High school jazz bands compete for state title

HOULTON ? The rattle of snare drums, the thump of bass guitars and the blare of trumpets filled the classrooms and hallways of Houlton High School on Friday as the Maine State High School Instrumental Jazz Festival got under way.

Close to 1,000 student musicians from 70 schools across Maine will attend the two-day event, which will end tonight when the top three bands in each of three divisions face off to see which bands and solo performers are the best in the state.

On Friday, when they weren’t playing, students could be found everywhere, chatting in the halls, rehearsing in the library or just catching a few extra minutes of sleep after early morning bus trips that brought some students from as far south as York County.

Some took advantage of closed-circuit TVs in the rooms to check out the competition performing in the school’s gym and auditorium, although in one room, the Western Kentucky-Florida basketball game was on.

“It’s going very well,” said Joe Fagnant, instrumental music teacher at Houlton High School, who was set to direct the school’s jazz combo Friday night and then lead the larger jazz band again tonight.

Wearing a two-way radio equipped with a headset, he spent much of Friday going from one section of the school to another trying to keep tabs on what was happening. Though Houlton has hosted the state’s vocal jazz festival in the past, as well as regional instrumental competitions, this is the first time it has done so with the state instrument festival.

“Everything is running on time,” Fagnant said, taking a short break around 3 p.m. “There have been no major complaints. We’ve gotten a lot of good comments. The volunteers and music boosters have done a great job.”

There are three different categories and many students will compete in more than one over the two days the event is scheduled.

On Friday, two divisions each of jazz combos and secondary jazz bands performed. Combos are more improvisational, while the secondary band category ? new this year ? was set up to handle the increased number of bands that have developed as school jazz programs have grown in popularity.

Tonight will feature the jazz bands, considered by most to be the main event of the festival.

Each performance lasts 25 minutes and includes three numbers. People from the music departments at the Augusta, Farmington and Southern Maine branches of the University of Maine System, as well as Berklee College of Music in Boston, judge the competition.

“It’s been busy here today, with every inch of the school being used,” said Fagnant. “Tomorrow, it will be a little more hectic because of the larger jazz bands.

“It’s more bands, more people, more confusion and more fun,” he said, as he was called away to help present awards for the afternoon performances.