Niles West hosted a special event: a jazz concert that featured the Niles West and Niles North jazz bands collaborating with the Dan Wilson Quintet on the evening of September 19th.

The night started with the Niles North jazz band playing a variety of pieces, including solos from different members.

Following the Niles North jazz band, the Niles West jazz band took the stage, joined by Wilson on the guitar. The band played two songs: Bossa Nueva by Jeff Jarvis and Jeanine by Duke Pearson. The songs featured solos by Wilson and various band members including junior Anthony Burns on guitar, senior Jude Grant on the piano and a closing solo by senior lead percussionist Daniel Baker.

Burns has been a jazz band member since his freshman year at Niles West. This was his first time performing with Wilson in front of a crowd. Before the show, Burns was eager for the moment to begin.

“I’m feeling really excited, but I’m also nervous. This is our first performance of the year, with all the freshmen that came in and without people that graduated. We’re playing with Dan Wilson who is probably one of the best guitar players out there right now.  [The Dan Wilson Quintet] are all world-class musicians,” Burns said.

Grant has also been a jazz band member since his freshman year. Grant plays the piano gracefully, and his past three years in the jazz band have helped him grow into the musician he is today.

“In the past, we’ve performed at festivals—we go to festivals every year—and there are other world-class musicians there who give us feedback and we get to watch concerts after, it’s really fun stuff,” Grant said.

Baker joined the jazz band during his junior year and was especially excited about the night’s performance since it was a joint set with the Niles West and Niles North bands.

“I’m feeling excited and I feel like there’s a spirit of competitiveness, so I think we’re ready to perform,” Baker said.

The night’s event was extra special with the collaborating parties melding their sounds beautifully. After Niles West wrapped up their set, Wilson and his bandmates took the stage and performed a lengthy, versatile set. At one point during the performance, guests got to experience an improvised, intimate moment where the bassist sang a song as Wilson accompanied him on stage.

After the concert, a standing ovation roared and the D219 jazz bands’ cheers for the Dan Wilson Quintet echoed through the auditorium. Parents ran to congratulate their children, and jazz band members discussed their thoughts on the quintet’s set. Both Grant and Baker were lively following the performance.

“I thought it was a really good concert. Sometimes at concerts, you don’t know what you’re going to get, if it’s really going to be the band or just them playing tracks through a speaker, but this was cool, we got a very intimate experience. The bassist came up and sang a song and we weren’t something like that, we’re very lucky,” Grant said.

Baker agreed and shared that the jazz band had been practicing with Wilson for some time, so seeing Wilson perform with his Quintet was the cherry on top of a successful D219 concert.

“[Practicing with Wilson] was a great learning experience and I can always take something from every time we play, especially with such skilled musicians. We did the master class, where Jude, Anthony and I went up to play. We made a very special connection with him and the rest of the band,” Baker said.

Niles West band director Justin Johnson has been with the Niles West program for 13 years. This wasn’t his first time integrating the bands though. Niles West and Niles North have collaborated many times, thanks to Johnson and Niles North band director Michael Moehlmann. Johnson and Moehlmann aren’t only co-district band directors though, they’re good friends, and that makes for great chemistry between the two bands.

“Mr. Moehlmann and I collaborate all the time. We’ve taken trips together. I mean we’re not rivals. People make music all the time, so, there’s no like rivalry like we would have if we were playing football against each other. It’s more of an uplift of all the programs in the district. There’s no sense in us having a great experience and not inviting them to come and take part with us,” Johnson said. 

Johnson was proud of the bands and their collaboration, and he thought the Wilson Quintet performance was a treat for everyone in attendance.

“Thursday night, he played with both of the Niles West and Niles North jazz bands and his group played at the end, it was a great concert. I felt really good about it. It’s been two years of us trying to put this performance together. We finally got it done this year, it took a lot of long streams of emails and phone calls to make it happen and I’m glad we finally got it done,” Johnson said.