ALL THAT SHAZZ

Shawano will become a city of jazz Saturday as Shawano Community High School and the Shawano Jazz Foundation host the seventh annual Shawano Jazz Festival, or SHAZZ, featuring bands from 24 middle and high schools throughout Wisconsin.

Local bands participating include those from SCHS, Shawano Community Middle School, St. James Lutheran School, Marion High School, Pulaski High School and, for the first time, Clintonville High School.

“The fact that Clintonville is coming here is huge,” SCHS band director Christopher Kent said. “One of the main reasons we started this festival was to give the local schools an opportunity to go to an excellent festival without having to travel very far.”

The bands will work with clinicians all day at SCHS. The festival concludes with the traditional finale concert, which begins at 3 p.m. in the school’s auditorium. Among the songs on tap for the finale concert are “Cherokee,” an arrangement of “Blue Bossa” and “On Green Dolphin Street.”

The jazz will continue Saturday night as SCHS puts on its “One Night Only” show at 6:30 at The Gathering. The evening lineup includes “Artistry and Rhythm,” an arrangement of “Feeling Good” and “Tourist in Paradise.”

There will also be performances by SCHS alumni.

Anyone who thinks “One Night Only” is just another concert should think again, according to Kent. The evening performance is the Shawano Jazz Foundation’s primary fundraiser to help local students go to summer band camps.

The foundation expects to give out nine scholarships this year.

“The parents still have to put some money into (the camps), but it’s like $100,” Kent said.

The festival will welcome back Grammy-award winning saxophonist Eric Marienthal as a clinician. Marienthal is based in Los Angeles.

The East Coast will also be represented. New York guitarist Chuck Loeb will also provide clinical advice to the students.

Besides working with the students, Marienthal and Loeb will perform with the students at the finale concert and “One Night Only.” Kent said they will also perform pieces from their album “Bridges.”

“This will be the first time we’ve had a true rhythm section (at the festival),” Kent said. “Chuck is going to play on every tune at the afternoon concert.”

Musicians Joe Tierney and Chris Felts will also participate in SHAZZ, and the festival will welcome back alumni Jerot Ritter and Kelsey Wiegand.

“This is the type of festival you would see in Chicago,” Kent said. “People here have the opportunity to experience something that you wouldn’t unless you went to a bigger city.”

DID YOU KNOW?

The Shawano Jazz Foundation was created in 2009 by Alexandra Isaacson during her senior year at Shawano Community High School. Isaacson donated a $250 scholarship that she had received, and then led the initial fundraising that provided two summer-music scholarships later that year. Thanks to strong community support, notably from founding board members Dr. Jeff and Holly Zander, Isaacson and SCHS band director Christopher Kent expanded the foundation to include an annual jazz festival. The first festival was held in 2010.