On Saturday, January 31, 2015, the Ankeny Schools will host four outstanding jazz clinicians to work with the eleven jazz bands from our six secondary schools. Clinicians will work with Parkview, Southview, and Ankeny High School students in the morning at AHS. After lunch, the clinicians will travel to Centennial to work with students from Prairie Ridge, Northview, and Centennial High School. After dinner, the clinicians and students will split for concerts at each high school beginning at 7:30pm.

Itinerary
1:45pm – Prairie Ridge Tuesday/Friday 7th Grade Jazz Band
2:45pm – Prairie Ridge Monday/Thursday 7th Grade Jazz Band
3:45pm – Northview Jazzguars
4:45pm – Centennial Jazz Studio
5:45pm – Centennial Jazz Collective
7:30pm – Concert Begins

For the performance, Centennial students should wear their typical all black with accent colors. Centennial students who are also participating in the Northern Lights Dance that evening are permitted to wear their attire for the dance to the concert as long as that attire is concert appropriate and allows them to still perform on their jazz instrument. Centennial students should make arrangements to eat dinner prior to the beginning of the concert.

Admission to the concert is $5 for adults and $3 for students/seniors/veterans. This money helps us compensate our clinicians for their time with our students.

Clinicians

Since 1994, Paul Bridson has played lead and solo jazz trombone with The Des Moines Big Band, and since 2010 he’s also held the lead chair in the newly-formed Turner Center Jazz Orchestra. He is a teaching artist with Drake University, and also the co-founder of Synergy Jazz Foundation, which brings Aebersold clinicians to central Iowa students and provides assistance to students wishing to attend summer jazz camps.

Immediately after college, he spent four years in Austin, TX playing the Jazz chair in the Non-Ego Big Band and playing bass for numerous Texas Swing bands on Austin’s famous Sixth Street. He also won Austin’s “Songwriter of the Year” award in 1992 for his children’s single, “Too Much Fun”. His trombone credits include Jimmy Dorsey, Sarah Vaughn, Red Skelton, The Lawrence Welk Orchestra, Wayne Newton, The Temptations, Frankie Valli, 10,000 Maniacs and numerous touring productions.

A native Iowan, Mike Giles teaches all things saxophone and runs the lion’s share of jazz activities at Iowa State University. He is a vibrant and accessible musician, exceptional in both the classroom and the concert hall. His commitment to original music and inventive approaches to music have made him a recognizable voice throughout the Midwest. Mike is active as an improviser and composer, working with eclectic mixes of personalities and instrumentation. He has released several albums to high acclaim, and has been showcased as a soloist at many reputable concert venues and festivals both domestically and abroad. His primary teachers include vocal jazz guru Phil Mattson, avant garde artist John Rapson, and contemporary saxophonist Matt Sintchak. He received his degrees from the in-state rival University of Iowa. Learn more about Mike through his website creativemusicstuff.com.

A Des Moines native, versatile trumpeter Dave Rezek received his undergraduate and graduate jazz degrees at the University of Northern Iowa and New England Conservatory, respectively, and he played professionally for 10 years between Boston and New York.  While in New York, he performed as an original member of the Grammy Award-nominated big band Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society and was a frequent sub with numerous other innovative large ensembles (nearly all lead by former Bob Brookmeyer composition students) and Broadway shows, including an onstage performance with the cast of Jersey Boys at the 2006 Tony Awards Show, where the show won Best Musical honors. Since his return to Des Moines, Dave has been a much sought-after private teacher, clinician, festival adjudicator, front/sideman, and/or guest artist alongside most of Iowa’s top jazz artists.  In addition to leading his own original-music septet, Dave Rezek’s Alpha State Agents, he has been busy with many other groups, including Mike Conrad’s original-music large ensemble Colossus Central, Parranderos Latin Combo, Eric Thompson’s Fun-Time Music Hour, the Des Moines Big Band, and the Max Wellman Quintet and Big Band.  He teaches trumpet techniques and jazz improvisation at Susie Miget’s Creative Music Studio, is faculty at Drake University as Jazz Combo Coordinator and coach for Jazz Combo 1, founded and manages music for the monthly Jazz Happy Hour at the Des Moines Social Club, and is an original board member of Synergy Jazz Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes jazz opportunities and awareness to the students and communities of Iowa through education and professional and student performances. www.daverezekmusic.com

Jason Danielson has studied with Dr. Robert Washut at the University of Northern Iowa and Susie Miget in Des Moines. Jason has performed with Aretha Franklin, Claudio Roditi, Dick Oatts, The Mingus Dynasty, Paul McKee, Frank Perowsky, Pat Harbison, and the Jimmy Dorsey Big Band; he also opened for B.B. King, Jason Lindner, and The Manhattan Transfer, and has performed two solo shows with Iowa Public Television. He has been a member of the orchestra pit for the national tours of “West Side Story,” “The Producers,” “Wicked,” and “Jersey Boys” at the Des Moines Civic Center and has also played and conducted local productions of “Jingle Bell Bash,” “The Wiz,” and “Little Shop of Horrors.” Locally, he is pianist, arranger, and musical director for Fred Gazzo, with weekly gigs at Sam and Gabe’s Italian Bistro as well as festivals, weddings, and parties. Locally, Jason performs with such artists as the Des Moines Big Band, Dave Rezek, Scott Davis, Tony Valdez, Susie Miget, Jim Oatts, Dave Camwell, and others, and has been a performer, clinician and/or judge, as well as a faculty member at the Simpson College Jazz Camp. Jason’s recording credits as a player include “Let’s Play One” and “Landmark” with the Des Moines Big Band, Scott Davis’s “Skywalk,” and “At Dusk,” “Leap of Faith,” and “West Coasting” with Northern Iowa’s Jazz Band One. As pianist, arranger, and musical director, Jason has collaborated with Fred Gazzo on “All the Way,” “The Good Life,” and “Christmas Dreams.” Jason is currently working on an MA in History at Iowa State University, where his thesis focuses on the music of the Civil Rights Movement; he has also given presentations for Des Moines Public Schools’ professional development workshops and the National Council for History Educators’ annual conference on the music of the Civil Rights Movement and the use of music as a primary source in the social studies classroom.