Harry Wang ’27 and Nadine Carniaux ’29 play the saxaphone.
At the Jazz Band and Wind Ensembles’ concert on Sunday, warm spotlights illuminated neatly organized rows of musicians in Falls Music Center’s John Barry Hall. The concert marked the ensembles’ first performance of the year as well as Trey Dugger’s first time conducting the Jazz band. He described his approach to rehearsals and the expectations he established for individual preparation before musicians came together as an ensemble.
“I try to treat [the students] like semi-professionals. I know they’re students, but if you hold the air of professionalism in [the] rehearsal room, students will always rise to that. With the details, I expect and assume that they are working [them] out in their own individual practice time, so that when we come to rehearsal, they’ve prepared their parts so that at the rehearsal they can be an individual player joining the ensemble,” said Dugger.
Jacob Gruneich ’27, a trumpet player who had played with the Jazz Band for three years, reflected on what he and other band members learned through rehearsals and performances. He described Mr. Dugger’s role in unifying the band through particularly difficult sections of their repertoire.
“We learned a lot about how we perform under [the] pressure of performance. That’s the main thing that we worked on in our rehearsals between now and Parents’ Weekend… In ‘Night in Tunisia,’ there are switches between a Latin groove and a swing groove, and staying together in those transitions was something that we had to practice a lot as a Jazz Band. There’s another transition section [where a] sax slowly crescendos up into a drum fill, [which] comes into the shout chorus. Those stretches of transitions were something that we, under Mr. Duggar, learned how to stay together in all of the pieces,” said Gruneich.
Cameron Butler ’28, a percussionist, explained the differences between performing in the full Jazz Band and in smaller groups, particularly how the percussion helps keep time for the other musicians.
“In a combo there’s five or six people, but in a big band, you really have to hold everyone down if you’re the drummer. I think of the combos as more of a conversation, and the big band, at least for drumming, as more for locking you and everyone together. The biggest challenge for me is keeping a much more steady beat [to] really lock everyone into the rhythm,” said Butler.
Grant McGann ’30, a double bass player in the combos, pointed out his group’s effort for improvement despite the limited time between their last performance and this concert. He also mentioned a possible area of growth for himself.
“Since there was only a very short time between Parents’ Weekend and this concert, it was hard getting a piece ready for this time, but in the end we pulled it through. We sometimes miss [the ending], so that’s a part to work on. I think I should play better melodies with notes that correspond to the chords, not just randomly,” said McGann.
Butler also discussed how various aspects of practice translated into the final performance an audience sees. He emphasized the importance of enjoying the performance rather than focusing solely on technical perfection.
“I always say ‘Just try to have fun on stage.’ That’s the best way to perform because if the audience sees you having fun, they’ll probably have a good time as well. Just playing a combo alone in a practice room is super fun for me, but if I get to share that joy and share that fun with the audience, that’s the goal of the performance,” said Butler.
Eva Fernandez ’30, an audience member, described her response to the bands. Even though she attended the concert for music class credit, she didn’t regret it, noting that she would attend other concerts in the future.
“Even though I had to go, I was pretty glad I went because the pieces evoked a lot of emotions. I felt a lot of love. It’s November, [and] seasonal depression is hitting, and the feeling and that kind of bond just came [to me],” said Fernandez.
Dugger, who specifically hoped that audiences might continue to attend Band concerts beyond requirements for class, offered some occasions the Andover community can mark on their calendars.
“I think the audience was well pleased, and I heard that there were a lot more students at this concert than was predicted, which is encouraging. My dream is for there to be more faculty and students [that] come, not just the students who are artists themselves. The Jazz Band is going to be performing at All-School Meeting, December 14. In addition, we have a concert coming up for MLK Day. We [also] have a lot of performances that we are preparing for our send off to Prague, which we’re going to be doing in the Winter Term,” said Dugger.
