Results are in from Essentially Ellington at Lincoln Center in New York City:

Winner: DILLARD CENTER FOR THE ARTS, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Second: ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL, Seattle, WA
Third: MOUNTLAKE TERRACE HIGH SCHOOL, Mountlake Terrace, WA

Huge congrats to both Roosevelt and Moutlake Terrace!

Update: Paul de Barros has a piece up on the Seattle Times website.

Some excerpts:
Roosevelt High came in second, and Darin Faul’s jazz band from Mountlake Terrace High placed third.

“I’m elated for my kids,” Brown said. “They worked hard. It didn’t come together until late, but they really ramped it up.”

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There was a lot of back and forth among the judges over picking the winners. Choices were “hotly contested,” said Marsalis, as 15 bands — at least five of them top-notch — played three songs each Friday and Saturday in the sumptuous-sounding Rose Hall, at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

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Neither Roosevelt nor Mountlake Terrace is a stranger to Essentially Ellington. Roosevelt has made the finals 12 times; Mountlake Terrace, five times.

Given the past success here of Garfield, many were shocked when it didn’t make the finals this year. According to Massey, Garfield inadvertently failed to renew its membership in Essentially Ellington on time, so the school’s sheet music arrived only a week before the due date for an audition CD.

Category:
Seattle Jazz