A Fifth-Grade Jazz Ensemble Prepares the Next Generation of Jazz Musicians

Last March, I met a friend with his grandson Leo, who plays mandolin and saxophone. Leo told me that he is in the fifth-grade jazz ensemble at Park School, a Pre-K through Grade 12 private progressive school in Baltimore County, between Pikesville and Ruxton. Really? Fifth graders playing jazz? This I had to see and hear, so I arranged to observe a rehearsal.

Park School’s Fifth Grade Jazz Ensemble is directed by Chris Peterson, a 1999 graduate of Berklee College of Music. Peterson plays guitar and tenor banjo in the Hotel Paradise Orchestra, the Baltimore Mandolin Orchestra and has played with the Baltimore Symphony in their Rhapsody in Blue and Jazzing the Symphony concerts. Peterson is assisted by Park School senior Ray Yu, a multi-instrumentalist whose primary instrument is tenor sax. Yu, an alumnus of the first Fifth Grade Jazz Ensemble, will start attending Berklee in the fall. Peterson also directs Park’s Upper School Lab Band. Bassist Maeve Royce directs the school’s Middle School Jazz Ensemble and the Park Jazz Collective.

Peterson has developed the Fifth Grade Jazz Ensemble very methodically. He begins by teaching fifth graders simplified three-note chords, simple bass lines, and “Charleston” comping. During the first half of fifth grade he rehearses only rhythm section players, opening up the band to other instruments in the second half of the year. He places no restrictions on which instruments may be included. This year’s ensemble includes three instruments rarely, if ever, seen in a jazz band — ukulele, melodica, and viola — plus the too-infrequently seen vibraphone and clarinet. Peterson proudly states that “No one knows how to improvise before playing in this band. During fifth grade, jazz band members are playing real blues improvisation at a ten-year-old level. In their practices, everybody gets a shot to solo, every song, every class. In performance, everyone solos at some point but not on every tune.”

At an after-school rehearsal I had a chance to ask several students what they like best about playing in the jazz ensemble. Here is what they had to say: 

• Beatrix (clarinet) – “Soloing, which I don’t get to do in concert band”; 
• Maya (trumpet) – “I’m the only trumpet.” (giving two thumbs up); 
• A.J. (drums) – “It’s taught me a lot about jazz.”; 
• Zachary (ukulele) – “Having some freedom in what I play”; 
• Isabella (viola) – “It’s different from Suzuki [method], jazzy, not classical.”; 
• Kenzie (piano) – “I like the change from classical.”; 
• Leo (alto sax, mandolin) – “There are people who want to play more. They’re more serious. 

They pay attention.” When asked about what kind of music they like best, these same students presented a wide range of tastes — techno/electronic, rock (Foo Fighters), heavy metal, pop (Taylor Swift) and “singing music.”

On April 30, Park School celebrated International Jazz Day with a concert by all four of its jazz ensembles. True to Chris Peterson’s description, the Fifth Grade Jazz Ensemble played Charlie Parker’s “Now’s The Time,” the traditional “When the Saints Go Marching In,” Milt Jackson’s “Bags’ Groove,” and Duke Ellington’s “C Jam Blues.” On the first tune only rhythm section players soloed. On all the other tunes everyone else took a solo at some point, and yes, they were all improvised.

Congratulations to Chris Peterson and Ray Yu for getting these ten- and eleven-year-old student musicians off to a good start on their jazz journey.  

–by Bob Jacobson 

Bob Jacobson plays saxophone and clarinet and has led combos “Sounds Good” and “Swing ‘n’ Samba.” He has written numerous articles for the BJA newsletter. He is a mostly-retired social worker who still dabbles in counseling, freelance writing, teaching, and writing about music.  He was vice president of BJA for 12 years.