Scholarship Competition 2016
The Jazz Society and guests were treated to a scholarship competition composed of students from UCSB and SBCC. Dubbed, “The Jazz Stars of Tomorrow”, the contestants showed up ready to play….and play they did! Picking only two winners was a tough assignment for judges Peter Clark, Sandy Cummings, and Ian Bernard, all musicians and members of the Santa Barbara Jazz Society Board. The students were a talented bunch of kids but in the end the first place scholarship award of $1000 went to bassist, Kevin Hackimi who’s played “Tricotism” and the second place $500 went to vocalist Cambria Metzinger singing “Summertime”. The other eight finalists each were awarded $100. A trio of veteran musicians, Ian Bernard – piano, Brendon Statom – bass, and Kevin Winard on drums backed up the contestants.
The afternoon started off with a great arrangement of “One Note Samba” performed by the Eclectic Jass Orchestra, an eclectic group under the direction of Chuck Wood from SBCC. After a couple other instrumentals, the band’s four member jazz vocal group performed a delightful Gershwin medley. It was an afternoon of a lot of good music and made us feel that jazz is definitely in good hands with both the young and the young at heart.