JOHNSON COUNTY

Whiteland band to learn from jazz greats

Vic Ryckaert
vic.ryckaert@indystar.com
Eric Davis, from left, Megan Beetler, Evan Ward, and other students play jazz during rehearsal at Whiteland High School, Thursday, March 20, 2014. The school jazz ensemble is one of just 15 nationwide tapped to go to New York in May to play with Wynton Marsalis in Lincoln Center's "Essentially Ellington" student competition.

Whiteland Community High School musicians will swing with great artists in New York and share a Jazz at Lincoln Center stage as finalists in the country's premiere music competition.

The 16-member student band is a finalist in the 2014 Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival, a three-day event featuring workshops, jam sessions and performances with some of the country's top musicians.

The selections means Whiteland is one of the top 15 high school jazz bands in North America. About 100 high school bands entered this year's contest by submitting recordings of their renditions of jazz tunes made famous by Duke Ellington.

Other finalists include bands from Wisconsin, Arizona and the state of Washington. Professional musicians will visit each finalist to help the bands get ready for the competition May 8-10.

"One of the best musicians on the planet is going to be here at our school working with us," said Peter Sampson, Whiteland's band director. "When we get there (to New York), it's just going to be all day for three days of solid learning, fun, music and just having a great experience."

Students are learning that playing jazz is more than reading music and belting out notes. To be great, Sampson said young musicians must learn to copy the masters and find their own musical voices later.

"I tell the students that jazz band is the only class in school in which the teacher encourages plagiarism," Sampson said. "The students really need to listen to jazz in order to get the swing feel and groove."

The Essentially Ellington win gives Whiteland students first-hand musical inspiration.

On April 18, acclaimed trumpet player Marcus Printup visits Whiteland to conduct a four-hour teaching clinic with the jazz band members. During his visit, Printup will spend another hour or two teaching musicians at Shortridge Magnet High School in Indianapolis as part of a musical outreach program.

"It's awesome for me too," Printup said during a telephone interview with The Star. Printup, 47, has spent 21 years as a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra led by Wynton Marsalis. Marsalis will host many of the weekend events.

"We're very passionate about continuing the legacy of jazz because we love the music," Printup said. "I think it's a duty for all jazz musicians to teach."

Printup fondly recalled his first lesson in using a plunger mute from trumpet great Clark Terry, who played with Ellington, Count Basie and others.

Terry, Printup said, used that rubber toilet plunger to make a trumpet almost mimic the human voice. That was a defining moment for Printup and he hopes his lessons will have the same life-long impact on the Whiteland students.

"I love giving these kids the same wisdom he gave me," Printup said. "A lot of it is about the music but a lot of it is about building the student confidence and getting them pumped up to play."

And the students will do a lot of playing once they arrive in New York on May 8.

Senior Chuck Myers hopes to learn what it takes to be a professional trumpet player.

"Music is hopefully going to be my career," Myers, 18, said. "I get to meet some of the greatest jazz names and musicians... learn how they play and just be a better musician by listening to them."

Abby Peavy, another senior horn player, shared the enthusiasm.

"All four years of high school jazz band has built up and led to this," Peavy, 18, said. "It's an honor."

Call Star reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc.

If you go:

  • What: Whiteland Community High School's music department is hosting a benefit concert to help fund a trip to New York for the student musicians who will compete in the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival.
  • When: 7 p.m., Saturday. April 12.
  • Where: WCHS Auditorium, 300 E. Main St., Whiteland
  • Tickets: $10