WESTBROOK – Inside a small band room in Westbrook High School, it’s so loud students have to shout to be heard over saxophones and trumpets. In the background, the fierce metallic crash of a drum high-hat drenches everything in a familiar jazz beat.
Luckily, these students aren’t trying to have conversations. They’re practicing for Berklee College of Music’s 45th annual High School Jazz Festival, which takes place this weekend on the Boston college campus and brings together more than 200 bands and vocal groups from across the country and Puerto Rico.
“Going gives them a better perspective of where they stand against other high school bands. There are some bands there that are on a very high level and some bands that aren’t as good as Westbrook’s,” said band director Phil Rich, who has been attending the jazz festival for 30 years, since he was a student in the Westbrook jazz band.
The 17 students from Westbrook will spend Saturday listening to vocal groups, jazz combos and big bands made up of thousands of other students from as far away as Texas and Colorado. They will also get a chance to join open jam sessions and listen to featured musicians, including some of Berklee’s faculty.
But the Westbrook Jazz Ensemble 1 students are hoping for a top spot as one of the best high school jazz bands. While students look forward to hearing other groups play, they’re really excited for the feedback they will receive from Berklee faculty, which will help them improve in time for the Maine State Jazz Festival on March 16 and 17. The group qualified for the state festival by being awarded an outstanding rating during the district competition earlier this month.
“It’s a good run-through. At least for me, it’s more important to do well at states, my family comes to that,” said saxophone player Whitney Wallace, 18. “Berklee has really good judges. Hopefully we’ll get a different perspective and new comments on how we can improve for states.”
For many in the ensemble, this will not be their first time going to Berklee – most of the students have been playing together since they were in middle school.
That type of closeness comes in handy, said Alicia Bonney, 17, the lead trombone player.
“When the band starts to get really good and you feel it when you’re playing. I love that,” Bonney said.
The students said Rich describes that as “cooking,” or tells the players they’re “on fire.”
Bonney said another perk of playing together so much is that eventually everyone memorizes the melodies in their individual parts, which leads to a group sing-along on the bus ride to Berklee.
Rich said students try out for the jazz ensemble in November and will practice three days a week until the end of March. All groups must submit a video or tape of their performance to be invited to Berklee.
The Berklee festival also offers these students an opportunity to win partial scholarships to attend the five-week summer performance program, and individual students are invited to audition for tuition scholarships toward a full-time program or the five-week summer program.
“I just hope we play as well as we can,” said Andrew Lamson, 17, the lead trumpet player. “At least for me, whenever I do something, like I play tennis, I never do as well in competition as I do in practice.”
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