The Corridor Jazz project returned to perform at the Voxman Music Building in Iowa City Tuesday, March 5, for the first time since 2018 and brought a total of nine bands for performances in the space.
The performance Tuesday was a capper on the seasons of the Lisbon Jazz Band and Mount Vernon Swingin’ Stangs jazz seasons.
As Mount Vernon director Scott Weber noted, it’s been a banner year for the Swingin’ Stangs in jazz competitions. They were second at Lisbon’s jazz festival, earned a Division I rating at state for the ninth straight year and had fantastic performances at Coe and the Northeastern Iowa Bandmaster Association’s district competitions.
“They also made the prestigious wild card list for the Iowa Jazz Championships for the first time in school history,” Weber said.
The Corridor Jazz project, hosted by KCCK, has been held since 2008.
“I routinely say we have some of the best jazz performers in the state in the Iowa City and Cedar Rapids corridor, and this year we have 10 bands who will participate in the Iowa Jazz Championships,” said Dennis Green, station manager of KCCK.
As part of the project, each band performed two different songs at the concert. One of the songs featured a guest artist that played alongside the school and also worked with them to record a track available on the Corridor Jazz Project soundtrack for the year.
Lisbon placed second in Class 1A at Coe earlier in the season. They worked alongside Ed East on tambora for the performance of Merengue Express this year.
Mount Vernon played “Feels So Good” with guest artist Desmond Cervantes, the director of Solon’s bands.
Sawyer Feldman plays a trumpet solo at KCCK Jazz Radio event Tuesday, March 5.