If you heard some 5th grade kids chanting that this week you know they've been invaded by Operation Jazz Band, one of the key music education programs sponsored by the Healdsburg Jazz Festival. Today was Day 2 of Operation Jazz Band Week, which entails a group of Northern California jazz all-stars breaking down into band sections (percussion, rhythm, vocals, horns) and spending an hour a day in one of the Healdsburg/Geyserville 5th grade classes performing and telling the kids about their instruments, the history of jazz, how a jazz band works, and how many hours they practice a day.

I spent the morning being driver for the leader of Operation Jazz Band, Babatunde Lea. A jazz drummer and percussionist, Babatunde founded Operation Jazz Band with Jessica Felix, artistic director of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, eight years ago. Babatunde has incredible rapport with the kids, animating the African, Latino, and American heritage of jazz for them. They learn about call-and-response, swing, improvisation, and many of the past and current masters of jazz. Babatunde keeps the kids involved, with call-and-response throughout his time, and works in the history of jazz from Africa to America, and music styles from chant to bebop in one hour flat.

In the afternoon I accompanied Art Khu (piano) and Dave Ewell (bass) to Geyserville, where they demonstrated, performed, and talked about the history and role of bass-piano rhythm component so critical to the musical idiom. The kids are uniformly impressed by the size of the acoustic bass, and how cool the electric piano is (no, we aren't hauling around a baby grand ...). Art and Dave reinforce the basics, and introduce the more complex elements of jazz.

Digital camera in hand, I snagged about 40 photos or so, and have posted them into a slide show montage:

This year Operation Jazz Band is Babatude Lea, Drums and Percussion; Dave Ewell, Bass; Art Khu, Piano; Khalil Shaheed, Trumpet; Richard Howell, Saxophone; Angela Wellman, Trombone; Ken French, Keyboards; and Clairdee, Vocals.

The Operation continues all this week, culminating in a free jazz concert for the kids this Friday at the Raven Theater. All of the 5th grade classes come, and the children finally get to see the whole band together, playing songs they've heard in pieces throughout the week. The greeting the musicians get as they take to the stage is like the Beatles playing in Shea Stadium in '65 - a roar that is heard to Geyserville, easily! Little do they realize that they are hearing literally some of the best jazz musicians in California!

For many kids, this is the only time they will ever hear jazz as a musical performance. Most of them hear it on cartoons, for commercials, background in restaurants, etc., never realizing their American musical heritage is there to explore and enjoy.

Operation Jazz Band happens because of the generosity of those who came to this year's 10th Annual Healdsburg Jazz Festival Gala. Through the event and auctions, we raised $50,000, which directly supports Operation Jazz Band, Tacuma King's Percussion, Song, and Dance Workshops - also happening now through the start of the Festival in June - and workshops with the Healdsburg High School Jazz Band. From one that has been privileged to help out with Operation Jazz Band, Tacuma's class, and listen in on some of the workshops, I can't fully express how cool it is to see children get turned on by great musicians playing great music. It is something really special, and if you ever get a hankering to volunteer to witness it, just call the Festival office.

But I'm not giving up my slot on the roster anytime soon!

Paul Tincknell, Volunteer

This blog is dubbed "The Second Line". Most of us know that the second line in jazz is the "parade" of musicians that trails along in a traditional New Orleans funeral procession; the music the uplifting trad jazz of Dixieland. It has since come to mean more generally any festive parade of jazz musicians getting people up on their feet. But this blog is named for the original meaning of a second line, which referred to those listeners that trailed after the club, krewe, family, or friends of the deceased, attracted by the music.

While many of us do play instruments, even more are just such listeners attracted to the music. It is our hope that any and all that love jazz as much as we do will join us - online, at the Festival and concerts, as a member, and/or as a volunteer. Let the conversation begin!