The Glenbrook South jazz bands and vocal jazz group Scat That performed at Fitzgerald’s, a venue known for its live jazz. A variety of jazz bands and musicians joined together on this day to share their music and learn from one another, an experience that Scat That felt very fortunate to have.

Senior David Sucher is a second-year member of Scat That, being the piano player last year and a singer this year. Sucher shares that he loves watching other musicians and learning from their performances.

“I’m looking forward to watching other jazz musicians because at Fitzgerald’s I always know Chi-Town Jazz Fest does a great job and has really great musicians at their venues,” Sucher said.

Sucher sees the fest as an opportunity to perform the songs that the group has been playing all year and make them stronger than they were before. He knows that this performance in particular will push the group to perform at its best and help them improve for the future.

“It’s always a good experience,” Sucher said. “We’re performing all of the songs that we have learned this year; that’s going to be great for us to perform all of them and solidify them for another concert later in the year.”

Senior Aaron Kahn is a first-year member of Scat That, so he has not had as many opportunities to perform with the group. Kahn feels privileged to have been asked to perform at the jazz fest and sees it as something beyond anything he has ever done before.

“It’s something that I feel honored to be able to go and perform at and that we were asked to do that just because it is such a bigger deal than just singing at any high school functions that we may make ourselves,” Kahn said. “This is something that other people have created and they’re asking us to be a part of something, and that’s an awesome opportunity.”

Kahn hopes to prove to the audience that high school students are capable of much more than they are given credit for. He believes that the group is capable of performing on a professional level and that Fitzgerald’s will be the perfect venue to prove that.

“We’re the only vocal high school jazz group there, so I hope the audience will gain the knowledge that high school students can sing these songs just as well as [professionals] can and that we’re a great group,” Kahn said.

Senior Anna Busch, a singer in Scat That, is well-aware of the legitimacy that the club has been known to have and feels lucky to have the opportunity to perform there.

“I know that Fitzgerald’s has the reputation as being a really influential nightclub for jazz performances in the Chicagoland area, so I think having the opportunity to perform at a location with such a long-standing history and such an impressive reputation is an experience that I really wouldn’t trade for anything,” Busch said.

Busch believes that the group’s performance at the Chi-Town Jazz Fest will be unlike any others that the group has or will ever perform because live music cannot be repeated and no two performances are alike.

“Every show is different, and I think that’s one of the things that is really special about live music because you can never exactly replicate the same performance,” Busch said. “I think it’s something that has to stay in that moment, which is really cool and unique.”