By Petra Chesner
Schiatter
    Frank Mazzeo shares his love for smooth jazz with his students on a regular basis. And his passion for the sound literally rubs off on the teen-agers, who he teaches, both inside the classroom and for special occasions like international competitions.
His Pennsbury Concert Jazz Band competed last month in the 37th annual National High School Competition, called The Next Generation Festival in Monterey, California. The youths brought recognition back home to Pennsbury by placing fourth place out of 12 in the jazz competition (March 22-25), which included bands from the U.S., Australia and Japan. More than 200 bands auditioned for the competition. “I am always proud of our students here in the instrumental music de.partment at Pennsbury High School simply because of the outstanding young men and women that they are,” Mazzeo said. “The Pennsbury Concert Jazz Band students are the hardest working students in Pennsbury High School — they play in our marching band, school shows, concert bands, community performances, rehearse everyday after school and on Saturday mornings.”
Accompanying the band to Monterey was Bill Katz, administrative principal at Pennsbury High School. He has gone on a couple trips with the high school’s marching band, including Paris and Hawaii. However, Katz said, “that’s with 200 students and a bunch of chaperones. This was much more relaxed. They were excellent.
“In this Next Generation Jazz Festival,” Katz continued, “only the top high schools i’n the nation were invited. We were the last school invited. The top three got some special awards, but they were schools that actually have a jazz band class and work on it all year.
“Our jazz band is an extra curricular activity like marching band,” the principal said. “We don’t get started until December. We finished fourth out of 12 schools and the kids were exceptional — they just did an exceptional job. “I was watching our band come out,” Katz said. “They played maybe one or two notes and a woman sitting next to me turned and said, “Wow! !“ — They were that impressive. Katz who is retiring this summer, has spent the last 16 years of his 35 years in education as principal at Pennsbury High School. He has been with Pennsbury for a total of 25 years. Before Pennsbury, he was an educator for 10 years in Bristol Township.
Pennsbury school district CEO Paul Long also traveled with the Concert Jazz Band to the Monterey Jazz Festival in California. The Pennsbury Concert Jazz Band (PCJB) performed March 15 to an appreciative audience before the regularly scheduled school board meeting. The PCJB issues a regular newsletter, which board members receive, called “Street Beat.”
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Meanwhile, Mazzeo said the hard work really paid off: “I was very proud of our high school instruinental music program to compete against almost 200 bands from Japan, Australia, the United States as well as against six strong Arts Magnet schools and to have a public school program from Pennsbury come in fourth place over all! -
“It says a lot for our students’ work ethic and determination, the administration, school board, the booster organization, our program and the community,” Mazzeo said.
Debbie Alleva of Lower Makefield Township is president of the Pennsbury Instrumental Music Boosters. “I think the students had a great time,” she said. “I was really proud of their performance. They were awesome,” she said.
In his office after school as his music students practiced outside in the music rooms, Mazzeo played a recording of the jazz band, which is complete with the judges’ comments recorded with the sound track.
“I like these songs,” Alleva said. “I’ve been listening (to the tape). I like the sound. It does get you moving. The more you listen to it, the more you understand it.”
Among the students, who performed in Monterey, were David Sabogal, Rachel Lecavalier, Lucas Ottaggio and Ryan Metzler. All are seniors, who are 18, and live in Yardley. Lucas Ottaggio, said:
“We played our usual three,” he said in a round- table interview with the Yardley News. Those numbers are: Cherry Juice, and Three and One, both by Thad Jones; and A Game of Inches by Gordon Goodwin.
“I enjoyed the experience of playing in a Monterey convention center and sightseeing. We saw Alcatraz and all of San Francisco,” Lucas said.
Rachel Lecavalier said:
“We also saw new parts of the country and we had warm weather during the winter,” Rachel noted.
Ryan Metzler said: “I really enjoyed being able to play in front of the judges and hearing what they had to say about our band.”
David Sabogal said:
“The best part was seeing and meeting other bands, and hearing how they played and their style in comparison to how we play.” Jazz Band students who performed in the festival are: Matt Adler, Jake Antoniello, Patrick Bailey, Rich Beem, Jr., Sawyer Bernath, Pam Carmasine, Kayla Chapman, Marc Diretto, Eric Dorr, Seth Dowdell, Zach Drummond, David Gibbon, Steve Harpine, Julian Hierschbuam, Lecavalier, Metzler, Ottagio and Sabogal.