Shippensburg University’s Jazz Ensemble hosted its yearly concert in the Luhrs Performing Arts Center on Monday, April 15. The SU Department of Music presented the concert, which featured a variety of different jazz scores and plenty of soloists, all of which was put together by the hard work of the ensemble’s members and director Trever Famulare.

The concert opened with “Bone Collection” by Lenny Stack, which was a strong trombone feature. This was followed up by “Oclupaca” by Duke Ellington with a solo by senior Josh Miller on tenor saxophone and “Peg” by Steely Dan.

Next was “Critical Mass” by Jeff Jarvis and “Back Alley Shuffle” by Doug Beach. “Bewitched” was the only song with a vocal feature, sung by sophomore JJ Miller. The final piece before the intermission was “Sanctified Blues” by Wynton Marsalis, which featured a trombone solo throughout the whole piece by senior Nate Widmann.

This year’s Jazz Ensemble is comprised of 19 members, including six graduating seniors —Spencer Burnheimer, Michael Frank, Josh Miller, Allen Peterson, Austin Pliska and Nate Widmann — and graduate student Ryan Cleary. The group only gets two hours of rehearsal a week, and to put together a 12-song set list with many improv elements in that time is impressive.

When the group came back on stage from intermission, the members began to play “Take 5” by Dave Brubeck. The catch was that this was not on the original set list; the group just agreed to do it while backstage. While they played, their director took a seat in the audience.

They moved back into the scheduled programming with “High Maintenance” by Gordon Goodwin. This piece picked up the piece to draw the audience back in after the break. 

“High Maintenance” was followed up by “Paranoid Android” by Radiohead. The keyboard player, Luke Benner, got to shine in this piece with a keyboard break in the middle of the piece. The rest of the ensemble, including the director, took this opportunity to sit as Benner began to play his solo. It started with the proper “Paranoid Android” part but quickly changed to “Maple Leaf Rag” and then to “Victory” by David Maslanka. Famulare eventually walked over and gave him a pat on the shoulder to keep the concert moving.

As the concert came toward its close, the ensemble played “Spain” by Chick Corea and “Saturday Morning Blues” by Mike Tomaro, which opened with a quartet of the rhythm section and senior Thomas Stangel on trumpet.

The final selection of the night was “Cold Duck Time” by Eddie Harris and Les McCann. Before they played the closing selection, Famulare took a moment to thank the ensemble members for their hard work and to acknowledge how hard it can be to put oneself out there by playing a solo, especially improv solos.

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