Huron High School’s jazz band will compete nationally

By John Bommarito, WEMU Digital Operations Specialist and host of The Song Break

To hear the audio interview, go to: https://www.wemu.org/music/2025-01-23/huron-high-schools-jazz-band-will-compete-nationally

John Bommarito: You’re listening to The Song Break on 89 one WEMU. Something pretty special happened in our greater jazz community, and I want you to know about it. First off, I want you to try and imagine how many high school jazz bands there are in the United States. Okay, now that you’ve got that in your head, imagine that one of those high school jazz bands was selected as one of only 30 to compete in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 30th Annual Essential Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival May 7th through 11th. It’s right here in our community, one of those schools. I’m happy to welcome to the studios the lead director of Ann Arbor Huron High School’s bands, Mr. Robert Ash. Good day. How are you today?

Robert Ash: I’m doing great. Thanks for having me.

Robert Ash
Robert Ash

John Bommarito: It’s my pleasure. Do you know any high school jazz bands who are going to this competition?

Robert Ash: I actually know one other. We’re very lucky in the Michigan jazz community. We’re a pretty tight knit group and I’ve had some phenomenal colleagues. And one of those is Byron Center. They’ve kind of paved the way for this and inspired a lot of us to jump in the pool for this Essential Ellington National Competition. And there is one other Michigan high school that will be joining us on the stage in May.

John Bommarito: You didn’t take the bait. You were supposed to say, I know a school. It’s mine, but that’s okay. Byron Center is the other one that I saw.

Robert Ash: It’s amazing. Well, that’s the thing that’s so interesting about the jazz community in Michigan is that we’re all pretty tight and we’re a tight knit group. And we, the directors, really work together. We really support each other. There’s a small circuit of jazz competitions run by the universities in the state of Michigan, and we all kind of meet together. And there’s a there’s great camaraderie, great support. So, it’s going to be our honor to share the stage with Byron Center in May.

John Bommarito: Well, congratulations on your school being selected and your hard work paying off. How long have you been the jazz director there?

Robert Ash: Thank you. Well, the Director of Bands at Huron High School and this is year, I believe, year eight for me

John Bommarito: Okay. Was this always sort of an aspiration to get this nationally involved in a competition like this? Did you have that in your sights?

Robert Ash: It has been. It’s a bucket list item for us. And the reason is not just because of the competition itself. It’s because of what the festival has to offer. I mean, you get connected with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Big Band. They bring their clinicians, their members out to work with your kids. You get to go to New York City. You get to perform at the Rose Hall, which they call it, the House of Swing. It’s one of the few halls in the world that specifically designed in the acoustics for the big band. And I mean, you play on the world stage. You get to have jam sessions; you get to interact with other kids in the greater jazz community in the world. I mean, this year they opened it up literally to the world. There is a group from Barcelona, Spain. There’s a group from Japan. There’s a group from Australia. So, our kids get to interact with students from around the world and make jazz music together, which is pretty exciting.

John Bommarito: That is pretty exciting. How did the band get selected? What’s the process for getting selected for this?

Robert Ash: So, it’s based on recordings. It’s actually a pretty involved process. There is a list of tunes that you pick from and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Essential Ellington Company or nonprofit for the past 30 years, has been publishing for free, making it available for high school directors, all of these Ellington tunes and all of these tunes from the Great Jazz Songbook for Big Band. And you then pick three tunes from that library. One of them has to be from the current year’s offerings. And then you record. We did a very big recording project with our students back in the early fall. I said, “Hey, everybody, do you want to do this?” And they said, “yes.” And I said, “This is what it’s going to take.” And they said, “We want to give it a shot.” And so, we worked on it. We picked the three tunes together. I didn’t do it by myself. We listened to a lot of the tunes, talked about the strengths and weaknesses with the students. And then we collaboratively picked the three songs that we were going to play. And then we spent an intense three months getting them ready and recording.

John Bommarito: So, how many members are actually in this band that are going to be attending?

Robert Ash: So, we have 27 students that are in the… we call ourselves The Rhythm Rat Jazz Orchestra, because we are The River Rats at Huron High School. And so, there are 27 members that we’re going to take to New York City, and 25 of those will take the stage.

John Bommarito: So, you’ve already picked out what songs you’re going to play.

Robert Ash: Well, we have to do the three that…

John Bommarito: Oh, that you submitted already.

Robert Ash: We have to do those three, and then we have to pick 1 or 2 others from that songbook and prepare that because there are multiple rounds in this competition. So, yeah.

John Bommarito: I’m just slightly perplexed about why. They’ve already chosen you for the competition. Then you’re going to play the same songs that they chose you based on. I mean, that’s a little I have a big question mark here. Like, why wouldn’t you do something different to impress them?

Robert Ash: Well, because of the level of intensity that is expected from these students.

John Bommarito: Gotcha. How well do you do under pressure?

Robert Ash: Well, it’s not only how well are you going to pressure, but these kids are going to go and play these three tunes memorized. We are going to have to maybe change our soloist lineup. There’s a lot of things that you can do to expand on these songs, but they want you to play these songs like a professional group. In fact, they want us to listen to Ellington intently and mimic the sound and recreate the sound. And they’re very precise about that. It’s all in the name of really bringing to life the music of Duke Ellington and the Great American Jazz Songbook and get the young students really committed to this great American art form. That’s their goal in this. And it’s been 30 years of success, at least from my book. And I as a director, I’m a newbie in this process. And it’s just it’s really an honor to be included.

John Bommarito Well, that fits nicely with the show. You’re listening to The Song Break on 891 WEMU. My guest today is Mr. Robert Ash, the Lead Director of Ann Arbor Huron High School’s bands. And his jazz band is going to a very important competition. Have you done other competitions in your eight years or this is the first one you’re taking your students on?

Robert Ash: We’ve been competing at the state level. There’s like I said earlier, there’s a really great jazz circuit that’s sponsored by universities. I call it a jazz circuit just because that’s what it seems like to me. But there’s a lot of jazz festivals in the state of Michigan sponsored by universities. So Central Michigan University has one that’s really fantastic that we’ve been going to. Western Michigan University has one that’s really phenomenal, fantastic. Michigan State has one and it’s actually what they call the regional Essential Ellington Competition. So, you don’t have to win that to go and apply for the national one. But for the universities, it’s outreach is trying to get schools to really buy into jazz, get students excited. It tends to be an underserved educational opportunity in our country, jazz, which is kind of ironic because it is the American art form.

John Bommarito: I was going to say that.

Robert Ash: Yeah, but so we’ve been playing these festivals at least since I got to Huron High School. It’s a phenomenal experience. The kids get to interact with college kids. They get to interact with the university professors. It’s a win-win-win-win. It’s amazing.

John Bommarito: I think about the youth of America and what most of them listen to. How do kids this age get into jazz, do you know?

Robert Ash: Well, it’s interesting. It seems to me from my perspective, exposure. We are very lucky in Ann Arbor. We have a lot of exposure to jazz. The best of the best come through town. Through Ypsi, through Ann Arbor. I mean, we’ve got these jazz clubs. You’ve got The Ark, you’ve got UMS. Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra comes to Ann Arbor every year.

John Bommarito: Yes, but I don’t know any 12-year-olds or 14-year-olds who say, “Mom, take me to see this.”

Robert Ash: You’d be surprised.

John Bommarito: I would be. Yes.

Robert Ash: You’d be very surprised. It’s just being around it. You know, a lot of the community, our community really upholds jazz. I think we have a music community that’s so exciting about it. I see support for music in all levels, so when it’s around you, it’s kind of hard to ignore. I really feel that way when it’s around you, you know, you go to The Art Fair and there’s some of the best local jazz musicians in the world playing there. It’s hard to ignore. And it gets you get excited about it.

John Bommarito: Well, you’re around this generation clearly more than I am, because this show focuses a lot on the Great American Songbook. Do you think that they will continue to carry the Great American Songbook forward? That generation? Do they respect it as much as you and I probably do?

Robert Ash: I think so. You know, kids today, when they get something under their skin and they become passionate about something, they’re all in. My best musicians as a teacher, my best musicians that I get to work with, are getting better and better every year. I think the music’s in good hands and it’s really exciting to see what they’re capable of doing.

John Bommarito: That’s good news. I like it! Any public performances that your ensemble will be doing that we can see before you go to competition?

Robert Ash: We haven’t got the date set, but we’re probably going to play with Paul Keller at Zal Gaz Grotto sometime in March. That’s exciting. Locally, we are playing the CMU Jazz Festival. It’s February 7th. I know April 17th; this is a big one. Every year, the Ann Arbor Public School jazz bands get together and we do what we call it the Jazz Summit. And so, it’s all the jazz bands in Ann Arbor Public schools, middle school and high school. And we get to share the stage with Mr. Elliot Polot and Mr. Henry Pakela, at Pioneer and one of our jazz greats, the Head of the Community High School Jazz Program, Mr. Jack Wagner. So yeah, that’s a really good day to come and support Ann Arbor jazz.

John Bommarito: All right. Well, thank you very much. I would love to encourage people to look into what you’re doing. What’s a good website for people to search out what you’re doing here?

Robert Ash: So, for us, if you just Google “Huron bands,” our website will show up. But it’s I believe it’s huronband.weebly.com. It’s where we have all of our band information put out for everyone.

John Bommarito: My guest today on The Song Break has been Robert Ash, the Lead Director of the Ann Arbor High School’s bands. Robert, congratulations and good luck from all of us here at WEMU!

Robert Ash: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

Robert Ash at the WEMU studio.
Robert Ash at the WEMU studio.

This interview recoding contains the following selections performed by members of The Rhythm Rat Jazz Orchestra:

The Opener – Duke Ellington

Soloists:

  • John McWilliams – alto saxophone
  • Zach Michalec – piano
  • Sidney Kitchen – trombone
  • Rudradip Ray – trumpet
  • Cameron Payne – drums

Chloe (Song of the Swamp) – Billy Strayhorn

Soloists: 

  • Sidney Kitchen – trombone
  • Marty Bailey – clarinet
  • Pipi McWilliams – trumpet

Chinoiserie – Duke Ellington

Soloists:

  • Zach Michalec – piano
  • John McWilliams – alto saxophone
  • Sidney Kitchen – trombone

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