{"id":2386513,"date":"2026-04-23T21:31:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2386513"},"modified":"2026-04-23T21:31:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:31:02","slug":"local-music-legend-continues-changing-lives-at-neighborhood-music-school-in-new-haven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/local-music-legend-continues-changing-lives-at-neighborhood-music-school-in-new-haven\/","title":{"rendered":"Local music legend continues changing lives at Neighborhood Music School in New Haven"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) \u2014 It\u2019s been said that the best teachers teach from the heart. No one embodies that more than a music legend who has been changing lives at the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven for decades.<\/p>\n<p>At 85 years old, Jesse Hameen II is still at the top of his game. He has hands that make magic with a pair of drumsticks \u2014 lightning quick and always in rhythm.<\/p>\n<div class=\"nlp-ignore-block article-content rich-text\">\n<aside class=\"promo-link\">\n\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wtnh.com\/news\/connecticut\/connecticut-up-close\/post-university-flag-football-team-competes-in-inaugural-season\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" class=\"promo-link__link\"><br \/>\n\t\tPost University flag football team competes in inaugural season\t<\/a><br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>Hameen II is a fixture at the Neighborhood Music School, sharing his gift with hundreds of up-and-coming drummers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI teach them it\u2019s not just what you do musically, but the holistic attributes of music, how you make that a part of your personal life, private life, and business life,\u201d Hameen II said. <\/p>\n<p>His top student these days is 18-year-old Ben Sachar of Bethany. He\u2019s been learning under Hameen II\u2019s watchful eye for the past four years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s one of the best teachers I\u2019ve ever had, counting school and everything,\u201d Sachar said. \u201cWhenever I see him play, I just can\u2019t keep from smiling- because he has so much love and you can tell by how he plays the drums and how he expresses himself musically,\u00a0 you can tell music is a part of him,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Before turning his focus on teaching, Hameen II played in jazz clubs in New Haven and New York City, alongside some of the biggest names in music, including Lena Horne, Grover Washington Jr. and George Benson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy mother and father said I came out of the womb, beating a rhythm,\u201d Hameen II said. <\/p>\n<p>A packed house was at the school last month to celebrate his 85th birthday with a concert, and he was the star of the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I walked in, I felt love; people definitely care about me, my eyes teared up,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Around the campus, he\u2019s a legend who makes time for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery single time he comes, he walks the halls, knocks on doors, and says hello to every single person in the building; that\u2019s a rare treat that kind of humanity,\u201d executive director at Neighborhood Music School, Noah Bloom, said. <\/p>\n<p>Hameen II said he loves bringing people together, traveling the world with the joy of music. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.wtnh.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) \u2014 It\u2019s been said that the best teachers teach from the heart. No one embodies that more than a music legend who has been changing lives at the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven for decades. At 85 years old, Jesse Hameen II is still at the top of his game. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2386514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[23219,465248,433026,24982,465244,21739,21800,22587,465245,465247,443735,465246],"class_list":["post-2386513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-connecticut","tag-connecticut-up-close","tag-drumming","tag-jazz","tag-jesse-hameen-ii","tag-local","tag-music","tag-musician","tag-neighborhood-music-school","tag-news-8","tag-passion","tag-wtnh"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Local-music-legend-continues-changing-lives-at-Neighborhood-Music-School.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2386513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2386515,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386513\/revisions\/2386515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2386514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2386513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2386513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2386513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}