Hard News Story- Jazz Festival

This Friday is the Baker University Jazz Festival. Both the Jazz Lab and Jazz 1 classes will be attending. They will be playing five pieces.

While there are “a few technical things that we need to clean up, we’ve really improved over the course of the year,” saxophone player Lucie Roberts told us. The Jazz Lab class has been meeting during fifth hour everyday this year and has worked heavily on articulation and the fundamentals of jazz. Jazz 1 has had frequent 7 a.m. rehearsals and came in one weekend for a “jazz party” where they rehearsed from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

There will be 18 total groups from all across the area playing at the festival. They will get to play for adjudicators and clinicians and find out what else will be played. This will help them “prepare for the heart of the festival season which will start in March,” Mr. Davis, the band director, told us.

This festival will kick off their season and help them prepare for the winter concert in December, the Pittsburg State and Drury jazz festivals, and, for Jazz 1, their chance to perform at the State Music Educators Convention. Then, at the end of the year, the Jazz band will open for the Glenn Miller Orchestra.