UPDATE: Roosevelt Jazz Band Auditions for 2016-17

NOTE: Date changed for rhythm section auditions, and details changed for Vocal Jazz auditions.

June 12 – Incoming freshman; sax and brass: 11:00am.
June 13 – Returning Roosevelt students; sax: 2:45pm.
June 14 – Returning Roosevelt students; brass: 2:45pm.
June 17 – Incoming freshman & returning students; rhythm section: 2:45pm

We acknowledge that middle school students may be a little late due to travel time. More information will be available soon on the rooseveltjazz.org website under the Events tab.

Audition music will be posted here as soon as it becomes available.

Vocal Jazz Auditions:
Students entering grades 9-12 who are not currently enrolled in Vocal Jazz at Roosevelt are welcome to audition.  This includes incoming 9th graders who have had vocal jazz experience in middle school.

There is a sign up sheet posted on the bulletin board outside of the band room for Vocal Jazz Auditions. Auditions will run from 2:45 – 3:35 on Monday, June 6th, Tuesday, June 7th and Wednesday, June 8th. Please sign up if you are interested.

There is no audition material for Vocal Jazz.  Students will be asked to fill out a form when they arrive at their audition. Auditions will consist of: matching pitch with a strong, steady, mature sound; quickly learning a melody; improvising over blues changes. You are not required to prepare a song. Sound, accuracy, style and improvisation are the priorities. Any student admitted to Roosevelt Vocal Jazz for the 2016-2017 school year must commit to BOTH semesters.

JB3 Wins Bellevue Jazz Festival Awards

Congratulations to Jazz Band 3 for winning first place in their division at Bellevue Jazz Festival!

In addition, three of our soloists received outstanding solo awards:

Tenor Sax – James Pettis

Bari Sax – David Tabakian

Trumpet – Will Knight

Congratulations Jazz Band 3 and soloists!

RHS Jazz wins multiple awards at Essentially Ellington!

Congratulations to RHS Jazz Band 1 for receiving multiple awards at EE!

  • Outstanding Sax Section
  • Jesse Beckett-Herbert: Outstanding clarinet
  • Elliot Halpern: Outstanding Tenor Sax
  • Porter Jones: Outstanding Trombone & Outstanding Soloist
  • Ravi Sharma: Outstanding Guitarist
  • Santosh Sharma: Outstanding Bass Clarinet & Honorable Mention Tenor Sax

Well done!!!

Related: Seattle Times article

Monterey Jazz Finalists Announced

CONGRATULATIONS Jazz Band II and Vocal Jazz for being selected as Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival finalists!!

NGJF will be held in Monterey, CA from April 8-10, 2016. High school and college ensembles from across the country and Canada applied to compete. We’re excited to announce that Jazz II is one of only twelve bands selected to compete in the High School Big Band division and our Vocal Jazz is one of only eight ensembles selected to complete in the High School Vocal Ensemble division. Click here for more information.

Monterey will be well presented by Roosevelt at the competition with Jazz II and Vocal Jazz, in addition to Jazz III and our combos performing as Special Guest Ensembles at the Festival!

Congratulations also goes to our friends at Eckstein Middle School and Jane Addams Middle School for being selected as Middle School finalists!

Thank you to all our wonderful musicians and vocalists, Mr. Brown and Michael for all the hard work!