First stop, Second Street Live!; second stop, band camp

FORT SMITH — It’s band camp or bust.

After months of planning and practice, the Northside High School Jazz Band is ready to take the stage at Second Street Live! on Thursday (March 15) for a concert and fundraiser titled Band Camp or Bust! Proceeds will go to help students attend summer band camp.

The jazz band is an extra-curricular activity for about 30 students in grades 10-12 in the orchestra, concert or symphonic bands. The group meets weekly on Wednesdays for practice that lasts more than an hour.

Band Camp or Bust! is free but donations are welcomed. Adam Coats, the jazz band's director and assistant band director at Kimmons Junior High School, said it would be ideal if they could raise $15,000, which would fund 50 students to attend a week-long camp session. Last year, about 50 Northside band students attended band camps throughout the state. Proceeds raised from the show will benefit any band student, not just jazz band members, wanting to attend a summer band camp.

"We wanted to do a fund-raiser to help raise money for camp scholarships and we've wanted to do a concert that features the jazz band since we don't have a regular class time and it's grown to the point now where we can have enough repertoire to be able to do a concert that features us," Coats said.

Other students from the band program, but not in jazz band, will also be performing in small ensembles and solo acts in the lobby to entertain guests as they enter for the show. Snacks will be served and a skit will be performed during the show by non-jazz band members, as well.

Coats said that parents of jazz band members contacted Second Street Live! to book the venue when planning for the event began this past fall. Grants and an anonymous donation paid for the venue so that all money from the show can directly benefit the students.

"Camp is a great opportunity for our kids. It gets them playing through the summer. It gets them playing advanced music; it's just a great experience," Coats said. He also said that the experience of playing a professional venue like Second Street Live! will be a real benefit to the kids because of the great lighting, sound and atmosphere.

The concert will last about an hour and feature about 10 selections from originals for school jazz band to jazz standards that are popular. Pieces will include works from artists including Weather Report, Sonny Rollins, Thad Jones, Duke Ellington, Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard.