Core Four playing at the River Road Unitarian Church. Photo by Nina Slesinger.

Among many acts at Talent Show this year, one group stood out: the jazz combo Core Four.

With senior Amol Mehta on saxophone, senior Dan Pappalardo on bass, junior Max Light on guitar and senior Aaron Seeber on drums, Core Four performed a jazz rendition of “Heartless” by Kanye West.

Before the talent show, the jazz combo performed at the Chantilly Jazz Festival in March. The four musicians, each a member of the Whitman Jazz band, originally created the Core Four for the festival. They won first place out of more than 20 groups.

“We had played together in the past but we weren’t official until Chantilly,” Mehta says. “We had so much success and fun playing together that we decided to play together more.”

The group subsequently performed at Talent Show as the only jazz act. For students who don’t usually listen to jazz, listening to the Core Four perform was a new and interesting experience.

“I don’t really listen to jazz, so the Core Four really surprised me,” senior Ben Lewis says. “They were awesome and I’ve definitely listened to more jazz since.”

Core Four tried connecting with the audience through a recognizable song instead of an obscure jazz number.

“We wanted to find a song that would appeal to the whole audience,” Seeber says. “We went onto YouTube to find a popular hip-hop song and ‘Heartless’ just came up.”

Apart from the melody, the group had to develop the tune on their own. The saxophone played the melody while the rest of the combo played a typical chord arrangement.