The Crimson Cafe, a production put on by the Bernards High School, Bernards Middle School, and Bedminster Township School Jazz Bands, returned on Saturday, April 29th.
The tickets were available at the front door, which were priced at $10 per person, $5 for students and seniors, and free for faculty and children under 5. The doors opened at 6:30pm, and performances started at 7:00pm.
The teachers who were a part of the Crimson Cafe were Mr. Snyder, Mr. Selfridge, and Mr. Taesler. Mr. Taesler explained, “The Crimson Cafe is a time honored tradition which brings students from the Middle School levels together with High Schoolers to make music together. The purpose is to promote the BHS Jazz Ensemble to the upcoming Freshmen in the hopes that they will join our award winning ensemble one day. Mr. Scott Leferge of Bedminster Township School and Mr. Jason Snyder of Bernardsville Middle School were invaluable in helping me organize this event– since I’m new here– and their students performed magnificently! It was a wonderful event that everyone enjoyed! I look forward to helping these future High Schoolers join our instrumental music program in any capacity and I look forward to our next joint concerts in the future.”
Each band performed one song, and at the end, they all got to perform together. The Bernards Middle School presented a piece by Astor Piazzolla called, “Libertango.” This piece of music symbolized his break from classical tango. The Bernards Middle School also performed a classic from Rick Stizel named, “Feeling Good.”
Bedminster School kept it casual by playing two popular jazz songs. They performed a James Bond Song, “The Pink Panther” and a song by Todo, titled “Africa.” The High School played “Sentimental Mood” by Duke Elligton, as well as “Giant Steps” by John Cooltrain. To conclude the production, the entire Bernards Cafe played a song by Chiago, “25 or 6 to 4.”
On stage there were a total 50 to 54 musicians at the end of the song. Nolan Baker ‘26 expresses his enthusiasm for having the chance to perform with everyone: “Bringing everyone together on stage to play ‘25 or 6 to 4’ was an epic way to end the concert.”
Baker continues, “I can’t wait for next year! You should definitely come back next year to watch these young performers play again!” If you didn’t have the opportunity to watch them perform, you can check out the Instagram, @bernardshs_music to watch them perform one of their songs!”
