People Relish in the Sound of Pierce Jazz Band’s Performance at the UNO Jazz Festival
Launch the media gallery 1 playerBy Keaton Vavra
The Pierce jazz band traveled to the University of Nebraska at Omaha for the jazz festival on February 28.
The jazz band consists of Payton Ebmeier, Maya Johnson, Brayden Lambrecht, Spencer Sindt, Keaton Vavra, Aubrie Zimmerman, Jayna Prochaska, Lauren Delka, Josiah Ahlers, Mya Johnson, Christian Nordby, Trayton Christiansen, Kaylee Steffen, Amelia Ahlers, and Hadleigh Collison. The festival had the world-renowned jazz musician James Morrison play solos with various bands.
“My favorite part of the day was going to clinics and learning how to expand on my skills. My favorite song we played was ‘Hit The Bricks.’ It was a fun day watching other schools perform and hearing other schools play that aren’t Pierce,” Lambrecht, a sophomore, said.
The band spent an entire day in Omaha listening to other bands and being judged whilst playing their three songs “Don’t Get Sassy” by Thad Jones, “Come Sunday” by Duke Ellington, and “Hit The Bricks” by Gordon Goodwin.
“I had a fun time not only in the actual contest but also the master classes with James Morrison and learning more about improvising and just listening to both of the concerts were really fun and actually inspired me more into jazz. It was a really great and fun day, definitely going to miss it next year,” Christiansen, a senior, said.
The jazz band left Pierce at 8:45 a.m. and arrived back in Pierce at midnight. The band was accompanied to Omaha by some eighth graders. All of the participants were to dress in black dress clothes or dark dress clothes.
The group performed at 6:15 p.m. in front of a judge who helped afterward on fixing their music.
