Elizabeth Pulanco/Winonan

As a part of the 12th annual High School Honor Band Jazz Festival, Winona State University students and high school students from around the Midwest learned about the influence of African and Cuban culture on jazz.

Over the course of the festival on Friday and Saturday at Winona State, students learned from professionals and got the chance to play the Latin-infused music.

Rich MacDonald, Winona State professor and director of the university’s jazz band, has been involved with the festival since the beginning.

“The jazz festival originally started as a complement to the honor concert band festival, but we decided to split the two into different festivals,” MacDonald said.

The festival consists of about 40 students from Minnesota and Wisconsin high schools and gives them the chance to play jazz music. When they first arrive, the students go through an auditioning process and are then separated into two different bands.

Students from local high schools, like Winona Senior High School and Cotter High School, had the opportunity to play in the festival. This year, students from Centennial High School in Circle Pines, Minn. traveled the farthest to play the music.

Many of the students had not met each other and were excited to participate in the new experience.

“I’m looking forward to making music with people who have like-minded goals,” Sarah Beguin, a trumpet player from Winona Senior High School, said.

After being separated into the different bands, the high school students got an opportunity to see the Winona State Jazz Band play. Joining Winona State’s Jazz Band were members of Seven Steps to Havana.

During this Friday performance, the college students played a traditional jazz piece from Minnesota native Maria Schneider, in addition to more Latin-based jazz songs.

At the end of the concert, members of Seven Steps to Havana collaborated and played with the Winona State Jazz Band.

One of the guests, Vivana Pintado, performed a vocal and piano solo in Spanish.

Gabriella Brazee, a tenor saxophone player from Lanesboro, enjoyed the addition of the Latin music to the traditional jazz setting.

“The special guest artists added a nice twist to the performance,” Brazee said.

Seven Steps to Havana were the guest performers for the weekend, and on Saturday they held a clinic for the students on Latin jazz.

“This gave the students a chance to ask questions and rub shoulders with professional musicians,” MacDonald said. “They also talked about the influence of Afro-Cuban music on jazz.”

After working with the professionals and watching the college jazz band play, the high school students performed their own concert on Saturday.

Ray Dretske, an instructor with the Winona State Jazz Band directed the first group of high school students.

Dretske explained to the audience how the students had only a short amount of time to prepare this music.

“This puts an interesting challenge on the students,” Dretske said. “It also is a reflection on how the music industry is—sometimes you are given a piece of music and can only rehearse it once.”

The first group of students played a variety of jazz songs, including a conga.

Dretske joked around with the audience, saying how he expected them to form a conga line in the auditorium by the end of the song.

This group of students finished their performance with the song “I Want You Back,” which was made famous by the Jackson 5 in the late 1960s.

Dave Gudmastad, the former director of the Cotter High School band and the current director of the Winona Brass Band directed the second group of students.

Before their performance, Gudmastad introduced the each student by name and described their accomplishments.

The second jazz band played more Big Band Jazz, which was made popular in the 1930s and 1940s.

For the final song of the concert, both bands merged to perform the song “El Tirado,” a smooth jazz song with a Latin beat.

After the performance, parents and families of high school students were waiting in the lobby. Some students exchanged cell phone numbers with newly found friends at the festival.

The last event of the High School Honor Jazz Band Festival was a concert performed by Seven Steps to Havana.

With the festival, MacDonald hopes to have exposed students to a new world of music.

“The world is a small place and we are all connected through music,” MacDonald said. “The opening up of Cuba is a really exciting thing artistically, because there will be an introduction of more different cultures with music.”

Throughout his 20 years of being the Jazz Band director at Winona State, MacDonald has seen many friendships, and even marriages, develop.

“Jazz is a very extroverted type of music that inspires interactive communication,” MacDonald said. “Jazz is also very informal, which makes it easier for students to come together and form relationships.”

MacDonald has also noticed how many of the skills that are important for being in a band, like teamwork and collaboration, have been beneficial for students in their professional lives.

MacDonald also discussed how people involved with jazz band do not need to be music majors.

“We have students in jazz band who are nursing, data science and geology majors,” MacDonald said.

No matter the genre, for centuries music has existed to enrich the human experience.

The High School Honor Jazz Band Festival not only gives students a chance to participate in this enriching experience, it also gives them the chance to explore a new culture.