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Canadian High School Band Gets Close Look at KCKCC Jazz

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Alan Hoskins, Supervisor of Public Information
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
College Advancement

Classmates all through grade and high school in Winnipeg, Canada, Dakota Collegiate High School Jazz Band Director Darren Ritchie (left) and KCKCC Jazz Band Director Jim Mair were reunited during the Dakota band’s educational jazz excursion to Kansas City. (KCKCC Photo by Alan Hoskins) Darren Ritchie (far right), the Director of the Dakota Collegiate High School Jazz Band from Winnipeg, Canada, joined the KCKCC Jazz Band and Director Jim Mair (foreground) with his trumpet during a joint rehearsal of the two bands. (KCKCC Photo by Alan Hoskins)

Sixty-nine students from Dakota Collegiate High School in Winnipeg, Ontario, Canada, are getting an up close and personal look at Kansas City Jazz this week.

“It’s all because of Jim Mair,” said Dakota Collegiate Jazz Band Director Darren Ritchie. The Jazz Band director at Kansas City Kansas Community College, Mair and Ritchie grew up together while learning their respective musical talents on the saxophone and trumpet.

The Dakota band joined with the KCKCC Jazz Band in rehearsals Wednesday, both performing and observing. While in Kansas City, the Dakota band will be performing at Turner and SM Northwest high schools and will play at 7:25 p.m. Friday prior to the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra’s concert at the Folly Theatre. In addition, it took part in a clinic at UMKC Tuesday and will visit the Kansas City Jazz Museum and The Legends and be quartered one night at the Great Wolf Lodge.

“When Jim told me he could get us tickets to hear the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, that was all it took,” said Ritchie. “Kansas City Jazz is what it’s all about.”

 
 
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