The Jazz ensemble and jazz lab band will be coming together to host the Jazz concert, featuring over 40 students musicians and pieces with a large variety of musical styles, on May 18, 7:30pm.

“We’re always doing a wide variety because I want them to learn lots of different stuff. The jazz lab band is doing a piece inspired by the ‘Saints Go Marching In’. It starts kind of traditional and moves into a swing version of it,” Josh Thompson, band director, said.

The jazz concert has much more to offer than just swing songs and brass. The concert will be featuring something a bit more unconventional, as well.

“My favorite piece is the one that we’ll be starting with. It’s called ‘Weird Beard’, it’s just very different than anything I’ve ever heard before,” Aaron Glave, junior trombonist, said. “The style of the piece is a little hard to describe. I’d call it really fast paced with a rock feel, but several parts of the song are just sort of avant-garde, you could say.”

The jazz band will also be playing some rock and roll.

“Jazz ensemble is playing the tune that inspired the movie Whiplash, which I think is going to be the attraction piece. The music for the movie was very different. The piece itself was written in the 70s, but it kind of took on a life of its own when it hit the big screen,” Thompson said. “A lot of youngsters came into the movie not even knowing music like that. It’s got a lot of energy with a rock band type sound with some electric guitar and bass, very ‘in your face’ kind of feel.”

What really makes the concert different are the solos. Unlike most other musical groups in the school, jazz band does solos differently.

“The hardest part about jazz is the improvisation. When somebody takes a solo, students have to make up their own melody to the accompaniment,” Thompson said. “It’s just like going down to the improv theater: actors will usually have a vague idea of what they want to do with a scene so they can build off of that, in the moment.”

Although Glave will not be performing a solo in this particular concert, all members of the jazz ensemble are required to know the basics of doing an improv solo.

“You have to prepare for it in advance, you don’t plan out exactly what you’re going to do, but you have to know what will sound good, how it’ll fit in with the rhythms, which scale to use over which part,” Glave said. “It’s a little complicated, but it’s a lot of basic music theory stuff. If you want to fit in with the song, you really have to know how the song works,” Glave said.

The Jazz concert will be the last band concert of the year, and according to Glave, it will be a good note to end on.

“Whatever the stereotypes or excuses you have for not listening to jazz, you won’t be able to hold onto after coming to this concert,” Glave said.