NA’s Chameleon Wins 10th Straight State Title, NA Big Band Places Third
While the members of Chameleon have grown accustomed to preforming at the NJAJE State Finals, there was a bit more angst than the normal preshow butterflies at West Millford High School on April 27, 2019. After all, the group was defending it’s state title for a monumental 10th-straight year.
The night ended in cheers and trophies, before posing for pictures with the life-size trophy and 10 fingers extended representing the 10-straight championships. Along with Chameleon, NA Big Band came in third place, making it the first time NA’s second band has gotten into the top three.
“One of my favorite moments was the reaction when they announced the non-placing bands in alphabetical order. We knew if Overbrook High School was announced that we were in the top three,” NA Jazz Director Julius Tolentino said. “The excitement and joy the NA Big Band tried to contain knowing they were in the top three was priceless.”
Chameleon was also awarded three of the four soloist awards in Sammi Powell ’19, Michael Wang ’20, and Ben Chaddha ’21, Chameleon also received Outstanding Saxophone and Rhythm Section, as well as the Sight-Reading Award. Jacob Tolentino ’24 from the NA Big Band received an honorable mention soloist award.
“I’m so proud of all the students. They have worked so hard to play at this level and executed everything we talked about on an acoustically challenging stage,” Julius said. “The NA Big Band really made a lot of little adjustments all the way up to the warm up room to just edge out the fourth-place band by 1.24 points!”
Meantime, Chameleon enters their final prep for Essentially Ellington, where they will compete against the nation’s best Jazz bands May 9-11 at Rose Theater of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. And Julius feels like the band is peaking at the right time. Now, he’ll have to fulfill his vow to his Chameleon and have members fitted for rings.“I promised them some championship rings for ten years straight,” Julius said. “I might have to sell some saxophones, but I'm going to make it happen.”
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