PHOTO BY FRANK STEWART
from The Seattle Times:
The Roosevelt High School Jazz Band has placed second at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition in New York.
The Seattle school, with a world-renowned jazz program, has won three times previously, but on Sunday was bested by a Florida magnet school, Dillard Center for the Arts, from Fort Lauderdale, which took first place, as it did last year. Miami’s New World School of the Arts, which won in 2005, placed third.
The announcement Sunday night came at the end of a concert by the three finalists and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall.
“The kids were a little disappointed because of how coherently they played,” said Roosevelt jazz-band director Scott Brown after the announcement. “Which is not taking anything away from Dillard. They played great.”
Brown said the Roosevelt kids “blew the roof off Avery Fisher Hall at the Sunday night concert.” Afterward, Brown said Duke Ellington’s granddaughter said to Brown, “Duke would have been proud to have had his music represented that way.”
Two other Seattle-area jazz bands competed over the weekend — Mountlake Terrace and Ballard.
Darin Faul’s Mountlake Terrace bunch are old hands, having been finalists six times, placing third in 2005 and 2011. But for Ballard this was all new, and the school’s band director, Michael James, was extremely pleased.
“It’s been a very cool experience,” said James. “I’m very proud of how my kids did. They were so thrilled.”
Continue reading at The Seattle Times.