What’s in the water? Seattle bands dominate NY jazz competition

Mountlake Terrace High School Jazz Ensemble I performs at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington, May 2011 (Photo: Frank Stewart for JALC)

The best high school jazz bands in the country have
gathered in New York City for the annual Essentially
Ellington Festival, the student Superbowl of swing.

And once again, Seattle-area schools are dominating the
competition.

Roosevelt, Ballard and Mountlake Terrace High School are
among the 15 finalists in the elite competition at the
prestigious Lincoln Center, hosted by jazz legend Wynton
Marsalis.

It’s old hat for Roosevelt High. The Seattle school
finished second in the elite competition last year, and
has won it three times in the past decade.

Mountlake Terrace has made repeated appearances as well,
finishing third last year, while Ballard is playing in the
Big Apple for the first time.

So what makes our schools so super? Roosevelt band
director Scott Brown says it stems from a commitment made
long ago by some jazz greats starting with iconic Seattle
musician Clarence Acox

“We’ve had some seminal national level band directors who
kind of laid the foundation, so there’s that great
tradition of bands who like to swing,” Brown says.

But it’s about more than just the band leaders. Most agree
the Seattle area has a unique musical culture unlike
anywhere else.

“It’s like a perfect storm of all these different
influence of expertise in the classroom, motivated kids, a
community that cares about it, the right funding for the
public schools,” says Todd Stoll, Director of Education
for Jazz at Lincoln Center, which hosts Essentially
Ellington.

Stoll says in most cities students don’t get the
opportunity to even begin playing jazz until high school,
while the Seattle area is home to numerous middle school
programs and jazz loving parents who expose their kids
early.

Mountlake Terrace High School junior guitarist Kyle
Scherrer says his father first turned him on to jazz. And
while many of his friends gravitate towards rock or rap,
the gifted player loves the complexity and freedom of
jazz.

It’s almost like it demands so much creativity. Because
you could hear 100 people play the same song and they’d
all play it completely different,” Sherrer says. “There’s
so many different ways to interpret everything. Really,
the music you make is really made up mostly on the spot.”

While there’s a healthy competition between all the local
bands, Mountlake Terrace band director Darin Faul says the
community is close, many of the kids from different
schools play together and many of the band directors are
friends rather than rivals.

“When you have more than one high quality program I think
it breeds sort of a healthy competitiveness and the bands
end up pushing each other to a higher and higher level.
And then it kind of spreads,” Faul says.

But there is a downside to all the national acclaim.
Lincoln Center’s Todd Stoll says Roosevelt, Mountlake
Terrace and Ballard all have big targets on their backs.

“Everybody knows that when there’s bands from Seattle on
the docket there’s going to be some serious swing
happening. It’s kind of like the championship basketball
team. Everyone’s gunning for you. The other schools are
looking at the Seattle schools and saying ‘ok, let’s see
what you got.'”

The schools perform Saturday and Sunday, with the top
three from the entire field going head to head Sunday
night in a gala concert with Marsalis joining each for the
performance. And don’t be surprised to see the Seattle
area well represented.