Essentially Ellington 2017 - NYC

I just returned from New York with the Edmonds-Woodway High School Jazz Ensemble I. We were 1 of 15 finalists in the Essentially Ellington Jazz Competition held at Jazz @ Lincoln Center at Columbus Circle.

Here's a shot of our seniors for 2016-17.

We had a great time a learned much. Students got to meet and play with many other great players from around the US and Cuba!  I recommend participating in this festival for any band director that would enjoy the challenge. 2017 was our 5th time attending and it's always very well run.

Here's a link to the video of our band's performance ... I'm not sure how long this will remain on the internet but hopefully for a bit.

http://www.king5.com/news/local/edmonds-woodway-hs-performs-at-essentially-ellington/439527502

This is the playlist including student soloist names.

Here's a photo slideshow of some of the rest of the trip.  We visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, attended "Bandstand" musical at the Jacobs Theater, jam session in the Appel room at Jazz@Lincoln Center, performance and Q & A with Wynton Marsalis in the Rose Ballroom, toured the city with Rick Bennett and visited Mezzrow and the Village Vanguard jazz clubs to hear Bill Cunliffe trio and the Vijah Ayer trio.

Photo slideshow of trip activities ...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0ohd1Eqa7RMaXZ4endiUGQ4bzQ

Big thanks to all of these folks for helping make this trip a success.

Thanks

J@LC

Todd Williams and Ted Nash

Host Dan Quigley

Starbucks

Booster community

Leigh-Ann Hafford - trip coordinator

Bonnie fryzlewicz

Candy Gaul

Robin Blahous

Pete Bennett

Dan Chappelle

Gordon Tibbits

Katie Tibbits

colleagues

Edmonds School District (public school) 

Kate Labiak - College Place Middle School 

Matt Edwards - Madrona K-8 School

Angela Zumbo - Brier Terrace Middle School

Assistant Band Directors with Jazz 2 and 3

Alex Dugdale

Dan Greenblatt

Private coaches

Garey Williams

Steve Treseler

Mark Taylor

Jeff Hay

Barb Hudak

Mr. Bergevin's school band directors 

Gary Evans - Rose Hill Jr. High and Lake Washington High School

John Moawad - Central Washington University

Family - Christina, Elijah and Jordan Bergevin and my Mom Susan Malinosky

EE17 - gearing up for NYC and Essentially Ellington Festival

It's already been a very busy spring.  After returning from Cuba, Edmonds-Woodway High School hosted Todd Williams of the Wynton Marsalis septet as our clinician for the Essentially Ellington Festival. April 15th was our annual Big Band Dance with guest musicians for the neighboring middle schools and loads of happy dancers. Now we are getting close to departure for NYC.  Expecting to have fun and learn a lot too.