The Lafayette Jazz Band is performing their annual Christmas concert on December 7th,  6:00 p.m. at Beeler Auditorium. Jazz band performers and director, Dr. Strange, will tell us their experience about jazz and the concert.

The Jazz Band has been preparing for this concert since the beginning of the year. The students and directors have been working together to prepare for the concert by playing their instruments every day, staying before and after school, and working together as a band and teacher.

Dr. Strange states, “I, and other Jazz enthusiasts, want our band to be the amazing reflection of Lafayette that it is. The band and myself  always strive to make our Christmas concert the breathtaking experience it should be”.

According to Dr. Strange, the type of pieces being showcased at the concert are a variety of different styles of music to accommodate the style of the two jazz bands performing, as well as to expose the students and the audience to a wide idiom of Jazz, so there is something for everyone. The music genres being played are swing, rock, Latin, and other genres from different eras of the 20th and 21st century. Each piece will vary in length but mostly stay between four to six minutes long.

The instrumentals are the most important and memorable part of the concert. Although there are no solos in the Lafayette Jazz Band, some of the sections will be featured during the evening, for example the saxophones and the rhythm section. More importantly, the band works as a unit to make jaw dropping music. The main instruments are Saxophones, Trumpets, Trombones and the Rhythm Section (which also includes the drum set, bass, piano, guitar and vibraphone). All of these instruments come together to create these amazing performances, such as the Christmas Concert, and other productions to come.