Thirteen students traveled to Vancouver, Washington to participate in the Clark College Jazz Festival, placing second. The competition lasted from Jan. 23 to Jan. 25 and featured a plethora of bands from across Washington and northern Oregon.

The band played three pieces: “Impressions” by John Coltrane, “Work Song” by Nat Adderley and “When Sunny Gets Blue” by Johnny Mercer.

A year ago, jazz band placed third at the Clark College Jazz Festival. Since then, jazz band has only been improving with Kevin Rouse as their teacher.

“[It was] surprising, given how young of a group we have … I think we played pretty well all things considered. As always, there remains some definite room for improvement. I think the good results come from how fun it is to play music as a group. Everyone in the band gets along well, and we’re all committed to getting better,” said senior Noah Slobodin.

Senior Sophia Suhler added, “Everyone had great solos. I’d consider it to be the best competition performance this year.”

The Clark College Jazz Festival was their second jazz competition this year. Their first competition was the Three Rivers League competition in December. In April, jazz band will compete at Mt. Hood Community College.