Hello Everyone,
When the Coronavirus changed our lives in March, Samohi Jazz Band had an exciting spring semester planned for our talented students. In April, we decided to spice up the Google classroom assignments by attempting to record a new piece of music the students had never seen before and create one of those slick “Zoom” videos to lift each other’s spirits and our community. Parts and drum loop were emailed to the students, who were asked to record themselves.
As I began to choose the song, I received the news that our 2nd trumpet player, Ian DiMundo, had to have open heart surgery. Ian has been through a lot, but I am happy to say that he is recovering extremely well and will be fine. A HUGE thank you to David Gotler, a recent graduate of Samohi and an alumni of the Samohi Jazz Band, who recorded Ian’s part. This video is dedicated to Ian and our fantastic seniors, Bria Stocker, Nikolai Ramalingam, Jake Dreifort, Weston Kerekes and Jazz 2 seniors Andrew Hanson, Rocco Spano & Vicente Puga who due to COVID lost some of their special opportunities in the spring. A HUGE thank you also to my dear friend of more than 30 years, Mr. Chris Horvath who is a master musician, arranger, film score writer, producer and song writer for helping us mix all the student recordings and to Brandon Cano-Errecart, who did such a great job editing the videos submitted by the students.
Please enjoy the 2020 Samohi Jazz Band’s virtual performance of “In the Stone” by Earth Wind & Fire!!
Tom Whaley
SMMUSD VAPA Coordinator
SAMOHI Jazz Band 1 Director
