Classrooms were emptied November 23 as schools across the district filed into their auditoriums.  There they swung their hips and tapped their feet.  The U. City Jazz Band was on tour.

In one day, the band played at Brittany Woods and the four elementary schools in an attempt to inspire kids to play music.

“Live music is always a good thing,” said Stanley Coleman, the band’s director.  “—Good live music, that is.”

The tour started at Brittany Woods and progressed on through Pershing, Jackson Park, Delmar Harvard, and Flynn Park.

Coleman came up with the idea of giving the students of University City a chance to see their Jazz Band up close and personal, a something greatly supported by everyone in theory.  The execution, however, did not go over as well.

Many of the band members were unhappy with the logistics of the tour.  Each concert was roughly an hour long, and the band played a total of five concerts.  Five hours of nearly constant buzzing, plucking, or drumming can be extremely tiring.

Also, some players were concerned with the music choices.  Many felt that the songs they played, some as many as five times, did not fit the occasion.  Consequently, the many thought the tour was not as inspiring as it could have been.

“I don’t think that, if they were not already interested, they wouldn’t have become interested by the performance,” said one Jazz Band member.

It is obvious that the aim of the tour was fantastic and a good idea, even if the event required the musicians to scamper from school to school to perform five different shows in the span of seven hours.  Perhaps the band will work out the kinks for next year’s tour.

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