Rotary Club Benefit

The Valle Verde Rotary Club of Green Valley, Arizona has been sponsoring a program called "Jazz For Fun", a benefit dinner for three area school music groups - The Rio Rico High School Jazz Band, The Great Expectations Jazz Band and the Sahuarita High School Jazz Band.

They sell tickets, obtain underwriting from corporate sponsors, hold a silent auction and sell pizza, beer, wine and soft drinks to its members on this night in which the groups all perform short programs while providing the entertainment for the evening. In years past the club has raised upwards of $5,000 on this night and the proceeds are divided equally among the three music organizations.

Our kids are just happy to play and get free pizza, though some could not attend this year because the event always falls during Rodeo Week, when many of our parents use the two days off to take mini-vacations. And most of the bands were a little shorthanded because of this scheduling issue. Organizers tell me they will work to change the schedule next year.

Our band played a mix of tunes, from new to old. We started with a a brand new funk chart called The Defibrillator, and continued with Don't Know Why, Traces, Shiny Stockings and finished with In the Swing Things, a new chart that is written in an uptempo Glenn Miller style. Each band was asked to have four numbers, which allowed time for set-up, tuning, performance, awards presentation and tear-down for the next group.

All told a very fun night of music and meeting of old friends. All the bands sounded great and at least in this area we know that Jazz Education is alive in our schools. We thank Valle Verde Rotary Club for its dedication to music education and its support of our programs. It is a lot of work to put something like this together and we are so happy to contribute to this program.