The Berkeley High School jazz band lit up the BHS courtyard on Friday, May 1, 2026, for their annual Spring Salsa Night. This year, the event was created in collaboration with Dance Production classes and the BHS Chorus program. The night started at 5:30 p.m. with a 50 minute salsa dance lesson as students and families trickled onto campus before the official music began. Over the next four hour period, the energy only continued to grow as the space in front of the A Building filled with food trucks and dancing.
The show started with the 10 o’clock jazz band, which tends to be the most introductory class, filled with up and coming freshman musicians. Although it was only a short twenty minute performance, the band certainly impressed and got the crowd excited for the rest of the night. Over the course of three entertaining songs, the band showed their talent despite only having learned their pieces three weeks ago.
“We didn’t actually spend a lot of time on these pieces,” BHS freshman and trumpet player Leila Sommaripa said, “But my favorite to perform was probably the song ‘Salsa Nights,’ because it’s very upbeat. There’s a lot of loud parts for trumpet, so I got a lot of time to play.” The second slot of the evening did an especially good job including the audience in their performance. Not only did members from Dance Production dance along to the three o’clock jazz band playing “La Vida es un Carnival” by Celia Cruz, the BHS Chorus also sang along while dancing with the Dance Production students. “La Vida es un Carnival,” which is well known to be one of the most celebratory and quintessential salsa songs of all time, was well recognized by the audience and the high energy of the performers was a highlight of the night. Over the past month, the BHS Chorus put together solos and harmonies that would suit the high-energy piece and incorporate the crowd. “It’s a very upbeat, danceable song, it’s one of those songs that just repeats itself so people can get into the rhythm,” BHS senior and Chorus Vice President Julian Martinez said.
Aside from that, Salsa Night included a variety of performances from dance classes and jazz bands. Towards the end of the night, there was a short 10 minute performance from a Timba Band, which focuses on Cuban dance music that fuses salsa and jazz together. It was a wonderfully executed prelude to the final performance of the night, which was the Josh Jones Trio.
Josh Jones, who visits BHS weekly to help tutor the jazz band percussionists, assisted in performing in the jazz band at salsa night throughout the evening. For the final hurrah of the show, Jones and his group performed a 45 minute performance at the end of the show. It gave an excellent representation of Jones’ skill, and the night came full circle from the more novice band to the most experienced.
The 2026 BHS Salsa Night was a rousing success. A seemingly totally enjoyable night for every performer, teacher, and audience member, it was an excellent display of how the BHS community comes together to celebrate music.
“I love salsa music, it’s the best,” Alex Kainz, a BHS sophomore who plays violin and piano, said, “It was pretty fun, especially since my band worked with a lot of singers and dance choreography, and we had a lot of fun putting together the pieces.”