Mayfield’s Jazz Band is set to perform at the upcoming spring band concert on Wednesday, May 4.

Band director Brad Treiber says the spring concert is about showing how the band has improved over the course of the year, while also giving seniors one last opportunity to perform. “We do new music for every concert. Typically for the holiday concert, we do more holiday-themed tunes, but for the spring concert, we try to pull out all the stops and at each concert, we try to raise the bar a little bit,” he said.

Treiber, with help from the band members, have selected songs that will challenge the group and allow them to expand their abilities. “I have a pretty good idea of what will fit the group. There is also student input, sometimes we play through a bunch of tunes and charts, and whatever speaks to the players in jazz band and fits the band we’ll roll with it,” said Treiber.

This school year’s 90-minute class schedule has changed the format of how the band practices. “[The block schedule] has really led to us being able to do a lot more and a lot more challenging music because we have the time to work on it,” said Treiber.

Senior band president Charlie Klein plays multiple instruments within the bands and serves as marching band field commander. He said, “Jazz is completely different from concert or marching music, most of the music is swung, which has a different feel. The music is completely different, as we take traditional jazz tunes and put a spin on them.”

The jazz band will be playing more difficult pieces for the last concert of the year, such as ‘Arnge Drank’. Klein said, “There are many moving parts and it is especially difficult for the saxophones with challenging licks and a quick tempo, but the subtitle is orange juice with attitude.”

According to sophomore Erika Gathy, a harder song to perform is “What Is Hip.” She said, “It’s definitely the most challenging to play because of its rhythms, and [the] range it is difficult for the band to play together and correctly.”

Klein thinks the band has had plenty of opportunities to learn tough songs and get them ready for shows, as they’ve performed multiple times throughout the community this year. He said, “[At Schnurmann House during the holidays], we played tunes like ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ and ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’. It was just a really fun gig.”

Three new pieces will be played for the spring concert, which the band started preparing before spring break. Treiber said, “We typically need four or five to six weeks to prepare a piece.”

The spring band concert is free to attend and begins at 7pm in the auditorium on Wednesday, May 4.