The changing seasons of the Midwest – the intense heat in summer, bitter cold in winter, and unsurpassable beauty and invigorating weather of fall and spring – is what makes it an interesting place to live. Only robust and virile people can live in such a climate and enjoy it.
-- Nile Kinnick
It's hard to believe that anyone would want to leave Iowa during its renowned summertime -- the heat, the humidity, the flooding -- but the Drake Jazz Ensemble One will make the sacrifice in order to represent our university on a two-week European tour.
We'll be making stops in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and England, and performing at various jazz festivals and local spots of interest. To adequately prepare ourselves for the grandeur of a European tour, the band traveled to Osceola, Iowa, and performed a pre-tour concert as part of the town's Independence Day Festival.
The Osceolans were a great audience, and we were very grateful to perform for them.
Here we are warming-up before the show. It had been 2 months since we had performed together and, obviously, we were very excited for our reunion.
Professor Classen, our director, assisted the trumpet section for a tune.
"Ya Gotta Try" features a tenor saxophone improvisation battle between Kyle Glavanovits (standing on left) and Roland Hart (standing on right). There was no clear winner, as both saxophonists performed admirably -- membership in Drake Jazz Ensemble One, after all, is enough of a prize for any saxophonist!
The stage at Osceola's Clarke Community High School is a great performance space!
Professor Classen
[Photos via Melody De Vos]
After four rehearsals over the course of the next two days, the band will be ready to depart for Amsterdam on Thursday! Watch this blog for updates!
Looks like a BLAST, tell Kyle G to phone home!!!!!!!!!
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