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‘A strong group of musicians’

Alpena High now offers jazz band

News Photo by Julie Goldberg From left to right, Alpena High School seniors Nathan Muszynski, Andrew Vanvlerah, and Matthew Fisher play jazz music on Thursday during their Jazz Band class.

ALPENA — Alpena High School students who enjoy music can now learn different genres through a new class offered this school year.

Jazz Band is now an elective for students. Teacher Mike Gozzard is working with 17 students playing a variety of instruments, including jazz oboe, jazz flute, rock and classical guitars, piano, and more.

“It’s year one, so it’s kind of like a misfit group of people, but they’re a strong group of musicians,” Gozzard said Thursday. “There’s a lot of seniors in this class that are doing well for it being just year one.”

Jazz music is a strength of Gozzard’s, so he made it known to the school that he wanted to offer the class to students.

“They decided to make the call,” he said. “It kind of forced me to take on an overload schedule, so I teach all six hours of the day at two buildings, but I did that just to bring this class back, because it’s one of my passions.”

The first thing that had to be done was defining what jazz music is. Gozzard said a lot of people hear “jazz band” and they assume it’s 1920s swing band music, but he said it’s not.

It’s a blend of every musical genre, with improvisation and a rhythm section being the foundation. Gozzard said that’s what makes the class unique for the students.

“Once I made that known, then a lot of kids wanted to join,” he said. “They were maybe just a little intimidated at first, because nobody quite knows how to define what jazz is, but it really is a hybrid of every musical genre.”

Senior Thomas Jore said the music is different because students learn improvisation, which is changing a few notes in the music or creating a new melody.

“It’s a super-different course that helps us grow as musicians,” Jore said.

Senior Jack Peplinski said improvisation is completely different from what they’re used to in concert band and marching band.

“It’s definitely a different standpoint, going in between that and going from a concert setting like we normally do,” Peplinski said.

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.

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