Gallery of Moments

It has been our pleasure to bring Jazz Appreciation Month Activities to the Schools and business community of Marin County. Since April 11, students in three of Marin County's elementary, middle and high schools have participated in a lively, informative and creative look at America's greatest art form.

We were fortunate to have the early support of Mary Jane Burke Superintendent, Marin Public Schools, Jeanne Bogardus Director, Marin Arts Council and Jani Ross Interim Head, The Branson School for creating the environment which enabled this gift of music and learning to be shared by students who were challenged and uplifted. Dartanyan L. Brown May 2002 Dartanyan digs a teacher/student Jam at MLK Academy

This session, pictured above, was my first at Martin Luther King Academy in Southern Marin County. I set up a jam session between a student and one of the aides who was on site. The teachers were just as ready and willing to play and have fun as the students were. A real joy.

Barry Finnerty, Guitar Sly Randolph, Percussion Dartanyan, Electric Bass Live at Cafe Amsterdam JAMM-sponsored gig

Dartanyan on Acoustic Bass Barry Finnerty Guitar Sly Randolph Percussion Live in Fairfax, California April 27

Here we are at Gallinas School in Terra Linda. This is a 1st grade class who wanted to play and sing with me as I was finishing my setup. Their teacher was really fun and while I was not scheduled to work with these students, the impromptu sing-along was neat.

All Photos by Meredith Pike-Baky

In the picture above, the 6th grade teacher (blue sweater center) decided that she really wanted to make some musical decisions and so she came up to try it. It was great to see how much more respect the students showed their teacher after she played music with us.

Using the MIDI setup, we were able to give many students their first opportunity to improvise on simple chord and scale patterns.

In this shot, we're preparing for an impromptu discussion of physics and musical instruments. Our students wanted to know why one guitar had 'fat' strings while the other one had 'teeny' strings. They also noticed that my 6-string guitar had holes in it while the bass guitar was solid. Fertile ground for inquiring minds and boy, did they inquire. Very curious, very imaginative students.

DeGeorge, an unusually outgoing student was anxious to show me his ability so we fired up the PowerBook w. Virtual Instruments' B4 software and we were instantly in a Gospel-inspired world that DeGeorge created. He is a member of a local church and the music played by the Pastor's wife is very inspiring for this student.

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