LHS Jazz Band plays at Ava Golden Blues Jazz Festival

Lebanon’s first jazz band class in 17 years performed at its first festival last Friday. The Golden Blues Jazz Festival, held in Ava, was the first festival the LHS Jazz Band had competed in since the early 2000s, according to a Lebanon Bands post. Band Director Aaron Stewart said the experience was a positive and educational one that would contribute to the growth of the program. “I’ve got some things that I know I can do differently in the future to have us better prepared, and I think the kids do as well,” Stewart said. “But any time you can play for a panel of adjudicators and experts in their field and get some feedback, that’s a good thing.” Going into the festival, there were shared nerves on both Stewart’s and the students’ parts. This was the first year in at least 17 years that the jazz band has a class to practice in instead of before or after school. This has allowed the program to expand beyond its usual limitations. The band played the jazz classic “Moten Swing” and the funkier “Act Your Age”. Stewart noted the improvisational nature of jazz solos, and while the group is still learning that aspect of the genre, the group still featured several written solos and standout performances. Karah Dameron on the piano performed two solos in “Moten Swing” along with a tenor saxophone solo from Thad Adams and a trumpet solo from Riley Ford. In “Act Your Age,” baritone saxophonist Chris Avery and bass player Ethan Sansom featured, Derrick and Blaine Flores performed trumpet and alto saxophone solos respectively, and Nora Mitschele contributed significantly to both songs on the drums. After the performance, the judges ran a brief educational workshop with the group, which Stewart cited as one of the main reasons for the band having competed at the festival. He expressed excitement for the jazz band’s being a class during the school and hoped to reconnect the program to its earlier jazz history with the likes of Jerry Hoover. He later added, “I’m hopeful that over the next few years we can really grow that aspect of the program and just get back to some of that tradition and history that some folks in town remember from back in the day.” Stewart expects the jazz band to perform one more time at home this semester, though not at the program’s high school spring concert due to time length concerns.