Colfax band takes second in Pasco event

PASCO — The Colfax High School Jazz band brought home a second-place trophy Saturday, April 16, from the Jazz unlimited Festival at Columbia Basin College.

Bulldog musicians out-played their peers at much larger schools, including the Nos. 2,3 and 4 bands from Richland, Pasco, Hanford, Chiawana (Pasco), A.C. Davis (Yakima), Ellensburg and Hockinson (Vancouver) high schools, Colfax Band Director Mike Morgan said.

“I was very proud of the band for battling these great programs from the Tri-Cities”, Morgan said. “To place in the Top 3 with that type of competition was a big deal.”

Colfax has regularly attended this festival for the past 30 years and has placed first, second or third on 14 different occasions.

In normal years, Colfax competes against schools in the Class 1B/2B/1A divisions.

But this year, the Bulldogs were put in Division I with the larger schools due to continuing COVID-19 restrictions on the college campus.

“This was the hardest division we have ever competed in my 30 years of being in Colfax,” Morgan said. “Most musicians from those bigger school’s study music privately and are not involved with other activities outside music unlike the Colfax students who are involved with FFA, FCLA, FBLA, ASB and athletics.

“Our kids compete in everything and are not afraid to take on bigger competition”.

This year was the first festival in two years as competitions were shut down due to COVID-19 mandates.

To accommodate some mandates still in place at Columbia Basin College, the festival was paired down to only two high school and one middle school divisions.

The Colfax band will now set its sights on the Mount Hood Jazz Festival at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham, Ore., on May 6-8.

“The divisions will be more traditional with Colfax competing in the small-school category,” Morgan said. “But, there are some fantastic small school programs from the Portland/Vancouver area that Colfax will have to contend with”.

After Mount Hood, the jazz band will present a final concert at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 12.

This will be the final concert for four seniors who will graduate in June, he said.