The Rampage

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist The Iowa Jazz Championship program. Photo courtesy of Molly Hart.             On Tuesday, March 31 the Southeast Polk jazz band competed in the Iowa Jazz Championship at the Civic Center and placed seventh out of fifteen bands. They competed in 4A category against bands from schools such as Dowling Catholic, Waukee and Linn-Mar, who Southeast Polk beat to get invited to the competition. A total of over 1,500 students and 60 bands in attendance.             “We’ve been practicing the pieces we played since the start  of the semester,” said sophomore Ethan Owens, a trumpet player in the band. The band played three pieces at the competition; Symphony in Riffs, The Beautiful, and What You Dealin’ With. The composer of The Beautiful is a teacher at the University of Northern Iowa.          ...

Ethan Edvenson Cartoonist During the last hour of the day, a group of elite and talented musicians, led by Mr. Jayson Gerth, join together to form the SEP Jazz One Band. Then, bright and early at 6:45 AM, Jazz Two meets along with Jazz Three switching off with Mondays and Thursdays for Two and Tuesdays and Fridays with Three. Jazz One runs all year long and attends many high ranking jazz competitions and performances to share their love for the smooth style of this music. Jazz Two and Three are extracurricular bands that start in October and run to early March, but they still compete in their fair share of competitions and concerts. Unlike the massive sizes of many other bands in the music program, each jazz band is limited to only a few players for each instrument, each with their own part, which allows for a more creative, fun, and individual stance to how the music is played and sounds. The most apparent showing of this is the staple of having improvisational solos to allow e...