year for the Kentridge Jazz Band.

With seniors leading the way in most sections and a handful of top-shelf soloists out in front, the band is starting to make a name for itself, including winning the Auburn Riverside Jazz festival Jan. 17.

“This year we have a sort of a veteran group,” said band director Dave Baldock. “We’ve got good players form top to bottom.”

Playing a pair of Duke Ellington numbers (“Again and Again” and “Phantazm”) as well as “The Gates of Tashbaan” by Kris Berg, Baldock said the band was really able to come together behind senior alto sax soloist Sam Wallen and sophomore trombone soloist Nachi Shamaprasad.

It really helps to have good soloists out front,” Baldock said.

Baldock said he was proud of his band and was confident of how well they did even before the winners were announced.

“I knew we did well,” he said. “I wasn’t surprised when we were chosen to come back as a finalist that evening.”

With other competitions ahead, including this past weekend in Bellevue and having sent an audition tape out for the “Essentially Ellington” show in May at Lincoln Center in New York, the band meets every day during “zero period,” before school at 6:45 a.m.

“They’re just very busy and always tired,” Baldock said of his band.

Baldock said the school’s monthly “Jazz Cafes” gives the students a chance to perform in front of a friendly audience of family and friends, helping them prep for an audience and a competition.

“Putting them in that performance-like situation … is sort of a nice way to prepare,” Baldock said, adding that he though it made a difference when the band played at Riverside. “Going into this one (Riverside), it just felt more comfortable on stage than we have in the past.”

And the band responded beautifully, backing the soloists and best the other seven large high schools in competition and bringing a new trophy back to Kentridge.

“It felt great,” Wallen, 18, said of the win. “We know that when we perform at our best we can do great things.”

Wallen said the difference-maker this year is leadership from the seniors in each section, all of whom pushed their sections to work harder.

“This year we’re just really solid,” agreed senior Kaley Puckett.

Baldock agreed.

“Musically, we’ve got a real evenness in the band that makes it easier to put the finishing touches on our preparation,” he said.

Even after 38 years teaching, Baldock said it is difficult to say exactly how a group of kids and a piece of music come together.

“It’s always a mystery as to what that chemistry is,” he said.

Baldock said though the competitions do not drive the music program – of which jazz is only part – he said it was nice for the kids to win because it instills confidence.

“That sort of starts to feed on itself,” he said. “We want to keep doing well.”