Mogran Lykes plays the flute, practicing for her afternoon performance for parents, demonstrating her growth in rhythmic adaptability as a result of her improvisational instruction under Professor Clark. Thirteen-year old Mogran, a Blythewood, SC resident had been playing jazz for three years, and attended jazz camp at the suggestion of her eighth-grade band teacher. Commenting on her experiences at camp, Morgan said, “well, I’m used to playing stuff like on the page, actual page, so it’s taught me to, like, expand and learn how to improv”.Jason Lovelace practices for his afternoon jazz performance, confidently anticipating his drum solos and his favorite song of the concert, a Latin-influenced Bossa Nova number. Jacob is a well experienced drummer, and no stranger to the limelight, having played many concerts at his school prior to his jazz camp experience. “so it’s, it’s great. I love, I love being able to, you know, just show out a little bit during song…I’m kind of past the little anxious in the stressed part, but I guess I’m more excited than stressed” Jacob said.Jett Robinson smiles at his jazz camp teachers, getting ready to continue playing the piano in preparation after also playing the tenor trombone in a previous number. Jett, hailing from Irmo, South Carolina, is a multi-instrumental performer, having played the trombone for four years, and playing the baritone horn and piano (as shown) as well. When questioned what his motivations to attend camp were, Jett said “oh, I just wanted to do more jazz. I’m gonna’ go into it next year, sophomore year, and so I wanted to get some experience before I get into that”.Colleen Clark gives her jazz students notes on their performance, helping them to refine their timing and rhythmic collaboration. Clark uses research-based education techniques with students as young as those in middle school, teaching campers to use professional jazz lingo, transcribe musical pieces, and understand jazz history through lectures on remarkable figures of jazz history such as Elvis Gerald, helping them to thrive in their artistic medium. Speaking on the value of jazz camp, Clark said “I think that’s what’s so delightful about camps, is that if you get the right faculty that can provide high quality information, but it’s provided in a way that is going to be, you know, received in a, you know, at a level that makes sense to the student, that it’s going to be a really fun scenario”.Caelan King plays the alto saxophone with the rest of his camp band, leading in and out with the rhythm of each song, adding his own flair of individual style to the collective sound of each song. Caelan, despite his impressive skill on the sax, could practically create a one-person jazz quartet with all of the instruments he plays including alto saxophone, piano, drums, trumpet, and clarinet. Throughout his jazz camp experience, Caelan says that “it taught me how to utilize those notes differently. It taught me how to take the melody of the song that I’m playing, but changed around to make it sound better, change the key of it, use chromatic enclosures, enclosures. It taught me a lot of skills”.Instructor Colleen Clark reviews the afternoon performance’s setlist with her students, walking them through technical notes and roles for each melody, mostly comprising of blues numbers, as well as more challenging pieces that the campers learned throughout the week. Clark holds a special place in jazz history as the first woman to graduate with a Ph.D in Jazz from North Texas University, which boasts the oldest jazz program in the world. She continues to leave her mark on the jazz community through her work with young musicians, having founded Girls’ Jazz Day, leading jazz camp, and holding a jazz professorship at USC. She said of the program’s impact on campers, “like everything in life, if you work hard, good things are going to come and if you work hard, you’re going to get quality. And so if we’re modeling this type of quality and hard work, and that good things are going to come from this”.
