Five school jazz groups and guest artist Christine Fawson performed at Algonquin’s annual Jazz Night on March 1 in the auditorium.

The night began with performances by Trottier and Melican jazz bands, followed by an Algonquin jazz choir, and two Algonquin jazz bands. Fawson, a local jazz singer and instrumentalist, helped students prepare for Jazz Night during rehearsal and accompanied each group on stage.

“I’m all passion, dude, and working with the kids keeps me honest,” Fawson said. “I love young energy… The best musicians I know are kids still.”

According to band director Eric Vincent, playing in the jazz band requires great commitment.

“Jazz bands are extracurricular auditioned groups, and jazz chorus is a unit for the chamber choir,” Vincent said. “They are practicing all the time all year.”

Sophomore Maya Sagarin performed in jazz night with both the second Algonquin  jazz band, and the jazz choir. She feels that jazz is fun because of how different it is from other styles of music.

“Jazz is uniquely American,” Sagarin said. “They play it around the world, but it’s from America, and it’s so different from classical or symphonic stuff because it creates a different mood, and it’s fun to play.”

Freshman Karmyn Shreeve also participated in Jazz Night by playing electric bass for the first Algonquin jazz group. She also plays an upright bass for the school’s orchestra.

“I prefer playing jazz to orchestral music,” Shreeve said. “It’s just more fun to play.”

Contrary to Sagarin and Shreeve, sophomore Harry Marble sings for chamber choir, and disliked the jazz unit.

“It [jazz] is deeply rooted in improv,” Marble said. “I prefer the more structured types of music. Jazz can get really repetitive and boring really fast.”

Despite mixed amounts of enthusiasm from student musicians, according to Vincent, Jazz Night was successful in showcasing all of the performer’s hard work.

“I thought it was great,” Vincent said. “I think the students got a lot out of it.”

“I think it went pretty well,” Shreeve said. “Everyone sounded really good, from the middle school groups, to the choir, and the bands.”