Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival

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2006 Essentially Ellington Festival logo projected onto the walls of the Allen Room.

The Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival is an annual high school jazz festival and competition that takes place every May at Jazz at Lincoln Center (JLC) in New York City. The festival is aimed at encouraging young musicians to play music by Duke Ellington and other various jazz artists. All festival events are housed at JLC's Frederick P. Rose Hall. The current festival director is Wynton Marsalis, renowned jazz trumpeter and artistic director of JLC.

Festival Membership

Every year, the festival offers a membership package to high school and secondary school band directors around North America and in American schools around the world. The essential components of the package consist of original Duke Ellington transcription charts, their corresponding recordings by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and other materials. In 2007, 5,400 transcribed Duke Ellington scores were distributed along with other reference materials to American schools worldwide.

Application and Audition

Each year, a maximum of six Duke Ellington jazz charts are released and auditioning bands must record three of them for competition entry. To submit an application for competition in the actual festival, band directors may choose to record their band playing the music under a written criteria. The audition recordings are then sent to Lincoln Center, where a judging panel picks the top fifteen bands through a blind screening process. Bands are also given the option of sending tapes in for 'comments only'. This means that the recordings will not be scored, but will have adjudicator comments sent back to the director for band improvement.

To ensure fairer opportunities for bands new to the process, only the top five of the bands that participated in the past two years are selected to return. Once the finalists are announced, clinicians are sent to each of the finalist schools to provide an in-depth jazz workshop and refine the bands for competition. The clinicians are usually members of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

Competition and Festival

In May, each finalist band goes to New York City to compete in the festival. Upon arrival at the center, every band is designated a festival mentor, who will act as a clinician and guide during the competition. Mentors are usually members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, but may not be the same as the in-school workshop clinicians. These mentors will help make final preparations with the bands before their performances.

On the first night of the festival, a jam session is held following a welcome banquet. A list of the songs to be played at the jam session is sent to schools beforehand to help participating students prepare. The song repertoire usually consists of ten popular jazz standards well-known to the jazz community. Students who wish to improve or show their improvisation skills are encouraged to attend. It is common during these jam sessions for members of JALC to perform with the students, though only one is actually designated as playing with them. Wynton Marsalis also participates, though randomly.

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Jam Session during evening hours inside the Allen Room with Central Park in the background

The competitive portion of the festival begins the next day, with the actual competition divided into three parts over a two-day period. Attendance to all three parts is free, but requires tickets. During each performance, an on-stage recording system records every band live. Later in the year, the recordings are posted on the festival website.

Following all student performances, the top three bands are announced at Rose Theater. Each of the final three bands play at the festival concert later that night, along with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. The concert is held at Avery Fisher Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic. During each of the final bands' performances, Marsalis will usually play as a guest artist with all three bands. However, this was not the case in 2006 as Jon Faddis took this honor due to an apparent mouth problem with Marsalis. After the performances, an awards ceremony names the top three placing bands, and an honorable mention is given to the fourth place band. Outstanding soloists and horn sections are also recognized during the ceremony.

Regional Festivals

Beginning in early 2006, JLC announced the debut of the festival's first regional. The regional festivals are non-competitive and offer high school jazz bands of different levels the opportunity to play Ellington's music while also receiving professional feedback.

Student Essay Contest

Along with musical competition, the festival also offers an essay contest for jazz students. Students are asked to compose a 500-word essay that details their experience with jazz music. The winner of the competition is awarded a trip to New York to attend the festival and share their essay with finalist bands. The top three essay finalists are all awarded a variety of items, ranging from jazz recordings to musical scores.

Competing Bands

The Essentially Ellington Competition was originally open only to high school bands east of the Mississippi, but in 1999 bands across the US and Canada were allowed to enter as well. Several bands from the Seattle area have been repeat finalists, including Roosevelt High School, Garfield High School, Shorewood High School, Newport High School, Edmonds-Woodway High School and Mountlake Terrace High school. There has also been one Canadian band from River East Collegiate (in Winnipeg, Manitoba) to merit an invitation to the festival four times since '03.

In 2008 five of the fifteen bands to compete were from the greater Seattle area. Acknowledging the Northwest's dominance at Ellington, Marsalis said, his tongue only half in cheek, "I'm challenging you all to do something about Seattle and Washington."

See also

• Jazz at Lincoln Center

External links

• Essentially Ellington Festival Website