Video and photo by Jo Mathis/AAPS District News
The Community High Jazz combo Tempus Fugit has just won a major international award: The Downbeat Magazine Outstanding Performance Award in the High School Combo contest. This is the biggest worldwide high school contest for our genre of jazz combos. Past Downbeat winners hailed from Los Angeles, NYC, Denver, Sacramento, Seattle, Miami, and Berkeley, California, as well as from Israel, Australia, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and Japan.
“I am truly happy for these terrific students,” says CHS Jazz Program Director Jack Wagner. “They are so dedicated and hard-working, and they have a wonderful chemistry in the classroom and on the bandstand. It’s been a pleasure working with them and watching and hearing them grow so significantly.
Tempus Fugit’s members are:
- Erez Dessel, piano
- Danny Freiband, guitar
- Jonathan Lynn, alto saxophone
- Seamus Lynch, bass
- Aidan Wada-Dawson, alto and tenor saxophones
- Aaron Willette, drums
The band is listed in the just-released June, 2016 issue, which presents winners from several categories, such as High School, Performing Arts, and College Combos, Big Bands, Composers, Soloists, etc. It is all part of the 39th Annual International Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards contest. Downbeat Magazine is the world’s largest jazz periodical and was first published in 1934. It features articles on performers, reviews of albums, annual critics’ and readers’ polls, listings of international jazz festivals and camps.
Come celebrate their victory and hear them play at the Community High Jazz Year End Blowout at The Ark on May 16. The evening features all 10 of Community High’s jazz combos, beginning at 6 p.m. Tempus Fugit will be performing just after 7 p.m. The admission is $5.
Congratulations to Tempus Fugit, Jack Wagner, and the entire CHS jazz community on this wonderful recognition. CHS Jazz has been stellar for years, and this international-level recognition is very appropriate. Congratulations!