Dylan Halom ’27 and Conor Jolly ’26: Improv Jazz and Campus Bands

Gustavus Adolphus College offers students different avenues to explore their strengths as musicians and as individuals. Dylan Halom ‘27 and Conor Jolly ‘26 spoke of their time both in official Gustavus ensembles and in their own bands. 

Halom ‘27 and Jolly ‘26, both music education majors, are a part of a number of official Gustavus ensembles, including Gustavus Wind Orchestra and Gustavus Jazz. Halom ‘27 plays tenor saxophone in his ensembles, while Jolly ‘26 plays horn in two ensembles and guitar in Gustavus Jazz. 

The two met in their time at GWO, working on the piece Noir together. This piece was unique, as it involved improvisation, with Halom ‘27 and Jolly ‘26 getting the parts. 

Halom ‘27 said “I have never really done any training thing with my improv, and improvising with another person was definitely new to me. It was a fun time working with Conor to improvise instead of doing my own thing.”

This was echoed by Jolly ‘26, who added “it improved my listening a lot because I can’t just be in my own bubble. I need to improvise my own thing based on what Dylan is playing, on a song that is not already all that easy to play and it was a fine balance.”

On improv for the piece, Halom ‘27 said “When I first got it, I threw a lot of notes out there and saw what I liked to do and had a general shape of what I was going to do and developed that over time. By the end every time I performed it it was similar but was still improv.”

Jolly 26’ mentioned “Noir in particular is less about the specific melodies and more about the atmosphere of what you are playing because you are setting a scene. The question was more of how I set a color for the piece rather than focusing on what I was playing at any given time.”

The pair found that working together on improvisation for Noir helped them foster skills to bring into their future careers.

“We are both going into music education,” said Halom ‘27, “so this is something that is very different. Hopefully when I am a band director I can program pieces that are cool and wacky like this and help students with improvising. It is weird things like this that I have now gone through that I can help prepare students for.”

“I get anxiety performing solo so performing this again and again on tour has helped me deal with that more and will help me help students with that more” added Jolly ‘26. “I have students who get bad nerves and so going through this experience myself will help with giving guidance.”

Along with working in Gustavus ensembles, the two are also involved in campus bands. Jolly ‘26 plays bass guitar for campus band Waking Hours, and both participate in the campus band Pyramid Scheme. They have had the opportunity to discover different sounds and avenues of music at Gustavus Adolphus College and are just getting started.