An opportunity presented itself for the Bloomington South advanced jazz band on Saturday, April 26th. South’s jazz band performed until about 7:30pm, opening for the United States Air Force Airmen of Note jazz band. South band director, Will Nicholas, said “they are the best jazz band in the world, so it’ll be a really fun and exciting concert,” while discussing this experience for his students.

Nicholas talked about how such an opportunity came up for the jazz students, saying that “the Air Force Airmen of Note reached out to them.” Last year, the South advanced jazz band opened for a different Air Force ensemble. “The Airmen of Note are on a Midwest tour and they reached out and it worked out with our school calendar…so I think we got lucky,” Nicholas said.

Nicholas said they have an exciting and upbeat musical lineup for the event, including: “Groove Merchant” by Thad Jones, “I Remember Clifford,” “The Heat’s On,” and “Spain” by Chick Corea. He is excited to start with “Groove Merchant,” saying that it “will be a really exciting song and people will like that.” The same goes for “The Heat’s On,” which is a “really fast and exciting and up tempo” song.

Being one of the biggest events for these jazz students, it is needless to say that they are thrilled and also a little nervous. Senior Kris Cole expressed how she is very excited for the concert because “the Airmen of Note are the highest level of jazz performers in the country, if not the whole world, so it’s going to be really, really cool.” Senior Sean Baker felt similarly, saying that he is “really excited to see the Airmen of Note…they’re the greatest jazz men in the country and I’m really excited to play and open for them.”

Hugo Bout expressed his feeling of honor for having the opportunity to open for the “Airmuzz of Nuzz” as they are a band with much “caliber and notability.” He recalled having opened for “The Band of Mid-America” and how it is “really cool to play for another one and really get to experience it again with probably the best band in the whole world.” Senior Scott Sprinkle had similar feelings as his fellow band-mates, saying “it’s always fun to play big band charts…I’m a little nervous, but I think it’ll be pretty fun to play and it’s kind of an honor.”