released August 28, 2021

When I think back about my first few years teaching at BHS I have no shame in stating that I really had no clue what was ahead The beginning years I attempted to follow the general curriculum of big band music for the ensemble, however I soon struggled to have the correct instrumentation to play the charts. After several attempts of submitting exceptional recordings of full Ellington charts to Essentially Ellington where I doubled parts or changed up instrumentation during the late 90’s and early 2000’s I finally knew what i had to do: I threw the big band wish out the window.This actually in hindsight was a good thing.(25 part 2 will include these gems)

I didn’t go to a high school with a strong music department and the type of jazz that I mostly listened to and enjoyed playing is heavily influenced by the downtown NY scene of the 90’s. I decided to follow their lead and I was lucky enough in the years of 2001-2007 to have exceptional student musicians to help the plan into its fruition. We started arranging songs we liked using the jazz vernacular to execute our ideas. The first song that came out of this experiment was Dedham Mall. This was the first real group arrangement. After that year the ensembles became more student driven and instrumentation started to include violins, violas, accordion, banjos etc.

This first curated collection of songs represent the years from2003-2019and as the ensembles changed so did the name of the group..what began as BHS Jazz Band- became Creativehighschoolmusic-and finally the current The BHS Music collective.

These compositions are a collection of what ensemble members will fondly remember as the group arrangement tune. We start the process where everyone plays a song they think would be a good selection for group work with. We then have multiple votes and discussions to find the perfect fit. Sometimes we find a song and it doesn’t quite work; such was the case during the 17/18 year where whatever we were working on was not really developing and one day I was playing Supertramp on the PA and everyone liked Goodbye Stranger and that song then came together seamlessly.

The most important life lesson in all of this is the work of collaboration and being creative; also encouraging trial and error and seeing what comes of that. In fact that was the inspiration for the title ..Just Run It! I say that often when in the process!

I listened back to these arrangements while compiling the collection and I am so proud of the work and music presented here. IT is really good!! I dare say that you will forget that you are listening to a group of high school students.

I also would like to dedicate this collection to David Whipple, an important member during these formative years who suddenly passed away in 2019.

I hope you enjoy these tunes as much as I do and thank you to every single music collective member that has spent many days in the band room and on the couches. You all are the best things ever.

Part 2 of 25 will be out soon and will include music from 2000-2003 as well so stay tuned!
carolyn(August 2021)