On a cold but bright November morning, five musicians arrived at The Nave in Stanningley, Leeds ready to bring Jazz North’s ‘Playlist project’ to life. Led by Learning and Participation project manager Helena Summerfield (alto sax) the band also featured stalwarts of the Northern jazz scene Aaron Wood (trumpet) Graham Maynard (keys), Hamlet Luton (bass) and Caroline Boaden (drums).

Jazz North’s ‘Playlist project’ is an active listening scheme of work for Key Stage 2 children. It was inspired by a viral Facebook video where a classroom of primary school children in Maryland, USA could be seen having fun singing along to Miles Davis’ tune Milestones. At Jazz North we believe that jazz is a music of communication and is for everyone. Using Milestones as our starting point, we curated a playlist of 5 seminal jazz tracks and designed a range of associated activities to encourage children to listen, explore and create. Our ‘Playlist project’ tasks only use vocal and body percussion so that they are accessible to all and not dependent on school resources.

The Nave is a three studio complex built into a converted 19th century Methodist church. It was conceived by 3 friends and producers Matt Peel, Andy Hawkins & Nick Baines and opened in 2014. The studios were designed to be relaxed, creative spaces and have quickly become a home for other resident producers and audio technicians in Leeds, forming a mini musical community. We were filming in Studio 1 which was the perfect location for our video, the two-story high live room creating an amazing acoustic with natural light flooding in from the large, original church windows. Our sound engineer Tom Orrell made us feel at home as he took command of the control room which was based around an impressive 40 channel / 80 input Amek Rembrandt desk w/Supertrue automation.

The first part of the day was spent setting up the studio space with video cameras, microphones and lighting whilst the band rehearsed. Jazz North’s media team included Megan and Molly, two A-level photography and media students on work experience placements. They were delighted to gain hands-on experience of filming and documenting the day. Although pre-recorded, the show captures the energy of a live performance with interactive elements for the children to join in with from their classrooms. After lunch it was time to start filming and soon, in the words of the film industry, the show was in the can.

Helena said “It was such a pleasure to work with this team of top musicians. We understand that for some children watching the show will be their first experience of seeing a jazz band perform and we hope that they will feel inspired and want to hear more live music as a result”.

Once edited the Playlist project video will be added to Jazz North’s bank of free learning resources for music educators that was launched last month. You can access the ‘Playlist project’ scheme of work and Jazz North’s learning resources here:

https://www.jazznorth.org/learning-resources-area

If you are a teacher interested in finding out more about the ‘Playlist Project’ and Jazz North’s learning offer email helena@jazznorth.org

Photographs by Molly Summerfield

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