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SUNSET JAZZ PRESENTS JOINES AND THE CHS COMBO

April 22, 2003 – April's Sunset Jazz in Frederiksted this Friday will feature trumpeter Stan Joines with the Central High School Jazz Combo.
Now, lest those words "high school" prompt any jazz fans to consider staying home with their favorite CD's instead of heading for Strand Street, let's start off with some facts and figures here.
Joines has taught in the CHS Music Department for 12 years. In 1996, under his direction, the school's concert and jazz bands took part in the Spectrum Fiesta-Val band competition in Atlanta. Both groups received a Superior rating — and came in second in their respective categories in the overall competition.
In 2000, Joines took both bands to a competition at Disney World in Orlando, where, again, each finished No. 2 in category overall.
Last year, he took the jazz band back to Atlanta for the 2002 Spectrum Fiesta-Val competition. It came home with another Superior rating — and Grand Champion honors.
The CHS Jazz Combo currently consists of Wayne Christian on tenor saxophone, Rufino Morales on alto sax and percussion, Michael Tyson on keyboard, Andrew Brady on bass, Emilio Edwards on drums, and Alejandro Quinones on percussion. The ensemble performs some 60 to 70 engagements a year, including concerts, club dates, charity events, conventions, private parties, weddings and a regular Friday night gig at the Lobster Reef Café in La Vallee.
It shouldn't be surprising that with their combination of training and professional experience, Central High music students have an enviable track record of acceptance into the nation's finest college music programs, often on scholarship.
So, expect the coolest and the hottest of jazz Friday at the concert presented by the Frederiksted Economic Development Association. The two-hour program will start at 5:30 p.m. in Veterans Park on the waterfront. Families are encouraged to attend, and the organizers suggest bringing folding chairs or blankets to sit on.
Admission is free, and that includes the sunset as well as the jazz. FEDA will be operating a cash bar, and Hispanos Unidos will have food for sale.
Joines was introduced to jazz by his high school teachers in Macon, Georgia, which is located smack-dab in the middle of the state, about a hundred miles south of Atlanta. "Macon isn't exactly a jazz mecca," he muses, "so the jazz recordings they turned me on to were the greatest things for me at the time." He cites Freddie Hubbard, Doc Severinsen and Miles Davis as early influences.
Joines is a graduate of Mercer University in Macon. He also got some memorable hands-on experience in Macon — sitting in at jam sessions with members of the Almond Brothers band ("Ramblin' Man"). "We didn't play their record tunes," he recalls. "We would play 'Green Dolphin Street' and straight-ahead tunes like that."
Looking straight ahead on the Sunset Jazz calendar, May's concert, on the 16th, will feature the program's first St. John import, steelpan artist Carl Freeman. On June 20, sax man Jack Peterson will be appearing in support of his new CD "Jazz Play," and on July 18, The Caribbean Jazz Quartet will be showcased.
Sunset Jazz takes place on the third Friday of each month. FEDA encourages concertgoers to stay in town and dine out or take in some night life after the concert. For more information, send an e-mail to Sunset Jazz, or call 719-3672.

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