Gibbons Jazz Club is a place where students can learn all types of rock, latin, traditional blues, and swing music. Because the regular band classes and percussion classes at Gibbons do not focus on that area, this club gives students the chance to discover genres outside the curriculum.
“I enjoy giving the kids more than just the regular class experience,” club moderator Mr. Cashin said. “We have two groups; we have an audition-based jazz band where I have some of my top players in, which is traditional instrumentation where you have saxophone, trumpet, trombones, guitar based, piano drums. Whereas to Jazz Club anyone can do it, does not matter whether you are enrolled in a class for music at Gibbons you can still join and you can play.”
Jazz Club does club concerts every semester.
This past November, they had their most recent concert, and plan to start back up on the second Wednesday of January, where they will start their new cycle.
Cashin really encourages anybody to start even if you had sports in the fall or spring and are free still would love for people to come down to participate. The club only meets once a week for an hour, which is where they will be preparing for their April concert.
The group is also trying to find ways to get more performances around campus, especially next semester when the school year will be coming to an end.
“My vision when it comes to jazz club is what happening right now,” Cashin said.
He started the club nine years ago where they had three kids and up right bases, a drum set player and saxophonist.
“They just wanted to jam and play some jazz after school,” Cashin said. He was thrilled with the idea and went to start the club. The club went from three people in one group to now 40 kids in two groups.
The group does their on-campus concerts at 4 p.m.. Their concerts are free and are mainly held closer to the end of the school day so students can stick around and attend.
The top group attends a jazz festival every semester, where the players go and receive a rating from the people listening, meaning they prepare the music and perform it for feedback. This is the closest the club experiences to competition, though members are mainly involved for their love of music, not for recognition.
“If you have the desire to do something fun and get involved in a group that will bring you a whole new set of friends, and whole new perspective of what high school music could be come and join or even just come watch,” Cashin said. “We want music to be accessible, and tangible, and enjoyable even if you may not possess the skillset to play being a great audience member having your team come out and watch the jazz concert like a bonding activity would be super cool and it just gives different ways to share something we love to do with the rest of the school.”
