Street Jazz Weekend with Steve Thompson and St Dunstan’s College London

3rd-5th May 2019

Steve Thompson arrived in Jersey for a weekend residency at Chateau Vermont bringing with him 10 of his students from St Dunstan’s College, London along with their Director of music Dominic Oldfield for a Street Jazz weekend project.

14 local JAM students joined forces with our guests to form a Street Jazz band. The students integrated well from the off set for a long but fulfilling day. From 9-5pm the students were incredible at taking on the task of sight reading 7 new pieces  – all with the added pressure of performing them twice the following day! Thanks to Steve’s fantastic arranging of some great pieces including It must be love, Disco 2000 & Rolling in the deep by Adele, this made the job somewhat easier – all of the students rose to the challenge and played fantastically! Sectionals followed lunch before the band came back together to perform the pieces through – they’d done so well there was even time for a game of rounders on the lawn!

On Sunday the students met at the Chateau first thing for a final rehearsal before being bused down to the Jersey International Boat Show’s main stage in Weighbridge Square for their first performance at 12. After an hour for lunch & a chance to soak up the atmosphere, they reconvened to play another great set in a more street and busking style second performance in Liberation Square.

Our visitors then went bowling & had a Thai meal before being dropped up to the airport  – tired out but with feedback from Steve that they had really enjoyed their weekend here! Let’s hope we can do it all again next year! A big thanks to all the staff and students for making the weekend such a success!

 

In the meantime Steve will be returning to this Summer’s Course where he will be giving individual lessons as well as coaching jazz and other ensembles!