The Piano Man: Sophomore Nash Ohlund has made new friends and renewed his interest in piano through jazz band

The drums hissed and roared on stage as sophomore Nash Ohlund sat upright at the piano in black pants, dress shoes and button-up, laying down supporting chords in “Conflagración” and waiting for his solo. 

The trumpets and trombones went silent. 

He looked down from his sheet music at his hands, and began to play. Leaning forward, head rocking to the beat, his fingers danced across the keys, chasing the flying rhythm.

“I like how exposed [jazz band] is,” Nash said. “It wouldn’t make me feel good if I messed up and no one noticed. Because then what am I even there for?”

Nash and four other players from East’s top jazz band, the Blue Knights, were selected to perform in front of the state’s top music educators with the Kansas Music Educators Association All-State jazz band on Feb. 22, joining the best jazz players in Kansas. Nash earned the only piano chair over some of the best upperclassmen in the state.

“[Nash] is by far our best player in jazz,” Ohlund’s bandmate and senior Davis Muther said. “Not only because he plays a hard instrument, but because he’s so good at it. His solos are really good, his playing is really thought out, and he practices a lot.”

Nash has been playing in jazz bands for only two years. After switching to jazz after playing classical music by himself until eighth grade, Nash has renewed his passion for music and developed close friendships with other musicians at East.

His first time playing piano was on his grandma’s half sized keyboard at just 5 years old. After eight years of playing classical piano independently, his mom convinced him to join East’s lower jazz band, the Blue Notes, where he played with other instruments for the first time in a new style of music.

“I was starting to get bored around middle school,” Nash said. “Then I discovered jazz in high school, and now I’m fully immersed.”

In his freshman year in East’s lower jazz band, then seniors Henry Revare and Delia Cashman and then junior Ruby Wagner recruited him to form the Whitney Payne quartet. Together they play a variety of gigs around Kansas City at breweries, festivals and local businesses playing jazz standards, remixes and original music.

“He didn’t know a lot about jazz, to be honest,” quartet member Ruby said. “But Henry taught him a lot, and now he’s excelling at a crazy level. Now he’s super involved.”

They would practice every day after school in Nash’s basement, half rehearsing songs and half messing around — rigid practice is just as important for them as playing spontaneously syncopated riffs and listening to Drake for inspiration.

“If we hadn’t been close friends and had similar interests, we probably wouldn’t have gotten to the point where we are now,” Ruby said.

But Nash’s success isn’t just because of his teachers or his 12 years of experience — it’s the hours he spends playing and listening to jazz. When he comes home from school, he practices on two keyboards he’s gotten the past two Christmases — an Upright Yamaha in his living room and a Casio Juno DS 88 with customizable sounds upstairs.

“He’s genuinely interested in jazz and he really enjoys it,” band teacher Alex Toepfer said. “Which helps a lot because he listens to it and it helps him understand the style and make it his own.”

At home, with friends and in the car, Nash is always listening to his favorite jazz musicians like Brad Meldau and Keith Jarrett — hearing new note combos and rhythms to break out later in practice. By listening to other musicians, he’s learning to improvise better and improve his solos in the Blue Knights.

“Nash is listening to jazz a lot right now,” Ruby said. “He’s kind of in love with jazz, and you can hear that in his playing, that he actually listens to the music. That’s a big thing.”