The Community High Jazz combo “Supernova” was selected as the winner of the University of Michigan Jazz Combo Festival on Saturday, Feb. 9. Also, CHS alto saxophonist Jacob Johnson was named runner-up for “Most Outstanding Soloist” of the entire festival.
The members of Supernova, Adlai Reinhart, Eddie Codrington, Henry Pakela, Erez Levin, Adam Olszewski, and Alex Meingast, had the honor of opening the big evening concert, which featured the following star jazz musicians:
- Marcus Belgrave, special guest trumpeter and last surviving horn player from the Ray Charles band of the fifties and staff trumpeter of Motown Records in the sixties
- Robert Hurst, bassist and multiple Grammy and Emmy winner, several-year member of both Wynton and Branford Marsalis bands, nearly a decade as the bassist/composer/director of “The Tonight Show” band with Jay Leno, and bassist on Paul McCartney’s most recent album “Kisses on the Bottom”
- UM Jazz Professor Geri Allen, pianist and Blue Note recording artist
- Um Jazz Professor Sean Dobbins, drummer and PHS class of ’93
CHS students Donley Nash, Deondrae Jones, and Alex Meingast also won individual awards for their performances at the festival. Three other CHS Jazz combos, “A2 Blue,” “Dig This,” and “Spontaneous Combustion,” also performed beautifully for the judges.
––Submitted by Jack Wagner
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