VA Jazz Trio Takes on BrattRock

The jazz trio formed in the spring of 2024 after Luke Pennell ’26 composed a song titled ”Down and Out.” Performing Arts Chair Steve Cady suggested Luke play the song with other members of the VA Jazz Ensemble, Eric Chen ’27 and Oliver Norkun ’26. After performing in the VA spring concert, the three were asked by Performers On The Go to play in a competition in Boston. This was the first time they played off campus and they won an award for “Best Musicianship!” They will be going back to Boston early next year for the next round of the competition.

The trio started calling themselves Half Giraaffe after applying to play at the BrattRock show. They needed to submit a name and asked Russell Mayhew, math department chair, what they should call themselves. Mr. Mayhew responded with “Half Giraffe” and the group stuck with it. When BrattRock sent a photo of the draft poster with all the band names and they spelled "giraffe" with two a's, the group decided to keep that too.

All of the music the trio performs are original pieces written by Luke. He says, “It's been a dream to write something and then be able to play and perform them with such great musicians. When we first decided to perform together, we had a blast and wanted to keep going. We plan on performing as much as possible throughout the year, and maybe some gigs nearby.”