Village Squire, 1980-02, Page 9Kincardine's Knights of Jazz
trumpet section.
(Photo by E. Townshend)
Music with a swing
BY ELAINE TOWNSHEND
In five short years, a 22 -member jazz ensemble from
Kincardine District Secondary School - the Knights of Jazz - have
delighted audiences around Ontario and have played in Great
Britain with some of the best high school bands, orchestras and
choirs from around the world.
Blake Smith came to the Kincardine School's music
department five years ago. He tried to form a concert band,
which is the basic music program high school's are geared for.
The kids weren't particularly interested. Then he tried a jazz
band, and it caught on.
The main differences between a concert band and a stage band
or jazz ensemble are size, type of music played and emphasis on
solos.
A concert band may include 60 to 70 musicians. Sometimes
only one or two members play solos, but in a stage band , which
is much smaller, every member is required to play solo. The
concert band does the classics.
"To use an overworked word," says Mr. Smith;'the concert
band is more the 'legitimate' vein of music, the classical style of
playing...jazz is music played 'with a swing'."
A CLASSICAL SAXOPHONIST
Blake Smith is a classical saxophonist by training. He studied
privately in Hamilton and Toronto, while attending high school
in Stoney Creek. For awhile, he studied in Toronto under Paul
Brodie, a fine classical saxophonist. While at university in
Ithaca, New York, he didn't take an active interest in jazz. His
training is firmly rooted in the classical idiom, but he has learned
from jazz clinics, concerts and from listening.
He tried to form a jazz band at his first teaching position 15
years ago, but at that time stage bands hadn't gained popularity
in Canada. Not much music was written for them, and what was
written was not very good. Only in the last seven to nine years
have stage bands gained emphasis in Canadian schools.
VILLAGE SQUIRE/FEBRUARY 1980 PG. 7