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Sisters, Oregon
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Coast jazz musicians coming
By Tom Chace

They'll arrive in 15 mini-vans. They will sleep on the new middle school gym floor. They are twenty 13-to-18-year-olds who will play in the Sisters Jazz Festival this weekend, September 13-15.

This group of 20 teenagers are the top players out of a total contingent of 150-175 jazz musicians in the acclaimed Oregon Coast Lab Band.

They will arrive here with their entourage of 20 parents, who will also sleep on the gym floor, and their founder and leader, Greg Young.

"We just came back from the Sacramento Jazz Festival, the largest on the West Coast, where a panel of experts gave us perfect scores in seven out of our eight sets," Young said. "On the one we missed getting a perfect score, we still got 17 out of a maximum of 20 points. That has not happened before at that festival."

The band, which will perform seven sets during their three days in Sisters, is the senior band, the best-of- the-best from the Oregon Coast Lab group, called "Evolution."

"The 'Lab' part of our name came because 11 years ago we started this thing with three students as an experiment, a laboratory," Young said.

He said that the name stuck even though they had 30 kids after three years, split that group and then grew to 70 three years later.

"Now we have over 150 making up six different youth bands," Young said.

One of the bands is made up of fourth and fifth graders and called "The Diminished Minors."

"We also have an adult band. They play awfully, but they have a lot of fun. That's what this is all about, having fun. What other activity can you learn and have fun with at age 15 and still enjoy doing at age 65?" Young said.

The Evolution Band has about 45 songs in their repertoire and will play "what I feel the audience wants to hear," Young said.

"In Sisters you'll probably hear us do a variety of tunes from 'In the Mood,' to Louis Armstrong's 'Kiss of Fire.' We'll play Benny Goodman's 'Sing, Sing, Sing," a real crowd pleaser, a number of times. We'll also do Louis Prima's 'Just a Gigolo,' 'Pennsylvania 6-5-000,' 'Misty,' and maybe even 'Rock Around the Clock.'

"We can do it all. These kids are so good and so special," Young said.

They come from all over the Reedsport School District, even from Powers, 1-1/2 hours away from the rehearsal hall.

"We rehearse two hours a day, four hours on Sunday, three or four days a week," Young said.

"We insist that among our students there be no drinking, no smoking and the older members must mentor the new ones coming into the band. All have to be enrolled in school."

Young said he started this band 11 years ago when he and his wife, Patti, who also travels with the band, bought a music store in North Bend. They had rehearsals in their store until they outgrew the space.

"We got a phone call three years ago on New Year's Eve from a man who handed us an envelope with the keys, title and deed to a 2,200-square-foot downtown building that he gave to us for our rehearsal hall. He insists to this day that he remain anonymous."

In addition to teaching how to play music, Young teaches his student-players music theory and music history.

"Jazz is an American art form and we need to learn about it in order to preserve it," he said.

On Friday, September 12, they will play at 2 p.m. at the Mountain Shadow RV Park and 6:15 p.m. at Sisters Elementary School.

On Saturday they play four sessions: 9 a.m. at the RV Park, 12:45 at Sisters Village Green, 3:45 p.m. at the elementary school, and 8 p.m. again at the RV Park. On Sunday the band will follow the free 9 a.m. Gospel Hour, playing at 10:15 a.m. at the Village Green venue.

For more information visit www.labband.com.

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