One year after Bothell, Roosevelt and Garfield high schools were named finalists for the prestigious Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival in New York City, all three schools are again among the 15 finalists for the 2024 competition, to be held May 9-11 at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.
Seattle’s Roosevelt and Garfield high schools have each won the competition four times. Under longtime band director Clarence Acox, Garfield took home top honors in 2003, 2004, 2009 and 2010. Roosevelt, under Scott Brown, won in 2002, 2007, 2008 and 2019. The two Seattle schools continue to flourish under new educators. Jared Sessink took the reins at Garfield when Acox retired in 2019. Hannah Mowry did the same at Roosevelt when Brown hung it up in 2022.
Bothell High School, with music director Philip Dean at the helm, has been named an Essentially Ellington finalist each of the last three years.
More than 100 high school jazz bands applied for this year’s competition, which celebrates composer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington’s 125th birthday. Schools apply by submitting live recordings of three transcribed Ellington songs, and are judged at the New York competition on a rubric of musicianship, swing and soloing. With three finalists, Washington is the most represented state at this year’s competition.
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