Jazz Band Earns 5th Place At Iowa Jazz Championships

It must be April.

The daffodils are in bloom, the grass is turning green and the Glenwood Jazz Band has earned another trophy at state competition.

Glenwood’s varsity Gold Band finished in fifth place in the Class 3A competition at last week’s Iowa Jazz Championships in Ames.

“Another good year of jazz,” GCHS Jazz Director Dan Schoening said. “The goal is to get into the top eight in general. The top five is that next tier, so placing fifth was really nice for us.

“Third is the highest we’ve ever placed. We’ve gotten fourth a few times, fifth a few times and we’ve been in the top eight every year since 2010, so it’s been quite a nice run.”

Pella placed first in the 3A competition at state with Harlan capturing the runner-up trophy. Denison, a member of the Hawkeye 10 Conference with Glenwood and Harlan, also earned a top eight finish. Schoening said there are between 75 and 100 Class 3A jazz bands in Iowa.

Several schools, including Glenwood, have more than one band. Glenwood was among 15 bands that qualified for the state competition. A dozen bands qualified by finishing first or second at district competitions and three were selected as wildcards. Glenwood qualified by finishing second at the Dick Bauman Jazz Band Festival, a district qualifier for southwest Iowa jazz bands.

Glenwood performed four songs at the state championships – Switch In Time, Black, Brown and Beautiful, I Mean You and Grease Wheezer.

“It was really fun, a great experience,” saxophone player Sydney Rohrberg said.

Schoening said the Glenwood band was a veteran group with no glaring weaknesses.

“We had really good student leadership this year. The work ethic was great,” he said. “The kids always showed up for rehearsals. They were on time. They worked really, really hard. Sometimes they came in and did sectionals on their own, even when I couldn’t be there because I was over at the middle school running the band. They would get together on their own.”

Jessica Herron, who plays the bass and electric guitar, echoed Schoening’s thoughts on the band’s success this year.

“I’m really proud,” she said. “Everybody showed up on time and was there every day,” she said.

Herron and other veteran band members said the competition at the state championships was stronger than one year ago, which made the fifth-place performance even more meaningful. Schoening agreed with his students’ assessment.

“Absolutely. Jazz in general is getting stronger and stronger in Iowa,” he said. “It’s kind of a pioneer in the country – Iowa is known across the country for having the Iowa Jazz Championships. It’s one of the very few states across the country that actually has a state championship like this for jazz.”

In addition to the band’s trophy, two Glenwood band performers earned Outstanding Soloist recognition – Trice Buchanan and Mayer Buchanan.

“Trice has been a great leader this year in the rhythem section,” Schoening said. “He works really hard. He played drums on two songs and he played piano on another song. He stepped up really big. He and Jessica Herron were really good leaders in that rhythm section.

“Mayer is a tuba player, but he plays bass trombone in this. We added his solo in late just for the state championships and he just nailed it. He sounded great.”

“I didn’t expect to win any awards,” Trice Buchanan said.

Schoening said several band members had solos in the following four songs:

Switch in Time - Avery Lorson, Aubrey Mullanix, Tyler Schmitt, Brit Maxwell, Nolan Clark, Trice Buchanan

Black, Brown, and Beautiful - Julia Nightser

I Mean You - Trice Buchanan, Mayer Buchanan, Brit Maxwell

Grease Wheezer - Julia Nightser, Quinn Richardson, Logan Mowery, Jabe Rounds

“I’m pretty sure all of these kids received outstanding soloist awards at some point during our many jazz festivals,” Schoening said. “Solo awards at the championships are very difficult to obtain and the majority of the bands only received one or two.”

Glenwood has now qualified for 19 straight Iowa Jazz Championships. The bar is set high, Schoening acknowledged.

“There’s really only us and three other bands that have had this good of a run over the past 20 years,” he said. “I feel that pressure. I feel that stress, no doubt. The kids are probably handling it way better than I do, to be honest. They’re the ones that say, ‘don’t worry, we’ve got this.’”

Schoening noted that Glenwood had 20 musicians in this year’s Gold Jazz Band that went to state. The school has a second Black Band made up primarily of underclassmen.

“As always, we’re very proud of the kids,” Schoening said. “Thanks to Mr. (David) Clark, he comes over and helps us. He also does a great job of working the younger kids in the second band so when they come up they’re better prepared than we’ve ever had them before.

“We collaborate and work well together. We call it Schark Jazz – a silly play on our names.”