Aragon and Hillsdale jazz dazzle in Double Exposure

On March 1, Aragon’s Jazz Band and Ensemble performed their sixteenth annual Double Exposure concert alongside Hillsdale’s Jazz Ensemble from 7-9 p.m. at Aragon’s theater. The two schools alternate hosting the concert every year. 

Each band played five songs. Aragon’s Jazz Band opened the concert, followed by Hillsdale’s Jazz Ensemble, and Aragon’s Jazz Ensemble closed. Two of the songs featured vocalists – “Still Alive” performed by Hillsdale, and “On the Street Where You Live” performed by Aragon’s jazz ensembles.

“[There is a] community aspect [of] playing with our musician cousins,” said Aragon Director of Bands Kevin Gallagher. “In sports, Hillsdale would be considered our rival, but in music, they’re more like a family that we want to be able to share the stage with.”

Hillsdale’s Director of Bands, Mike Galea reiterated the idea of family. 

“This is something really fun that we’re doing and [the students] should be excited to share this with people,” Galea said.

The shared performance between the two schools encourages collaboration. 

“[Sometimes] our band members may have heard something that Hillsdale played, and they’ll say, ‘Hey, can we play that one too? That was a cool song,’ or vice versa,” Gallagher said. “I think that it’s important to build that camaraderie between the students and make sure that they’re having a good time.”

Gallagher shared his hopes for the concert. 

“The main goals that we have for any performances are that students do their best and sound their best and [that] they’re proud of the music that they create,” Gallagher said. “Also, being able to take what we’ve learned from rehearsal and apply it to the concert [is key as well].” 

To Hillsdale junior and Jazz Ensemble member Matthew Moyer, performing with his fellow musicians is an exciting experience to look forward to. 

“When the whole band is having fun, it shows to the audience,” Moyer said.

Aside from practicing during class periods, students also worked on their own in the weeks leading up to the concert. Aragon freshman Lizzie Yuan implemented some practicing techniques to ensure she was ready. 

“Playing sections that I struggled with over and over again and listening to recordings helped,” Yuan said. “[It was helpful to] play along with [the recordings] to know where your part fits in.”

Some mentioned the lack of rehearsal time for the concert.

“We’ve been pretty busy recently,” Moyer said. “We had three to five songs that we’ve been sticking to for festivals, and this is the first time that we’ve turned away from those. We didn’t have a ton of time to work on [the new songs].”

One of the songs that Aragon’s Jazz Band played was a rendition of the song “Africa.” Yuan commented on a challenge with practicing the song. 

“It’s hard when you play a song that you already know because the composer might have written it differently than the original,” Yuan said. “In your mind, you have the original so it’s different to understand that the rhythms are not the same.”

The stress from performing can cause students to play differently than they did when practicing.

“The only way to prevent [that] is to perform more and get used to that stress and performing in front of people,” Gallagher said. “The performance itself is the practice.” 

During the concert, in the middle of Aragon’s Jazz Ensemble performance, the power went out on stage due to a storm. Senior and Jazz Ensemble member Evan Hwang reflected on the musicians’ response to the power outage and the concert overall. 

“I was surprised by the lights going off – that was not scripted,” Hwang said. “[But when the lights] turned off, we kept on playing. We could have worked on our intonation a little bit more, but given the hand that we were dealt, it was probably one of the best outcomes we could have had. I’ve had performances before where we made a mistake and we’ve stopped. I really respect the entire band, especially the rhythm section, for keeping on going at it, keeping in time and not rushing or dragging due to panic or fear.”

Audience members commented on the performance. 

“The variety [of songs] was nice,” said Aragon freshman Megan Hugo. “I recognized a few of them like ‘Take Five’ and ‘Africa’ because those songs I listen to, and I’ve heard of them before. It’s nice to see songs people can recognize [as well as] songs people probably haven’t heard of before.”

Aragon’s Jazz Ensemble will play at the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival on March 15 and the music department will host their next event, the Symphonic Pops Concert, on March 29.