High schools and junior high schools brought their brooms to the Four State Jazz Festival Feb. 1, where the bands swept up a one rating.

The adjudicators for the festival were Billy Hunt and Kerry Strayer, who also performed with the Missouri Southern Jazz Orchestra at the end of the day.

Phillip Wise, director of jazz studies and head of the music department, said there were many jazz standards being played.

“That’s always exemplary literature, when you’re just playing the standard literature of the genre,” Wise said. “Often times we don’t hear that. Often times we hear, sort of rock music, rock arrangements, popular types of things.”

He said it was “very good literature” being played at the festival. The band directors, adjudicators and the clinicians agreed this was a well-run festival.

Richard Williams, band director of the Aurora Junior High School Jazz Band, said he thought the festival went “very smooth, very fast, I mean everybody got in and played.” Williams said he knew getting the one rating at the festival was good for his band, because there were some students who haven’t played much with the band and some who have played with the band for a while.

“I wish there was a way to get a bigger crowd,” he said. “At eight or nine o’clock in the morning it’s kind of hard. Some people don’t want to wake up to hear jazz at nine in the morning.”

Michael Oglesby, assistant band director at Webb City High School and Junior High, said he thought the festival was run well. He said it had a nice pattern to follow of warmups, performance and clinics.

Strayer said it was not a problem to judge the festival or to conduct the Southwest Missouri Music Educator’s Association District Jazz Band.

The Southern Jazz Orchestra ended the day by performing “Bright Eyes” and “Someone To Watch Over Me.”

The clinicians for the festival were Jeffrey Macomber, assistant professor of music, and Bob Holden.

Macomber said the festival showed “jazz is alive and well in Southwest Missouri at the public school level and continues to show a lot of promise.”

The next time to hear the Southern Jazz Orchestra will be at 7:30 p.m. April 15.