Northwood’s Jazz I band won for the first time in the heavy band division at the Irvine Jazz Festival on March 15. 

The Irvine Jazz Festival is one of the largest high school jazz festivals in Southern California, featuring all four Northwood jazz bands—Jazz I, II, III and IV—with Jazz Combo I and II, subsections of the top Jazz bands across various divisions. Jazz I showcased Mario Bauzá’s “Cubauzá,” “Beneath the Mask” from the video game Persona 5 and Andrew Neu’s “Too Much of a Good Thing.” 

“I’m happy to witness our first ever first place, and it was probably the most fun I’ve had playing jazz at Northwood,” senior Drew Maragay said. “Being able to be a part of that with so many other amazing people really reaffirmed my decision to continue playing jazz.”

At the festival, Jazz combo II also got first place, coupled with several features of original student compositions by freshman Jon Lee in Jazz combo II and junior Sooho Cho in Jazz combo I. 

“It’s really special getting a chance to solo at such a big gig like this with a lot of high schools from all over SoCal in the audience,” Cho said. “To me, I really love the freedom that jazz improvisation gives me, playing my own music and ideas instead of following black inks on the paper that someone else wrote. ”

The festival also featured performances by the California State University, Long Beach Concert Jazz Orchestra and Saddleback College Big Band. Jazz I is looking forward to and working hard for their performance at Wentz Concert Hall at North Central College on April 1.