Laughter, chatter and live jazz music sounded through the bistro as the aroma of fresh pizza wafted in the air. On Feb. 5, a cold Thursday night, the warm Little Beast—a Chevy Chase, D.C. restaurant—bustled with customers. Diners tapped their feet and rocked back and forth, listening intently as students played catchy riffs and harmonies.
“The Little Beasts” band, as GDS jazz teacher Brad Linde calls it, is composed of students from GDS and the Edmund Burke School, and Linde frequently plays with them. The band has been performing at the Little Beast on Connecticut Avenue on Thursday evenings for about three years.
Six different students perform in the band week to week based on their availability. Sophomore Teddy Sasche, junior Julian Shishkin and senior Paul Smith played on Feb. 5. While the band members attend different schools, they bond over jazz. “We’re united in our love for the music,” Shishkin said.
“When we play,” Shishkin said, “it’s not like we’re students from GDS or students from Burke. “It’s just a group of musicians.” Shishkin noted that GDS students are able to play at the restaurant because Burke’s band program lets them join in.
Students play for about half an hour, starting at 7 p.m., when an adult trio, which plays for most of the night, is on break. The adult band is headed by John Howard—a band teacher at Burke—who plays piano, along with a drummer, Jason Walker, and a bassist. The bassist changes from time to time, with either Tommy Cecil, Eric Harper or Ian Riggs taking the position. Linde often joins the adults as well.
In March 2022, Howard began playing at the Uptown Market on Connecticut Avenue. In September of that year, the market announced it was closing, so Howard started searching for other opportunities and found Little Beast. The restaurant hired his trio to play on Thursday nights from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., hoping to increase business. Howard said the adult and student bands often attract about 20 to 30 diners.
According to Linde, the students don’t get paid for their gigs at Little Beast. “They just do it for fun to try out new stuff and jam together,” Linde said.
During the adult band’s dinner break, Howard allows The Little Beasts to play, recognizing how beneficial it is for the students. “When these kids started playing,” Howard said, “they could barely get through a tune. Now they have a big repertoire; they’ve performed on big stages around D.C.”
“I’ve learned to listen and play off what the drums and piano are doing,” senior and soprano saxophone player Emi Fitzgibbons said. She said she’s become more confident improvising, sight reading and soloing on music she doesn’t know at Little Beast.
Linde has helped the Little Beasts get gigs beyond the restaurant, such as at the D.C. Jazz Festival, the Jim Ketch Jazz Festival in North Carolina and the Jazz Education Network Conference in Atlanta and New Orleans.
The band doesn’t practice together beforehand, and they usually don’t read music while performing. “Being a jazz musician,” tenor saxophone player junior Julian Shishkin said, “it’s really important to be able to get up and play with people you’ve never played [with] before.”
Sometimes the band members decide what they’ll be playing moments before the performance. The Little Beasts’ bassist, senior Paul Smith, appreciates the challenge. “It’s very spontaneous,” Smith said. “It’s kind of fun like that; it keeps you on your toes.”
“They made the music enjoyable to listen to, and that’s the important thing about jazz,” local clarinetist and attendee Paul Handley said. “It’s nice to hear young people playing jazz, and they had a good feel of it. You can tell that they were relaxed, and they knew what they’re doing.”
The future of The Little Beasts is uncertain: Three of the six band members are seniors. “The future of the band is in the hands of the underclassmen right now,” Smith said. With demanding workloads and extracurricular activities, Howard said it is challenging to find students who are able to commit to the weekly performances.
“It’s nice to come to a place, sit down, have a drink and listen to music,” Handley said. “There’s so many bars and restaurants where they have TVs on the walls playing sports; they use that and don’t have live music.”
At the bistro, the final note sounded and applause spread through the small restaurant. While the band was done for the night, the band members would be back next week, coming together again to share their joy for jazz.