Photo courtesy of GCSD

The Greene County High School Jazz Choir performed well in front of a home crowd Monday night for the Iowa High School Music Association State Jazz Choir Festival.

Vocal Director David Heupel says Ram Jive received straight Division I-rating from the judges on Monday and points out that the ensemble’s performance was energetic and fun, and the kids felt great about how they did. Starting out this year, Heupel knew he had some talent from the third place finish at the Iowa Vocal Jazz Championships last year, and describes the somewhat challenging songs for this year’s group.

“We open with a pretty hefty, I call it, swing tune called, ‘Turn It Up’ and it’s got a lot of solos in it and it really moves too, the tempo is really fast. And then, we’re doing a short a cappella piece called, ‘The More I See You.’ And, a lot like last year, last year we finished with a Kerry Marsh piece, it was called ‘Rollercoaster,’  that had a lot to it and featured Daniele Madsen with a good size solo in it. And this year, we’re doing a Kerry Marsh piece called, ‘Circus,’ and that’s got a good size solo feature in it that Daniele’s doing again.”     

Heupel adds that this Saturday will be one of the final two competitions of the year, as Ram Jive heads to North Polk High School, where they won last year in Class 3A. Heupel says they will also submit a recording to be considered for the Iowa Vocal Jazz Championships that takes place in April.