During this year’s minimester, high school jazz and instrumental music teacher Brad Linde took a group of eight GDS musicians to open for bands in Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio.
Linde led the group to Natalie’s Grandview in Columbus and the Bop Stop in Cleveland to open for Ohio musicians. The mini-tour gave students the opportunity to play in a professional setting.
This year, there were eight students who participated from 9th, 10th and 11th grades. The musicians included Charlotte Green on vocals, Zachary Henderson on bass, Mad Lee on viola, Oliver Malkin on violin, Elena Valdez on piano, Emi Fitzgibbons on soprano saxophone, Julian Shiskin and Nicole Stutson on tenor saxophone, with Linde on drums.
The students traveled by van to Columbus, Ohio on Feb. 21. There, they performed at Natalie’s Grandview, a music hall and kitchen. “The first night, we had to scrap some songs, and it was a mess, but that’s kind of the point,” Green said.
Linde explained that the first night served as a learning experience for the band, and they were able to learn what songs worked. “We changed songs from the first gig to the second gig,” said Linde. On the second night, the band also live streamed their performance.
Since the trip only ran through Feb. 21–23, rehearsal time was limited. Participants in the mini-tour were not required to be in the high school jazz program, and they only played together twice before the minimester. Rehearsal opportunities included two pre-minimester sessions along with practice on the trip. “That’s the one drawback of minimester is that these aren’t bands that meet during school for a whole year,” Linde said.
The experience was made more difficult by the fact that the musicians had played together very little. “It was definitely a test of my individual skills as a player,” Lee said.
Students proposed songs before the trip, but after the first night in Columbus, they swapped songs in and out from the setlist. “We swapped them out for songs that everyone knows,” Green said.
Linde has led a music-related minimester since 2018. In recent years, he began offering an opportunity for GDS students to attend and perform on a jazz mini-tour. “The minimester mini-tour is one of the most real lessons I can offer,” Linde said. “The goal of the trip is to give these musicians a taste of what it is like to be a touring performer.”
Since the trip was only three days long, the musicians rehearsed songs in the van. “On the way to the second gig, everyone chose a song and they sang along in the car, learning their parts by ear,” Linde said.
In past years, the mini-tour has sometimes played with other high schools or youth jazz groups, but this year, they opened by themselves for two groups that Linde organized from musicians in Ohio.
Henderson explained that the fast-paced environment allowed the group to experience what it would be like to be in an actual band.
The trip also gave students on-stage experience. “You have to figure out how to interact with each other on stage, so there’s an element of communication that you learn,” Henderson said.
Others also noted the need for connection in the band. “We hope that everyone can come together and figure it out, like a common thread through the music,” Linde said.
On the way to their first performance in Columbus, the band experienced a setback. “The windshield popped up about three inches and fell back down,” Linde said. The group had to make a detour to get a new van and missed the opportunity to sit in on a band practice at Capital University in Ohio.
Linde said that the mini-tour exposes jazz musicians to the experience of a band outside of a school environment. “It’s showing that you do this for the love of music and the love of adventure,” Linde said. “It’s everything I wanted it to be,” he added.