Day Two: Next Steps for Success with Your Beginning Jazz Band
Clinic Synopsis:
Following a 15-minute break from “Day One,” clinicians Antonio García and Don Zentz will demonstrate strategies for “Day Two” success for your beginning jazz band. This session will focus on developing call-and-response phrasing, teaching improvisation, and utilizing great recordings that reinforce concepts. A middle school jazz band will provide an actual rehearsal lab experience for all present and will perform a tune demonstrating the results of the concepts scaffolded in the “Day One” and “Day Two” sessions.
Antonio Garcia
- Biographical Information
Antonio J. García is a performer, composer/arranger, producer, clinician, educator, and author in both instrumental and vocal genres. He has performed as trombonist, bass trombonist, or pianist with 70 major artists including Ella Fitzgerald (50 shows), George Shearing, Billy Eckstine, Louie Bellson, Dave Brubeck, and Phil Collins (two-month tour plus album) and at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, and the Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals. The former Director of Jazz Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, an alumnus of the Eastman School of Music and of Loyola University of the South, and a Conn Selmer clinician/soloist and avid scat-singer, he has received grants from Meet The Composer, the Thelonious Monk Institute, The Commission Project, the Council for Basic Education, and others. His compositions are released through a dozen publishers, his indie-film scores screened across the globe, and his recent commission performed at Carnegie Hall by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Tony’s books include Jazz Improvisation: Practical Approaches to Grading (Meredith Music) and Cutting the Changes: Jazz Improvisation via Key Centers (Kjos Music). He was Co-Editor/Contributing Author of Teaching Jazz: A Course of Study (MENC/NAfME), served for ten years as Editor for the International Association for Jazz Education Journal, then twenty years as Jazz Editor for the International Trombone Association Journal, and has served as President of IAJE-IL, Advisory Board Member of the Brubeck Institute, a board member of the Illinois Coalition for Music Education, and a Network Expert for the Jazz Education Network. Most of all, Tony is dedicated to assisting musicians towards finding their joy. His 35-year full-time teaching career and countless residencies in schools have touched tens of thousands of students in Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia, The Middle East, and across the U.S. His collaborations highlighting jazz and social justice have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, providing education to students and financial support to African American, Latinx, LGBTQ+, and Veterans communities, children’s medical aid, and women in jazz. He serves as a Research Faculty Member at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. His partnerships with South Africa focusing on racism and healing resulted in his performing at the Nelson Mandela National Memorial Service in D.C. in 2013. He also fundraised $5.5 million in external gift pledges for the VCU Jazz Program. Tony is the only director of all three genres of Illinois All-State jazz ensembles—combo, vocal jazz choir, and big band—possibly the only individual to have led similarly in the country. Tenured at Northern Illinois, Northwestern, and Virginia Commonwealth universities, he received NIU’s Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching award, is a member of the Conn Selmer Institute Hall of Fame, received the VCU School of the Arts’ Faculty Award of Excellence, is a past nominee for CASE U.S. Professor of the Year, and is a recipient of The Midwest Clinic’s Medal of Honor. He resides in his native New Orleans, where he is Professor Emeritus at VCU and Secretary for The Midwest Clinic, having served on its board for over 30 years. Visit <www.garciamusic.com>.
Don Zentz - Biographical Information
Don Zentz is recently retired after forty-one years of service to students through music education. His illustrious career was centered on band directing at the middle school, high school, and collegiate levels; along with arts administration. Don is an honor graduate of Valdosta State University, GA, where he has been recognized as an outstanding alumnus. Originally from Buffalo, NY, he grew up in the Daytona Beach, FL area and experienced wonderful school band opportunities, including Florida all-state ensembles. This greatly influenced his career choice. Don was also fortunate to find himself on the bandstand playing the saxophone in bands with Daytona pros since he was in the ninth grade. Don enjoys tremendous demand as a clinician, adjudicator, and performer in both traditional and jazz idioms. For over twenty years he was a per service saxophonist with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and a mainstay with the St. Johns River City Band. Since the early 1990s, Don can often be found in the pit orchestras of the off-Broadway traveling shows that come through Jacksonville, most recently MJ - The Musical and The Tina Turner Musical. He has directed All-State Jazz Bands in Ohio, Maine, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Don was selected to teach in the six-week summer Georgia Governors Honors Program throughout the 1990s, primarily overseeing the jazz component. He also played lead alto in the southeastern unit of The Fabulous Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra ghost band during the decade of the 90s. Students under Don’s direction have performed at IAJE, JEN, The Midwest Clinic, Western International Band Clinic, Bands of America, Basically Basie Heritage Festival (first place), National Jazz Festival (first place), Swing Central (first place), National Collegiate Jazz Festival (first place), North American Saxophone Alliance, CBDNA, and FMEA, with numerous DownBeat Magazine student music awards for jazz over the years. The Douglas Anderson School of the Arts band department was the National Band Association’s 2017 National Blue Ribbon Award recipient for program excellence. Don has been honored with national recognitions that include the 2023 John LaPorta Jazz Educator of the Year (JEN/Berklee), the 2022 National Jazz Festival Jazz Educator Award, DownBeat’s Jazz Education Achievement Award, thirty years as a Keilwerth Saxophones Performing Artist, induction into the Jacksonville Jazz Festival Hall of Fame, and his selection two years ago to the Board of Directors of The Midwest Clinic. He is a member of the honorary band director fraternity, Phi Beta Mu. Don credits his professional successes to his mentors Bob Greenhaw, Rich Matteson, and Joe David, and to his loving wife and soulmate of 40 years, Laurie.
Frank Alongi - Biographical Information
Frank Alongi is the Director of Bands at Old Quarry Middle School in Lemont, IL, where he oversees a program of more than 300 students from 4th to 8th grade. He directs and coordinates two concert bands, two jazz bands, and organizes the annual OQMS Jazz Fest. His Jazz I program has received dozens of first-place awards in numerous jazz contests across multiple states. Frank has been creating music behind the drum set in Chicago since 1999. In his youth, he toured Central and South America with the fusion rock group Torre Fuerte. Since then, he has performed with a variety of local Chicago bands, orchestras, and percussion ensembles, and has contributed to numerous recordings and performances by various national artists. He attended DePaul University, where he studied with renowned musicians such as Joel Spencer (University of Illinois), Ted Atkatz (Chicago Symphony Orchestra), and Al Payson (CSO). He later earned a degree in Music Education from Northeastern Illinois University. Frank is a member of JEN (Jazz Education Network) and a recipient of the Chicagoland Outstanding Music Educator Award. He is regularly featured as a guest artist, speaker, and presenter at workshops, clinics, and performances throughout the Chicagoland area.
Old Quarry Middle School - Biographical Information
In 2014, the Old Quarry Middle School band program, under the direction of Frank Alongi, recognized the need to introduce jazz into the curriculum. As a result, the OQMS Jazz program was born. From the beginning, the priorities were to expand students' knowledge of jazz repertoire, style, and comprehension. After just one year, the group began competing in local contests. Since then, Jazz I has taken home dozens of first-place awards from various contests and festivals across several states. Recently, they’ve won the Purdue Jazz Festival four years in a row, the ISU Jazz Festival two years in a row, and have received first place at Jazz in the Meadows twice in the last three years. They also participated in the IGSMA Jazz Festival, earning high marks. In 2023, they saw the need to expand again and started a Jazz II program, which has also been active in competitive and non-competitive performances. In addition to competitions, the bands have performed locally at festivals and events. They host the annual OQMS JazzFest and will be showcasing their talents at the 2025 JEN Festival in New Orleans.
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