Jazz filled the air in the Great Bend High School auditorium Tuesday night as the GBHS Jazz Band took the stage for its fall concert, which was open to the public.  Soloists include Ben Diel, Aaron Schultz, Michael Raymer, Michelle Rooney and Allison Regehr, practicing since August, weeks before classes started, were polished and ready to show their chops.
The selections took listeners on a trip through time, skipping around the decades first the Duke Ellington big-band sound of the 1930s with Caravan (1936) and Mood Indigo (1930), two songs that had Ellington’s New Orleans born clarinetist Barney Bigard to thank for his influence.
Ray Charles wrote “What’d I say,” back in 1947.  Raymer, on alto sax, performed a solo that brought a rousing applause from audience members during the call and response song.  
Fast forward to the 1950s and 1960s with the “Swinging Shepherd Blues” (1957) by Morris “Moe” Koffman and “Walk Don’t Run” (1960) by Johnny Smith and performed most famously in 1964 by The Ventures.  
Koffman established his reputation as one of the great influential jazz flute players with “Swinging Shepherd Blues.” That flute influence was replaced with a rousing trumpet solo by Aaron Shultz.  “Walk Don’t Run” was delivered with a fast-paced tempo and still just enough surfer influence to please.
Not to short change the ladies, the GBHS band included the popular “Just in Time” by Jule Styne.  The song, paired with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green were performed by Judy Holliday and Dean Martin in the 1960 film of Bells Are Ringing, and was later released by Tony Bennett and  Michael Bublé in 2006.
The 1970s were represented by Lee Dorsey’s “Working in a Coal Mine” and Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me.”
Raymer added cowbell to Coal Mine, which gave the song just enough of an industrial flavor, and Maxwell McGilber’s drums punctuated the upbeat song about the drudgery of working.
Probably the most memorable piece of the evening, though, was “Come In from the Rain,” by Melissa Manchester and Carol Sager.  Soloist Ben Deal traded in his trumpet for a flugalhorn, and Skylar Lee on chimes and Allison Regehr on piano all combined to help set the soft, slow, dreamy tone of the song that starts off almost like a lullaby.  Then, McGilber, Regehr and Deal led the band as the music swelled, leading up to the end.
The band ended the evening with a song that lent a Latin influence. “Coco Walk” by Victor Lopez was meant to evoke the sense of being on Miami Beach in the summer, and the GBHS Jazz Band delivered.  
“It may seem like a short concert, but I can assure you the band has been working very hard for several weeks now,” band director Mark Dewald said.  The effort paid off.