Grammy-winning Bonita High graduate performs with All-District ensemble
Grammy Award–winning jazz musician and band leader Gordon Goodwin, a 1973 graduate of Bonita High School, returned to the Bonita Unified School District with his Big Phat Band for a March 16 concert that showcased All-District Jazz Ensemble musicians and served as a tribute to longtime Bonita High School music teacher Robin Snyder.
At the event at the Bonita Center for the Arts in San Dimas, Goodwin performed with All-District players during their opening set, then led a nearly two-hour performance with his 19-member group.
In between pieces, Goodwin reminisced about his years at Bonita High School and how the late Robin Snyder helped develop his career.
“This is a true honor for me to come back and play with a new generation of jazz players,” Goodwin said at the event, according to a news release. “When I walked into the Bonita band room after 50 years, it just seemed so familiar, like I had never been gone. It’s surreal to be able to look back at your life and see how it all fell into place.”
Goodwin’s appearance was spurred by a chance meeting in August 2023, when Bonita High School freshman and All-District clarinetist Laralei Bennion attended a Big Phat Band performance in Redlands. After the show, Bennion introduced herself to Goodwin and asked him if he would ever come back to the Bonita Unified School District to play a show with his band, according to the news release.
After that, Goodwin began working with Bonita High School band director Jeff Bird and San Dimas High School band director Lance Beckford to set up the show.
“The feeling of playing alongside Gordon Goodwin was so magical, and something I never thought would happen in my lifetime,” Bennion said in the news release. “The entire experience gave literal chills to everyone within the All-District band. After the show, I had so much adrenaline that I couldn’t stop shaking. Thank you to Gordon, the Big Phat Band, Mr. Bird and Mr. Beckford for providing this experience of a lifetime.”
During the All-District band’s set, the group played three pieces written by Goodwin.
“The All-District band worked hard to make sure they represented Gordon’s music professionally,” Jeff Bird said in the news release. “It was so much fun to see how inspired they were to work on his material. To see their faces when we finally got to rehearse together with Gordon was priceless.”
Goodwin’s return to the Bonita Unified School District coincided with the district’s annual Jazz Explosion high school jazz festival, which was held earlier in the day at the Bonita Center for the Arts. In the festival, 10 high school bands played short sets in front of a panel of judges, then received a 30-minute clinic from one of the judges. Several bands that performed at the event stayed to see the Big Phat Band perform.
Though Goodwin was already composing music at a young age, it was Robin Snyder who introduced him to jazz music when Goodwin was attending Ramona Middle School, according to the news release. Snyder played Goodwin the song “Queen Bee” by Count Basie and told him that if he wrote music like “Queen Bee,” the school band would perform it.
When Goodwin was attending Bonita High School, Snyder was placing the school band in music festivals across California, and he let Goodwin conduct the band at the Monterey and Reno jazz festivals.
After graduating from Bonita High School, Goodwin attended Cal State Northridge before beginning his career at Disneyland. He began scoring animated films and TV shows in the 1990s, working on Steven Spielberg’s “Animaniacs,” which led to his winning the first of his three Daytime Emmy awards, according to the news release.
Goodwin’s Big Phat Band made its debut in 2000, and Goodwin and the band have been nominated for Grammy Awards 25 times, winning their first award in 2006. To date, the band has won four Grammys, three for best instrumental arrangement and one in 2015 for best large jazz ensemble album, “Life in the Bubble.”
Robin Snyder served as the Bonita Unified School District’s music director from 1966 to 1985, teaching at Bonita High School and Ramona Middle School. He died in January at age 98.