From The Seattle Times:
Seattle-area high school jazz bands fared less well than usual at the Essentially Ellington competition Saturday in New York.
None of the bands — Garfield, Roosevelt or Mount Si — made it into the top three, though Garfield received an honorable mention.
Since 1999, when the competition opened to schools west of the Mississippi, Garfield has won first place four times, Roosevelt three times, and both bands are used to turning up somewhere in the top three.
This year, the Tucson Jazz Institute, from Arizona, placed first; Jazz House Kids, from Montclair, N.J., second; and Dillard Center for the Arts, from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., third.
Band directors from Garfield and Roosevelt noted the top three are arts magnet schools or community schools. Garfield and Roosevelt have bested such schools in the past, but there are more of them now.
Continue reading at The Seattle Times.