This past Saturday, I had the privilege of performing as a part of Tau Beta Sigma's first annual Fall Showcase. TBS usually does a showcase in the spring, but with the interest level that many people showed, they decided to add another one in the fall this year, and as a Membership Cantidate, I had the opportunity to take part in it.

As someone who spent most of his high-school carreer playing Jazz, when I got to UM there was a bit of a shock as I realized I wouldn't get to play Jazz as often. Showcase provided me the opportunity to do this, and after asking around, I found that there were a bunch of members of the organization that were interested in putting together a Jazz Band to perform! There aren't many opportunities in Jazz through the school of music for those who aren't Jazz majors, and we all wanted to just play. Thus was born the "University Jazz Band!"

The U-Jazz Band performed a tune called "Sandu" (written by Clifford Brown) on Saturday. The arrangment was something I did for the GBN Jazz Ensemble in the Spring of 2007, and our pianist Andrew DeVine (a very accomplished composer/arranger) supplemented the arrangement with an alternate "shout-chorus" ending.

I must say that performing at showcase this weekend has been one of the most enjoyable experiecnes I've had performing in a very long time. It was awesome just being able to play, enjoy the music, and not worry about anything else except what was going on in the song. It was truly the most fun I've had performing in a long, long time.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank every single person who participated in the band (Frankie Pereda, Chris Walker-Alto Sax, Dan Sprague, Brad Newman-Tenor Sax, Jackie Kraus-Bari Sax, Raquel Shifrin, Nick Heilman-Trombone, Mike O'Brien-Baritone, Marissa Wites-Bass Bone, Rachel Hanusa, Chris Kumetz, Kevin Mazzarella-Trumpet, Tyson Greaves-Bass, Mike Heilman-Drums, Andrew DeVine-Piano) for all their hard work on the tune, and for making Saturday so enjoyable! I hope you all had somewhere near as much fun as I did!