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Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts
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The Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts Jazz Ensemble 1: In the Pocket
by Jack Bowers
Those who argue that young people are learning jazz “by the numbers” and can’t possibly grasp its subtler nuances should listen to this mind-blowing album by Dallas,Texas' Booker T. Washington HSPVA Jazz Combo 1, showcasing incarnations of the sextet from 2001 and ’02. Granted, this isn’t your average garden-variety Jazz Studies program (simply listing its awards would require another page); nevertheless, it does offer proof that high school students (some of them, at least) can not only grasp the fundamentals ...
read moreBooker T. Washington High School for the Performing & Visual Arts: 20th Anniversary
by Jack Bowers
Three brief observations: first, Houston's Booker T. Washington High School has one of the more impressive Jazz ensembles we've heard at that level; second, far too much of its three-disc 20th anniversary chronicle is given over to vocal groups and various smaller combos or else devoted to funky arrangements that haven't weathered the passage of time; and third, good as these young players are, they are easily overshadowed (in '86-87) by one of their own (and the school's best-known alumnus), ...
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