I'm Jazzed

I have always been a frustrated musician with a fondness’ for jazz. I think that is how I ended up in radio. If I couldn’t make the music, I could at least play the music on the radio. Instead of playing in the High School band, I was a Disc Jockey at the High School radio station WNTH.

In my email today was a note from the Jazz Ensemble I at my alma matter, New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois.

Here is an excerpt from the email;

“You are receiving this e-mail as an alumni of New Trier High School so we can share an exciting project going on in the same halls of the school you attended some years ago.

In just three weeks our New Trier Jazz Ensemble I directed by Jim Warrick will travel to New Orleans to complete a project they have been working on all year. The 26-member jazz group, several other student musicians and a few members of the music faculty will be spending their Spring Break (March 22-28) building a house in or near "Musicians' Village", which is a housing project of single homes sponsored by Habitat for Humanity and created by Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis in an effort to provide affordable, quality housing to professional musicians and their families that left town after Hurricane Katrina. They will also perform concerts at Tipitina's, which is the largest jazz club in the French Quarter, a lunch time concert in "Musicians' Village", and a concert for 800 volunteers in Camp Hope where Habitat volunteers live while in New Orleans.

The project is called, "Hey NOLA, We didn't forget you!" and the project's webpage is http://ntjazz.com/NOLA.

The goal of the jazz ensemble's project is to donate the full cost of building a Habitat House in New Orleans...$75,000. With three weeks to go the ensemble finds itself only $10,000 short of that goal, which is why you are receiving this email.

The jazz ensemble is selling a special edition, double CD to raise the final amount needed. This CD is a tribute to the recently completed 25th Anniversary of the "New Trier High School Jazz Festival", now called the "Frank Mantooth Jazz Festival at New Trier," and contains 28 selections of Jazz Ensemble I performing with some of the jazz greats that have recorded with New Trier students since the nationally-known jazz festival began in 1983.

Since all performance fees and royalties from living composers were waived, EVERY CENT FROM THE SALES OF THIS DOUBLE CD GOES DIRECTLY INTO THE HABITAT FOR HUMANITY FUND!”

After I read the email, I went to their website. Impressed does not do justice for this group of talented people. I listened to the music, and watched a few videos.

If you like Jazz, check this out. If you like Jazz and feel philanthropic, buy the CD. I did!