Tanya Darby, a graduate of the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, comes full circle, returning as a judge.

Close your eyes for a minute, and the music can transport you to a smoky jazz club of another time. Open your eyes, and see and hear how the musicians play and swing with the expressiveness and moxie of jazz veterans.

But they’re kids – high schoolers and younger, up through college students – gracing several stages in downtown Monterey this weekend as they compete for coveted spots in the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.

It began in 1971 as a contest between 10 of California’s best high school jazz bands. Then called the California High School Jazz Competition, it’s since been renamed as the Next Generation Jazz Festival – and morphed into one of the preeminent jazz education summits in the nation, annually adjudicating nearly 100 middle school, high school and collegiate big bands, smaller combos and vocal ensembles from around the country across 10 distinct performance categories.

Along with the ensemble contentions, a hidden gem for the 1,200-plus participating musicians this weekend is a shot to be chosen as one of just 21 best-of-the-best players to populate the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, a prize that comes with a 12-day tour of Japan in July and a performance at the Monterey Jazz Festival in September.

MJF Education Director and Next Gen Jazz Orchestra Conductor Paul Contos remembers the event’s beginnings, having been a participant in 1971 – as a musician.

“Almost nobody knows this, but my high school band [Carlmont High on the San Francisco Peninsula] was invited to the first year,” Contos says. “We didn’t win or anything, but I was there.”

The competitive orchestra has springboarded dozens of players into professional jazz careers. Big-name graduates include sax players Dave Koz, Joshua Redman and Mark Turner, along with pianist Donnie McCaslin.

“It’s gratifying to see young players who came up through our programs now at other schools either as students, conductors, teachers or as professional working jazz musicians,” Contos says.

The competition will be heated: The event has grown from 10 groups to more than 90 this year. Some will be competing to break their own records: The Northgate High School Jazz Band (from Walnut Creek) has been victorious in the high school big band category for the past four consecutive years, and when they take the stage at 3:30pm Saturday in the Serra Ballroom inside the new Monterey Conference Center, they will attempt to be the first group in festival history to five-peat.

“It’s a very strong ensemble,” Contos says. “Even though I haven’t heard the band this year, I’ve been told that they’ve played exceptionally well at various festivals throughout the state. They just might do it.”

“I see more and more new young players coming up who have absorbed so much of the jazz language so quickly,” Contos says. “To see how their musicianship keeps evolving, it’s fascinating. It’s gratifying and inspiring to me.”

In addition to conducting the Next Gen Jazz Orchestra, Contos also directs the Monterey County High School All-Star Band and the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars.

“I’m constantly working to provide inspiration and motivation to the world’s next generation of new jazz artists,” he says. “My overall metaphor is the continuation, preservation and relentless development and evolution of the jazz language.”

The festival starts Friday night when the Ethan Santos Quintet from Boston’s Berklee College of Music opens the annual judges’ concert, when 12 festival judges play for the students they will be closely watching over the weekend.

(Santos himself is a graduate of the program, and played trombone in the 2016 Next Gen Jazz Orchestra. “We’re delighted to have him back,” Contos says.)

The judges’ concert also marks the return of trumpeter Tanya Darby, who attended Walter Colton Middle School and Monterey High School before going on to become a first-call freelance lead trumpeter in New York City.

“Tanya is one of our finest success stories,” Contos says.

Darby has played on the elite stage of the Monterey Jazz Festival twice, but this year marks her first appearance as a professional judge for Next Gen. “It’s going to be a great homecoming,” Contos says.

The trumpet was the last thing Darby wanted to learn when she was in school. Incorrectly registered for a band class, she had to go see the band director for a signature in order to drop the course.

“Playing trumpet was not my idea,” Darby says. “The director said, ‘I’m going to give you a trumpet. See if you can get a sound out of it.’ She gave me the horn for a week.”

The going was rough early on.

“I took it home and was trying to get a sound but it was horrible,” Darby recalls. “Even my music-loving parents politely invited me to take the trumpet out to the backyard.”

Eventually, Darby did get the instrument to not just make a sound, but music.

“I don’t know what happened, but something just clicked,” she says. “Maybe it was the challenge or bravado, but everything just lined up. That’s where my journey started – in the backyard.”

Once her parents figured out she was serious about trumpeting – and the sound became bearable enough – they invited her back into the house to practice.

Darby found Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and Lee Morgan’s seminal 1960 Blue Note disc Lee-Way in her dad’s vinyl collection.

“There was always music going on in that house,” Darby says. “I fell in love with Lee-Way.”

Darby believes being a member of the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra made it all possible for her.

“Being with talented students from all over the country showed me what might be possible for me if I worked hard and stuck with it,” she says. “The thing that I go back to is how supportive the faculty and the jazz festival staff were. I was lucky enough to do the all-star band thing when [Monterey Jazz Fest founder] Jimmy Lyons was still with us. When he told us that we were now part of the MJF lineage, it was incredibly inspiring.”

Darby says that working with the guest artists as a young musician was significant not only because of the musicianship opportunity in playing together, but also for the opportunity to ask questions – including of some greats, like legendary jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.

“The most defining moment was getting to meet Dizzy,” Darby says. “I met him backstage and soaked up bunches of that wisdom. One year Jon Faddis was our guest, and we’ve been friends ever since. Those types of mentorships at such a young age just change you. I know for a fact I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for MJF. That’s without question.”

Three years ago, Darby left the Big Apple taking a teaching post at the University of North Texas, one of the most prestigious jazz programs in the country.

“I didn’t get into teaching, teaching got into me,” she says. “Being with such talented students, I can’t help but smile. I learn from them every day. Teaching has opened my eyes to what the future holds.”

When she was an undergrad music student at the Manhattan School of Music, she says a teaching career never even occurred to her, but now she sees that she absorbed inspiration from her own teachers all along the way.

“Having opportunities to come full circle and give back what was so freely given to me is not something I take lightly,” she says. “I know what a gift that is, and the chance to pay that forward is a real honor.”

48TH ANNUAL NEXT GENERATION JAZZ FESTIVAL 7pm Friday, March 9 opening night concert. Competitions happen 8:30am-midnight March 10 and 9am-6pm March 11. Monterey Conference Center at Portola Hotel and Spa, 1 Portola Plaza, Monterey and other downtown locations. All events are free to attend; $50/opening night front-row seating. 373-3366, montereyjazzfestival.org/NGJF