Jazz Concert Benefit for the Laurel School

by Marcie Blue Brown

The Friends of the Laurel School want to make Laurel Elementary School a better place for its students and for the community. Their first project is to raise money for the installation of a playground structure on the Laurel School campus. The Laurel School has a student body of over 400 children in grades K through 5, but only a very small playground. Additionally, the Laurel district lacks a recreation center where families from the community can take their children to play. The Friends' first fund-raising event will be a jazz concert on October 23, from 2 to 6 p.m., in the Laurel School Auditorium on Patterson Street off MacArthur. Performing in the concert will be many fine musicians, including Robert Porter, a well-seasoned Bay Area trumpeter, Bevin Manson, the jazz director at the University of California, and Marcie Blue Brown, internationally acclaimed cellist who has just returned from performing and teaching in Austria and Paris. Also taking the stage will be the Jonah Minton Sextet, directed by Bevin Manson at U.C., and another celebrated group made up of local Oakland teenagers called The Incredible Bee-bop Boys. The IBB features Ambrose Akinmusire and Jonathan Finlayson, and they will be coming directly from the Monterey Jazz Festival to share their talents. The Friends of the Laurel School include Stella and Scott Lamb, Katy Babcok, Gerry Goeres, and Rene Jackson. They are planning a follow-up fund-raising jazz concert for spring in the year 2000. The group envisions these fund-raising concerts becoming an annual tradition that will benefit the Laurel School. Other projects for the future involve enhancing the landscaping and maintenance of the grounds around the Laurel School and assisting with the further development of the existing Music and Arts Program to benefit the students and teachers of the Laurel School. Everyone is invited to come out and support the Laurel School and the community while listening to some great music. Don't miss it.