{"id":10042,"date":"2026-03-06T13:21:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/?p=10042"},"modified":"2026-08-30T19:04:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T02:04:29","slug":"vegas-valley-students-learn-the-joi-of-jazz-scat-and-the-first-lady-of-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/vegas-valley-students-learn-the-joi-of-jazz-scat-and-the-first-lady-of-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegas Valley Students Learn the \u201cJoi\u201d of Jazz, Scat and the First Lady of Song"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Camille Thurman (L) with Clint Holmes (R)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Vegas Valley Students Learn the \u201cJoi\u201d of Jazz, Scat and the First Lady of Song<\/h1>\n

By Stacey Gualandi<\/p>\n<\/div>

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I have never seen - nor heard - so many young (jazz) hands clapping with such appreciation as I did during Jazz Outreach Initiative\u2019s (JOI) \u201cJazz for Young People\u201d Concerts at Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center!<\/p>\n

Over three thousand enthusiastic students from the Clark County School District were bussed in to experience two back-to-back performances with the acclaimed Jazz Vegas Orchestra and world-renowned saxophonist and vocalist Camille Thurman.\u00a0 She definitely answered this year\u2019s theme, \u201cWho is Ella Fitzgerald?\u201d and then some.<\/p>\n

From Bebop to Improv to Scat, these up-and-coming jazz lovers quickly got into the swing of the First Lady of Song\u2019s life story.<\/p>\n

Thurman, glowing in her gold satin\/silk gown, brought the late Ella Fitzgerald to life by transporting the audience through the legendary improv virtuoso\u2019s first jazz hit \u201cA-Tisket, A-Tasket,\u201d to making bebop history with \u201cHow High the Moon,\u201d to her pinnacle scat style with Louis Armstrong.<\/p>\n

To my excitement, celebrated singer Clint Holmes shared the stage with Thurman for a rousing duet from Gershwin\u2019s Porgy and Bess<\/em> from the Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong collaboration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI measure our success by the smiles, and I see a lot of smiles at everything we do,\u201d said JOI Executive Director Donny Thompson. \u201cIt just tells me that we're doing something right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson said this is the second year of the program hosted by Channel 8\u2019s Nathan Tannenbaum (who joined the orchestra on flute!), thanks to JOI\u2019s outstanding partnership with The Smith Center\u2019s education and outreach division.<\/p>\n

\u201cJazz for Young People\u201d Concerts are licensed to JOI through Jazz at Lincoln Center, which hosts its own Jazz for Young People Concerts across the globe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was always our dream to do this the way that Jazz Lincoln Center does: by bussing all the kids in. We just lacked the ability to do that until this relationship with the Smith Center, which also sponsors our \u2018Swingin\u2019 Strings\u2019 program that we just launched this semester, and the \u2018Buzzin\u2019 in Brass\u2019 program that we've been doing for several years,\u201d said Thompson. \u201cThose folks are just so behind us on everything that we're doing. It's just a wonderful partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hour-long concert covered a lot of territory, and plans include introducing future youth audiences to jazz greats Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, we really want students to take away an understanding that jazz is truly America's original art form and that there's history behind it and that a lot of the jazz history follows the history of the United States of America in all of its ups and downs,\u201d said Thompson.<\/p>\n

Not only did all of these students walk away from the free experience with a new appreciation for jazz, but I learned so much, too!\u00a0 (Who knew Marilyn Monroe was such a huge friend to Ms. Fitzgerald?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t!!)<\/p>\n

For Thompson, the opportunity to teach jazz brings endless rewards.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy other jobs that I've had feed my family; Jazz Outreach Initiative\u2019s mission feeds my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now YOU can win the ultimate jazz fan experience through JOI\u2019s online raffle! A trip for 2 to Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in Chicago! It includes airfare, hotel, concert and backstage meet-and-greet!<\/p>\n

Just go to: https:\/\/www.jazzoutreachinitiative.org\/give<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

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I have never seen - nor heard - so many young (jazz) hands clapping with such appreciation as I did during Jazz Outreach Initiative\u2019s (JOI) \u201cJazz for Young People\u201d Concerts at Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center! Over three thousand enthusiastic students from the Clark County School District were bussed in to experience two back-to-back performances with the acclaimed Jazz Vegas Orchestra and world-renowned saxophonist and vocalist Camille Thurman.\u00a0 She definitely answered this year\u2019s theme, \u201cWho is Ella Fitzgerald?\u201d and then some.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4522,2360],"tags":[4431,228,3881,3880,3988,267,3307,2788,3436],"class_list":["post-10042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-blog","tag-camille-thurman","tag-jazz","tag-jazz-outreach-intiative","tag-joi","tag-joi-jazz-orchestra","tag-las-vegas","tag-smith-center","tag-the-smith-center","tag-the-smith-center-for-the-performing-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10042"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10908,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10042\/revisions\/10908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}