Junior-high Celebration choir brings vocal jazz to New York City

There are 30 of them up there on the risers — 15 boys and 15 girls — wholesome and scrubbed, the girls in high heels and black dresses with red tops peeking through, the guys with pressed black shirts and red neckties.

They're seventh- and eighth-graders, standing up straight and smiling brightly, their mouths rounded into big, wide "O's."

Singing.

Boy, are they singing.

The tune is "Blues for Elise," a jazz adaptation of Beethoven's famous "Bagatelle in A Minor," that lovesick ditty that starts with a slow, swelling accelerando. At one point, the girls sing a line together that sends a little shiver through the room with a texture like soft steel wool. The boys answer with a deeper, stentorian line and then the two lines crisscross, alternating waves. Like Bach. But Bach with a soulful jazz lift and an instrumental back-up quartet. That was the scene last Friday in the recital hall behind the Kennelly Keys music store in Lynnwood, with parents and friends packing the place in folding chairs.

The occasion was a hometown send-off for an extraordinary junior-high-school jazz choir called Celebration. The group was invited to perform at the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) conference, taking place this week in New York. IAJE, the most important national jazz gathering of the year, attracts over 7,000 participants, from professional performers like the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and Joey DeFrancesco to student groups, industry execs and jazz critics nationwide. (Read this jazz critic's report from IAJE next week in Northwest Life).

Celebration is one of several remarkable jazz groups to emerge recently from the unlikely quarters of King's Schools, a cluster of private institutions based in Shoreline. Evangelical Christians are not much known for jazz, yet King's has become a consistent winner at Idaho's Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival competition. This is its first IAJE invitation. Educators sing high praises for King's music teaching couple, Darla and Wayne Pumphrey. So do their students, who are thrilled about going to New York.

"We're going to this really cool restaurant," reported Alexa Rousey, 14, "where you're served by aliens." (That would be Mars 2112, an outer-space-themed Times Square eatery.)

Alexa and her pals were also excited about seeing Ground Zero and "The Lion King" — no surprises there — but the Brooklyn Tabernacle church is also high on her list.

How does it happen that a Christian school is producing some of our best student jazz?

Darla Pumphrey, a flutist who had little jazz background before she and her husband moved to King's from Los Angeles 14 years ago, said she was led to jazz in part by the strong local scene.

"With educators like Frank DeMiero [the now-retired instructor who built the nationally known vocal program at Edmonds Community College], Dave Cross, Kirk Marcie, Ken Kraintz — there was such a legacy."

Drawing on just such community resources, the Pumphreys started taking groups to Hampton 10 years ago. Last year, Wayne's high-school combo and choir snagged the top awards in their division. That same year, Darla's bunch took the junior division choir title and one of her students won the alto solo award. Former King's students Laurie Geyer, Christina Sjoquist and Nathaniel LaNasa are all pursuing successful careers in music.

One advantage the Pumphreys have is continuity. King's runs from preschool to high school, with over 1,000 students. Established by Mike and Vivian Martin in 1950, the schools are lodged in the stately Tudor buildings of the old Firland Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Shoreline, and in an adjacent elementary school acquired from the city. Operated by Crista Ministries (which owns other schools and businesses) the woodsy, 55-acre campus includes a rest home and retirement housing.

The Pumphreys' other leg-up is the community spirit fostered by the school.

"Don't forget to tell helpers 'Thank you,' " admonishes a message on the whiteboard in the portable classroom where Celebration rehearses.

"One of Celebration's big things is helping others," says Pumphrey, a compact, fast-talking woman with seemingly limitless energy. " 'Can I pick up that? Can I help you carry that?' That's kind of who we are."

But Pumphrey's real secrets are the same as those of all great teachers — high expectations and total support.

"If you tell kids they can do anything, they can," she says. "If you tell them they can't, then they'll believe you."

That's clearly how she's gotten these seventh- and eighth-graders to sing four-, five- and six-part harmony on arrangements most high-school teachers wouldn't even try — in tune, mind you, with dramatic dynamics and punctilious attacks and releases.

"She's real intense, real focused," says Kirk Marcie, sitting in on piano at the recital, "but not mean, not dark."

"She can be our friend but also have respect as our director," affirms Alexa.

"And if she looks at us and we're not smiling," adds Kate Watters, 14, "she'll make a funny face to make us laugh."

At IAJE — a showcase of excellence, not a competition — Celebration performs Saturday in a big hotel ballroom in midtown Manhattan.

"I'm a little nervous about performing for all those famous people," admits Alexa.

"Yeah," chimes in Erin Freise, 14, "it's a little scary."

Hey, no worries.

The way you kids sing, it's the jazz choirs from the rest of the country who have something to worry about.

Paul de Barros: 206-464-3247 or pdebarros@seattletimes.com