Congratulations to Jazz Band 1 and Director Hannah Mowry for being a finalist to the 30th annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival in New York City!
Essentially Ellington is considered by many to be the Super Bowl for high-school jazz bands.
The music is challenging.
The competition fierce.
“The stylistic richness of Ellington’s music presents a great challenge to educators and performers alike,” according to the festival website. “Clark Terry, who left Count Basie’s band to join Duke Ellington, said, ‘Count Basie was college, but Duke Ellington was graduate school.’ … In Ellington’s music there are many more exceptions to the rules. This calls for greater knowledge of the language of jazz.”
Our program is one of four in the greater Seattle area to qualify, and we’re honored to represent Washington alongside Garfield, Bothell, and Mountlake Terrace high schools.
In recognition of its 30th anniversary, Essentially Ellington has:
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doubled the number of finalist bands to 30 and included three international bands;
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expanded the festival to five days—May 7-11—and will offer even more programs for band directors and students;
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moved the final concert on May 11 to the historic Metropolitan Opera House, located at Lincoln Center in New York, NY.
Roosevelt Jazz has attended 24 times since the competition expanded to include schools in all U.S. states and Canada, according to Wikipedia. Several high-school bands from the Seattle area have participated over the decades, including repeat finalists: Garfield, Shorewood, Mount Si, Edmonds-Woodway, Mountlake Terrace, Newport, Bothell, and Ballard high schools.
