By Steven Chen
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Jazz à la Mode, a jazz band performance, will be on April 23, 24 and 25 at 7 p.m. each night in Room P105. All four jazz bands will perform all three days in a night club setting while the guests receive pie, cake, coffee and soft drinks. The concert will conclude around 9 p.m.

“What we do is we take the band room, and we kind of turn it into a night club setting. We bring in special lighting and tables, so it’s a very relaxing atmosphere,” band director Richard Saucedo said.

The concept of Jazz à la Mode started a few years ago. “We just got an idea of turning our own band room into a night club and seeing how it would work and seeing if people would enjoy,” Saucedo said. “It started out just being one night, and now we have so many people who like to attend that we have to go three nights.”

According to Saucedo, the purpose of the concert is a fundraiser to help the band program cover its costs. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Bookstore, and limited tickets can be purchased at the door for $13. Complimentary pie and beverages will be served from 6 to 7 p.m., while the music begins at 7 p.m.

Alan Hill, Jazz 3 student and sophomore, plays the trombone and has been in jazz band since the sixth grade. According to Hill, some of the pieces that Jazz 3 will play include “Gravy Waltz,” “Blues in the Closet,” “Afro Blue” and  a jazz remake of “Thriller.”

Jazz 3 has two major performances each year, Jazz at the Roof and Jazz à la Mode. However, there was a bit of scheduling change last year as the jazz band experimented with different dates for the two events.

Saucedo said, “We found that Jazz at the Roof always works better on a Friday. So we went back to doing that in a Friday in March, which we’ve always done.”

Jazz à la Mode was scheduled near the end of the year, so that the jazz bands could work on practicing their pieces with more time since it is a second semester course only.

“That gives them the first half of the second semester to work on Jazz at the Roof and the second half of the second to work on Jazz à la Mode,” Saucedo said.

“It’s fun. It’s rambunctious,” Hill said. “It sets up a good atmosphere for eating pie and listening to jazz.”