News

Road Trip 2010 - Touring Route 66!
By: David Cieremans, Guitar

As we approach our senior year in high school, all of us felt a desire to do something really spectacular, something that would encapsulate all of the hard work and effort we have maintained throughout our six years together as a band. Vacillating between different ideas, our parents suggested something so incredibly epic: traveling the glorious Route 66 in its entirety, and stopping at every veteran hospital along the way to perform! "Incredulous," you might say, "it could never be done!" Well I say to you, it can be done, and all in ten days! We are renting a Dodge Sprinter touring van, which will have "The Dogz Jazz Band" banner and posters of our endeavor on the sides to further promote the event. Since the girls in the band now live in Chicago, we have performed at Jesse Brown Veteran Home in Chicago multiple times; lucky for us, it's right at the start of the historic route. So naturally, we thought it fitting to begin our trip there. Our itinerary takes us through Chicago, IL; St. Louis, MO; Oklahoma City, OK; West Amarillo, TX; Albuquerque, NM; Phoenix, AZ; Las Vegas, NV; and ends in Long Beach, CA. The Long Beach Veteran Hospital is extremely important to me because my grandfather was hospitalized there when his medical condition worsened. He served in the US Navy, and the everyday exposure to the asbestos-filled insulation in the ships created a cancer in his body known as Mesothelioma. A week prior to his death, he was talking to my father (who was on a business trip in CA) and made sure that my father would "say hello to David" for him. As you can see, whenever I think of my grandpa, I always think of that talk he had with my dad at the VA hospital. Knowing that we will be able to conclude or trip there means the world to me, for I know my grandfather will be there in spirit.

We will soon be updating and posting the entire map of events on our website, in case any of you live in the vicinity of the hospitals and would like to see us perform. We would love to have your support in our newest endeavor! Thanks again for all the continued support from all our fans; it is a testimony to the sedulity of the band.

Dancing In the Streets
By: Claire Mariani, Trumpet

It's a cold, windy evening. The sky has already turned black; stars are twinkling in the sky. If it were any other winter evening, no one would be out braving the cold. But, this evening is different: every person, adults, teenagers, and especially little children have a special sparkle in their eyes. All are excited and have great expectations for the New Year. You guessed it: Tonight is New Year's Eve!

Now, we have already had our New Year's Eve 2008, but I believe it is still worth reminiscing. As a band, we decided to start out the New Year by bringing back the Motown Era. January 2009 starts the celebration of 50 years of Motown, a label of music that changed the music business forever. We wanted to help celebrate these classic songs by playing a few of them ourselves. So, at First Night Montclair 2009, we named our venue "Dancing in the Streets", a tribute to 50 years of Motown. We learned five new Motown songs: "Dancing in the Streets","I Heard it Through the Grapevine","What Does it Take?","My Girl","and "Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honeybunch)". We also performed some of our old favorites, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough","Brick House", and "Superstition".

The stage was set: at five o'clock, in our dresses and tuxes, we started the performance off with our favorite, "In the Mood". We played while the audience enjoyed their pretzels, hot chocolate, coffee, and great music. In the middle of the performance, we introduced our Motown set, and played straight through the new songs. Afterwards, we had many requests for our swing music. We played various songs throughout the evening, and ended with "Make Me Smile", at seven o'clock. By the end of the performance, the audience was moving, swinging, and dancing along.

New Year's Eve is always a time of expectation: we expect to have the New Year better than the last, we expect to have a fresh start to all of our resolutions, and we expect to have a fun and exciting memory from last year that carries to the next. Ours was definitely from First Night Montclair 2009, where we brought in the New Year by bringing back the oldies. Who wouldn't remember "Dancing in the Streets"?

The Dogz Lay Down Some Vinyl
By: Anna Mariani, Drums

The Dogz Jazz Band has recently performed at Cecil's Jazz Club and has decided to make a demo album at Charleston Road Recording Studio in Hampton, NJ. With the help of their jazz teacher, Nathan Eklund, they will practice some of their favorite tunes to put on the album.

A band meeting was held to decide which songs to play. Their goal was to pick two sets of eight songs, one being their main set and the other being their substitute set.
"We need to pick a few songs from each musical category and combine them into the set." Nathan told them, and the song selection began. The Dogz play a large number of categories, such as Rock, Swing, traditional Jazz, Vocal Pieces, different time eras, etc. Although the decisions between favorites were tough, the band managed to pick out songs that everyone agreed on. Some popular choices were Pick up the Pieces, Moanin', I Got You (I Feel Good), In the Mood, September, etc.

At the Charleston Road Recording Studio, the band will be recording the selected songs into perfection, and putting them on the album. It will be very different from what the band is used to playing. The drums, bass guitar, and vocalists will be placed into different rooms from the rest of the band. Nevertheless, The Dogz will work this out. It should be a fun and interesting experience!

To hear our 1st album, click here

To hear our 2nd album, click here

Forty Gigs for Forty Heroes: Complete!
By: Nicole Mariani, Bass

After nearly a year of hard work, practice and fundraising, our latest campaign, Forty Gigs for Forty Heroes, is complete! Starting on New Year's Eve, 2006 and ending in December of 2007, we have played forty times and raised money to benefit the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA. Although we cannot specify which part of the memorial our donation will go to, in our hearts it is going towards the Tower of Voices. The Tower of Voices is a tower that will contain forty wind chimes, one for each person that died. It seems fitting that our musical tribute will become their musical tribute. In the end, we raised almost $9000.00!

We would like to thank our parents for supporting us and allowing us the opportunity to play, practice and give back to the community. We realize that this is a huge commitment, but with your hard effort we make it work. Thank you!

We would also like to thank all the people who donated to our fundraiser. Without your generosity, this opportunity could never have existed. Thank you for listening and thank you for supporting the memorial.To view a complete list of the 40 gigs performed by The Dogz, please click
HERE

Goodbye Mr. Glynn
By: Nicole Mariani, Bass

Our "Leader of the Pack", Mr. Glynn, is moving away after nearly four years of being our director. He taught us many things, and was our first teacher. He really started our band in the right direction to become what it is today, and we never could have done it without him. We will miss him very much, so in his memory, we have made a slideshow of all the memories we have of him and what he taught us. We know it will never come close to thanking him for everything he's done for us, but we hope he likes it and that you enjoy it, too. The song in the background is "Pick up the Pieces" recorded live from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, July 2007. Thank you and goodbye, Mr. Glynn! We'll miss you!

Mr. Glynn's Slideshow

2007 Road Trip
By: Nicole Mariani, Bass

This year's road trip was a success! This time, there were only five of us: Anna, Claire, James, Nicole, and David. Our trip started with an old favorite, Kennywood Amusement Park. Even though it was raining, the people that were there enjoyed it. Our next gig was another previous stop, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The next day, we played at a new place, Thunder over Michigan Airshow in Detroit, Michigan. Although temperatures were in the 90's the gig was great! Our last stop was another favorite of ours, Parkside Retirement Home in North East, PA. After that, we made the long trip home. We would like to thank the people who helped us on our trip. They helped us set up, tear down, pack up, book gigs and hotels, and so much more. We could never have pulled it off without their help. Thanks, from all of us!