The Saucon Valley High School Jazz Band spent many hours preparing for the Daniel Boone festival on March 13, 2026. During the average 4 hours of rehearsal time per week, I had the chance to interview a few members of the band.

Out of the many songs the Jazz Band rehearsed, the repertoire consisted of “’Samba Naútica’ composed by Toshio Mashima, ‘Brass Roots’ composed by Don Sebesky, and ‘The Mudbug Strut’ composed by Paul Baker,” said director Kaela Bitting.

There were many positive comments about the song selection. Many members of the band said that “The Mudbug Strut” was their favorite piece out of the repertoire. “Mudbug, it’s very up beat and jumpy sounding in general,” senior Moss Jeanmonod said. However, there have been other comments about the song selection because of overall difficulty based on the instrument played. One member specifically said it was, “because of the embouchure.” The embouchure is the way you set your lips on a mouthpiece to play any wind instrument. Embouchures are different for every instrument, which causes different pieces to be difficult to play for different sections of the band.

There were many areas that the band focused on before the festival. They mainly focused on vertical alignment and keeping a constant tempo throughout pieces. Bitting said, “A challenge the band is working on is playing with better precision. We want to have the whole band playing together with good vertical alignment.” Vertical alignment means to have everyone in the band have the right cutoff and entrances. This also influences tempo. If the band is not vertically aligned, it can cause the tempo to rush or drag.

Another issue the band is working on is matching and blending their sound. Jeanmonod said, “The band struggles with tonality and overall matching each other in their sound and time”. Matching tonality and sound can help with dynamic contrast throughout pieces.

The band worked very hard on these problems. Bitting said, “To help the band prepare for this festival we’ve listened to recordings of the pieces, broken down the parts so the performers know how each piece fits together, and reviewed adjudication feedback.” The way the band focused on vertical alignment during past rehearsals helped them have a way better performance at the Daniel Boone festival compared to their first exhibition at Steel Stacks.

The band’s collaboration with one another combined with everyone’s work ethic really helped the band sound their best during the Daniel Boone festival. The audience reported a much better performance and alignment throughout the entire band.