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Operation Jazz Band

Professional musicians, led by Bay Area percussionist and educator Babatunde Lea, spend an intense week in six different area schools. Two troupes of musicians each visit three schools a day for consecutive days each spring, and all meet up at the Raven Theater for a fifth day of combined performance and engagement.

Beginning with percussion and continuing through rhythm, melody and vocals, every fifth grade student in the area learns about the history and fundamentals of jazz. Watch the video below to see what the program covers.

The first day of Operation Jazz Band begins with the oldest form of music, drumming and percussion. Schoolrooms are filled with sound and laughter! Students learn call-and-response techniques, and how this form of communication among slaves made its way into jazz music. The second day focuses on the rhythm section. Musicians explain how keyboards and bass anchor a jazz combo, and they always explain each instrument’s musical heritage.

The third day focuses on horns, with a trumpeter, saxophonist and trombonist going over each instrument’s strengths and demonstrating the interplay between the horns as a way to introduce the concepts of chords and harmony. The fourth day features jazz vocalists explaining how the human voice can become a jazz instrument. The children learn a song they can sing along with the band.

The week ends with more than 500 students attending a concert with their new musician friends. In addition to “tying it all together” for each group of students, the concert brings schools – public and private – from all over the community together for a joyous celebration of music. The students have newly-educated ears for jazz, they’ve learned how to listen to music in a new way, and the roar of sound when their musician-teachers take the stage is astonishing! The concert reviews everything they’ve learned, and the children sing, clap hands and call out on cue. By the end of the concert, the students are chanting ” I … LOVE … JAZZ!” in a joyous affirmation of the universal power of music.

“Children often stop me on the street to talk about their experience with Operation Jazz Band,” says festival founder and artistic director Jessica Felix. “The musicians engage the students and interest them in an art form they previously had little or no knowledge of. For a week each year, the children learn about each instrument and the person who plays it. When they attend the concert at the end of the week, they have a personal attachment to the group and for that reason enjoy and appreciate the music much more.”

For more information call 707-433-4633, send us email. If your own schoolchild has taken part in these workshops, please add your comments below!