On Friday, February 6, twenty members of Notre Dame Academy’s Jazz Band traveled to UW–Stevens Point for a day filled with music and mentorship.
The jazz band, an extracurricular ensemble, includes 22 students, but the group for the festival was slightly smaller due to illness and obligations. They meet twice a week, Monday afternoons and Thursday mornings to practice and prepare for performances.
According to Jazz Band director and music teacher Steve Johnson, the UW–Stevens Point Jazz Festival is not actually a competition.
“It’s not really a competition or just a showcase,” Johnson explained. “It’s an educational experience. The reason I like taking the band is that they have high-level clinicians.”
At the festival, students warmed up, performed for judges, and then received immediate feedback and constructive work.
“After we play, the judges give comments and then work with the students for 30 to 35 minutes, a lot gets done in a short amount of time, and students get a lot out of it,” Johnson said.
This year’s clinicians included Ryan Corb and Patricia Darling. Students also had the opportunity to attend instrument-specific classes taught by UWSP faculty.
The group got to enjoy a guest artist concert featuring UWSP’s student ensemble and guest artist David Ambrosio.
Johnson himself began playing jazz saxophone in high school. His early inspiration to jazz was the legendary Joe Henderson.
“From there, I’ve done a lot of playing,” he said. “I taught little jazz bands in grade schools and eventually took over the jazz band here.”
“The single most important thing about playing jazz is an enthusiasm for the music,” Johnson said.
Johnson shared that students learned fun musical concepts at the festival, including the “3-2 clave,” a rhythmic pattern from the Caribbean that the band immediately worked on during rehearsal the following Monday.
“I enjoyed the Jazz Festival because it was an opportunity to receive feedback from highly skilled musicians, improving our songs as a band. Through this festival, we grew the most on our Latin cha-cha groove, especially in the rhythm section, which I appreciated the most,” explained junior Ben Foster.
The Jazz Band will use what they learned at the festival at their upcoming band concert on Monday, February 23.
