National Gold for Jazz Musicians

The first-ever trip to the Tauranga Jazz Festival over Easter paid dividends for the College jazz musicians. Taking part in the National Youth Jazz Competition, both the Big Band and the Jazz Combo came away with National Gold Awards!

After a large number of our leading senior jazz players graduated at the end of last year, the first two months of this year saw a young band of players working hard alongside more seasoned senior musicians, with regular rehearsals, workshops and improvisation lessons.  Director of the Jazz Programme, Mr Paul Norman, carefully selected a programme of music to suit both the level and character of the students, giving them a great deal of encouragement and guidance behind the scenes to make it all happen.

The Big Band and the Jazz combo played their varied repertoire to large audiences with notable solos by Thomas David on the piano; Jude Beullens on the tenor saxophone; Sam Voyle and Marco Lazzaro on the alto saxophone and Zavier Edmonds on the drums.

This is a busy time for our musicians with a number of them also involved in the upcoming Shakespeare production ‘Shake the Quad’ and the senior musical, ‘Catch me if you can.’

Well done, we’ll look forward to hearing you play at the College Large Ensemble Showcase in July!

BIG BAND
Trumpets: Mingchen Lee, Terence Liu, Thomas Davies, Elizabeth Zeng, Preston Tee.
Trombones: Coen Anderson, Jayden Tee, Seamus Wong, Ryan Kurzeja
Saxophones: Jude Beullens, Sam Voyle, Isaac Waldin, Ethan Liu, Marco Lazzaro, Freddie Gardner
Rhythm Section: Thomas David, Caleb Corban, Thomas Joyce
Vocal: Melody Lui-Webster

Big Band Repertoire

• It Could Happen to You- by James van Heusen
• Only You- by Bob Florence
• Groovemaker- by Jeff Taylor
• Fowl Play- Chris Berg

JAZZ COMBO
Trumpet: Thomas Davies
Saxophones: Jude Beullens, Sam Voyle
Rhythm Section:, Zavier Edmonds, Caleb Corban
Piano: Thomas David
Vocals: Melody Lui-Webster

Jazz Combo Repertoire

• Birds of Beauty- by Stevie Wonder
• Morning- by Claire Fisher
• Just Friends- by John Klenner
• Mr PC- by John Coltrane