All about the jazz

MT. PLEASANT -- The expectation for Thursdays in Mt. Pleasant include music, laughter, and sunshine in Central Park.

This past Thursday, Mt. Pleasant Community Band performed for the third time this summer. They have just one performance remaining Thursday July 7.

Band Director Adam Creager lead the musicians through varies jazz numbers that got feet tapping and heads bobbing.

As a special treat, Drouthy Duck Pipes & Drums performed prior to the community band concert in all of their kilted glory.

The troupe even joined the band for a song.

Drouth Duck’s connection to the band is through Mark Kimzey, of Mt. Pleasant, who plays the tuba, but also a set of bag pipes with the Fairfield bag pipe group.

“Really, I got into it because my son had to do a report on Scotland in highs school, and he got into it,” Kimzey said.

Family is a rich component of these summer night traditions in Mt. Pleasant.

Surveying the park, children are seen running, climbing and laughing, wise older couples sit next to one another, families have picnics, and the community becomes it’s own little family for the evening.

The All-American dessert, pie, is readily available at every performance thanks to the P.E.O who continued to sell pies to raise funds for P.E.O Memory rooms at Iowa Wesleyan College.

Families are encouraged to continue bringing their creatures to the last community band performance July 7.

This final performance will wrap the season in the tradition of playing music from The Music Man.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com