JAMMING IN GERMANY : YOUNG MUSICIANS JAZZED UP FOR TOUR.Byline: R.A. Hutchinson Daily News Staff Writer The throb throb v. To beat rapidly or perceptibly, such as occurs in the heart or a constricted blood vessel. n. A strong or rapid beat; a pulsation. throb a pulsating movement or sensation. of the bass and thump of the drums set the tone for an impromptu jam session at the Agoura High School Agoura High School is a four-year high school, freshman-senior, in Agoura Hills, California, United States. It is the largest high school in the Las Virgenes Unified School District, with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 students. band room on Friday afternoon. Three teen-agers dropped in to chat with John Mosley, chairman of the school's music department, about their coming three-week trip to Ibbenburen, Germany. ``I think it's just a really great experience to visit different families and see how they live and what their culture is like,'' said Tracy Still, a 15-year-old xylophone xylophone (zī`ləfōn) [Gr.,=wood sound], musical instrument having graduated wooden slabs that are struck by the player with small, hard mallets. The slabs are usually arranged like a keyboard, and the range varies from two to four octaves. player. Tracy and 22 other aspiring jazz students from the school are traveling Tuesday to Europe to participate in the German city's 850th anniversary celebration, to play in Ibbenburen's annual Pink Jazz Festival Noun 1. jazz festival - a festival that features performances by jazz artists festival, fete - an organized series of acts and performances (usually in one place); "a drama festival" , and to perform at a fund-raising concert in Amsterdam, Netherlands, for the Anne Frank house The Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, is a museum dedicated to Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank, who hid from Nazi persecution with her family and four other people in hidden rooms at the rear of the building. . Five music instructors and four chaperones will accompany the group. ``We're going to have a ball,'' Mosley said. ``We're going with a positive attitude.'' The trip is the first for Agoura High students, who have twice been hosts to their German counterparts at a jazz camp coordinated by Mosley, the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission and the Los Angeles-based Jazz Arts Foundation. After last year's weeklong session at Agoura High School, the 28 German students and their instructors invited the Agoura youths to play as guest artists at the 850th anniversary celebration for their city. Mosley said the trip eventually evolved into a jazz camp with instructors from Germany, Ibbenburen's sister city in Texas and the Agoura team. Students from all three cities The Three Cities is a collective description of the three fortified cities of Cospicua, Vittoriosa, and Senglea on the Island of Malta, which are enclosed by the massive line of fortification created by the Knights of St John, the Cottonera Lines. will participate, and the week will culminate in a performance at the Pink Jazz Festival. As an incoming sophomore, Tracy said she's had only one year of jazz training in the school's program. She expects the camp will boost her skill level on the vibraphone vibraphone or vibraharp Percussion instrument with tuned metal bars, arranged keyboard-style like the xylophone. Felt or wool beaters are used to strike the bars, giving a soft, mellow tone quality. , the percussion instrument she plays. ``It's fun to learn how to play a different kind of music,'' she said. ``I don't really keep the tempo yet.'' Tracy says so far she's learned three important elements to performing jazz: ``You have to be very confident. You have to have an artistic flair. You just have to have fun,'' she said. Curtiss Lopez, 16, said he's been playing jazz since he picked up guitar six years ago. He'll be a junior next year, but it will be his first year in the jazz program. He also plays bass. ``I used to listen to blues more. Now I'm listening to jazz. It's got some substance to it,'' Curtiss said. To pay for the trip, students raised money, which was supplemented by a $1,800 grant the school received from the Westlake Village Cultural Grant program. The city of Ibbenburen also made a $35,000 donation to cover expenses on the trip. The Agoura travelers will pay for their air fare and stay with German hosts during the trip. In addition to the jazz camp and concert at the Pink Jazz Festival, the group will travel to Amsterdam to perform at the North Sea Jazz Festival The North Sea Jazz Festival is an annual jazz festival held each second weekend of July in The Netherlands. It used to be in The Hague but since 2006 it's being held in Rotterdam. . Proceeds from the event will go toward preserving the Anne Frank Museum in the Dutch city. Other trip highlights include a performance in Stuttgart, Germany, with an international youth band that is trying to win a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest performing band ever assembled, visits to the Julius Keilwerth saxophone factory and the Daimler Benz/Mercedes Museum, and shopping in nearby villages. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (color) John Mosley, left, and student musicians Jus [Latin, right; justice; law; the whole body of law; also a right.] The term is used in two meanings: Jus means law, considered in the abstract; that is, as distinguished from any specific enactment, which we call, in a general sense, the law. tin Medeiros, 15, Tracy Still, 15, and Curtiss Lopez, 16, will head for Germany on Tuesday. Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News |
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