Mardi Gras Jazz Night is coming up at SCHS

Posted Feb 2, 2012 By John Curry

EMC Events - Mardi Gras conveys fun and celebration. Jazz is music that swings with spontaneity and improvisation. Both have ties to New Orleans but both terms go beyond that. Both bring smiles to many faces.

And so when you hear that there is going to be a "Mardi Gras Jazz Night" held at South Carleton High School in Richmond, that's somewhere that you want to be for fun, celebration, spontaneity, improvisation and lots of smiles.

It's all going to happen on Friday, Feb. 10 starting at 7 p.m. when the South Carleton junior and senior jazz bands and the South Carleton guitar ensemble will be joined by the Nepean All City Jazz Band for what is being billed as "a night of great jazz music, refreshments and dancing."

Tickets for this Mardi Gras Jazz Night can be purchased at South Carleton High School ahead of time or at the door that night. Tickets at the door will cost $10 per person, with a rate of $8 for seniors and students.

The Nepean All City Jazz Band was founded in 1987 to give an opportunity for some of the talented young jazz musicians in the Ottawa area to develop and share their musical talent. It comprises 18 musicians between the ages of 15 and 20 drawn from all over the area. Indeed, it is recognized as one of the pre-eminent teenage jazz ensembles in Canada, having received numerous accolades such as the Canadian Music Educators Association's Don Wright Award for excellence in Canadian jazz.

Director of the Nepean All City Jazz Band is Neil Yorke-Slader of Stittsville who is currently superintendent of curriculum services for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board but is a former head of music at Earl of March Secondary School and J.S. Woodsworth Secondary School.

He is considered one of the leading Canadian authorities on the teaching of stage band fundamentals and rehearsal techniques. He received the 2000 Ottawa International Jazz Festival's Achievement Award and in 1991 he received the International Association of Jazz Educators Award for Contribution to Jazz Education.

In 2007, he received the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board's Margarie Loughery Award for Lifetime Contribution to the Arts.

Mr. Yorke-Slader has composed numerous works for jazz ensembles. He has served as chair of Musicfest Canada's instrumental jazz division and is widely sought after as a jazz clinician and adjudicator.

Jazz is a musical style that began in the 20th century in African American communities in the United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions.

There are many distinctive styles of jazz, from New Orleans jazz dating from the early 1910's to big band swing to Kansas City jazz and Gypsy jazz from the 1930's and 1940's to behop from the mid 1940's to cool jazz, free jazz, Latin jazz, soul jazz, urban jazz and the list goes on.

Mardi Gras literally means "Fat Tuesday" in French, referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the fasting of the Lenten season begins. It is most associated with Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, but Mardi Gras can refer to celebrations that begin with the Ephphany and extend through to Shrove Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday falls on Tuesday, Feb. 21 this year.

New Orleans, which is so well known for its jazz music, is also known for its Mardi Gras celebrations that usually run for a couple of weeks before Shrove Tuesday.