At 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 25 the Southwest jazz band held a concert. The concert featured pieces that the jazz band has been preparing since third term started.

“I felt very prepared for this concert, the jazz band has been practicing a lot,” sophomore Kieston Delka said. “Even though we haven’t had that many in-school practice days recently, I feel like we were very prepared as a band.”

Southwest has four different jazz bands that meet and practice throughout the day, freshman jazz, prep jazz, jazz I and jazz II. This concert features all of the jazz bands and showcased the work they put in to make this concert possible.

“We’ve been working on these pieces since the beginning of third term, and we’ve put a lot of work into them,” junior Ezra Erickson said. “I just really love music, and being able to play it and share it with others around me.”

Each jazz band played three to five songs at the concert, the songs ranged from soulful and moody blues to upbeat and jazzy pieces. Each jazz band plays one to three formal concerts in the auditorium with other opportunities to perform at other events like Swing Night.

“I love performing because it’s exciting and every performance is different,” sophomore Julia Falcone said. “I’ve loved music all my life, so getting to play it is always fun for me.”

Later in the school year, during fourth term, all LSW jazz band students participate in Swing Night. The LSW Swing Night is a band performance that the jazz band performs while people swing dance to it. Swing dancing is a playful partner dance often set to jazz music.

“Jazz band is so fun because I love performing fun pieces that I’ve worked really hard on throughout the school year,” Delka said. “Swing night is probably my favorite event that we play because it’s so upbeat and fun.”