Thursday, February 10, 2011
Give them a hand: Ready or not, a closeup of LHS jazz musicians in rehearsal.
The LHS jazz bands are hosting a Valentine’s Dinner Dance on Saturday night, Feb. 12 from 6 to 10 p.m. at Livingston High School. The event is a fundraiser for the Band Boosters, which supports all the bands and grant scholarships to graduating seniors. Take a date, try a dance class, and taste great food. Our View Finder by photographer Bob Krasner gives a hand to the hours of rehearsals for the big event.
LHS jazz bands swing with sweet notes for Valentine's Dance.
Jim Hegedus, musical director for Livingston High School's two jazz bands, loves his work. In addition to teaching, he spends hours of rehearsal time with the Lancer Jazz Band and the Lab Band. This is big band jazz. Working out the arrangements, whipping the soloists into shape, and getting 19 or so musicians (plus vocalists) to swing together isn't easy. Hegedus says there are many rewarding parts to the whole experience of directing the two jazz bands. "The most rewarding would be seeing the students start from nothing and transforming that into an exciting performance as the culmination of their hard work." You can catch their next performance on Saturday night at the Valentine's Dinner Dance at Livingston High School. We tried to …
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Livingston High's jazz bands get ready to swing for Valentine's Dinner Dance.
On February 12th the prize winning Lancer Jazz Band and the Lab Band from Livingston High will take the stage at the First Annual Valentine's Dinner Dance at LHS for a program of big band jazz. These few hours will be preceded by many more hours of rehearsal time. There are a lot of ingredients going into this mix and musical director Jim Hegedus is hoping that they are going to add up to more than the sum of their parts. The Lancer Jazz Band, made up of five trumpets, four trombones, six saxophones, piano, guitar, bass, drums and two vocalists, spend about 2 1/2 hours a week together. New songs are learned, parts are perfected and players develop a rapport that makes it possible for nineteen musicians to swing together on stage. …
