Jam Pak
Jam Pak • "Three evenings a week, Anni Beach’s tiny house turns into a concert hall. As many as forty children hunch over banjos, guitars and a washtub bass, wringing bluegrass music from steel strings and sending it from the sometimes dark night into the bright new world."
"The band began one day in April 1994, when Anni Beach substitute-taught a class in her neighborhood school and brought along her mandolin. The lifelong educator—an impish woman in long white braids—had a habit of holding sing-alongs in the classroom. That evening, two second-graders from her class knocked on her door and asked if they could sing with her again." ~ Gisela Telis, Arizona Public Media
Since 1994 the Jam Pak Blues ‘N’ Grass Neighborhood Band has been meeting weekly in Anni & Vincent Beach’s home in Chandler, Arizona. Band members, ages 5 – 90 practice singing and playing traditional bluegrass, gospel and old time music. It’s been thrilling to see the progress of various children who, with no particular musical background, have taken to bluegrass music and can play, sing, "take breaks", keep the rhythm, learn by ear, and also play notes.
"She’d also met her match: Vincent Beach, was a Jamaican immigrant with a wry sense of humor who had served in the U.S. Air Force as a military bandsman for 22 years. It was Vincent who encouraged her to return to music. "We promised each other that he would learn cello, and I would learn mandolin," she says. "I found a teacher who was a bluegrass player, and that was an epiphany. I could do bluegrass. I couldn’t do it well, but I could do it." ~ Gisela Telis, Arizona Public Media
Jam Pak has been a labor of love for Anni and Vincent Beach since April 1994. Prior to that time, the two had long shared an interest in music. Vincent had taught himself saxophone and flute. Anni came from a musical family and was inspired to learn to play mandolin. As a substitute teacher, she often took music into the classroom. One day two neighborhood children knocked on the Beach’s door. They had met Anni in school and had heard her play the mandolin and had sung with her. They asked if she could sing with them again. This was the kernel of inspiration that became the Beach’s joint project, the Jam Pak Blues ‘N’ Grass Neighborhood Band.
"The Jam Pak Blues ‘N’ Grass Neighborhood Band sounds like 19th-century Kentucky, but its home is a low-income neighborhood in Chandler, Arizona" ~ Gisela Telis, Arizona Public Media
The Jam Pak kids began learning on simple one-stringed instruments called "canjos". Since then they have been sponsored by Arizona bluegrass organizations and many individuals who have provided loaned and/or donated instruments, lessons and lesson scholarships. The band is now 25 members strong with guitars, fiddles, banjos, mandolins, dulcimers, and even a wash-tub bass. Some of the kids now own their own instruments. Many also participate in school music programs, often on a different instrument.
"Vincent Beach seems an ordinary man from ordinary beginnings. Look deeper, however, and you’ll discover a special human being. Vincent left his native Jamaica in 1944 and enlisted in the Royal Air Force. Yearning to be a jazz musician, he bought an old clarinet and practiced. Through his perseverance, he found his way to America and a career for 22 years as a bandsman in the U.S. Air Force. Becoming an educator, he served the children on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona"
LINKS
FaceBook • www.facebook.com/pages/Jam-Pak/230729084217
Events on FaceBook • http://on.fb.me/qnQht4
Volunteers • www.jampak.com/caughtinact.html
Friends, Sponsors & Supporters • www.jampak.com/links.html
Contact • www.jampak.com/contactus.html
WebSite • www.jampak.com
"Hey, we’re a real band, we cut a single and we’ve even got merch."
ARTICLES, SOURCES & RELATED LINKS
• Raising a Joyful Sound
• Jam Pak Blues ‘N’ Grass Neighborhood Band
• Arizona Public Media | Web Feature
• Bluegrass fans, this weekend’s for you
• THOMAS PORTER • SIMPLE BOX OF PINE
"Three evenings a week, Anni Beach’s tiny house turns into a concert hall. As many as forty children hunch over banjos, guitars and a washtub bass, wringing bluegrass music from steel strings and sending it from the sometimes dark night into the bright new world" "The Jam Pak Band and bluegrass recording artist Thomas Porter perform "Simple Box of Pine," a song Porter wrote in honor of Vincent Beach."
Raising a Joyful Sound
• www.azpm.org/news/web-feature-raising-a-joyful-sound/
The "Simple Box of Pine" CD
• itunes.apple.com/us/artist/thomas-porter/id441826248
• www.music.thomasporter.com/simpleboxofpine/
• www.simpleboxofpine.com
Jam Pak on FaceBook
• www.facebook.com/pages/Jam-Pak/230729084217
Jam Pak WebSite
• www.jampak.com
Don’t Throw Away Your Stick Till You Cross the River
• www.fivestarpublications.com/dontthrow/
Thomas Porter
• www.facebook.com/thomas.porter.music
The "Simple Box of Pine" CD is recorded by:
Thomas Porter • Lead Vocal, Guitar, Bass
Dan Tyminski • Mandolin, Harmony Vocals
Ron Block • Banjo
Molly Cherryholmes • Fiddle
Jam Pak Blues ‘N’ Grass Neighborhood Band
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