Swingin' with Clinton School's Artist in Residence

"Drummer/Composer/Bandleader/Educator" proclaims Vincent Ector's business card. Ector highlighted the educator portion of that apposition today as he conducted the fourth graders of Clinton School in performances at the end of his six-week artist-in-residency at the school.

The students—dressed by classroom in coordinating red, orange, black and white t-shirts—played West African-inspired percussion beats and sang real life-inspired blues riffs that they composed themselves. Ector worked with the students over the course of six weeks to educate them on jazz history, theory and performance.

The residency was paid for through a grant from the Arts & Education Consortium of the NJ State Council on the Arts. The $6,000 grant application was written by PTA Executive Board member Cecelia Cancellaro and matched by the Clinton School PTA. Jennifer Simon of the Consortium was on hand to watch the final performance. Ector, a West Orange resident, was one of eight jazz artists interviewed for the job. He will return to the school on June 14 to perform with his jazz ensemble for the students.

After today's performance, Clinton Principal Patty O'Neill was jubilant: "I just got a call from American Idol and America's Got Talented," she said. Besides thanking Ector, Cancellaro and Simon, O'Neill wished to particularly thank the fourth-grade teachers for their work in the project. The teachers are: Yolanda Fleming, Maria Russo, Mary Khan (who inspired the "Homework Blues"), Marian Power, Meta Johnson and Nicole Toto.

Marian Power—whose class wore black t-shirts and sang the Test Day Blues—was effusive about Ector and the program: "It was amazing. In six weeks he taught them everything—from the history of jazz to the instruments. And they had so much fun."

Or as six-grader Richard Magny said simply, "It was great!"