from The Seattle Times:
For the past 10 years, high-school jazz bands from Washington state have accounted for nearly one-quarter of the finalists in the prestigious Essentially Ellington band competition in New York City. True to form, three schools from the Seattle area are sending bands to the 15-band Ellington competition in May: Garfield, Roosevelt and Newport.
To raise money for travel expenses, those schools — along with the bands from Shorewood and Mountlake Terrace high schools, which have also competed at the Ellington finals — will perform a fundraising concert at 7:30 tonight at the Paramount Theatre (911 Pine St., Seattle). The concert, called Hot Java Cool Jazz and sponsored by Starbucks, raised more than $16,000 per school last year. Even the schools that do not compete in Ellington spend a lot of money to perform, travel and practice.
Continue reading at The Seattle Times.