Memorial High School Jazz 1 and Justin Vernon
I live in Eau Claire, WI. One of the high schools here, Memorial High School, has a fantastic jazz group lead by their director Mr. Hering. I didn’t know how good they were until I went to the show the other night. Some stats that Mr. Hering shared with the audience:
Every year, Jazz at Lincoln Center sends out 6 jazz pieces, mostly Ellington pieces, that high school jazz bands perform, record, and may submit. From there, the recordings are judged and the top 15 are asked to come to New York to play their pieces and the top 3 bands perform with Wynton Marsalis.
MHS has been invited 6 out of the last 10 years, which is beat by only 5 other schools nation wide!
Anyway, the first year that MHS was chosen, Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver fame) was a part of the band. This year is the 10 year anniversary of that first time and so Vernon came back to sing some tunes with the band. They also worked at arranging some Bon Iver pieces for the jazz ensemble. It was great fun and if Justin Vernon is “good,” then these students are “phenomenal.”
As you listen, remember…they’re in high school. “Green with envy” doesn’t exactly encapsulate my jealousy. They’re awesome and it’ll be exciting to see where the students go.
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I am not posting any of the stuff with Vernon because this was an MHS show and not his show. There are a lot of bootlegs and recordings of Vernon’s stuff from this show on Rolling Stone and Paste Magazine.
A cat from Amble Down Records (also out of Eau Claire, check em) manages Vernon and also a lot of other awesome stuff from Eau Claire. I’d check out the stuff they’re doing, if you’re interested in the EC music scene.
I looked for an MHS article on the show, but only found the link for their site. Here it is.