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If you sit up front and focus your eyes and ears on the CAPA House Band, you almost believe you’re in a jazz club. Until someone walks by with a squeegee mop.
It might seem odd to hear high school students play “Take the A Train,” “Shiny Stockings” and other jazz standards at the Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show, but only if you’ve never attended before. (This is their 13th year).
Few passersby seemed surprised to hear jazz on Saturday as they walked through the second-floor lobby of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on their way to peruse replacement windows, hot tubs, granite counters and kitchen cabinets. A few people sat down, maybe to rest, maybe to eat and maybe just because the music is so good.
“Sometimes we don’t have a lot of people,” says drummer R.J. Williams, 15, of Churchill. “It’s nice to have a crowd.”
A few more sat down as Sofia Tapia-Loyola, 17, of Highland Park trilled: “Those silk shiny stockings that I wear when I'm with you, I wear ‘cause you told me that you dig that crazy hue…”
I first noticed the purple tint in Sofia’s hair when I stopped in at a rehearsal last week at the performing arts high school Downtown. Band members talked over each other and only occasionally listened as their teacher, Paul Thompson, tried to mold typical teenagers into professional musicians.
“It’s not count off, play the song and let it fall apart at the end,” he says. “Make eye contact! Blow your last two bars at them. As you get to the end of your solo, look at the next guy.”
Paul, a bassist and veteran of the local jazz scene, pointed to his head to indicate it was time to head back to the top of the number and raised a fist to signal the song’s end. As the trumpets began “Bags’ Groove,” Paul reminded the others, “Wait four bars or eight bars to come in.”
The 1950s classic by Milt Jackson rose, swelled and meandered through the crowded classroom. Trumpeters Aiden Magley and Noah Lane aren’t Miles Davis yet, but the Prince of Darkness couldn’t have done better at 17.
Sofia, who began singing for her family at age 3, discovered her love for classical and jazz music at CAPA.
“I think the old stuff is simply amazing. It has such a history,” she says.
Sofia favors Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “Shiny Stockings” and Billie Holiday’s “The Very Thought of You.” She’s thrilled to hear that she sounds like Billie on the high notes.
Ethan Carter, 17, of Shaler was into acting as a kid. At age 7, he won a speaking part on an episode of “Hawaii Five-0” when his military family lived there. He picked up a baritone saxophone in the seventh grade in Trenton, Fla. When his mother got a job here at PNC, he transferred to CAPA. Acting has taken a back seat in his heart. “Now it’s definitely music.”
R.J. also has many talents. At age 13, he danced and played keyboards and drums on Steve Harvey’s talk show and performs regularly at Covenant Church of Pittsburgh in Wilkinsburg. The sophomore hopes to go to Juilliard, Berklee or Temple University.
The other band members are: Emiliano Siegert-Wilkinson, bass; Christos Mavrogeorgis, vibes; Ben Gradeck, guitar; Aiden Froman, bass; Noah Fruzynski, guitar; Desmond Rucker, drums; Ryan Barnard, trombone; Henry Schultz, piano; Blake Blaufeld, drums; Nate Zavala, piano; and Kaden Thompson, bass.
Most hope to make music their life’s work, and some will. Bassist Anton DeFade and drummer George Heid III are two CAPA House Band alums who regularly play in local clubs. If the home show was their first paid gig, credit show director John DeSantis. When I approached him in 2008 about letting the high schoolers perform by a replica of The Crawford Grill, he insisted on paying them. Every year since, they have played twice a day throughout the 10-day show. The hours this year are 6 and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 3 and 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 3 p.m. Sunday. The home show closes March 15.
Audience members can’t help but notice that the bandleaders are still working on their intros and patter between numbers. But once the band begins to play, even jazz newbies are impressed. I still remember the delight on their young faces when someone approached the 2008 band about booking them for a party.
Thank God jazz is not the blues. Sofia doesn’t sing this part of “Shiny Stockings” with much conviction: “Then came along some chick with great big stockings too. … I guess I'll have to find a new kinda guy who digs my shiny stockings too!”
For these teens, music is still a journey, not a job. “Take the A Train” was one of Ethan’s favorites before he found out it was written by Pittsburgh native Billy Strayhorn. And his love for “Tenor Madness” has nothing to do with how the song brought together jazz legends Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane.
“It has a great sax solo!” he says, smiling.
Kevin Kirkland: kkirkland@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1978.
First Published: March 9, 2020, 12:00 p.m.
