“My boy asked me ‘what happens when you get to the 50th state?’ I told him, a band plays and you get a medal,” he said jokingly. 

Fluss thought it would be fun to land the joke by contacting local musician, Mike Kernin, and asking  if he could prepare a band for their arrival. 

“He wanted a brass band, but I couldn’t swing it on such short notice,” said Kernin. 

Instead a group of four local sax players gathered outside the airport to play Stars and Stripes Forever as the father son duo entered Alaska for the first time. 

The 25th annual Sitka Jazz Festival is upon us. Musicians from all over the country are unpacking their bags, tuning their instruments, and getting ready for a weekend of wall-to-wall grooving. KCAW’s Ari Snider listened in on a big band practice session earlier this week and sends this postcard. 

. . . . .

The Kyle Athayde Dance Party has flown in all the way from New York City, and this afternoon they’re rehearsing in the Sitka High School music room with a handful of students from the UCLA Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance.

Drums, piano, guitar, sax, horn — all the usual suspects are in attendance. In the center of the big circle is Kyle Athayde himself. He’s on his feet, darting back and forth between the instrument sections, raising a hand to bring them in, lowering it to usher them out. A flick of the wrist calls in a flourish of rhythm.  

In his office adjoining the music, Jazz Fest founder Mike Kernin explains what’s going on. 

“Today they’re kinda putting touches on stuff for the performances on Friday and Saturday night,” he said. “And also the big band dance that’s gonna be on Friday night. So it’s kinda, the rehearsal is kinda like three rehearsals in one.”  

This isn’t the group’s first swing through Sitka. 

“Yeah last year the dance party was up and they did a big band dance and it was so well-received by the students and the community,” he said, “We were able to combine two groups and make one, so we were able to do it again.”

This year will be the 25th Jazz Fest — a quarter century of bringing in dozens of professional and student musicians to this unlikely corner of the country. Headliners this year include Grammy-nominated singer Gretchen Parlato, and Nick Milo, a pianist who’s played with the likes of Joe Cocker. 

Running this show is no easy task. Kernin says he tried to step back a bit this year but, well, you know how it is. 

“It seems like every year I try to like pull back just a little bit and of course this year I added another event. Then we’re doing another big band dance, plus the two evening concerts and then Saturday is all-day clinics, so it’s, I don’t know, I guess I don’t know how to pull it back,” he said.

Two and a half decades after Kernin brought one performer to town, the Jazz Fest has put Sitka the map in a big way. Asked about rumors that this year could be the end of the road for the festival, Kernin says he’s focused on the present.  

“I just treat every festival as its own thing and stuff and I don’t worry too much about the future right now,” he said. “So that’s a good question that you should ask me in a couple weeks, but, it’s been going for 25 years so we’ll see what’s in store.” 

We do have a pretty good idea of what’s in store over the weekend. Spoiler alert — it’s going to include a lot of big band grooves.

The Sitka Jazz Fest runs February 6-8.

(Photo/Sitka Jazz Fest)

Downloadable Audio

Sitka Jazz Fest is coming to town February 7-9!

Mike Kernin joined KCAW’s Erin Fulton in the studio to discuss the festival, featuring a three-hour swing dance party at Harrigan Centennial Hall, student workshops, and multiple concerts featuring artists from all over the state and country.

Click here for more information

Pacific High students presented survey data suggesting that 44-percent would drop out if the school were closed or relocated within another building. (KCAW file photo)

The Sitka School Board on Wednesday (4-4-18) held an additional public hearing on next year’s budget — and this time testimony focused on Pacific High School.

The district is counting on the city — and ultimately the public — to step up and support critical programs and staffing.

Downloadable audio.

No one on the school board or in the administration has proposed cutting Pacific High, which is the district’s alternative high school, but there has been some discussion of relocating the program to one of the district’s other buildings — and creating a so-called “school within a school.”

Pacific High junior Killian DeTemple told the board that absorbing the school into another building would be equivalent to closing it.

“I ask you to consider this: To assimilate Pacific High into a separate but-already-existing institution would be to irreversibly damage or even destroy the social, cultural, and spiritual dynamics which have been established and evolved over the course of its history. Aside from the funding Pacific High receives as an alternative institution, the losses it would suffer in terms of spirit and community would be much too high for me and a significant number of my peers — and force us to drop out entirely, move out of the community for alternative education options, or to pursue a GED.”

DeTemple had his facts right. According to district data supplied for a previous work session, Pacific High pencils out economically. It costs the district a little over $600,000 to operate, but generates at least $200,000 more than that in funding due to grants, the state foundation formula, and other revenue sources like the free and reduced lunch program. Much of this money would be jeopardized if the school’s enrollment dropped significantly.

Pacific High senior Madison Sprague offered data suggesting that over 40-percent of her fellow students would leave if the school were closed.

“We did a survey today. There were five options on the survey: To go to Sitka High, Mt. Edgecumbe, to be homeschooled, to drop out and get a GED, or to just drop out in general. And 44-percent said either drop out, or drop out and get a GED.”

Pacific High currently serves 29 students.

Just over half of the 20 individuals who spoke at the hearing were there to support Pacific High. Others testified in support of retaining teachers, the career and technical education program, and the Performing Arts Center.

High school music teacher Mike Kernin could barely contain his frustration that the Performing Arts Center — or PAC — was again up for a cut.

“Out of the 25 years I’ve worked in the district I’ve either been a political chip, whether it’s the Performing Arts Center or as a music teacher — 19 times. It’s frustrating. I have co-workers who won’t look at me because they think that if I’m for the Performing Arts Center, I’m against teachers. What are you going to do if you save a few bucks on the Performing Arts Center, and you tenure yet more teachers, and then have to tell them that they’re losing their jobs?”

In the board work session that followed, president Jenn McNichol asked her fellow members to give the administration “marching orders” for preparing a final draft of next year’s budget, and closing a spending gap of nearly $2 million. In all likelihood the budget will contain a request to the City of Sitka for an additional $500,000 to cover reductions in state funding resulting from increases in the assessed value of property in the city, to restore cuts from the last two years, to share expenses for the Performing Arts Center and Community Schools, and to retain two teachers in the elementary grades.

The City of Sitka, however, doesn’t have money to spare. But unlike the school district, it has the power to raise revenue. Board president Jenn McNichol said that it might be time for the citizens of Sitka to decide what kind of schools they want.

“Times have changed. That’s just the bottom line. I don’t think that there’s a lot of waste going on. The price of oil dropped several years ago and this is the ripple effect. That’s the most direct correlation that we can tie to all these problems.”

McNichol is a pediatrician, and she said school budget decisions could be “more difficult than medical triage,” because every program is important to a student or group of students and “every student is important.”

“To an individual student, Pacific High is everything to them,” McNichol said. “To another student, being able to perform in the auditorium is everything to them.”

The Sitka School Board will hold a final budget hearing and approve next year’s budget at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, in the high school library.

Sitka JazzFest director Mike Kernin is always looking for new talent to expose music students to in Southeast Alaska, but sometimes he wants to go with a returning pro. Pianist Josh Nelson has performed in Sitka before, and he’ll be headlining the upcoming Sitka JazzFest February 1-3, 2018 at the Sitka Performing Arts Center. Tickets go on sale January 19 at Old Harbor Books.

Downloadable Audio.

Downloadable audio.

The 22nd Annual Sitka Jazz Festival is next weekend, February 2nd – 4th. Director Mike Kernin and Assistant Director Nichel Kernin preview the line-up, which includes guitarist Mimi Fox, tenor saxophonist Bob Reynolds, as well as the Tierney Sutton Band. The festival kicks off Thursday, February 2nd with the Thelonious Monk Institute Ensemble and continues into the weekend with brown bag lunches, workshops, student and evening concerts. Click here for the full schedule. 

Violinist Mads Tolling played variations of traditional Danish music with his innovative bowing techniques. (Mike Hicks/KCAW photo)

This past weekend (Feb. 5, 2015 – Feb. 7, 2015 ), the sounds of brass instruments and scat vocals filled the hallways and concert venues of Sitka.

In its 20th year, the annual festival is an opportunity to feature guest musicians from around the world in evening performances, while filling the afternoons with jazz workshops for students around the state. According to Director Mike Kernin, guest musicians hailed from New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, San Francisco, South Africa, and throughout Alaska to share their jazz talents.

On Stage (Slideshow) 

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In the Classroom and Behind the Scenes (Slideshow) 

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Westmark Sitka Friday Evening Concert

Student Concert 4:30pm

Blatchley Middle School Jazz Band II directed by Mike Kernin
Haines ManSounds directed by Kristy Totten
Lathrop High School Jazz Band directed by TJ Hovest
Shoenbar Middle School Jazz Band directed by Mary Kurth
Juneau-Douglas High School Jazz Band directed by John Unzicker

Guest Artist Concert 7:30pm

United States Air Force Band of the Pacific-Asia Jazz Combo
DeWayne Pate Trio​
Blatchley Middle School Jazz Band I featuring Glenn Kostur, directed by Mike Kernin
Sikta High School Jazz Band featuring Darren English, directed by Sarah Martinson
Mads Tolling

Alaska Airlines Saturday Evening Concert 

Student Concert 4:30pm

Floyd Dryden Middle School Jazz Band directed by Michael Bucy
West Valley High School Jazz Band directed by Liesl Weitgrefe
Ketchikan High School Vocal Jazz Ensemble directed by Trina Purcell
Petersburg High School Jazz Band directed by Matt Lenhard
Thunder Mountain High School Jazz Band directed by Brian Van Kirk

Guest Artist Concert 7:30pm

Harris Air All-Alaska Jazz Band directed by Glenn Kostur
Darren English with The Dewayne Pate Trio
Sitka Studio of Dance
Sitka High Vocal Jazz Ensemble directed by Sarah Martinson
USAF Band of the Pacific-Asia Jazz Combo with special guests

Downloadable audio.

Jazz violinist Mads Toling is among the headliners at the 2015 Sitka JazzFest!

Sitka JazzFest! director Mike Kernin says this year’s festival will feature Grammy-winning violinist Mads Toling, among its headliners. Also trumpeter Kenny Washington, vocalist Kenny Washington, and the Dewayne Pate trio. For a complete rundown of artists and performances, visit Sitka JazzFest! online.

Listen to iFriendly audio.

Mike Kernin (left) and John DePalatis (right) are the co-directors of the 2013 Sitka Jazz Festival. (Photo by Robert Woolsey/KCAW)

Renowned composer and saxophonist, Tom Scott, is in the lineup, as well as Barbara Morrison, and The Greatlanders Air Force Band of the Pacific. Katherine Kramer will be tap dancing in the first dance performance the festival has ever had on its program.

But Sitka Jazz Festival co-director, John DePalatis , says the event is about more than the concerts. There are 23 workshops that will run on Friday morning and into the afternoon on Saturday. Classes range from basic jazz theory to learning the art of improvisation.

“If you just come to the concerts, you’re really not seeing the festival itself,” said DePalatis. “It’s kind of like an iceberg — you see the concerts, but underneath is all of educational stuff going on. Everything from very specific Greatlanders working with trombone players to I think our last session is there in the auditorium with Barbara Morrison and Tom Scott just talking about stuff. You know, we really look for people who are good with students because it’s equally as strong of an educational festival as it is a performance festival.”

Students can attend the workshops, as well as anyone who has an all-festival pass. There are free concerts on Thursday and Friday from noon to 1 pm at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

Performances by students from Sitka, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Juneau and Kodiak will start at 6 pm, and the pros will hit the stage from 8 to 1030pm.

Tickets are available at Old Harbor Books — $10 for a student concert, $25 for a professional concert (includes admission to a student concert), and $45 for an all-festival pass. For more information about what’s on the schedule, you can visit www.sitkajazzfestival.com.