This year ‘Jazz for a Cause’ will support Hands On Hartford at the concert scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 3.

By Lori Beste

The award-winning, Hall High Jazz Bands, along with King Philip and Bristow Jazz Bands, will offer a free concert to benefit Hands On Hartford on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024 at the Hall High School auditorium at 975 North Main Street in West Hartford.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; the concert will start at 7 p.m. Cash and online donations will be accepted at the door.

For almost 10 years, Hall’s Concert Jazz Band has organized Jazz for a Cause, a fall concert that benefits a nonprofit organization. This year’s students wanted to choose an agency that had local roots and that helped with homelessness, affordable housing, and food insecurity because some band members had volunteered with organizations that address those problems. They also discussed choosing an organization in Hartford because they feel a connection to the city.

Most students have performed in Hartford at the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz as well as on open mic nights at Black-Eyed Sally’s and Parkville Market among other places. With those thoughts in mind, Chloe Madrak, tenor saxophonist and senior in Hall’s Concert Jazz Band, nominated Hands On Hartford, a social service nonprofit organization which works to improve the lives of Hartford’s most economically challenged residents.

Hands On Hartford is one of the oldest nonprofits serving the Hartford community. Originally founded 55 years ago, it has grown and adapted to the needs of the people it serves and the commitment of its volunteers and donors. The part of its mission that states its intention to “change lives and renew human possibility” applies both to its clients and volunteers. Gather55 (a community participation-model restaurant with a pay-what-you-can philosophy), the MANNA Community Pantry, and the Backpack Nutrition Program for children provide meals and groceries to individuals and families facing food insecurity. Hands On Hartford also offers a number of programs that assist people experiencing a housing crisis, often complicated by medical needs or unemployment. In addition, the Neighborhood Services Program works with clients to address problems before they become critical and chronic. It helps people with funding for security deposits, utility bills, rental assistance; and referrals for medical and dental resources, training and employment opportunity assistance, nutrition education and health screenings. In 2016, the agency moved to its new location in the Parkville neighborhood where all of its offices and services are offered in one building. This new expansive location has also allowed Hands On Hartford to further expand its reach and develop a shared-use kitchen that can be used by culinary entrepreneurs who participate as Shared Kitchen Members.

The legacy of musicians giving back to the community is something students learn from the professional jazz musicians who come to teach them at Hall. When asked about the reasons students choose to do a benefit concert for another organization, instead of fundraising for the jazz program and their travel expenses, Madrak commented, “We have so many other opportunities to raise money for our own endeavors throughout the year, and we’re especially lucky to live in a district where the arts program is well supported financially. This concert is special because really it’s the only time where we get to give back to the community.”

Senior trombonist, Bradley Crocker concurred, “Hall is very fortunate to have the resources we do, so we want to give back to the greater Hartford community.” Jazz for a Cause gives students a chance to put all that they are learning into action.

The opportunity to hear Hall High School’s jazz bands is not to be missed. Last year’s Hall Concert Jazz Band won several DownBeat Student Music awards (considered the most prestigious awards in jazz education) and also won at the Charles Mingus High School competition for “Best Big Band” and for “Outstanding Brass and Rhythm Sections.” Several individual students also won awards.

Although students practice and perform year-round, this concert and the upcoming competitions launch them into an intense practice schedule as a new ensemble each school year. Madrak commented, “It can get busy as we are simultaneously preparing our competition repertoire for recording sessions, but it all pays off in the end.” A motivating factor in their practicing is an awareness of the work and dedication of Hall’s previous generations of jazz students who have won competitions and who go on to have successful professional careers. Of this impact, Madrak said, “I think one of the things that has made the groups so great, year after year, is that each and every one of us in the jazz ensembles understands the history and lineage of the program.”

Building that awareness of lineage begins with the students of different grades performing together throughout the year. This benefit concert will be the first public concert for this school year and includes all of West Hartford’s Hall district jazz bands, which are led by band directors Philip Giampietro at Hall High School, Nathan Edwards at King Philip Middle School, and Jesus Cortes-Sanchez at Bristow Middle School.

Madrak can recall how memorable Jazz for a Cause can be for a middle school student and knows others in the band who share that view. “This benefit concert is very special to us,” she said, “because for many of us, it was one of the first jazz concerts we performed here in West Hartford.” The Jazz for a Cause program enables the audience to hear the emerging talent in this year’s middle school musicians and then hear how that talent can grow by the time they are seniors in high school.

Admission is free, but students ask that you make a donation to Hands On Hartford either at the door in cash or online at https://pnj.ludus.com/donate.php. Please come out to show your support for these young people as they strive to give back to the community through their music.

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