A saxophonist, pianist, drummer, guitarist and a bassist. Together these gentlemen are known as the WJ Jazz Quintet, however, outside of school they go by the Blue Matter Quintet.
The combo is composed of seniors Austin Loman and Benjamin Kates, and juniors Henry Godfrey, Sammy Levine and Daniel Kapit. Each member has been playing their instrument for at least five years. They all have different reasons for intially picking up their instruments: parents’ demands, interest in a genre of music or fascination with the instrument’s sound.
The name “Blue Matter Quintet” came quite unexpectedly.
“We came up with the name at a gig we played in College Park, when prompted with a name,” said Godfrey, the drummer. “We came up with the name after sifting through the absurd and serious, eventually reaching the name ‘blue matter’ since it relates to the jazziest note of a blues scale, the blue note and it sounds intelligent.”
Head of the WJ music department, Christopher Kosmaceski, has always maintained a jazz combo, but the Blue Matter Quintet formed this year after adding Loman, their guitar player.
“We started playing at many more gigs and competed in a jazz festival,” said Kapit, the pianist. “As the group became more independent from the school [with finding our own gigs], an alto saxophone [Kates] player was added to the group and then this year…we invited a guitarist to play with us.”
In the beginning, Kosmaceski helped the group book gigs at both corporate and school sponsored events. Since then, the group finds that networking at these events lead to opportunities to play at more venues. Because of this, Kates said he often brings business cards.
“At one of our steady gigs, playing regularly in front of Noodles & Co. at [Montgomery] mall, we often encounter people who are interested in having us play for their own private events and such,” said Loman.
One of the biggest moments in the group’s career was playing at Governor Martin O’Malley’s mansion in Annapolis. Godfrey remembers playing in front of a huge crowd and even getting to take pictures with O’Malley himself. But aside from the big triumphs, the boys also remember the little things.
“My favorite moments to this day are not the competitions, not the awards and not the ‘thank you’s’ we receive after playing,” said Kates. “My favorite moments are the nights when everyone’s playing locks in…when we all are extremely connected both musically and emotionally to each other and the audience.”
The Blue Matter Quintet meets at least once a week at lunch in the band room. However, as competitions draw near the group also meets after school for an hour or two. The members first casually play their instruments or talk about recent problems about gigs or differences in musical interpretations. Afterwards, they practice any songs that need work, and try hard to include their own spin on a tune.
The boys frequently encounter issues over what songs to play, how to play them and who will solo at an upcoming competition. Though each member is vital to the group, Blue Matter also struggles with having a single person in charge.
“Some of us want to arrange a tune one way, others want to arrange it another, which always leads to disagreement,” said Godfrey. “But despite these squabbles, we get along well both musically and personally.”
In the future, the group hopes to book more gigs and become more known in the community. They would like to get additional regular gigs in restaurants and clubs aside from their gig with Noodles & Co. Overall, the boys just want to play more to improve.
“Playing in the jazz combo has been one of the best aspects of my entire high school experience,” said Kates. “I have no doubts that I will continue playing in similar groups for the foreseeable future.”
Kapit shares similar sentiments.
“I’ve only been playing jazz for two years, [and] before that it was all classical,” he said. “Without the experiences in the combo and the help of my fellow musicians and of [Kosmaceski], I wouldn’t be anywhere close to where I am today.”
