Westside High School’s Concert Jazz and Stage Band recently earned superior ratings and received 14 awards for Outstanding Soloists at the Morningside Jazz Festival; with Westside’s Concert Jazz Band also winning Festival Grand Champion. Two students who received outstanding awards for soloist were Stage Band members sophomore Logan Sanchez and freshman Nathan Swanson. Westside Jazz Band Director Tom Krueger explained the difficulties with the Jazz solos both Sanchez and Swanson performed.

“All of our solos are completely improvised, they are made up completely on the spot,” Krueger said. “We talk about the different style choices we can make while they are making their solos or different note choices, so a lot of aspects go into it, but it’s a lot of fun where they can bring in their own creativity and put in their own voice to the song that we are performing.”

Swanson said that he had a slightly different preparation method than Sanchez did for their solos.

“[While I was preparing for my solo, it’s important to] mainly just [practice] and [understand] the chord changes, what notes sound good, etc.,” Swanson said. “Jazz solos are pretty much free style, as they are usually not written in, so pretty much just doing your best and putting good notes together created a good solo. It meant a lot to me because of all the work I put into making it sound the best I could.” 

Sanchez said he was happy as well as surprised to have won the award, and that he thinks that his musicality and improvisation helped him win.

“To be honest I didn’t expect to win any award for my solo,” Sanchez said. “To me, improvising is more rewarding, I think of something that would sound cool, and I play it. I don’t like to put too much thought into my solos because I think I filter what I play too much and it wouldn’t sound [as good].”

Swanson said that he was thankful that Krueger helped him learn how to create his award winning solo. 

“I do want to thank Mr. Krueger for helping me learn how to make a great solo,” Swanson said.