Jazz group provides outlook on Jazz Wednesday

Jazz night on Wednesday in the cafeteria can be considered boring or dull to many. However, playing in the cafeteria means the world to senior Michael Harris and his Jazz Combo 2 group.

Freshmen Brad Smoot and Clint Lyman are both members of the group. Smoot plays the piano, Lyman plays the percussion, and Harris plays the saxophone. With only a few students showing on jazz night, these three musicians are looking for the brighter future in playing and receive a feeling that no one can compare to.

“The feeling I receive, the comfort of playing, and the emotional high I that it gives me after playing the saxophone is what keeps me wanting to

always play,”Harris said.

The harmony and the sound that is given off is something that makes people feel how passionate we are when it comes to playing live in front of crowds Harris stated. With the other members being new to the campus, they still enjoy the feeling that they receive playing.

“Just getting the group together and just hanging out and working on new selections is what I truly enjoy the most,” Smoot said. “Playing the piano can be very relaxing and I can feel when the crowd and my members are relating to me and can feel the sweet melody.”

Let’s not leave out the percussion and how important they are to the group.

“My most memorable moment of playing is when I was a senior I had

a very tough solo and I took it to state and I got the highest finish and that is first,” Lyman said.

With the two freshmen in the group, they are ready to look forward with a future in playing beyond college.

“My main goal with playing is teaching after college but I wouldn’t mind playing in a few gigs,” Lyman said.

He is want to become a teacher and offer private lessons to those who re- ally have an interest in playing percussion long time.

“In ten years I want to be playing professional and finishing up on my Doctrine in music,” Harris said. “Accomplishing this goal would be some- thing that I can look back and say that all the practice, learning the basics, and performing live really paid off.”

This past week the group received the pleasure of performing with a jazz group from New York. They learned some ways to interact with the crowd and techniques to keep their performance fresh and keeping the crowd interested in the performance. The jazz group is looking to keep their attendance at a high and hopefully get more members to join or simply show an interest to wanting to play in a group.

The band plays on Wednesday either during lunch or later in the evening when dinner is ending. They will have many concerts throughout the school year and will be playing at other locations such as elementary schools, or other gigs that can result in them being able to get a little cash in their pockets.