Jazz performance lights up Paradise Center

Plains High School students were the opening act for The Jazz Legacy Project performance at the Paradise Center last week. Keegan Huffman played the baritone saxophone and Stanley Decker played the tenor saxophone.  

The Jazz Legacy Project was formed in 2015 by drummer and band spokesman Justin Varnes while he was teaching a college jazz history course. The audience was treated with music created by legendary jazz artists, and entertained by Varnes with stories about the influence those artists made on American music and culture. 

Varnes got his start in music from the University of North Florida, graduating with a degree in jazz studies. Saxophone player John Sandfort resides in Atlanta. He brought to the performance a talent that showed the full range of his sax and added a humorous tone to the show.  

The group’s bass player, Kevin Smith, is based out of Atlanta and teaches at the Atlanta Music Project and the Lovett School. Smith’s playing sets the tone for the group as his fingers slide across the strings of his bass. The last member of the group is piano player Nick Rosen. Rosen brought the piano keys to life during his solos. His study of music started early in life at the age of five. A composer and educator, Rosen taught at the University of Miami with the Jazz faculty. He has performed with many great jazz musicians. 

“Each talented individually and together they are just impeccable,” Paradise Center Secretary Karen Thorson said. 

Varnes commented, “We mostly do concerts and clinics around the Southeast. This is our first time in Montana. We met Karen and John Thorson (Board Members of the Paradise Center) last year. They were the ones who championed to bring us in.”  

Varnes continued speaking about his music teaching career.  

“My classes were boring, so I ditched the textbook. I started telling the kids the stories about these artists I know that were passed down to me from the jazz musicians’ generations before me.”

    Plains High School student Stanley Decker on tenor sax. (Tracy Scott/Valley Press)