The Manhattan High Blue Notes jazz band has been preparing for their winter concert — set to take place this Thursday — since the beginning of the semester, plans have changed since then.

After taking part in the Harlem Renaissance Festival at MHS a couple of weeks ago, orchestra teacher Nate McClendon decided to cancel the concert in order to prepare for an upcoming jazz festival in Wichita taking place April 14 and 15.

“We probably could have played our Harlem Renaissance music that we have prepared,” junior Emma Lansdowne said, “but I think he would rather spend time working up music for the Wichita jazz festival. We’ve got some challenging music that is really pushing our limits.”

The festival provides students with a wide array of experiences, including the opportunity to see famous jazz musician Pat Metheny.

“It’s more for us to hear some other bands and get a chance for another person to kind of clinic us for a little bit,” Landsdowne said. “[Metheny] is a contemporary jazz musician that we have sort of been studying in class and we would really like the experience to go see him in concert as a group.”

Aside from the opportunity to see a famous musician, the jazz band members are going to take the time to gauge other high schools in the area.

“We are looking forward to showing off our mad skills and see how we stack up against other high school jazz bands,” senior Connor McClain said. “We started out very inexperienced and have come quite a long way from the beginning of the year. I’m the bass player and actually just started playing bass this year.”

Jazz band students chalk the cancellation up to McClendon’s teaching style, which is more learning-oriented than concert-oriented.

“[McClendon] pushes us mentally more than any other teacher and he wants us to learn how to be great people, as well as musicians, and he is a real and experienced jazz musician teaching from the soul,” McClain said.