The spring jazz concert took place on April 16 in the Aragon Theater. The concert featured the Jazz Band and Jazz Ensemble, with two guest vocalists. This was Aragon’s last jazz performance of the year.
The concert was centered around highlighting students and their achievements. With multiple solos from a variety of instruments in every song, almost every student was showcased. The night also featured the presentation of both national and school awards to recognize student achievements.
The night was bittersweet for band director Kevin Gallagher, who is in his fourth year teaching at Aragon. The class of 2022 is Gallagher’s first graduating class that he taught all four years.
“I’ll never forget this senior class because it was my first class,” Gallagher said. “I do the best I possibly can to not only educate [them] in music but also help my students be good people and then I have to let them go. I’m just really happy that I got a chance to work with everybody. I’m going to miss everybody desperately.”
The seniors in Jazz Ensemble returned this sentiment to Gallagher during the concert, following a speech by senior trumpet player Nicky Dobbs, thanking Gallagher for everything he’s done for the music program in the last four years. Gallagher was then presented with a present from the Jazz Ensemble, a fedora he proceeded to wear for the rest of the concert. Gallagher, an Aragon alumni, often wore fedoras while performing in the Aragon jazz program when he was a student.
“The students who received the awards … earned [them]. [They] did a fantastic job and I’m really proud of them”
The setlist for the night was extensive, with the Jazz Band performing five pieces and the Jazz Ensemble performing seven pieces. This included an extra special song at the end of the concert that was dedicated to the Dobbs family, who have had a student in Aragon music for the last twelve years and have been very involved in the music program.
One of the main highlights of the night was the presentation of the awards. In Jazz Band, the Most Improved Award went to freshman Theon Gardiner, the Most Valuable Award went to junior Ayman Ahmed Khan and the Woody Herman National Jazz Award went to junior Luke Childress. In Jazz Ensemble, the Most Improved Award went to junior Zachary Zane, the Most Valuable Award went to senior Nicky Dobbs and the Louis Armstrong National Jazz Award went to senior Geoffrey Nelson for the third year in a row.
“Usually the students pick exactly who I would’ve picked anyway,” Gallagher said. “The students who received the awards … earned [them]. [They] did a fantastic job and I’m really proud of them.”
Zane felt honored to be recognized for his achievements.
“It feels good to know that the effort we put in has an effect, and it shows later in the year,” Zane said. “It’s definitely something to be proud of. We all put a lot of work in. There were a lot of hours that went into practicing … [both] at home [and] at rehearsals.”
Senior Michael Tun Zan emphasized the strong sense of community in Jazz Ensemble and the importance of working together to create great music.
“It feels good to know that the effort we put in has an effect”
“It was fun preparing for [my solo],” Tun Zan said. “Since it’s jazz, part of it is just doing whatever you feel like. A lot of it isn’t necessarily about learning what to play individually, but [rather knowing] what else is going on in the song. Listening to what other people do and what other sounds are happening helps form what you can do to sound [better].”
With so many pieces and solos that had to be ready for the concert, preparation time was somewhat short. However, both groups managed to pull everything together for the performance.
“Our preparation time was actually pretty limited and I am glad we got all of the music sounding good in such a short time,” Nelson said. “There are always little details to figure out when playing music, which involves many instruments. It’s part of the process and if there were any difficulties at first, they were always easily resolved.”
The culmination of the jazz program’s efforts this year were displayed in the spring concert, and after over a year of online school, Aragon Jazz is back in full swing.
