While city residents and visitors were enjoying the sights and sounds of RiverFest, the Vicksburg Convention Center was alive with the sounds of jazz.

Alcorn State University’s 36th annual Jazz Festival was under way, featuring the sounds of college, university and high school big bands, combos and ensembles performing standards and their own interpretation of contemporary music and a seminar on jazz. The students also participated in a jam session after the seminar.

“We are the only jazz festival like this in the region,” said David Miller, professor of music at Alcorn and Jazz Festival director. “We do strictly jazz.”

The festival features performances by the college, university and high school bands and groups, a seminar presented by a master musician and a concert by the featured artist to close the event.

“We have brought in some great performers over the years to conduct the seminars,” Miller said, adding this year’s master was saxophonist Branford Marsalis.

“The seminar is the key to the festival. The purpose is to encourage the kids to listen to jazz. The music kids listen to today has no substance,” he said. “We want to get them interested.”

He said a recent study on musical attitudes of youth indicated young people in four states were least likely to listen to jazz — Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas.

“That’s appalling, especially when you consider some of these kids live in Vicksburg and the musicians who have come from here,” he said. “We (Alcorn State) are in the middle between the birthplace of the blues (the Delta) and the birthplace of jazz (New Orleans).”

Marsalis, Miller said, was a good selection “because he is known outside the jazz world. He led the orchestra for the Tonight Show with David Letterman, he’s played with Sting and he’s appeared in movies like “Throw Momma From the Train,” and in Spike Lee films. He had a cameo in “Mo Betta Blues.”

Also, he said, Marsalis is “personable, he’ll talk to you, and he likes to talk to kids.”

Marvin Haywood, a music major at Alcorn State who plays the trumpet and mellow horn, said listening to Marsalis speak “encouraged me to look closer at jazz.”

He said he had heard Marsalis speak before, “But now that I’m a music major, I understand what he’s saying better. I’m in the marching band, but I’m going do more jazz.”

Carlen Sizemore, a guitarist and music major at Alcorn, said Marsalis gave him a different outlook on jazz. “He showed there were many different genres to consider,” he said.

Like Haywood, he is also going to take a closer look at playing jazz.

Miller said he would like to see more converts.

“We’re already planning for next year’s festival,” he said. “I’ve already got a featured performer, but I’m not giving a name until we have it confirmed.”