Champion North Penn Band Heads To New Orleans

LANSDALE, PA -- It's a great time to be in the band at North Penn.

The North Penn High School Navy Jazz Band is preparing for its biggest engagement to date, a trip to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in April.

After winning the 2015 SteelStacks High School Jazz Band Showcase, the band was invited to perform at Jazz Fest by grabbing the attention of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band while opening for them during a concert at the Bethlehem SteelStacks on May 15, 2015, the school district said.

A year later, The North Penn Navy Jazz Band performed in finals at the 2016 SteelStacks High School Jazz Band Showcase on Sunday, March 22.

Although the band won’t know the winner until the show is broadcast on April 2, the band came away with a Superior rating, Best Trombone Section and three soloist awards.

As the winner of the SteelStacks showcase in 2015, presented by the nonprofit ArtsQuest, KingSpry and Moravian College Music Department, the North Penn band earned the opportunity to open for Dirty Dozen Brass Band (DDBB) at SteelStacks’ RiverJazz Festival later that year. During the school’s sound check, DDBB trumpeter Gregory Davis was so impressed by the students’ performance, he began to ponder if they’d be a good fit for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, also known as Jazz Fest.

“I knew the opening band was going to be a ‘school band,’ and as I listened to them run through a few songs, I figured they were a college band. I had no idea how young they were,” Davis said in a news release.

In addition to playing in DDBB, Gregory Davis books acts for the Contemporary Jazz Stage at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. After hearing the students perform, he tentatively offered them a spot at the 2016 festival.

“I have been booking contemporary jazz at Jazz Fest since September 1998,” Davis says. “I was able to draw a lot of talented groups from schools like Juilliard, Berklee, Northwestern and the Monk School. As far as high schools, the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts is the only one that plays Jazz Fest consistently, and they have a national reputation for excellence. This was the first time that I invited a high school that isn’t from the New Orleans area to perform at the festival.”

North Penn was contacted by Davis this winter, confirming their invitation to Jazz Fest, which draws more than one million people to the New Orleans area each year. Now, the Navy Band is in the process of holding various fundraisers to raise the money necessary for its trip to The Big Easy next month.

“This opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our kids and our music program,” says North Penn High School Navy Jazz Band Director David DiValentino. “The students can’t wait to spend a few days listening to amazing music and experiencing the New Orleans culture. We can’t thank ArtsQuest and its partners enough for providing the pathway to this festival.”

The North Penn High School Navy Jazz Band will perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival April 28 at 11:15 a.m. Other acts performing at the festival include Pearl Jam, Van Morrison, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nick Jonas, J. Cole, Elvis Costello & the Imposters, Flo Rida, Paul Simon, My Morning Jacket, Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg, Beck, Neil Young, Janelle Monáe, Grace Potter and many more.

For more information about the North Penn Navy Jazz Band’s journey to Jazz Fest, please visit www.NorthPennMusic.com.

For more information on the SteelStacks High School Jazz Band Showcase and RiverJazz, visit www.steelstacks.org.