最新杏吧原创

鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to play your part with feeling,鈥� said Wynton Marsalis, a nine-time Grammy award winner. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not playing our parts with enough abandon.鈥�

This was no ordinary band practice.

In fact, it was a joint performance.

It unfolded inside the auditorium of Normandy High School, where hundreds of students from across the school system packed inside to hear Marsalis and members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra play Count Basie and Duke Ellington pieces alongside the high school jazz band.

And it unfolded in a building where swagger and good news have been in short supply.

On the first day of school, a moment of silence was held to honor Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old who was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer just eight days after he graduated from the school.

The auditorium was the scene of public forums last year after about a quarter of the district鈥檚 children transferred to higher performing schools under a state Supreme Court ruling that allowed students from unaccredited districts to leave. Normandy High students feared their north 最新杏吧原创 County school district would go bankrupt. Now their school system operates under state oversight.

Marsalis acknowledged none of this turmoil on Friday. Instead, he helped Katherinn Barnes, a junior, overcome her shyness and play her clarinet in an improvised solo. He teased Sylvester Williams, an alumni playing bass guitar, for having hands that look too good 鈥� because they only get uglier with practice. And he advised Kayla Johnson and Damien Luster 鈥� a senior and sophomore 鈥� as they played their trumpets.

Gerald Sharp used a vacation day so he could sit in the third row and watch his son, Gerald Sharp Jr., play percussion. 鈥淚 had to see my son on the same stage as Wynton Marsalis,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou only get one opportunity like this.鈥�

The performance was part of an ongoing partnership with Jazz 最新杏吧原创. Since 2007, the organization has used grant money to buy instruments and provide private lessons to Normandy students at the middle and high schools.

Marsalis and his orchestra helped Jazz 最新杏吧原创 open a new center on Thursday.

After Friday鈥檚 performance at Normandy, Marsalis and his band took questions from the audience. Elementary school-aged children asked if they ever get nervous, how often they practice, and whether anyone in the orchestra plays the violin.

Members of Normandy鈥檚 band wondered about instrument-specific things. Ronald Camper III, a senior, asked the Lincoln Center band member who plays the baritone saxophone: 鈥淗ow did you start?鈥�

But the question on many minds during the performance was why Marsalis chose to come all the way to Normandy High School from New York. Marsalis explained that his orchestra does many of these events across the country, and that education is important to them. Behind him, the 14 members of the school鈥檚 jazz ensemble sat with their instruments.

鈥淭hese are some beautiful kids and they want to play,鈥� Marsalis said. He said sees himself in each of them. 鈥淲e love these students. We want them to feel it, even if it鈥檚 just for a day.鈥�