Sandy Creek jazzes up their music program
Sandy Creek jazz band rocks the stage Tuesday night
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The newly created Sandy Creek jazz band took the stage Tuesday night to demonstrate their skills to community members for the first time. The jazz ensemble opened up for fifteen minutes prior to the high school drama performance of “How to Kill a Mockingbird.” The jazz band had the opportunity to play three jazz pieces at their first performance of the year; “Nows the Time,” “Blue Bossa” and Watermelon Man.”
“The band rocked the performance Tuesday night and had an amazing outcome, I really enjoyed the performance,” says Mr. Jason Searle, high school principal.
One of the pieces the jazz Band played for the crowd,“Nows the Time” was surprisingly learned just by ear. The jazz students listened to it over and over, figuring out how the tune went and ended up mastering it in a short amount of time. The jazz band went into the performance with a positive attitude and came out with a great performance at the end of the night.
“I’m so happy how far we have progressed since day one. I see great potential in each individual, and I hope that we can continue doing great things throughout this class for years to come,” said Mr. Brandon Baxter, band director.
Jazz band is a new program, Searle wanted Sandy Creek High School students to have the opportunity to explore different music fields. Searle wants students throughout the school to get involved in band.
“I'm glad that the school allowed jazz band to be an actual class, it allowed use to have great opportunities, express ourselves and have fun doing something we loved to do,” said Kyle Rhorer, senior jazz band member.
Searle decided late into the summer that he wanted to bring jazz band back to Sandy Creek, and with a new band teacher about to begin his career, Searle felt now was the perfect time to offer a jazz band ensemble during 8th period.
“I really wanted to see how the program would turn out, and I wanted musically inclined students to expand their horizons, to become more involved and to build onto the jazz band. I brought back the jazz band class, even though there are only four students enrolled at this time, in the hopes the class would have a greater impact on upcoming years of band students,” said Searle.