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Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival

American high school jazz competition and festival From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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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 in New York City. The festival is aimed at encouraging young musicians to play music by Duke Ellington and other jazz musicians.

Process

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Every year Jazz at Lincoln Center transcribes arrangements of Ellington's music and sends them to participating high school band directors in the U.S. and Canada. During the year, band directors are sent a newsletter and given access to online educational materials to help with the arrangements. Students can email Jazz at Lincoln Center for help and send recordings of their band's finished performances to the Center for evaluation. These recordings can also count as applications to the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival in New York City. Fifteen top bands are invited to the festival, which occurs every May at Frederick Rose Hall in Jazz at Lincoln Center. The festivals ends with an awards ceremony for the top three bands, then a concert by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra led by Wynton Marsalis.[1]

In 2013 a new selection process was introduced, under which the top three bands from five national regions compete in New York City. Another major change made that year was the opening up of the main competition to allow conglomerate bands (extra-curricular bands composed of students from more than one school, often sponsored by local performing arts organizations) to compete directly with the bands affiliated with schools, instead of one conglomerate band being chosen to appear outside the competition as a special guest in an exhibition performance, as was the case previously.

The 25th annual edition of the competition and festival was scheduled to feature classic Ellington charts re-released once again. It was also announced on “Acceptd”, the official application site, that, due to the 25th anniversary the region system has been eliminated, and a total of eighteen bands will be selected, three more than in years past. However, due to concerns regarding the COVID-19 virus, Jazz At Lincoln Center announced that the “in person” aspects of the event were cancelled, with Wynton Marsalis presenting a Q&A session on the day of the festival, jam sessions, clinics, sectionals, concerts, and even the traditional cheer tunnel all being held virtually. No winners were announced, although honors to individual soloists and sections were given.

Also present for the first time in 2020 were five international youth jazz orchestras, from Japan, Scotland, Australia, Spain, and Cuba, increasing the total number of participating ensembles in the 2020 festival to twenty-three.

The 2021 festival was originally scheduled to be an in-person event featuring music of pivotal arranger and pioneering electric guitarist Eddie Durham alongside the traditional Duke Ellington musical releases. However, the course of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that this arrangement simply wasn't feasible. The festival pushed back the release of new music until the 2021-2022 school year, and encouraged participating schools to submit one song from the entire Essentially Ellington library in either a synchronous or asynchronous fashion. Submission due dates were pushed back to March and the actual festival to early June.

The 2021 festival also introduced new rules regarding the submissions of conglomerate bands (extra-curricular bands composed of students from more than one school), a previously largely unregulated field. The festival provided and official definition of conglomerate bands, stating that they need to follow a specific course of study, as well as a scope and sequence, all in addition to weekly rehearsals and scheduled public performances. All-Star, All-State, and All-Region bands are barred from competition, as are bands created for the sole purpose of competing in Essentially Ellington.

For the 30th anniversary of the competition and festival, the region system was once again abandoned and a total of thirty bands were selected to participate, double the amount in years prior. Twenty-seven bands were chosen across the United States, and three international bands from Japan, Australia, and Spain were also invited to compete.

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Background

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When the program began in 1995, it was offered only to school bands in New York City. During the next few years, the program grew to include schools in all U.S. states and Canada. Over 4000 schools have received materials.[1]

Beginning in early 2006, JALC 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.[2]

Starting in 2008, music by big band composers other than Ellington was used for the first time, three Count Basie selections. In succeeding years they have also released songs by: Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams, Gerald Wilson, Fletcher Henderson, and Benny Golson.[1][3]

For the 2013 and 2015 competitions, Essentially Ellington returned to its original format of six Ellington charts. After the finalists are announced, clinicians are sent to each of the finalist schools to provide a jazz workshop and prepare the bands for competition.[4] The clinicians are usually members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Notable alumni of the competition includes Grammy-nominated trombonist Nick Finzer who serves on the jazz faculty at UNT and founded The Outside The Music record label.[5]

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Finalists

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Several high school bands from the Seattle area have participated including repeat finalists: Bothell; Roosevelt; Garfield; Shorewood; Mount Si; Edmonds-Woodway; Mountlake Terrace; Newport and Ballard high schools.[6][7] In 2008, five of the fifteen bands to compete were from the greater Seattle area. Acknowledging the region's dominance at the competition, Marsalis, tongue only half in cheek, challenged the remaining schools/regions, "to do something about Seattle and Washington."[8]

An asterisk (*) indicates a band was chosen as the winner of the community ensemble showcase, but did not directly compete in the festival.

Alabama

Arizona

  • Tucson Jazz Institute - Tucson, Arizona, 2010*, 2012*, 2013 (1st), 2014 (1st), 2015 (2nd), 2016 (3rd), 2017 (1st), 2018 (3rd), 2021, 2025

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Florida

Georgia

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Missouri

  • Grandview High School – Grandview, Missouri, 2007

Nebraska

New Jersey

  • Jazz House Kids – Montclair, New Jersey 2013 (2nd), 2014 (2nd), 2016, 2022, 2025
  • Newark Academy – Livingston, New Jersey 2012, 2015, 2017 (H.M.), 2018 (2nd), 2019, 2022, 2024 (1st), 2025
  • Parsippany High School – Parsippany, New Jersey, 1996

New York

North Carolina

  • Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble – Raleigh, North Carolina, 2016 (2nd), 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024

Ohio

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

Tennessee

  • Hume-Fogg High School – Nashville, Tennessee, 1998, 2010
  • Memphis Central High School - Memphis, Tennessee, 2020, 2021, 2025

Texas

Utah

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Australia

Canada

Cuba

  • La Jazz Band del Amadeo Roldán de la Habana – Havana, Cuba, 2020

Japan

  • Tomisato High School – Tomisato, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, 2020, 2025

Scotland

  • Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra – Edinburgh, Scotland, 2020

Spain

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Composition Contest

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In 2013, the Gerhard W. Vosshall Student Composition/Arranging Contest was added to the festival following a donation from the Vosshall family made in Gerhard's honor.[9] The contest was renamed the "Dr. J. Douglas White Student Composition and Arranging Contest" in 2016.[10] Each year, a winning composition is chosen from submissions sent from the US and Canada and is performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The winning composer receives a cash prize, a trip to the competition in order to conduct their piece and a composition lesson. The lesson was originally with Ellington historian David Berger, but shifted to JLCO saxophonist Ted Nash in 2015.

More information Year, Composer ...
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See also

References

External links

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