“We’re still waiting for Amos?” said Memorial High School Music Instructor Bob Passante to West New York District Principal Timothy Schroeder March 16. Passante had just introduced Sixtet, a jazz ensemble, to a group of senior citizens gathered into Hudson Hall. But one member of the ensemble was missing.
“Where’s Amos?” Schroeder asked. “We can’t wait too much longer.”
The senior citizens were waiting for a performance by six Memorial High School students who had formed their own jazz band last year.
The six boys, Amos Duque, Billy Carrion, Ariel Grave dePeralta, Alexis Lopez, Richard DeBrasi, and Christian Vivas, came together for their school’s talent show in November, but have been asked to play at various assemblies and events since then.
“There’s Amos, he’s here!” everyone heard from the stage as they pointed to the young bass player who accidentally went to Town Hall instead of Hudson Hall for his performance.
“I knew you weren’t going to let me down,” said Schroeder to Duque as he walked by.
“We have the only job that depends on students for a living,” said the school’s music supervisor, David Osnowitz, who could share hundreds of stories about forgotten instruments or late arrivals. “You never know what is going to happen.”
However, judging by the number of seniors on the dance floor, the small jazz ensemble was well worth the wait.
Getting started
The six-member band started with only four members who wanted to perform in the Memorial High School talent show in November.
Although Carrion, Lopez, Duque and Grave dePeralta were members of the school’s jazz ensemble, they were not able to work with any of the music department faculty or staff when practicing their song for the talent show. “If they did [work with us] we would have been disqualified,” said Ariel.
However, the boys were able to prove just how talented they really were with their winning performance of Chameleon by H. Hancock.
“We had the crowd cheering,” said Carrion.
“Cheering?” disagreed Lopez. “We had them up and dancing.”
The students haven’t been able to stop dancing since. After the talent show, the four-member band was asked to perform at the school’s recognition ceremonies and other school assemblies.
“I never knew that it would go this far,” said Passante.
However, as the band became more and more in demand, the four boys recruited two other members.
“I kind of got dragged through the mud,” said Vivas. “I started playing with them at assemblies.”
DeBrasi, the other new recruit in the band, found performing fun and didn’t mind joining the others.
“It is just an unbelievable feeling when you play in front of people and they like it,” said DeBrasi. Since November, the boys have not been able to slow down.
Besides the performance at Hudson Hall, the band performed with the school’s Jazz Ensemble in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City, and are looking forward to performances at the High School Jazz Band Festival at New Jersey City University in Jersey City in April, two spring concerts, the Hudson County Teen Arts Festival and a performance at Dorney Park in Pennsylvania in May.
“They are learning how to be musicians now,” said Osnowitz.
Meet the band
“That was a young joke,” said Carrion after the performance at Hudson Hall, about asking the senior citizens if they had any upcoming sweet 16 parties that they could play for.
While Carrion is definitely the more vocal member of the band, all six members agree that there isn’t just one leader among them.
Carrion began playing the saxophone and flute nine years ago and now plays four different saxophones, the bass clarinet, flute and the percussion instruments.
Lopez said that a substitute music teacher introduced Lopez to the music of John Coltrane in the seventh grade, which sparked his love for jazz.
“Every type of music is derived from jazz,” said Lopez.
Lopez has been playing the alto saxophone since he was in the fourth grade and can also play tenor and a little drums.
Ariel said that he taught himself how to play the drums when he was in the fifth grade.
“[My teachers] just put the drum set out there and told me to play,” said Grave dePeralta.
Duque, who said that he is much better on the piano then he is on the bass guitar, also plays the tuba in the school’s marching band.
“Just kind of slid in there,” said Duque about learning to play the guitar.
DeBrasi, the only senior in the group of juniors, only began playing his freshman year and only joined the school’s jazz ensemble last year.
Vivas was introduced to jazz in the fourth grade when he heard a Louis Armstrong CD.
“I tried to get a[school] band together in grammar school, but it didn’t work,” said Vivas. “I was the only one that kept showing up.”