Jazz Season

            The 2015 jazz band season is officially open! It’s the time of year where there are two or three jazz charts running through the musicians head. It is also the time when mistakes are no longer an option; where the music has to be felt instead of played; where jazz musicians go to be critiqued and ultimately die; where the weak fall and the strong rise up to shatter the knees of the lesser; where you find out, you may not be as good as you think. For Kennedy Jazz One, this is the time of year where we scramble to know the music well enough to not get last. Already we have started the season fast having competed at 2 competitions.
            The first competition was the Triton Jazz Fest at Iowa Central. At this competition there were only 2, 4A jazz bands battling for spots; both of which came from the wonderful school, Kennedy. Yes, at this competition we were the only school from 4A, competing against Jazz Two. In a way, not really a competition, more of a preliminary morale boost. It was a definite win and Jazz One did pull out the victory from Jazz Two. This is the very first, first place that I have received for jazz band in the three years I have been involved. I am proud of our victory but also know it was kind of pointless. After this competition, we don’t know where we line up with the other good 4A schools (for example: Washington, Prairie, Linn-Mar). We got a score and comments, sure, but that doesn’t show us what we have to compete against. It shows us that we are better than Jazz Two, (which, hopefully). In a way, although this was useful with the judges comments, it really doesn’t count. It was definitely a given, nothing we had to work that hard for.            Also at this competition, I received an outstanding soloist award, which, quite frankly, shocked me. I know I am not nearly good enough to have received this award at any other competition. This was just another pick me up that worked for a very short amount of time.            Just tonight we got done competing at the State Jazz Music Festival held at Jefferson High School. This was our first real competition where we got scored and given a rating. Now, because we just got done competing, I don’t know how we did. But based on the advice and critique the clinician gave us, it couldn’t have been good. Basically, he said that our band lacked energy and a sense of a good jazz feel. Not good. We definitely need work on out style and playing it with more passion. Sure, we are good at the technical stuff involved in jazz, but the non-technical stuff is way more important in jazz. For example: accents, phrases, staccatos, beats, etc. Most of these things are written on the page but jazz isn’t always about what’s on the page, it’s about how those dots and squiggles are interpreted by another person. We have a lot of tedious work ahead of us.            To end this not so great night, this clinician talked to me for what felt like 5 minutes about how my solo was crap. I went from the top all the way down to the bottom in a week. Apparently I am just terrible at everything. I try so hard but I just can’t seem to win, (except when there isn’t any competition). Overall, this past night was not a great night as my heart has been broken several times.