The Tower has retracted a previous version of this article that appeared in the issue published on May 1, 2024, headlined “Ishaan Banerjee ’24 prepares to turn a passion for jazz into a career,” and republished a new version. The previous writer fabricated Banerjee’s responses, and The Tower has communicated our sincerest apologies.

When I met Ishaan Banerjee ’24 for this interview, I found him fixated on one of the practice room pianos, his saxophone in the corner of the room — undoubtedly part of a rehearsal I had just intruded on. Ever since the third grade, Banerjee has been dedicated to jazz and his instrument, the saxophone. He sees band as a team effort, where supporting each other is key to success — Banerjee has twice switched the type of saxophone he plays to cater to the band’s needs. His devotion to jazz has certainly paid off, having given him back a plethora of life experiences. Through his time in high school, he’s toured with the PHS Studio Band and Philadelphia Jazz Orchestra, traveling to Disney, Italy, Monaco, France, and Abbey Road Studios in England. This coming fall, Banerjee is off to Manhattan, where he will study jazz at NYU.

What first got you into jazz? Or just band in general?

I was playing piano when I was four years old, and then I got really bored of it. Once I started playing the saxophone in third grade, I had a couple private teachers that got me into jazz. They introduced me to the music, and since I love listening to the music, I figured it’d be great to start playing.

Do you ever struggle with confidence on stage, and if so, what do you do to deal with it?

A lot of times in competition, it’s easy to get super nervous and lose confidence, but it’s really nice to have a lot of people around me, just like building me up before a performance and making sure that they know or that I know I can sell it really well.

What would you say is your favorite memory in band or Philadelphia Jazz Orchestra?

Going on tour with everyone is super fun. PJO, it's 13 nights of just constant playing and being in a different city all the time. Getting to play in front of a bunch of different diverse groups of people is really cool. And for Studio Band as well, playing in front of really big crowds and seeing crowd reactions is always super fun.

How was changing from alto saxophone to barry and back to alto? Why did you change?

I first started playing alto in third grade, and then changed to barry sax in seventh grade because we didn’t have a barry sax player, and I figured I could help out. It was pretty funny, because the instrument was bigger than me at that time. And then I continued throughout high school because they needed a barry sax player in Studio Band. And then this year, because we didn’t have a lead alto saxophone, Mr. Bongiovi thought it’d be a good idea just for me to switch back, and it’s been super helpful, because I think I’m gonna keep playing alto sax in college.

What are your plans going forward, in relation to jazz?

I’ll be studying jazz at NYU in the fall, and I don’t know if I’m planning on making it a career yet, but studying jazz was always something I wanted to do so I could get better at my instrument. And yeah, we’ll see where it goes from there.

Do you think the role of jazz in the has changed over time, and how do you see it’s role in music today?

You hear a lot of times like the jazz [is] dead thing, but I think that if you look a little deeper, there’s a lot of people that maybe aren’t necessarily doing traditional jazz, but are taking concepts from jazz and incorporating it into popular music.