While the weather was definitely frightful last night, the jazz band put on a delightful concert full of New Orleans music and even an original student composition by Francesca Castro, senior guitarist.  

“Jazz In Session!” featured the Jazz Lab Band and the Honors Jazz Ensemble led by Josh Thompson, band director.

“My favorite part of jazz and is the different style of music from symphonic music and the creative liberties you get to take as a jazz musician make it more enjoyable,” Drake Heisterkamp, junior trumpet player, said. “Also, as a trumpet player, jazz songs really test the range of my instrument with extremely high notes, which are not found in symphonic music.”

Heisterkamp is a part of the 21 person Honors Jazz Ensemble that performed at the concert. While the concert offered a variety of songs ranging from “Miles Back” by Les Hooper to “NOLA’s Waltz” by Bob Borgstede, Heisterkamp says his favorite song was “Cut ‘N Run” by Gordon Goodwin.
“Not only was [“Cut ‘N Run”] a fun song to play and to listen to, but it was an extremely challenging piece to learn,” Heisterkamp said. “I was forced to band together [with others and] learn their own parts so we could work as a team to put the whole song together.”