Student musician group JazzaNova and select vocalists from Contra Costa College showcased their harmonious talents for the public at their first non-school related event at Anna’s Jazz Island in Berkeley April 19.
Bass player Mac Esposito said JazzaNova, the college’s vocal ensemble directed by music department Chairwoman Stephanie Austin, is composed of six singers, Carol Prieto, Danny Rojas, Daniel Ruiz, Sofia Ruiz and Carrie Yu, and a rhythm section, including drums, piano and bass.
The group performs five tunes together as a group and six different soloists from Roger Letson’s voice classes performed two tunes each.
“Anna’s Jazz Island is one of the more recognized jazz venues in the Bay Area,” Esposito said. “There was a $10 cover charge, but (the owner, Anna De León,) was nice to give all of the proceeds to the vocal and piano department.”
Despite the fact that it was their first outside performance, Austin said the students did great and handled themselves very professionally.
“These students are in rehearsal every morning. It’s like going to boot camp all year long,” she said.
“By having these opportunities, the students get a sense of what they need to do to be successful.”
The performance was in part preparation and rehearsal for a national jazz conference that JazzaNova and several CCC students attended last weekend.
Daniel Ruiz said the song selections they performed at the event, such as “Bag’s Groove” by Milt Jackson, “Little Sunflower” by Freddie Hubbard and “Prima Vera” by Santana, were the same pieces to be presented during the conference competitions.
“The event was great, because it was promoting that we’re here at CCC. We’re getting the community aware that there are a lot of musicians and a lot of talent on campus,” Daniel Ruiz said.
At a school-related event, support from family and friends is undoubtedly present but at a public venue, musicians must face real life criticisms from an unfamiliar audience.
“We were nervous at first, but the crowd was very welcoming,” Daniel Ruiz said. “We were really satisfied with our performance and so was our audience.”
Music major Lucia Perez said she attended the event to support fellow student artists.
“The performances were very well prepared. The songs were very well picked and they really captivated the audience,” Perez said.
Alto singer Yu said the reason why JazzaNova performs so well as a group is because they devote much of their time to practice.
“We’re here every day, all day. We are constantly rehearsing from 8 in the morning and sometimes we don’t leave until past 8 at night,” Yu said.
Austin said that because De León wanted to support the students and was generous to let them keep the profits instead of the original plan to split the charges, it defrayed the costs.
Additionally, she hopes the partnership with Anna’s Jazz Island will continue to thrive, creating opportunities for more performances in the future.
Austin said the students at CCC are not the typical music majors and their unpreparedness because of the lack of programs catering to music in the local public school systems is a major handicap.
“If you take a school in Texas, for example, some children enter music programs at age 6. By the time they enter college, they’ve had 12 years of preparation. Our students come in with little or no experience at all,” Austin said. “We have to overcome it in record time.
“But when it comes down to it, skills win over talent,” she said.
Contact Holly Pablo at hpablo.advocate@gmail.com.
Songsters jazz up popular music venue
Published: Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, April 28, 2009
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