Todd Summers – The Oracle

Gunn jazz bands perform at New Orleans festival

Roy Lao, News Editor — Sun, 31 Mar 2024 00:11:56 +0000

From Feb. 28 to March 4, Gunn’s jazz bands traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana, to perform at the 54th Annual Loyola University Jazz Ensemble Festival. The students also received feedback from jazz professionals and toured the city.

Gunn’s jazz bands include two courses — Jazz Band and Jazz Ensemble Honors — taught by Gunn Jazz Director Shawn McGinn and Gunn Band Director Todd Summers.

According to McGinn, the festival was an important opportunity for his students to grow musically and experience the city in which jazz music originated.

“The festival is a chance to perform for an audience,” he said. “In that audience, there are professional players and teachers who give you feedback on your performance to help make you a better group. New Orleans is very important to the history of jazz music in particular because the original types of jazz came together in New Orleans.”

Percussionist sophomore Brandon Seow was excited when he learned that he had the opportunity to go to New Orleans.

“My initial reaction was coming to terms with the fact that we were actually going to New Orleans,” Seow said. “The place has such a mystical vibe to it, so actually being able to go to the area where jazz started was insane.”

Besides performing for hundreds of audience members, Gunn’s jazz bands were able to tour parts of the city. To McGinn, the most exciting part of the trip was experiencing the daily culture of New Orleans.

“You’ll hear performers playing in all the large cities in the U.S., but none playing jazz music on every corner throughout like in New Orleans,” he said. “It’s very special in that way. You walk down the street and there is live music surrounding you. That’s the kind of world that I want to live (in).”

According to Seow, each day in New Orleans was packed with performances and activities.

“For me, it was an early start every single day, so it was exhausting, but in a good way,” he said. “Some of the highlights, besides being able to explore a beautiful city with my friends, included playing at Loyola University, as well as attending two concerts in Preservation Hall, a very historically rich place, where we were able to listen to and watch some of the best jazz musicians in New Orleans.”

While alto saxophonist sophomore Margaret Beery agrees that touring the city was rewarding, she also appreciated building stronger connections with bandmates.

“My favorite moments outside of performing were ones spent with my friends, whether that was hanging out at the hotel, eating meals or talking on the bus,” she said. “Generally, just getting to know my bandmates better as people.”

Still, there were some setbacks on the travel back. According to Beery, the flight plan back to California was changed due to bad weather. The bands ultimately flew from Louisiana to Orlando, Florida, and then to Las Vegas for an overnight stay before flying home the morning of March 4, a day later than planned.

“It wasn’t very fun in the moment, but I think those little hardships that we had together bonded our group really well,” McGinn said.

According to McGinn, the most important part of the experience was gaining a new perspective both on music and the world.

“(Immersing) yourself in a culture of music that is different than your own is super important to do, because when you engage in the other you get a new perspective,” he said. “Once you understand more than just your little bubble, you see how another way to live might feel.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the jazz bands’ travel delays. The jazz bands’ flight from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Orlando, Florida, was delayed due to incumbent weather. The bands then flew to Las Vegas, Nevada, taking two more flights to Orange County and Oakland. Their bags, however, remained in Las Vegas and were shipped to SFO before being delivered to Gunn on March 5.

Student musicians use performing, composing as form of self-expression: Aidan Roessig

Jessica Wang, Editor-in-Chief — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 20:43:15 +0000

Clashing cymbals, booming drums, a squeaking horn and a voice with an exaggerated drawl: it was all music to his ears. Of all the performances in the classic movie “Mary Poppins,” it was Dick van Dyke’s impressive one-man band that convinced senior Aidan Roessig that music could, in fact, be cool.

Shortly after, he began drum and guitar lessons. Now, Roessig has grown as a musician to both perform and compose, yet he considers himself to be a relatively unknown artist due to his distinct style of music. “It’s instrumental,” he said. “It’s not just metal. It’s not just jazz. It’s a big mix of different styles I listen to. I don’t really set boundaries for myself.”

Accompanying him through his studies are his mentors, both inside and outside of school. “My drum teacher Brad Kaiser pushes me to learn different styles of music,” Roessig said. “That way, I’m versatile and can play for different people.”

As a musician at Gunn, he participates in the jazz “big” band. There, Roessig has drawn inspiration from band teacher Todd Summers. “He’s got a super, super good work ethic,” Roessig said. “He’s a great guy and he makes me actually enjoy doing music at school.”

Music, however, has a demanding schedule. “It’s a big time commitment,” he said. “I know a lot of people think that if you go into music, you’re getting money and not doing much work for it, but it really takes quite a bit of work. Instead of doing two hours of homework, I have to do two hours of practice.” For drums, vigorous playing can even lead to sore arms.

Regardless, he always looks forward to the sessions with just him, his instruments and a world of silence to fill. “It makes everything more enjoyable,” he said. “I’m less stressed because I have something I can go home and do every day. It’s also really rewarding to see myself get better every time I practice.”

Roessig aspires to continue his musical career in college and beyond. Piece by piece, he hopes to encourage others to appreciate all types of music, just as Dick van Dyke’s haphazard symphony did for him.

Students and staff share love of spirit: Band Teacher Todd Summers

amandalee828 — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 17:00:43 +0000

Written by Amanda Lee

When it comes to his homecoming spirit, band teacher Todd Summers is just as passionate as, if not more than, any student. Every year, Summers hosts a special contest for his freshman concert band class. He challenges them to outdress him in yellow for the first day of homecoming, knowing that freshmen often don’t know how spirited homecoming can get. “I say to them, ‘Who can wear more yellow? If you can wear more yellow than me, you win a pint of your choice flavor of ice cream,’” he said. “And that really gets them motivated.”

Summers has held this contest for fifteen years, and he says many students are surprised by his enthusiasm. “I have a pair of yellow pants and a yellow long-sleeved shirt and the yellow gloves that I just wear every year,” he said. He also creates special costumes related to that year’s color theme. “One year it was ‘[The] Wizard of Oz,’ and it was the yellow brick road, so I painted bricks on a yellow t-shirt,” Summers said. “One year, it was candy, and the yellow was Lemonheads, so I wore a Lemonhead t-shirt that was yellow.”

Despite Summers’ crazy outfit, he says a freshman always wins the challenge. “There’s always been at least one or two winners, and, at most, I think, there’s been four,” he said.

During the remaining four days, Summers supports the other grades by representing one of their themes every day, since he prefers their themes over the teachers’ and likes carrying on an old homecoming tradition. “The teachers [used to] get assigned or adopted by a class; like if I got adopted by the sophomores, I’ll be a sophomore the whole week,” he said. “That was way back in the day.”

Photos courtesy of Todd Summers

As a proud Walking Dead fan, he was especially happy when he had the opportunity to dress up as the character Rick Grimes one year when juniors had ‘The Walking Dead’ as a theme; Summers says it was one of his favorite homecoming outfits.

Summers dresses up not only for his own pleasure, but also because he knows students appreciate his spirit. “Especially when I do the sophomore, junior, senior days, I know those kids— because they’ve been through homecoming already—they appreciate my support,” he said.

Summers says other teachers also share his enthusiasm and partake in dressing up. “I think there’s a pretty big chunk of the faculty that participates,” he said. “There are lots of teachers that I think really like the dress-up days and like supporting the classes.” He believes many teachers have a tub of homecoming outfits, like the one he has in his garage. “I think a lot of teachers… start to hoard stuff for homecoming and just reuse it every year,” he said.

Summers enjoyed his own high school homecomings, so he is happy to be able to be a part of the homecoming tradition now by dressing up. “I’ve always had a blast, my homecoming when I was in high school wasn’t quite like homecoming here, but I was always involved in Student Executive Council in high school and helped with the homecoming dances,” he said. “And [I’ve] always loved it. And at every school I’ve ever taught at, I’ve always tried to get involved somehow with homecoming.”