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The Jazz Band ensemble will bring forward some of its best work in its upcoming concert.

“Number one, it’s going to be very high-quality music,” Jazz Band Director Brian Ward said. “As far as getting a bang for your buck, you’re getting a lot not paying any money.”

The Jazz Band performed in the 2015 Jazz Education Conference and 2016 Washington Music Educators Association, Ward said.

One of the band’s graduate soloists won the DownBeat Soloist Award in the DownBeat magazine. In addition to all of this, the Jazz Band received an honorable mention in the Lionel Jazz Festival.

The theme of the concert is to have all music arranged by graduate students or faculty. Soloists include Machado Mijiga on tenor sax, David Berry on piano, Noah Austin on trumpet and Andrew Dodge on guitar.

“All are in-house arrangements,” Ward said. “The faculty or students have arranged these songs. They’re all covers too.”

They will perform a Charlie Parker tune, called “Buzzy,” arranged by a grad student, “A Night in Tunisia,” arranged by a faculty member, “Round Midnight,” arranged by a grad student, and “Days of Wine and Roses,” arranged by Gregory Yasinitsky, director of the Kimbrough School of Music.

“I kind of like ‘Round Midnight,’ if you were to ask me right now,” Ward said. “It’s a creative arrangement. There is chimes going off on the clock. It goes through different textures and moods. I like stuff like that.”

The six arrangements are all unique with their own styles and moods, Ward said. They range from slow to funk to swing.

“The writing is very interesting in itself, along with a variety of music of different styles,” Ward said. “There is going to be a lot of energy. With this particular concert, we’re not sharing it with anybody or guest artists or another band, so it allows us to kind of stretch out and not be so rushed, let the music breathe and develop.”

The Jazz Band blends its instruments’ sound well and learns music fast, Ward said.

“What we do well is learn new music very quickly,” Ward said, “and there is a certain thing about this particular group. I like the way that they blend and the different colors that we can get from the ensemble.”

The band will perform from 8 – 10 p.m. tomorrow in the Kimbrough Concert Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.

Reporting by Mariah Inman