The AM and PM jazz bands recently competed at the annual SHSU Bill Watrous Jazz Festival. Once both AM and PM arrived they worked together to unload all of their instruments and equipment to hurry and help set up the AM band for their warm up.
“Everything felt so unreal, time has gone by so fast and before I knew it we were up next to perform. I was quite nervous because of my solo and I wanted everything to go smoothly,” sophomore Madison Jerez said.
Once AM performed they rushed to get their equipment off the stage so the next band could go on and so AM could wait in the hall before their clinician. After a few hours it was everyone’s lunch break so the two jazz bands went to LSC the Lowman Student Center for their lunch.
“I enjoyed hanging out with my friends and having a break before going back on stage,” freshman Jackson Connell said.
After a few hours passed it was PM’s turn to warm up since they were the last band to go on for the day. The AM jazzers helped the PM band take their equipment to a different room for their warm up time.
“During rehearsal, I tried to feel the music and just focus on making the music sound like how it was supposed to be played,” junior Andrea Negrete said. “This mentality is the way I thought during the performance. I thought of the performance as just another rehearsal.”
After the PM band’s performance both the bands went out to dinner at Mackenzie’s BBQ before they announced awards during the closing performance by the SHSU jazz ensemble. Then once everyone was done with dinner they headed back to the Gaertner Performing Arts Center for the announcement for awards.
After the performance from the SHSU ensemble they began announcing the awards for first, second, third, and the best solos.
AM and PM won first in their respective ensembles. However, out of the AM and PM jazzers Connell and senior Julian Moreno won Best Solo and Moreno also won the scholarship to SHSU. All of the soloists that won were given the chance to go out on stage and improvise their own solo with the SHSU ensemble.
“I was happy to win the award and the scholarship, I felt good that the work was paying off. I also felt proud that I was able to bring an award to my program,” Moreno said.
After a long day for both AM and PM jazzers, they came home winning sweepstakes.