Solon High School students Lauren Roskopf, Ethan McLaughlin and Gabe Hinman took their love of jazz to the airwaves Monday, April 25, spending an hour as guest DJs on KCCK-FM, the all-jazz radio station at Kirkwood. 14 schools from across the seven-county area, served by Kirkwood, have or will participate in the Corridor Jazz Guest DJ program which started March 29 and concluded May 2.
Dennis Green, General Manager for KCCK, explained the on-air appearances are part of the Corridor Jazz Project, a mentoring, recording and performance opportunity offered to schools by KCCK since 2008. The program, described by the Iowa Bandmasters Association as, “The crown jewel of jazz education in Iowa,” consists of four parts Green said.
First, a guest artist is chosen by the school’s jazz band director to rehearse and clinic with the school’s top jazz band.
“Some artists come several times, others do just one or two rehearsals, whatever the artist and director agree to,” said Green.
The guest artist and the band perform at a professional recording session. All of the sessions are collected and then distributed on a compilation CD. This year, sessions were also video-recorded and a DVD was released.
The 2022 DVD is available for preorder at KCCK’s website, www.kcck.org. Previous year’s CDs are also available for purchase.
The guest artist and band performed in a joint concert held at the Paramount Theater in March, and the program culminates in representatives from each school invited to guest host on KCCK during Jazz Appreciation Month in April. High school artists are also invited to participate in a contest to determine the cover art for the CD/DVD, Green said.
The program started with eight schools in 2008 and has doubled in size. Solon joined in 2017 at the insistence of the students themselves.
“Mr. (Desmond) Cervantez contacted me at the beginning of the year (’17) saying several of his students had friends at Corridor Jazz Project schools and asked that Solon get involved, too.”
Green praised Cervantez’s creativity in seeking out guest artists.
“Past guests included singer and America’s Top Song participant Alisabeth Von Presley; drummer Josh Duffee, who performs on the trap set he inherited from his teacher and mentor, and former Duke Ellington drummer and Moline native, Louie Bellson. This year, the Solon Jazz Orchestra recorded with saxophonist and KCCK air personality Saul Lubaroff.”
“The Solon Jazz program has enjoyed a long tradition of playing great music, going to competitions, and performing in concert,” said Cervantez. “I was excited to be asked by Dennis Green of KCCK to join the mix of bands who record a track along with a guest artist for the yearly Corridor Jazz Project compilation CD. The CJP is a unique program that you won’t find anywhere else. After the CD is mastered and ready for distribution, the bands and guest artists give a CD release concert. It’s such a huge night of great music where all the bands perform for an audience. There are no judges or competition, just a night of great music and camaraderie between all of the schools involved. My students also really enjoy the opportunity to go to the radio station and be guest DJ’s, and to talk about their school jazz program, as well as their love of jazz music. Dennis Green and staff are great to work with and the CJP is truly a highlight of everyone’s year.”
Roskopf said, “I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to start off each morning playing jazz with some of my best friends. I’ve loved being able to try out new instruments, play fun songs in different styles, and travel to different competitions throughout the year. I’m grateful to have worked with guest artists and record our songs through the Corridor Jazz Project and getting the chance to be on the radio and talk about these experiences with KCCK 88.3.”
“The whole corridor jazz project was the perfect end to the jazz season,” said McLaughlin. “The concert is unlike any performance we have all year. And I was lucky enough to get to go on the radio because of my elite rock paper scissor skills, and that whole experience was everything I could have wanted and more. It was really cool to get to play music I love on the radio, and they even let us play our friend Ian’s music which we didn’t expect to be possible.”
Hinman said, “When we found out three of us were going on the radio, our whole jazz band leapt at the opportunity. It’s only three seniors that get to do it per year and It’s so fun. We picked way more songs than we needed, and actually we ended up sacrificing one song so we could play a friend of our’s song instead. And they let us do that! It was pretty much entirely led by us, from the stories that were told and the music that was played.”
The Corridor Jazz Project is one of the very few high school fine arts programs not interrupted by COVID, said Green.
“The 2020 concert was held (coincidentally, at Solon), less than a week before the pandemic shutdown. In 2021, the program was modified, with audio/video recordings made at each school, and performance videos were streamed last May in a virtual Corridor Jazz Concert.”
KCCK hosts a Jazz band camp this summer in half-day sessions. Campers choose a week-long morning or afternoon camp session held on the Kirkwood campus, in Cedar Rapids. Sessions include jazz combo rehearsals, jazz theory/history classes, master classes and faculty combo performances.
Hinman, a senior, has been involved with KCCK since junior high.
“He came to KCCK’s Middle School Jazz Band Camp and really developed a love of jazz and has become a force in the Solon program,” said Green. “He returned to camp as a student camp counselor last summer, and I think he is planning to do so again this year.”
Students register for either the morning, 8:30 a.m.-noon, or afternoon 1-4:30 p.m. session, which run July 18-22. Tuition is $200 which includes all classes, teaching materials, a daily snack, a Jazz Camp t-shirt and water bottle. Scholarships are awarded to students not otherwise be able to attend camp without tuition help.
Full details and registration information can be found at www.kcck.org/jazzbandcamp/.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Dennis Green • Contributed Photo

Ethan McLaughlin, Gabe Hinman and Lauren Roskopf were guest DJs on Kirkwood’s KCCK-FM Monday, April 25, as part of the Corridor Jazz Guest DJ program, part of the Corridor Jazz Project, a mentoring, recording and performing opportunity offered to schools by KCCK.