“We’ll have songs not only from regular composers, but also from ‘The Polar Express’ and ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,’ but a jazz arrangement,” said Director Tiffany Nelson.

“Everybody knows ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,'” she said, “but (the audience) will like the way the arrangers move the melody and give it to different sections. You’ll hear ‘Rudolph,’ but with variations to it.”

Normally, 515 Big Band concerts are on Fridays, but with the Christmas holiday approaching, the December concert is on a Tuesday.

“We thought, too, everybody will be home,” Nelson said. “We’ll get a bigger crowd, just give people something to do.”

-Photo by Jacob Allen Photography
Steve Lawson plays the keyboard for the 515 Big Band. Pictured in the background are Rod Shedenhelm on trumpet and Dan Cassady on trombone.

The concert will begin at 7 p.m. at Historic Phillips Auditorium, with doors opening at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets are $15 for adults, and free for all students through college age.

She said this concert will be mostly holiday tunes with some fan favorites thrown in.

Nelson’s personal favorite is “Hot Chocolate” from ‘The Polar Express,’ where one of the players yells, “hot chocolate,” at the end.

“It’s fun for the audience and an inside joke for the band,” she said.

-Photo by Jacob Allen Photography
The saxophone section of the 515 Big Band, from left, features Gaylin Sudik, tenor sax; Tiffany Nelson, alto sax; Ryan Mayer, alto sax; Steve Neeve, tenor sax; and Steve Nelson, bari sax.

Other Christmas selections will include “The Little Drummer Boy,” “Comfort and Joy,” “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow,” “Angels We Have Rocked on High,” and “Deck the Halls.”

Nelson, along with a couple of band members, selected the music for the upcoming concert.

“Sometimes Christmas music can get overplayed and a bit chintzy,” Nelson said. “There are some really terrible arrangements out there.”

So she and the band are very particular about the charts, or jazz music, they choose to perform.

“When we pick a chart out, we want the audience to enjoy it,” Nelson said, “but we also want to challenge our players as well.”

The band will also play “Jazz Police,” Nelson said, as a tribute to Gordon Goodwin, a prevalent jazz composer and arranger who passed away earlier this month.

“In our generation of jazz … he’s one of the top names of the time,” she said.

The 515 Big Band consists of five saxophones, four trombones, four trumpets, a guitar, a bass guitar, trap set and keyboard player — all musicians from both locally and around the state of Iowa.

Unlike more traditional music groups, where all music is selected by the director, in the 515 Big Band, any member can bring a chart to rehearsal for the group to play and see how it sounds.

“The band as a whole decides if they like it,” Nelson said.

If not, then the piece will not be added to the group’s repertoire.

However, Nelson ultimately makes the final set list for each concert, chosen from the approximately 100 songs or so that the group has in its library.

“The people who have never been to our concerts, they are absolutely floored at the amount of talent on the stage,” Nelson said. “They’re hearing old-time jazz all the way up to contemporary jazz.”

She said most of the band is featured during the concert through solos and full ensemble playing.

“We have a great group of musicians,” Nelson said. “They’re not only great musicians, but they’re great people.”

One unique feature of 515 Big Band performances is the interaction with the audience.

“When we’re on stage, we have a good time while we play,” she said. “We try to go back and forth with the audience and make it entertaining, too.”

She said some people are turned off at first by the term “jazz.”

“But then they come and sit in the seat and are blown away by what we bring,” Nelson said. “We would love to fill the seats at every concert and get people back into hearing jazz.”

The band aims to both entertain and teach.

“We play, but then we also give the historical value behind the song,” Nelson said. “We like to tell the audience what we play and why we’re playing it.”

This goes along with the band’s ultimate goal.

“Our mission is to keep jazz alive,” Nelson said. “Every single person on that stage really values that mission and carries it out at every concert that we do.”

515 Big Band Christmas

What: “The 515 Big Band Christmas” concert

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday; doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Where: Historic Phillips Auditorium, 1015 Fifth Ave. N.

Tickets: $15 for adults; free for all students through college age.