The NRHS bands kicked off the fall season with their extremely jazzy concert on Tuesday, October 14th. The stage was decked out with fall themed decorations, with red and yellow flowers along and a pumpkin on each side. This was the first concert for Nashoba’s new band director, Mr. McCarthy. At exactly 7 o’clock, he walked confidently onto the stage in his tux, with a yellow boutonniere to match the stage setup. He rushed his speech, seeing how eager the audience was to see the first ensemble perform.

The Intermediate Jazz band performed first. McCarthy conducted close to the band, but really let them do their own thing. “Zoot Suit Riot”, an upbeat, fast moving song, kicked off the concert. The song featured four improv soloists, performances by Marcus Braudis, Daniel Barnes, Ben Fox and Harrison Carter. Next up in the listing was “Moondance”, a slow moving jazz song. The mood of the concert was brought to a slow hult as this was played, but soon after the atmosphere brightened up with the song “St. Thomas’”. This arrangement seemed to fit the group perfectly, and featured Braudis on saxaphone again, along with another appearance of Carter on trumpet. Braudis’ solo blew the audience away with his improv and he seemed content with his performance.

The Advanced Jazz Ensemble brought up their talent from last year, and the audience cheered even louder for this group. “Get it On” featured hard hitting improv solos from John Atkinson, Zach Honig, and Sam Griffin rocking it out on guitar. His solo was the one that impressed the audience the most, but the genius of the group was only starting to be shared. “MacArthur Park”, a song that had moments of slow paced tempos, along with very fast upbeat ones. Zach Weber performed a slow tempoed, written solo in the piece. “Round Midnight” featured Dan Yapp on the flugelhorn, a member of the saxhorn family, and he periodically switched to trumpet. His talent exploded in the arrangement; throughout the song, the baritone sax, played by Kristen Williams, carried out the piece. Their last song started out with a bass solo from Sam Kieth, which really set a high expectation for the rest of the song. The expectations were met from other improvised solos from Jim Ervin, Garth Carey, John Atkinson, Zach Weber and Dan Yapp.

Concert band ended the production with some eerie Halloween songs. “Creepy Classics for Band” started their selection and seemed to be a mixture of songs put together. The energy of this piece was incredible, and seemed to be a favorite in this ensemble. “On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss” was slow and sweet, and it was a great break from the high energy of the first song. “Into the Storm” concluded the concert and the percussion section in the ensemble carried out this piece.

Mr. McCarthy ended the concert by thanking the audience and parents of the musicians and struck the stage with the concert band. The next performance is their holiday concert on Friday, December 12th in the auditorium.