Jazz trio entertains SHS student body

The Ben Darwish Trio stopped by Sisters High School last Friday afternoon to perform in concert. Their down-to-earth style made it easy for students to relate.

"We're just three guys playing jazz," said the group's percussionist Jason Palmer.

Joining Palmer were University of Oregon Music School trained musicians Zach Wallmark, on bass, and Ben Darwish, on piano. The high school's band director Jody Henderson first heard the trio when they played in Bend last November.

"I just thought that they were playing things that would really appeal to younger people," said Henderson. "We're so lucky that our faculty here and our administration (are) really good about being open to hosting things like this for a school assembly. It really makes our school different..."

Henderson told The Nugget that the high school students know quality, which is another reason he wanted to bring Darwish's trio to the school. Henderson attributes the students' appreciation of quality to the high caliber of acts that both the jazz and folk festivals have brought to the school through the years.

"I'm not saying that they're unappreciative of anybody that gets on that stage ... but we've been fortunate to have been able to introduce some real quality acts to our kids."

Darwish, the group's leader, writes some of the music the trio plays. "What I've done is taken the traditional piano trio in a jazz setting and written my own music within influences from more modern, popular music. ... We've also taken tunes that you wouldn't normally hear in a piano trio and played covers of them," Darwish said.

The group plays covers of groups and artists such as Green Day, Nirvana and Christina Aguilera songs.

After playing some early jazz sounds, the group took some popular music of today and played it as jazz.

"The rhythmic fields were based on music that kids can dance to today. We played some Hip Hop type grooves, some Rock kind of grooves, some more Techno, drum and bass kind of Electronica. All those rhythms that are popular for kids today, we played jazz based on that," Palmer said.

By relating jazz to the music of the day, it is hoped that students will become more interested in the genre.

Palmer told The Nugget that the students were extremely receptive.

"That makes such a difference for us to have a good audience to play for," he said.

Palmer graduated last year from the University of Oregon School of Music with a Master's Degree in Jazz Studies and now spends his time performing and teaching privately and at clinics and Umpqua Community College. Darwish is completing his bachelor's degree, and Wallmark is working on his master's degree in Music Theory.

When in Sisters in the fall, Palmer worked with students on percussion techniques.

"I taught a bunch of drum set lessons for the high school kids here and also in Bend. ... That trip was about jazz education and drum set education," Palmer said.

Once Palmer, Wallmark and Darwish joined forces, Palmer wanted to organize a concert for Sisters High School students. While on their stop over at the high school, the trio also gave piano, bass and drum lessons to the school's band students.