[snapping fingers]
["Song For My Father"] ♪ Ba doon dah dot dah ♪
♪ Bah doon ♪
♪ Ba doon dooba dooba ♪
♪ Dooba dooba ♪
♪ Ba doon dah dah dah ♪
♪ Ba doon dooba dooba ♪
♪ Dooba dooba ♪
♪ Ba doon dah dah dah ♪
♪ Ba doon dooba dooba ♪
♪ Dooba dooba ♪
♪ Ba doon dah dah dah ♪
♪ Ba doon dooba dooba ♪
♪ Dooba dooba ♪
♪ Ba doon dah dah dah ♪
♪ Ba doon dooba dooba ♪
♪ Dooba dooba ♪
- My name is Raymond Roberts,
and I'm the choral director
here at Milwaukee High School of the Arts.
♪ Ba doon dooba dooba ♪ ♪ Dooba dooba ♪
[piano]
♪ I wrote this song for my father ♪
- My group is really a traditional vocal jazz ensemble,
and we focus in on music that
is considered now jazz standards.
Some of those pieces happen to be a cappella,
but many of them are accompanied
in that traditional jazz style.
♪ My father's music came through me ♪
♪ But never got to me until ♪
♪ I went down to ♪
♪ Brazil ♪
♪ In Rio all day long ♪
- Ebony: Vocal jazz,
it's one of my favorite things about being at this school.
- It's hard work, but it feels so good.
♪ So sweet ♪
- I could just, like, be creative.
[Jordan scatting] ♪ Skee she bah ♪
♪ Skee la skee la ahh dee do bah ♪
♪ Skah dee do bah ♪
♪ Ska da dee doh doo bah ♪
[snapping fingers]
- Ubaldo: It's so overwhelming, once you start singing,
the emotion that you get from it.
I can't get away from it.
[scatting] - ♪ Dee dah da da ♪
♪ Ba dah dee dah dah dah doh ♪
[jazzy piano]
- Raymond Roberts: They're kids who really wanna work hard
and find a way to see what they have inside them
through cultivating a work ethic
centered on something they really enjoy doing
and have natural aptitude in.
[jazzy piano]
- [Deon scatting] ♪ Skee ska dah dee la ta doo ♪
♪ Dah dahn dah ♪
♪ Skee dah dahn da ♪
♪ She bop booh ah ♪
♪ Ska doo doo didum didum didum didum didum ♪
♪ Didum done dah ♪
♪ I wrote this song for my father ♪
- Xarion: Vocal jazz, our relationships are very important
as far as communicating with each other,
listening to each other,
making sure that we can resolve the issue.
It's really hard to do that
when you aren't close to one another,
and vocal jazz really makes us very close.
♪ Dah da dah dah ♪
- The connection and the commitment
that the students present to each other
with the goal of bringing their individuality
to music from five, six decades ago
is extraordinary.
♪ Ba dune dah dah dah ♪
♪ Ba dune dooba dooba ♪
♪ Dooba dooba doo ♪
[fingers snapping]
- Ebony: Mr. Roberts, our choir director,
he can be strict sometimes.
[piano music]
- So, the E-flat's gotta be in tune.
Okay?
All right, we'll come back to that.
I help chip away at the outer shells that teenagers have.
[piano music]
Every time I get on that F,
you're shifting so distinctly from head to chest
that it just sounds like a different voice comes in.
Can you even that out and keep more head tone
when you get to the F?
So they can put themselves in a position to
cultivate and develop this potential
they have inside of them.
- He'll be very serious with us
and just tell us we need to do this, this, and this.
[jazz vocalization]
[student applauding]
- What I would do is just one pitch change.
- Ebony: But I feel like
that's kind of needed
so that we can have the best sound that we can.
[jazz vocalization] ♪ Bah da da dah ba dye ah doo wah ♪
♪ Ba bah dye ah dah dah ♪ - Roberts: When I'm teaching,
I'm really looking to have this
complete blend of sound so that
you just hear a unified voice.
[jazz vocalization] ♪ Dah dah bah ba da dah ♪
♪ Dah dot dah hah dot dah dah dah dye ah da da ♪
♪ Dot dah dah ♪
Roberts: The way I achieve it
is through extreme high expectations,
but equipping them with skills they need
to meet those expectations. ♪ Put 'em in a box ♪
♪ Tie 'em with a ribbon ♪
- Xarion: When we get in here,
I feel like we get very serious,
because we know it's game time.
♪ Not for me [vocalizing] ♪
We do this for us to help us learn,
but we also turn it into a gift
for other people.
[piano music]
♪ You can take the moon ♪
♪ Gather up the stars ♪