There was nowhere else to climb standing on the top of the world

Just received word from my friend Dave Hagedorn that the St. Olaf College Jazz I, the band he directs at the wonderful Northfield, Minnesota college, just received downbeat magazine's "Best Large Undergraduate Jazz Ensemble" award! 

If you've read my blog for awhile you'll know that I have a connection with St. Olaf, not as an alum but as a resident with Dave and Jazz I as well as with the St. Olaf Band, in which each visit I was commissioned to write pieces for each ensemble (for jazz band, Seeker in 2005 and an arrangement of Race in 2009; for the St. Olaf band, The Long Now in 2009). The award speaks well to the incredible instruction and to the musicianship Dave, Phil Hey, and Laura Caviani instill in the students, not to mention the quality of instruction in the other teachers at the St. Olaf Department of Music. Each of my visits was a fabulous time and Dave and the students were wonderful. I am extremely pleased to read that they won this highly competitive and well-deserved award and humbled that I was cited in the article as an influence. 

Congratulations to Dave and the St. Olaf Jazz I!!!

POSTED BY NUMINOUS AT 8:50 PM 

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