Jazz bands from local high and middle schools received instruction from top musicians and educators on Wednesday during the Mingus Fall Jazz Clinic at Nogales High School.

The clinic is offered by The Mingus Project of the Santa Cruz Advocates for the Arts, along with the Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools’ Office, which received funding for arts education from an “Invest in Our Youth” ESSER grant from the Arizona Department of Education.

This year’s instruction team was led by Angelo Versace, a pianist and director of jazz studies at the University of Arizona.

Jazz bands from Nogales and Rio Rico high schools, as well as Calabasas, Coatimundi, Desert Shadows and Wade Carpenter middle schools, participated in the clinic, which was capped off with a free concert at the NHS auditorium.