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Mt. Pleasant music program presents first ever ‘Night of Jazz’
MPCSD students showed off their hard work and raw talent in an evening filled with jazz music at the Chapel Auditorium
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MT. PLEASANT — Mt. Pleasant Community School District’s music program hosted its first ever “Night of Jazz” Friday, Jan. 17 at the Chapel Auditorium. The hourlong concert featured Mt. Pleasant Middle School’s seventh and eighth grade jazz band and the high school’s Jazz 1 and Jazz 2 groups.
Under the direction of Adam Creager, Kent Keating, and Brad Cook, the young musicians filled the Chapel Auditorium with jazz songs that got feet tapping and heads bobbing as attendees appreciated MPCSD students’ burgeoning skills.
During this Night of Jazz, many students showed off their chops in various solos throughout the evening, but during the Jazz 2 ensembles portion of the evening, Mason Dong set aside his usual instrument, the saxophone, and got behind the black and white keys of the piano.
“He has agreed to play piano and has a piano solo, too,” Keating said. “He has worked it up over a short period of time and done a really nice job with it.”
While those in attendance gave positive feedback about the concert, both Creager and Keating explained that the ensembles did not have the same level of time available to learn every song they performed.
“Our second one is the ballot,” Keating said as he introduced Jazz 2’s second number. “We’ve been working so hard on the other two, I just pulled this ballot, and we’ve only had it in our folders about a week and a half, so they’ve done a nice job of really looking to learn it. It still needs to be polished a bit, but it’s actually in pretty good shape.”
Even with the warning about less practice on this piece, the audience showed their appreciation with loud applause. The Jazz 2 ensemble was not alone as Creager’s middle school ensemble also performed a song they had only practiced for a short time, Caribbean Dance by Victor Lopez.
“We’ve been working on it pretty hard for the last two weeks individually and as a group, and we decided, we’re just going to go for it,” he said. “It may not be polished to the degree that we normally have, but it’s a fun little Latin chart.”
The way Creager commented on the middle school jazz band really displayed the tight-knit and fun atmosphere experienced in the program.
“As a middle school teacher, I often hear many phrases and words that I really don’t understand,” Middle School Band Director Creager said.
He says when he tries to use these phrases the students either respond to the attempt with enthusiasm or cringe and ask him to stop.
“This next one is called The Vibe,” Creager said during the concert. “Which I thought was pretty cool, but they’re like, ‘it’s not the vibe we have.’ No, actually, I think they really like the song, and I probably didn’t use that right.”
Mt. Pleasant High School’s Jazz 1 ensemble rounded out the Night of Jazz, and Cook expressed his gratitude to those in attendance.
“We thank you so much for coming out tonight for the first ever Night of Jazz,” High School Band Director Cook said to attendees. “We hope you really enjoyed hearing all the hard work that these great kids have done.”
Mt. Pleasant Middle and High School jazz band students will continue to develop their skills next month with a Jazz Band Clinic at the high school Feb. 1 from 8-11 a.m.
Comments: AnnaMarie.Kruse@southeastiowaunion.com
