Red Hot Jazz Brings Funding for North Atlanta

is holding its sixth annual fund-raiser gala, Black, Silver & Red Hot Jazz Saturday, March 5, at The Temple on Peachtree Street.

The event will include a live and silent auction, dinner, drinks and dancing to live music performed by the NAHS jazz band. Four Giving Trees offer the wants and needs of teachers in each of the school's four community learning centers, and a Wall of Wine contains 50 bottles of hidden-label wine sold for $20 each. Buckhead businesses and community members have donated nearly 50 packages to the fundraiser within a wide value range, from a ski vacation in Colorado to $25 at Zesto’s.

The idea came from a successful Red Hot Jazz band concert that raised support for the music program in 2006. The NAHS Foundation Board of Trustees adopted Red Hot Jazz to create this annual fund raiser for the entire school. Event chair Jessica Gluck said the goal was to build community, and hopefully break even in the end. The event has grown every year since, last year collecting about $20,000 with more than 200 guests in attendance.

“The change we’ve morphed into is delightful,” foundation Vice President Margot Dawkins said.

Online bidding is available before the day of the gala, and a complete list of auction items can be found on the online catalogue. Upon arrival, guests can swipe their credit cards at the front desk, so final payments are easy. Auction tables close at 9:30 o,n, and the winning bids are announced at 10 pm.

This year more students are volunteering to help with the event, which will count towards their community service hours. NAHS junior Arsidez Leon is the student volunteer coordinator. “It’s our way of giving our portion,” he said.

Dawkins said she thinks the gala is successful because it showcases the students.  “It puts us in the community saying, hey, we’ve got a great school,” she said.

The jazz band, directed by Adam Brooks, will feature 22 students including vocalists, performing classic standards of jazz, with a majority of big band songs. The jazz band founder, Reginald Colbert, head of the school's Center for the Arts, said this year’s theme is friends and family. “We encourage community members who play jazz to sit in with us,” he said, “like a jam session.”

The NAHS jazz band, founded in 1989, has earned first place awards in the General Motors Youth Jazz Band Competition and the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition. The group has performed abroad in France and Italy and with Wynton Marsalis at Symphony Hall last year. The band has been hired to play several civic and social events. Colbert said many jazz band graduates go on to study at the Juilliard School, and other prestigious music conservatories, and a few graduates will return to play with the band on March 5.

Colbert said, “It’s unique to see students of that age playing music from those days.” He called it something outside of time.

Gluck, who lives in the Grady district, said this volunteer position is how she got plugged into the NAHS parent community. She called the gala “a fellowship, feel-good thing.”

To register for a ticket or donate, visit the event website.