On Friday lunchtime during this year's Arts Week students and staff popping into the School Coffee Shop to buy a 
cappuccino were treated to a performance by our
talented Lower VI Jazz musicians.
Izzy Draper (trumpet), Leon Peskett (double bass), Jack Greenslade (keyboard) and Jonathan Ward (drums) are all members of the School Jazz Band who have performed twice already this year at the Friends' Dinner and the CCF Dinner.
They impressed the audience not only with their high level of technical skill, but also their fantastic improvisations.
Sitting in the packed coffee shop, I overheard a few questions about the performance, so here they are again with the answers!
"Where is their music?" They have memorised it through many hours of rehearsal.
"How do they know what to do without a conductor?" Small groups like this rely on listening carefully to each other to stay in time.
The keyboard player usually organises the structure of the piece and uses little signals during the performance to let the other musicians know what to do they watch each other all the time.
"Why do people clap in the middle of a piece sometimes?" Most Jazz pieces follow a similar structure; everyone plays the main tune together first, then they take it in turns to improvise a solo (making it up as they go along). Its quite OK to clap after a particularly impressive solo.
Friday at the Jazz Café was such a success that we are hoping it will become a regular feature!