With the fall marching band coming to an end, it’s time for jazz to take the spotlight.
Nov. 6 was the first meeting for the jazz band and tryouts for the varsity and junior varsity. From now until the end of the season, practices will be held on Mondays. The opening meeting for Robinson’s jazz band had begun with a quick session of getting in the groove and getting familiar with the rules and expectations, followed by a viewing of informational and instructional jazz videos on the main projector and finally the varsity tryouts.
“Today is the first day so we’re doing applications and tryouts and just going over material. You only have to audition to make varsity. There are people in jazz band that aren’t in band, so you don’t have to be in band to be in jazz band,” said Hailey Irvan (’25), who is a second-year jazz band member.
To be in varsity, you’d need to be an experienced musician or at least been playing for a year. For some instruments with higher numbers of player, like trumpets, you have to go through an audition to make the varsity jazz band. The JV team isn’t just starters or outside musicians, it’s players that had fought and didn’t make the cut for varsity band. The two bands are not set in stone as if any JV player shines above the rest or if a varsity player slacks off, the teams are open to changes.
To join jazz band, you’d need to talk with Band Dirctor Christopher Revett in in the band room, room 6-103. Joining the team is the easy part as you just need to be able to bring an instrument to the table at any point in the bands running time, but the difficult part is joining varsity as, depending on the instrument, can be neck to neck.
“There’s not really a last day [to join] we had our interest meeting and we’re starting rehearsals on the Monday we get back from break. Right now, our concerts are planned for the spring, and we have a music performance in April,” Revett said.
