Sun Prairie Jazz Festival Swings Through Pandemic

The Annual Sun Prairie Jazz Festival embraced a new format for this year.  As the pandemic has limited how we can all interact as musicians our sessions went virtual to allow the festival to continue.

Throughout the afternoon students were able to access eleven sessions including masterclasses on each instrument, and several jazz improvisation sessions.  Clinicians included Reggie Thomas-piano, Rick Haydon-guitar, Jeff Campbell-bass, Jim Huwe-drums, Doug Stone-saxophone, Eric Jacobson-trumpet, and Steve Horne-trombone. Improvisation sessions included "Finding Lyricism through the Blues" with Reggie Thomas, "Stepping Stones: Strategies for Internalizing Tunes" with Doug Stone, "Jazz Patterns: A Systemic Approach to Improvisation," with Eric Jacobson, and "Improvising on the Drum set" with Jim Huwe.

We were joined by students from West DePere High School, Fond du Lac High School, Cedarburg High School, Oak Creek High School and Sun Prairie High School and Cardinal Heights.  This was a great day of digging deeper into our craft, and we are looking forward to a live festival next year.