Both UW-Whitewater Jazz Bands hold many concerts semesterly, but did you know both bands perform out of state every spring semester? Jazz One and Jazz Two perform at the Elmhurst University Jazz Festival, where many great jazz musicians, such as the famous jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderly and Miles Davis, a famous jazz trumpeter, have performed.
“Elmhurst is the longest-running jazz festival and Whitewater has been performing there for at least 10 years,” Jazz One director Michael Hackett said. “Every performance is a chance for students to hone their skills and perform in front of an audience that has influential jazz musicians listening and giving feedback to the band.”
Hackett’s favorite aspect about the festival, aside from its rich history in jazz, is how close Elmhurst University is to Whitewater as well as the high level of musicians who perform there and showcase their skills.
“I look forward to bringing Jazz One to Elmhurst since this band has certain strengths among individuals this year and I’m excited for the students to showcase their hard work and talent,” Hackett said.
One fond memory Hackett has with his students is taking them to Portillos to eat after they have performed. This year, Jazz One was the opening act for the WDR Big Band and The YellowJackets, two well-known jazz bands who joined together the night of the festival to perform jazz standards and original works. Before Jazz One performed their opening act, Jazz Two had their performance in the afternoon.
“This is a chance for both of the jazz groups to get performance comments from jazz icons, hear other peers play at a collegiate level and enjoy an evening of jazz performances,” Jazz Two director Brad Townsend said. “Elmhurst carries the jazz tradition that was once a very competitive field to now being a community of performance and enjoyment of jazz.”
Townsend explained how much this event pushes the musicians in each band to understand their parts well and to showcase their jazz knowledge through the notes inked on the page. A fond memory Townsend had from the band was when a student had a sleeping disorder and slept through all of their alarms. The students in the band had to rush to him to get the sleepy student awake with enough time to make it on stage for the performance. Townsend described that moment as stressful but showed how much the band members care for one another.
Jazz two performed moments upon arrival, they had enough time to get their instruments together, tune and run through some spots in the music before the big moment arrived.
Both Jazz One and Jazz Two were given the pieces to play in Elmhurst at the beginning of the semester, which means both bands had roughly five weeks to learn and play the music. Imagine having to do that. Many people wouldn’t fathom having to learn a piece so quickly, let alone for a concert with many jazz icons in the crowd. This is just an example of how hard every student in that band has prepared their piece as well as how determined the band was to sound the best that they could.
This isn’t the only performance that the jazz bands have this semester, tune in for the Jazz One and Jazz Two concerts, as well as the Vocal Jazz Ensemble and Jazz combos. To find more information check out the website or contact both Hackett and Townsend.
