INSIDE

A Kosher
Difference . • page 101

•

MTA
: IFEMPIRM.

sports
travel

Hats On Against
Child Abuse , page 108

Left: Rob Klegon on the
electric guitar

Below: The Big Band: Rob
Klegon, Je Shi an, Ryan
Hertz ands Ric Plotkin.

Four North Farmington High School teens search
for more success for their Big Band.

HANNA LOPATIN
Special to The Jewish News

I is between songs at a Big
Band rehearsal in Jeff
Shiffman's Farmington Hills
basement. The guitarist and
bass player are discussing war
wounds.
Rob Klegon points to a scratch on
his arm that was the result of a run-
in with the bass, while 17-year-old
Rich Plotkin, designated "shy-guy" of
the foursome, is apologizing for the
sharp string that did the damage.
Music is a dangerous business.
Luckily for this group of North

Farmington High School students,
physical ailments such as these have
been the biggest worry since they
started playing together. With sup-
port from Bobby Wolok, owner of
JavaMaster at 14 Mile and
Farmington roads in West
Bloomfield, the curiously titled Big
Band has been able to form a large
fan base and a growing reputation
as a good show.
The band started in 1997 when
Klegon and drummer Shiffman,
both 17, coming out of two less
successful musical endeavors, asked •
Ryan Hertz to play with them. The
18-year-old Hertz is the band's

multi-faceted front man, puts the
guitar pick in his mouth to play
the keyboard and takes it out again
in time to sing lyrics, knew the
other two-from school and mem-
bership in Kishon AZA. Last to
join the band was Plotkin, another
member of Kishon.
Plotkin's admission into the
group was less standard. "One day
we're in the car and we're like,
`Rich, how about you learn bass?'"
recalls Shiffman.
A trip to Guitar Center fol-
lowed.
After a triumphant first appear-
at the NFHS Talent Show in

'97 as The Rich Plotkin Big Band,
the group dropped a couple words;
other school musicians who joined
in at that performance left.
Real success was found that
August when Adam Rochkind,
friend of Klegon's and former
employee of JavaMaster, invited
them to perform. Their first
JavaMaster concert followed a dress
rehearsal for the school musical
Oliver! Both the band and their
audience came dressed in 19th cen-
tury attire.
"We all looked like poor British
people. If you walked in and you
didn't know, you'd be like, 'What is

2/12.
1999

Detroit Jewish News

97