The Blue Shades is a perfect example of how an older genre like jazz can still influence younger generations, even in pop-oriented 2015.
The Blue Shades consists of nine members, including junior Jill Marney and freshman Julia Hales on vocals, sophomore Justin Kaley on saxophone, junior Gareth Ramsey on trumpet, sophomore Jack Grimm on trombone, sophomore Gavin Lao on keyboards, freshman Juan José Páez on guitar, sophomore Thea Prevalsky on bass and sophomore Patrick Brinza on drums.
According to Kaley the band began when “One night after watching the Blues Brothers, Jack and Thea looked at me and said, ‘We should start a band.’”
They had a rocky start: “We used to practice in a church because they had a nice drum set and piano, but they kicked us out for not having an adult sponsor from the church and now we bounce around from basement to basement,” Prevalsky said.
The band started out with just Prevalsky and Kaley and expanded last year when the two got their musically talented friends to join. Later, Hales joined the band through Prevalsky, who said, “I heard Julia singing while she was braiding my hair for marching band and it was honestly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.”
Being in a jazz band has changed the members’ musical tastes to favor older jazz and blues standards.
“After having [been in] this band for half a year or so I’ve gotten into a lot of older blues,” Prevalsky said.
Through the past year, the band put five covers on Soundcloud, which can be found through their Facebook page.