Within the halls of New Trier lies a thriving jazz subculture consisting of talented students. These musicians not only spend countless hours in school honing their skill; they are also proactive in sharing their music with the rest of the community.

Senior Peter Gabrielides has been involved with jazz music for the past two and a half years, and he plans to major in Jazz Performance in college. “The majority of gigs that I get are private parties,” he explained, “We’ll just call the band to get together and play wherever it is.”

Jazz students have even ventured into the city to perform. “Jazz Showcase is a really cool place. It’s at a corner of Chicago that nobody ever really goes to,” Gabrielides disclosed. “If you don’t know the area you’d think it’s shady– but it’s totally fine.”

Senior Dan Berkey, a tenor saxophonist, is also a force on the city jazz scene. “Right now I have a weekly gig at Andy’ s Jazz Club on Thursdays with my quartet.” Andy’s Jazz Club is located at 11 East Hubbard Street in Chicago.

However, students don’t need to gallivant across Chicago to be able to enjoy the sweet sound of jazz. Via Gelato & Café, at1853 Tower Road in Glenview, often features live jazz music, and don’t forget the 30th annual Frank Mantooth Jazz Festival at New Trier on Feb. 2. This year, they will feature the Count Basie Orchestra.
Students not only perform jazz, but they are budding composers as well. Senior Aidan Lombard, vying for the only trumpeter slot at Julliard, tries to write as an exercise everyday. “It’s something to help me practice being creative,” he explained. However, in order to write meaningful music the artist must be inspired, which Gabrielides considers a fairly straightforward process.

“Inspiration is actually the easy part because it isn’t that rare, it’s sort of everywhere,” Gabrieliedes elaborated. “Hearing something in your head doesn’t take that much imagination but the really hard part is figuring out what the notes that you’re hearing in your head are on the page.” Lombard agreed, “You have to apply that inspiration to the knowledge of music theory and know how to make it into a concrete melody.”

Sometimes inspiration can announce itself at the most inconvenient times– like the middle of a class. “That’s one of the most frustrating things when you have a really good idea and you can’t write it down.” Gabrielides explained what he does in this predicament, “What you have to do is draw one line across for each line of the staff and then you just write the music in the lines of the paper.”

Creating a masterpiece without hearing an instrument may seem inconceivable to some, but Gabrielides compares it to improvising. “You have to be able to know what something will sound like before you play it.”

For Nicholas Meyer, Jazz Ensembles Director, jazz is much more than just another genre of music. “For me, jazz means being able to be expressive and play in a style of music that encourages people to be individualistic,” he said. “Some consider jazz to be America’s greatest cultural contribution.”

In fact, in 1987, the House of Representatives and Senate passed a bill that declared jazz “a rare and valuable national American treasure to which we should devote our attention, support and resources to make certain it is preserved, understood and promulgated.” The bill also mentioned that “it is now in the best interest of the national welfare and all of our citizens to preserve and celebrate this unique art form.”

Meyer credits the genre’s longevity and popularity to its ability to evolve within society. This “flexibility” allows jazz to lend itself to other genres of music, resulting in several unique musical fusions.

Meyer also noted the satisfaction of witnessing “the student’s passion evolve.” He explained, “As their music grows, their confidence grows.”