SOUTH PORTLAND – Texture. Balance. Darkness. Layering.
As Craig Skeffington led the South Portland High School jazz ensemble through practice Thursday afternoon, the band director used words that might apply to a great oil painting, a fine wine or an excellent lasagna.
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The 20 student musicians plowed through the Frank Sinatra favorite, “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” one of three selections they will perform Saturday at Berklee College of Music’s 43rd High School Jazz Festival in Boston.
“It’s got to have some edge and some sizzle to it,” Skeffington advised, before taking the group through lively explorations of “Samba Del Gringo” and “Peaches & T.”
South Portland is one of 20 Maine high schools that will send bands to the annual competition, which offers $175,000 in scholarship prizes to the college’s summer performance program. In all, more than 3,000 students from 200 high schools across the United States will participate in the daylong event sponsored by one of the nation’s top music colleges.
Other Maine high schools sending bands include Biddeford, Brunswick, Cape Elizabeth, Cheverus in Portland, Cony in Augusta, Morse in Bath, Noble in North Berwick, Old Orchard Beach, Thornton Academy in Saco, Westbrook, Waynflete School in Portland, Yarmouth and York.
South Portland’s jazz ensemble represents one of Maine’s musical powerhouses. South Portland took first place among schools its size at the 2009 Berklee competition, winning five $1,000 scholarships, and it won an honorable mention last year. The ensemble has won the Maine State Jazz Festival 10 times since Skeffington became band director in 1994.
And South Portland’s marching band — which can be heard miles away when it practices outdoors on late August evenings — has won the state championship each of the past five years.
An Old Town native and former U.S. Army band member, Skeffington credits the students’ commitment to what he calls the only all-American art form in the face of multiple modern distractions.
He also gives props to school administrators and music boosters who continue to support a strong music program through difficult budget times. The music boosters raised and contributed $80,000 to support band programs this year.
“What they do for us is unbelievable,” Skeffington said. “We’re traveling to Boston in a coach bus that the boosters paid for. We could go on a school bus, but the coach bus is way more comfortable, and parents will ride with us. It’s like one big family.”
Students and others say South Portland’s band program is strong and successful because Skeffington has high expectations and respect for his students. He regularly stops rehearsals to point out missed notes or fumbled chords, even by his daughter, Hannah, a freshman who plays bass guitar. The students take it in stride because Skeffington doesn’t make it personal. It’s always about the music.
“He runs the band very military, so you come into it knowing that you have to follow the rules,” said Maggie Solomon, a senior trombone player. “You can’t b.s. him on anything. You have to work hard.”
Skeffington, who sports a buzz cut, regularly tells his students, “It’s not my job to make this fun. It’s my job to make you good, and being good is fun.” Still, he admits that he has mellowed over the years and tries to strike a better balance between the work and the pleasure of music. The students whooped and smiled Thursday when he let them play a piece of music just for fun at the end of practice. It was “Wombat Combat,” written by Skeffington.
A published jazz composer, Skeffington plays trumpet with the Portland Jazz Orchestra and the Seacoast Big Band. He sees himself in a continuum of local high school band directors who have played professionally and passed on a love of music in general and jazz in particular. They include Tony Boffa, Terry White, Don Doane and Norm Richardson, his predecessor at South Portland.
Some of Skeffington’s past students at South Portland have become high school band directors or music instructors, including Kyle Smith at Westbrook, Lisa Andrade at Old Orchard Beach, Anthony Marro at Morse and Maria Sleeper at Ellsworth.
“That’s pretty cool,” Skeffington said, “to be part of passing it on.”
Some of his students, like senior trumpet player Matt Clement, joined the jazz ensemble reluctantly and came to love it. Senior drummer Eric Landau needed no convincing. For Landau, being the band member who drives the music is a responsibility he embraces.
“You have to show up and be ready to do it every time,” Landau said.
That’s the attitude Skeffington will be looking for on Saturday morning, when the ensemble meets at South Portland High for the ride to Boston.
“Be here at 5:30,” Skeffington said at the conclusion of Thursday’s practice. “Don’t be late. Bring money. And be in uniform with your shirts tucked in.”
Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be reached at 791-6328 or at:
kbouchard@pressherald.com
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