Cooper Middle School strikes right note again at Jazz in the Meadows

A milestone quietly passed last month when students from Cooper Middle School in Buffalo Grove were crowned the top junior high band at the Jazz in the Meadows Festival in Rolling Meadows.

It was their fifth title in a row, and 13th overall since Rolling Meadows High School began holding the event.

"It's the old adage, that success breeds success," says Brian Logan, Wheeling High School band director, whose jazz band won the overall grand champion title.

"Cooper has had a great jazz program for a long time, with outstanding leadership at the top," Logan adds, "and a group of parents that really value arts education and quality music educators."

And Logan should know. His son, Mac Logan, plays bass guitar in the band and was named the outstanding soloist for the entire junior high division, or 13 bands and nearly 300 students.

Director Cindy Severino has led Cooper's jazz band for the last three years, after inheriting the program from Jack Major. It is one of two jazz bands in the school, with an ensemble made up of mostly sixth-graders serving as their entry-level group.

"Students can start in a jazz band right when they get here, in sixth grade," Severino says. "That's where they gain an understanding of the style of jazz and how to play it and improvise."

The band she leads is more advanced, with more soloists and improvising going on, she adds.

At Jazz in the Meadows, the band played three swing tunes, including a gospel tune, called "Sermon," that capped their 30-minute set.

"They have very good attention to detail," Logan says. "They have a good rhythm section, excellent soloists, all the winds are making good sounds. They just have all their bases covered, which is what you need to win a competition like this."

Severino believes strongly in the value of such competitions, she says. The school's concert band recently competed in the Illinois Grade School Music Association's solo and ensemble contest in Gurnee, and received perfect scores from two of the three judges.

Next month, concert band members head to Illinois State University in Normal for a junior high school band festival, while the jazz band will compete on May 2 at a contest in Gurnee.

"Competitions serve to motivate the kids," Severino says. "It creates camaraderie within the group, as well as a certain energy."

There must be a lot of energy around the hallways at Cooper. Of its 700 students, more than 250 of them are involved in music, between the school's jazz bands, concert band and orchestra program.

School officials take so much pride in the music program at Cooper that they have a link on the school's Web site that lets visitors "hear the Cooper band."

Check it out, at: www.cooper.ccsd21.org.