As neon lights lit up the disco ball and funky basslines blared, students dressed in glittery outfits packed into the Harris Center for Grinnell’s annual Disco Harris. But behind the spectacle, the seamless transitions, the crowd-favorite classics and the electric ABBA encore, is a band built on trust, improvisation and a strong collaborative spirit.
For many members, Disco Band, which performed on March 28 this year, is less a fixed ensemble and more a constantly evolving collective. Recruitment happens through a mix of auditions, word of mouth and instinct.
“Obviously, we have a lot of people from last year,” said Abigail Davison `26, band leader and trumpet player. “It’s also word of mouth a lot of times. I knew their talent. I knew they needed to be here.”
Regan Reedy `26, singer, said openness is part of what makes Disco Band distinct. “It’s kind of all over the place. We just find people who are good. Music at Grinnell can feel very nepotistic, and if you’re in, you’re in, and if you’re not, then you’re not. But this year, I think, is such a good opposite of that,” she said.
Reedy added it was amazing to be able to give opportunities to musicians, especially those who had never performed before.
“We have such a talented group of musicians. Even if we do tend to have a little, like, ‘whoop, what’s happening there’ moment, the musicians are able to just kind of fill in for everybody,” said Davison.
Even new members felt that cohesion almost immediately.
“One thing that stood out was that everyone was super talented,” said Aarav Sharma `28, guitarist. “Usually, you take three or four rehearsal sessions to learn a song properly. But in this case, we would do three or four play-throughs and get 90 percent of the song.”
“We knew what was going wrong and how to fix it immediately,” he added. “Everyone would just get it on the spot.”
Jackson Waters `27, bassist and guitarist, agreed. “They’re all super nice, and we just jammed, basically. I think the chemistry was kind of there from the start,” he said.
According to Davison, much of that chemistry comes from flexibility. Many members play multiple instruments, and roles often shift mid-performance. “It was so cool that so many people are multi-instrumental,” Davison said. “The singers would go off to practice something, then I would come back. Everyone flipped instruments and did something random and crazy.”
That trust was especially important for singers, said Reedy. “Maybe it’s not gonna go perfect, but we got each other’s back,” she said. “Knowing that the band is behind us in every capacity is so amazing.”
The band’s ability to operate this fluidly is built on hours of preparation. This year’s show stretched to about an hour and a half — more than double their showtime last year.
“We definitely rehearsed for 30 hours,” Davison said. “And that’s not even counting when the singers met alone and the horns met alone.”
Even with that structure, the process remained collaborative. Caporin “Cap” Rock `27, keyboardist, said Davison let them all add songs to the playlist, and choose what they wanted to do from there.
“There were like 60 songs on the pre-playlist. It was seven hours long,” Davison said. “We had to keep the classics like ‘September’ and ‘YMCA,’” Davison said. “But then for everything else, I was like, guys, tell me what you want to do.”
Davison said planning the setlist required a lot of consideration for the night’s energy. “When we already decided what the set list was going to be, I went through and I was like, okay, we have to have some ebbs and flows,” she said. “‘I’m Every Woman’ and ‘Rock with You’ were more chill. I was like, we gotta give people the break. We got like, shake your ass a little bit, but not bump it the whole time. So we kind of started big and then got a little slow and chill.”
Several band members also held a soft spot for different songs on the setlist.
“It’s hard to choose,” Sharma said about his favorite song. “But probably ‘Fly As Me’ and ‘Higher Ground.’ Also ‘Where Is My Husband!’ — it’s hard to pick just one.”
Waters pointed to the opening sequence as a highlight. “I liked ‘In the Stone’ and ‘Boogie Wonderland.’ That was a fun one. I think it’s a song that we played probably the best that night,” he said.
Other members found meaning in individual moments. Benjamin Sheeley `26, trumpet player, pointed to ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!’ as a standout, since he wrote the horn part with Ian McDonald `25.5, postbaccalaureate fellow in the music department.
“It was really good to be able to play that part and do it justice, especially as a senior,” he said.
He added that McDonald, alongside Rock, wrote music for the horn and transcribed their setlist.
Darian Vazquez `27, who played the baritone saxophone, echoed that appreciation for arrangement and blend, saying the harmonies in ‘Lay All Your Love on Me’ stood out.
“There’s a keyboard solo in the middle of ‘YMCA,’” Rock said. “It was just such a moment where I can just kind of let loose and get into it.”
“‘Play That Funky Music’ was my recommendation,” said Olivia Brown `28, singer. “Seeing the crowd … it was just like, oh my God. It was a good time.”
“I got to rap a little bit more,” said Jadyn Al-Fatah `27, singer. “I had a lot of fun just kind of speaking it out and interacting with the crowd.”
As the curtains swung shut and the crowd screamed for an encore, the band came back on stage, closing with ‘Voulez-Vous’ and ‘Lay All Your Love on Me’ by ABBA. One of the night’s biggest moments, the finale carried emotional weight for the seniors.
“I was like, oh my God, this is gonna be the last disco song I’m ever gonna play onstage,” Davison said. “Regan needed to do the final verse because we’re both seniors, and we put so much work into this. I was like, this is my love note. This is Regan’s love note. This is a love note from all of us. This is like, we’re done, so lay all your love on me.”
