SCHOOL ME! VOL. 1 (1968-1975) by V/A

School Me! – the first release on the newly formed Stage Band Research label – compiles the best funk, jazz, pyschedelia (and a healthy combination of the three!) that America’s high school stage band and university lab bands and jazz ensembles have to offer. Following in the footsteps of Cali-Tex’s School House Funk volumes and Now-Again Records proper exhumation of the legendary Houston, Texas-based Kashmere Stage Band’s nigh-perfect repertoire, here’s a compilation that gives a great cross section of the stage band and jazz ensemble movement in America. A movement meant to educate children and hone their musical talents. A movement that, sadly, has all but disappeared. Here, there’s white bands, black bands, mixed bands... bands from well endowed universities and those from impoverished, overlooked high schools... bands from the sticks and those from the bricks... Bands who obviously worshipped James Brown and those who were inspired by Cream. The label’s focussed on the era between 1968 and 1975 for this compilation. But this is only the beginning. Let’s hope it doesn’t take them a decade to find enough to make it to volume two!