It seems a little odd to us in the UK that High School and College bands would be such a big deal but when you’re band leader is a bit of a hipster that wants to get down with the kids and freak-out to the funky new sounds; hell yeah you’d want to join in wouldn’t you?

I suspect these rare tracks recorded by college and high school bands of the late 60s and early 70s we’re like the sap to the kids compared to what they normally played (it’d be interesting to know what The Long Lost were playing in the High School band in the 80s), but you can hear the youthful energy of the recordings as the ‘pop’ tune approached in the set list, it must have been the highlight of the Monday night rehearsals; you can just imagine the anticipation of the guitarist in the S.M, Dorsey Jazz Workshop class waiting for his chance to get to the solo of ‘Frankstein’; or the drummer for that matter. Even the dry introductions to Sacrmento Senior High’s live performance, it didn’t stop the audience getting involved in ‘Let The Sunshine In’ - it was the dawning of the age of Aquarius after all.

And these guys knew that they could sell these LPs in limited numbers to parents, friends and family and whilst performances weren’t to the slick standards of the originals, what’s the great thing about this album it the rawness that’s pure funk (at a time in the UK we were getting punky raw).

And then you’d be thinking about what happened to the vocalist on ‘Compared To What’ from the TSU Jazz Emsemble - did she ever reach dreams of soul-diva? Well, Marsha Frazier actually ended up in Bubbha Thomas’ Lightmen Plus One and their ‘The Energy Control Center’ was picked as the opening track on Madlib & Peanut Butter Wolf’s compilation The Other Side: Los Angeles.

And talking of diggers, when the CD credits include known experts like Egon (Stones Throw/Now-Again, who really know their stuff as they’ve previously released Kashmere Stage Band directed by Conrad O. Johnson), “Cool” Chris, Motorcycle John, that man Bubba Thomas again and Nobody to mention just a few, you know this is going to be the best quality.

The best of the well-known pop versions is ‘Come Together’ (as played by, sorry read talked over, by Gilles Peterson the other week) and for the jazz, it’s Herbie Hancock’s ‘Fat Mama’ as directed by Chuck Nolan at Sam Houston (and thus in the shadow of Houston’s greatest Jazz educators, Conrad O. Johnson).

On the leftfield-funk, perhaps inevitably, the famous “all black” Morehouse College and as recently featured on the BBC’s World Service (see HERE), they do a cover of Nat Adderley’s soul-jazz classic ‘Hummin’. And not to be outdone, from Canada, the Sir Winston Churchill Stage band re-invented Weldon Irvine’s ‘Mr. Clean’ as ‘Funky Soup’.

They say this is the first in a series and I hope it is as I can’t wait for the Film/TV Theme version as that could be just as tripped-out as this CD. Definitely a big sound and worth getting into, I need an education, so school me and let the sun shine in!

Reviewed: Various - School Me! Vol. 1 1968-1975 (Stage Band Research) Cat. No: STA001 Release date: 26th March 2009
Tracklisting:
1 Sacramento Senior High - Intro/Let The Sunshine In (2:22)
2 Sam Houston High School Stage Band - Fat Mama (4:20)
3 Sir Winston Churchill Stage Band - Funky Soup (3:26)
4 Cerritos Jazz-Rock Ensemble - Come Together (9:07)
5 Ambassador College Band - The Bucket (3:50)
6 Morehouse College Jazz Laboratory Band - Hummin’ (5:26)
7 Corona Del Mar High School Jazz Ensemble - Us (7:43)
8 S.M. Dorsey High School Jazz Workshop Frankenstein (2:48)
9 TSU Jazz Ensemble - Compared To What (3:09)
10 College Of The Redwoods Stage Band - The Family Of Man (6:18)
11 Orrville High School Jazz Band - Rock Bass Fishin’ (4:43)
12 Sacramento Senior High - Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In/Outro (5:13)

Links:
Gilles Peterson :: 26th March 2009 :: Turkish Delight Mix
Cerritos Jazz Rock Ensemble - ‘Come Together’ (Stage Band Research)
www.morehouse.edu
High school marching band wins presidential parade honour - Posted Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:13pm