Music Man.

`—)

Above: Alex Trojan()
beats to the sound of
his own drum.

Left: Jeff Haas and
Marcus Belgrave tune
in students to the plea-
sures of music.

Marcus Belgrave lams with Chuck Hall.

I
.

ichigan-based pianist and compos-
er Jeff Haas recently brought hk
. unique sound, a combination of
1 Hebrew folk music and ja77, to Hillel Day
1 School.

Along with bassist Chuck Hall and drum-
mer Alex Trajano, Haas visited Hillel as part
I of a project that has the trio rehearsing their
I music in schools throughout metro Detroit.
I Accompanying the three were alto-clarinetist
I Marvin Kahn, saxophonist Rob Smith, and
ja77 legend Marcus Belgrbve.
I Haas is a native Detroiter whose father
1 began teaching him piano when he was 5.
I Karl Haas, for 25 years music director at
I Temple Israel and host of NPR's "Adventures
in Good Music," taught his son classical, folk
and traditional Jewish music. Jeff discovered
I jazz after playing his sister's Thelonious
Monk and John Coltrane albums.
1
Most recently, the Jewish Federation of
I Metropolitan Detroit commissioned Haas to
write an original 1077 suite to premiere in
.November at the Gem Theater. II

I

Marcus Belgrave with Hillel students.

7/3
1998

101