JAM: December 2006 / January 2007 Issue: Feature Story

Kim Harrison Keeps Shawnee Mission East Swinging

By Roger Atkinson

Ask Shawnee Mission East High School band instructor what has changed the most in jazz education over his twenty one years as a teacher, his answer is a quick, “More availability of literature”.

Ellington charts are a great example. “Wynton Marsalis’ group at Jazz at Lincoln Center, what they’ve made available to the whole nation over the past ten decade, their Ellington work is an example. Plus some great arrangers have done some of the
old charts, and rearranged them, making them accessible but still sounding very professional. A guy named Mark Taylor, he’s incredible, a wonderful arranger, and Dave Wolpe is great, and Nestico is still putting out charts. And the last decade, Sy
Johnson has been putting out charts of Charlie Mingus, transcribing some of it note for note. Some of the Mingus is quite accessible for high school.”

The SME Blue Knights Jazz Ensemble was honored to be selected to perform at the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Festival and competition in New York City. “That’s all they do, Ellington. Wynton and the Lincoln Center have friends with deep pockets. They only invite fifteen bands from across the nation. You send them $75 a year, they send back six original transcriptions of Ellington music. Last year they distributed 1,100
sets of music. From these schools, a certain number enter the competition, 140 last year, around 100 this year. Fifteen are selected.”

If you think these competitions are welcome by the students, you are right. “They are a great motivator”, says Harrison. “It’s very competitive. The first time we went in 2001 there were nine
performing arts high schools and six regular high schools. It is the best of the best.

“We took our ‘Jazz Night’ off campus about ten years ago. Three years ago we had it at the Folly, and the last two years at the Gem Theater. The last two years, it’s been sold out. When you take it off campus and make it a special night, and bring in
the two middle schools that feed you, the parents of these kids go home and ask, ‘Don’t you want to be in that group when you are in high school?’ So the kids hear us when they are young, are motivated, and it doesn’t hurt that most of our kids can afford
private lessons.”

Harrison doesn’t do it alone: many of KC’s best come by and work with his students. “Bobby Watson, Bob Bowman, Jim Mair, Paul McKee, Ray DeMarchi, Rod Fleeman, Stan Kessler, they were a few of the professionals that came and worked with my ensembles. These guys really deserve recognition for what they do to keep jazz alive in the city and in our young students.

“And our students are serious. I have two percussionists at USC, two guitarists at North Texas State, students at Michigan, Indiana, and Miami. And Kevin Cerovich, he was named one of the top three trombonists in the world from age eighteen to
twenty five. He’s three years out of our program. “Every high school in Johnson County has jazz in their curriculum now. That’s a huge change from twenty years ago. Jazz is on the schedule!”






	Search our site:		Kim Harrison Keeps Shawnee Mission East Swinging By Roger Atkinson Ask Shawnee Mission East High School band instructor what has changed the most in jazz education over his twenty one years as a teacher, his answer is a quick, “More availability of literature”. Ellington charts are a great example. “Wynton Marsalis’ group at Jazz at Lincoln Center, what they’ve made available to the whole nation over the past ten decade, their Ellington work is an example. Plus some great arrangers have done some of the old charts, and rearranged them, making them accessible but still sounding very professional. A guy named Mark Taylor, he’s incredible, a wonderful arranger, and Dave Wolpe is great, and Nestico is still putting out charts. And the last decade, Sy Johnson has been putting out charts of Charlie Mingus, transcribing some of it note for note. Some of the Mingus is quite accessible for high school.” The SME Blue Knights Jazz Ensemble was honored to be selected to perform at the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Festival and competition in New York City. “That’s all they do, Ellington. Wynton and the Lincoln Center have friends with deep pockets. They only invite fifteen bands from across the nation. You send them $75 a year, they send back six original transcriptions of Ellington music. Last year they distributed 1,100 sets of music. From these schools, a certain number enter the competition, 140 last year, around 100 this year. Fifteen are selected.” If you think these competitions are welcome by the students, you are right. “They are a great motivator”, says Harrison. “It’s very competitive. The first time we went in 2001 there were nine performing arts high schools and six regular high schools. It is the best of the best. “We took our ‘Jazz Night’ off campus about ten years ago. Three years ago we had it at the Folly, and the last two years at the Gem Theater. The last two years, it’s been sold out. When you take it off campus and make it a special night, and bring in the two middle schools that feed you, the parents of these kids go home and ask, ‘Don’t you want to be in that group when you are in high school?’ So the kids hear us when they are young, are motivated, and it doesn’t hurt that most of our kids can afford private lessons.” Harrison doesn’t do it alone: many of KC’s best come by and work with his students. “Bobby Watson, Bob Bowman, Jim Mair, Paul McKee, Ray DeMarchi, Rod Fleeman, Stan Kessler, they were a few of the professionals that came and worked with my ensembles. These guys really deserve recognition for what they do to keep jazz alive in the city and in our young students. “And our students are serious. I have two percussionists at USC, two guitarists at North Texas State, students at Michigan, Indiana, and Miami. And Kevin Cerovich, he was named one of the top three trombonists in the world from age eighteen to twenty five. He’s three years out of our program. “Every high school in Johnson County has jazz in their curriculum now. That’s a huge change from twenty years ago. Jazz is on the schedule!” RETURN TO DECEMBER 2006/JANUARY 2007 MAIN INDEX © Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors 1996-2006. All rights reserved.