Old Bridge ‘jazz band’ rocks way to Cloud 9

BY THOMAS CASTLES
Staff Writer

 Above: Members of Old Bridge High School’s Cloud 9 jazz band rehearse. Inset: The horns section prepares for the band’s June 7 concert.  THOMAS CASTLES Above: Members of Old Bridge High School’s Cloud 9 jazz band rehearse. Inset: The horns section prepares for the band’s June 7 concert. THOMAS CASTLES OLD BRIDGE — Since 2005, Old Bridge High School’s Cloud 9 band has been broadening the scope of its sound to the point where its original label of “jazz band” may be a bit of a misnomer.

“It’s not really a jazz band at all,” said Cloud 9 Director Gene Cimis, noting that playing jazz music is certainly within the students’ realm of ability. “We do a lot of rock, punk and fusion. We mic every instrument and have professional sound crews at our shows, [which] is not typical of what you’d expect from a high school band.”

That’s not the only atypical feature of Cloud 9. The band is characterized by its unique approach to performing, Cimis said.

“It’s basically a rock band with horns,” he said.

The band is made up of about 26 high schoolage students from OBHS and area parochial schools, and features guitars, bass, piano, synthesizer, trombones, trumpets, saxophones and three vocalists.

Under Cimis’ direction, Cloud 9 practices and performs a repertoire that spans the genres of rock, pop, jazz and soul.

“We do some Bruce Springsteen, ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.’ We started focusing on Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s ‘Crazy in Love.’ We’ve done Lady Gaga, Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep.’ We do a lot of ska tunes too. We do some standard, Sinatra-style jazz — we pretty much do it all,” Cimis said.

Cloud 9 plays at OBHS’s Parent University event each year in a scaled-down fashion, displaying another unique attribute.

“We played it in the same way you would normally see a cocktail band at a wedding. It’s not as in-your-face as usual. They asked us to play in the hallway, but I told them you wouldn’t be able to hear yourself, so we got six or seven kids in a jazz combo,” Cimis said.

The band is always willing and eager to perform.

“Whenever anyone asks us to play, we always try to say, ‘Yes, yes, yes, we will,’ ” he said.

However, competition is not in the agenda for the unique high school band.

Cimis said that from the onset, the band’s mission has been to entertain people in Old Bridge, and competition would only narrow Cloud 9’s focus toward entertaining the wrong people.

“We don’t compete, because I don’t believe in it,” Cimis said. “I think it’s foolish for a bunch of judges to adjudicate jazz. I mean, give me a break. We have such a powerhouse marching band, [and] this is something completely different. There’s nothing wrong with competition, but it would mean scaling down our show to about seven minutes, and we would have to focus on those seven minutes for months on end. I’d rather play 15 songs — a whole show where I can play lots of different music for different people.”

The next performance for Cloud 9 is set for June 7 at 7 p.m. in the OBHS main auditorium.

“It’s an in-your-face rock show. It’s loud, and you’re going to hear us, but it’s nothing to be afraid of,” Cimis said.