In a colorfully lit Evanston Township High School auditorium, nearly 50 high school and middle school jazz bands took the stage to perform for hundreds of community members during the school’s annual Jazz Festival on Saturday.
The 22nd annual festival included performances by student jazz ensembles, workshops by jazz musicians and concerts from professional groups, including an afternoon show by Twin Talk and an evening show by the Sean Jones Quartet.
The event was intended to be an immersive learning experience for students, exposing them to different bands within and outside their age groups, said Matthew Bufis, director of bands and lead teacher for fine arts at ETHS.
“The pros show them what is possible on the top end,” Bufis said. “But peer-to-peer, hearing other students doing this at a high level shows them what’s possible within their own age group.”
Founded 14 years ago, Twin Talk has remained a Chicago band through and through, according to bass player and singer Katie Ernst.
“We all have been really influenced by the Chicago improvised music community, and there is a really rich history and active practice of that in the city,” she said.
Looking back, each member of Twin Talk remembers the high school and college performances that inspired them, opening their minds to the possibilities of jazz.
By performing at ETHS, the band hopes to inspire the upcoming generation of jazz musicians to be open-minded and willing to draw inspiration from everything, said Andrew Green, Twin Talk’s drummer.
“It feels awesome to be in this band playing for 14 years and to be able to demonstrate everything that we’ve developed over time and hopefully inspire the next generation to go off on their own and play weird stuff, original stuff, and not just the cookie-cutter version of the idea of jazz,” he said.
After their show, the band went upstairs to teach a rhythm section clinic to students, largely focusing on what it’s like to play in larger bands as opposed to smaller combos.
The festival is part of a series of jazz festivals hosted by high schools and universities in the Chicago area throughout February. Other similar festivals include New Trier High School’s Frank Mantooth Jazz Festival and the University of Illinois Chicago Jazz Festival.
According to Bufis, between 600 and 800 students attended the festival in addition to their families and other community members.
The student jazz groups from across the region also taught each other different ways to play, said Brian Castillo, an alto saxophone player from William Howard Taft High School in Chicago.
“For me, we don’t really have any trombone players, and when we see bands with trombones and when their trombones go off, it’s really interesting to think what we could have,” Castillo said.
Sharing this sentiment, Bufis said one of the best parts of hosting the festival was watching all the different jazz musicians perform under one roof.
Castillo went on to say that he was excited to perform at the festival, playing off the energy from his peers and the audience.
“Performing at this point, it almost feels like a party,” Castillo said.
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