By Kyah Corff

SYV Star intern

A fusion of musical tones haunts the halls of Santa Ynez Valley Union High School in the early mornings. Waves of soulful or invigorating jazz sounds burst from the music room as determined students play their parts with passion.

This is the work of the SYHS Jazz Band, a new club in the past school year that has already gained some local notice — and which will become an official class in the new year.

To play in the band, members wake with the sun every other morning while most of their classmates are still hitting the snooze button. The students demonstrate a passion for jazz and a quiet determination to perfect their musical talents.

“Jazz. it’s the challenge of improv and the excitement of playing something new every time. It’s a very attractive style of music,” said energetic director Les Rose, who came out of retirement to create the jazz band.

A local jazz celebrity, Rose worked in Santa Barbara County as a music teacher for 30 years. In retirement, he grew restless and missed teaching, so he became interested in bringing jazz to the high school.

Last spring, he approached Principal Mark Swanitz and proposed teaching a jazz class. Swanitz gave him his full support to organize an out-of-school class (in the “zero period” before school) if he could get the students to wake up early enough.

Rose soon found eager participants from the high school’s marching band and music department. He teamed up with Allen Smithson, the now former band and vocal ensemble music teacher at SYVUHS, to organize and direct the jazz band.

One of about 15 members of the jazz band, senior Zane St. Andre Jackson said he joined to challenge himself. He is planning to attend UCLA and commit himself to jazz studies. He is specifically grateful to jazz, he said, because it is a “meeting point for the intellectual side and the creative side.”

“Jazz — it’s a great way to start the morning,” added Rachel Staude, who has received a scholarship to the distinguished art school of Wigan and Leigh College in England. Staude attended Olive Grove Charter School but still participated in the jazz band because of the opportunities it provided.

In its first year the club performed at several concerts, including the Veterans Day celebration at the Solvang Veterans Memorial Hall and the high school’s spring and winter concerts.

The jazz band also performed for the Central Coast Jazz Society and was invited to the 42^nd annual Jubilee By the Sea — an exclusive all-professional jazz festival — at the Pismo Beach Veterans Hall. The band also scored Gold standing and second place at the competitive WorldStrides OnStage Music Festival in April.

In its first year, the jazz band was a club funded by parents. Partly because of its accomplishments, and the students’ passion, the band will become a for-credit, district-funded class in 2018-19.

The jazz band members have always felt that their commitment to practicing jazz should count toward their grade-point average, and now it will.

It will still be taught in “zero period,” but that has an advantage.

Students are allowed no more than two electives, but with jazz band practice happening before school, it “allows you to do jazz without counting as an elective. I can do art and Spanish still,” explained Josh Kazali, a freshman.

“I always wanted a jazz program,” said sophomore Davis Reinhert. “Even though it (the practice) is early, it’s worth it … it’s a great introduction to jazz.”

Kyah Corff is a senior at Santa Ynez High School and an intern for the Santa Ynez Valley Star.