MILL CREEK – Travis Abel stood with his arms crossed near the stage where Mukilteo’s Voyager Middle School jazz band had just started its performance.
Away from the spotlights, the 17-year-old Jackson High School senior nodded several times, his eyes fixed on the stage and his ears fixed to the music.
“It’s going really smooth,” said Abel, a member of the Jackson jazz band, which hosted its fourth annual Mill Creek Jazz Festival on Saturday.
Behind Abel, a senior, three other band members waited to rearrange the stage for the next 20-minute performance of the festival, which drew 17 groups with more than 400 students from school districts in the region.
Jackson’s two bands wrapped up the all-day event in the afternoon. But for about 50 members, the day had begun before dawn. They came to school at 6:30 a.m. to finish setting up the stage, lighting and sound system.
Once the festival began, they served as hosts and guided each school band to a warm-up room and then to the stage.
“They take a lot of pride in this. They really do,” said Lesley Moffat, director of the Jackson band.
“Through music, we are teaching lifelong skills,” Moffat said.
Running the festival taught sophomore Dan Wager, 15, the importance of being responsible. “It’s fun, but we have to be careful,” said Wager, who helped set up the lighting and sound system.
The festival started when Abel was a freshman, and has grown steadily ever since.
“Definitely a lot of leadership skills,” said Abel, who was dressed in black, from his black shirt and tie down to his black shoes, of how the festival helped him grow.
Abel has become a leader, and band members look up to him, Moffat said.
Abel is scheduled to perform with other top-notch high school and college players at Carnegie Hall in New York City in January.
Abel’s parents couldn’t come to see him play drums on Saturday, he said. His father, a postal worker, was at work, and his mother was spending the day selling Abel’s CDs to raise money so the family could accompany him to New York.
Abel, who plans to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston next fall, said the band has been the core of his high school life.
“The whole band thing is really great,” he said.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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