WATCH: Groove and Grammys join on the jazz stage

For Charly Reed, jazz is the rebel form of classical music.

It’s off beat and has “a groove and a half.” A fitting appreciation from someone who, like himself, is classically trained.

“It’s just so amazing to play,” he told Kelowna10. The Grade 12 student plays tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, as well as piano and a hint of guitar.

Reed was one of about 50 students who took the stage alongside Kim Nazarian, a member of the Grammy Award-winning jazz vocal ensemble, New York Voices.

The night of swing tunes, ballads, Latin songs, and solos was a release of two years of pent-up musical energy for Kelowna Secondary School’s Vocal Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Band.

And returning to public performances means everything to musical director, Sheila French.

“We are performers,” she said. “We love music, and everything we’ve done in the classroom has been fantastic, despite the situation, but we were dying to come out and play for everyone. It’s what feeds us.”

This notion is shared by Nazarian, who hoped to inspire and set an example for the performing pupils, showing them that if they want to pursue a career in jazz, it is possible to do so.

And that career can have longevity thanks to jazz being, what she described as, an expansive and free art form.

“You never stop learning this idiom, this genre of music, because there’s always something new happening,” she said. “It satisfies my soul. It satisfies my brain. It satisfies my ears. It satisfies my heart, because it is such an inclusive art form and there are so many levels of it, so much to learn.”

Turning people onto jazz is equally as exciting for Nazarian. Student concerts, she said, can draw novice jazz audiences.

“And when they come to one of these concerts and they go, ‘wow. I never thought I’d like jazz,’ and they like it, then it’s one more star in the sky for me when you get another jazz lover,” she said.

Nazarian applauded the efforts of the students, saying they are incredibly lucky to be part of an elevated and sophisticated program, making music at a college level.