The Jazz Ensemble from Brownsboro High School smiles for a photo.

The Rogers Palmer Performing Arts Center at Tyler Junior College was filled with the timeless music of jazz from the area high schools and Tyler Junior College’s jazz ensembles.

The students were treated to instruction from Grammy Award-winning saxophonist and composer Alex Hahn, who was a guest artist for the TJC’s annual Jazz Festival last week.

“It’s always so great to have a guest of his caliber, someone who is such a wonderful composer, arranger, and just an amazing performer,” said Micah Bell, TJC professor of trumpet and jazz.

The festival included music clinics and performances by the jazz bands. Each group performed for about 20 minutes on stage at Wise Auditorium, and then Hahn joined them and offered advice on their performance.

“I’ve watched him work with so many students and the students love him,” Bell said. “He has some really great insight and it’s a lot of fun to see him work.”

Known for having a melodic gift of composing and breathing smoky and brassy sounds into the saxophone, Hahn has performed and taught all over the world, including Panama Jazz Festival, Sitka Alaska Jazz Festival, and International Jazz Day in Havana, Cuba, and St. Petersburg, Russia.

“It has been super fun working with the bands of East Texas because they’re so eager to learn,” Hahn said. “They’re so smart and learn so fast. To have kids that are so excited about music makes my job easy.”

The students learned and performed the original music that Hahn composed.

“I have to give a major shoutout to Micah Bell,” Hahn said. “He was my director when I was in my first semester at North Texas. And it has been so fun working with him. He’s an amazing musician himself and music educator… so, it’s been a joy working with him and his students.”

Tyler musician and educator George Faber also served as a clinician with the student groups and was featured during the evening concerts.

The area schools that participated in the clinic included the University of Texas in Tyler, Commerce High School, Palestine High School, McKinney-Boyd Middle School, Three Lakes Middle School, Boulter Middle School, Tyler Legacy High School, Brownsboro High School, Kaufman High School, and LeTourneau University.

“TJC does a really good job of bringing in top-notch clinicians to come and work with our high school kids,” said Jake Ham, jazz band director at Brownsboro High School. “So, it’s really good for the kids to come and play and for somebody like Alex and then get some feedback from him. Just to have somebody of that caliber musicianship to share his thoughts and critiques with the kids to kind of help them out and improve their skill with playing jazz music… is really exciting and a lot of fun for the kids.”

Ham said he hopes the students will find a new love and appreciation for jazz with the clinics.

“I am super proud of the kids with how much work they’ve put into this and really dug into the jazz program at Brownsboro,” he added.

TJC Jazz Ensemble 1 students and their hometowns are: Samuel Antonio, Tyler; Micah Brown, Tyler; Jonathan Canaday, Palestine; Will Culbertson, Paris; Kristen Davenport, Waco; Dalton Echols, Paris; Caleb Fisher, Sherman; Anthony Foto, Frankston; Mitchell Gilbert, Bullard; Caleb Haffner, Overton; Alexa Hearn, Junction; Rian Howard, Lindale; Aidan Lester, The Colony; Juan Najera, Springtown; Harvey Nguyen, Whitehouse; Manases Nieto, Longview; Zachary Paul, Terrell; Aaron Roden, Lindale; Tanner Sparrow, Crandall; and Anthony Vargas, Elkhart.

TJC Jazz Ensemble 2 students and their hometowns are: Benjamin Cannon, Springtown; Sebastian Colon, Longview; Brandon Eley, Waxahachie; Drew Gaddis, Tyler; Jagger Hudman, Kilgore; Emily James, Palestine; Emileigh Jones, San Angelo; Shelton Chase Jones, Terrell; Richard Kelp-Torres, Paris; Marcos Loya, Longview; Nathaniel Murray, Van; Anthony Orduna, Tyler; Aracely Perez-Gonzalez, Center; Liam Ricketts, Tyler; Zamaria Robbins-Lewis, Marshall; Taylor See, Gladewater; Paulo Tovar, Longview; Caitlynn Vanzandt, Henderson; and Drake Williams, Kilgore.

“I hope that the students learned about different approaches on how to be better musicians,” Bell said. “As well as gain a greater appreciation of this music… because jazz is amazing and we want to keep it going.”