It’s cool to be in the top jazz band at Seattle’s Garfield High School. According to 11th grader Wren McIntosh, who plays baritone saxophone in Garfield’s Jazz Ensemble I, most students see it as like being a member of high school’s state championship-winning basketball team.
“It's not seen as like, ‘Oh, you do jazz? You’re weird,’” McIntosh said.
How could it be? In the world of competitive high school jazz, Garfield High School Jazz Ensemble I (Jazz I), the “varsity” band in the school’s three-band jazz program, is one of the most formidable competitors in the nation.
Since band director Clarence Acox founded the program in 1978, Jazz I has won top honors at every major west coast jazz competition. They’ve also been accepted 18 times to Essentially Ellington, a highly selective national jazz band competition and festival in New York City. During seven of those appearances, they’ve placed in the top three.
After a 40-year career as band director at Garfield, Acox retired in 2019, marking the end of an era for Garfield Jazz. And yet, since his departure, Jazz I has continued to perform at a high level and qualify for Essentially Ellington, which they did in 2020 and 2023.
Jared Sessink, Acox’s successor as the director of bands and jazz at Garfield, credits Garfield Jazz’s ongoing success to his students’ investment in the school’s jazz legacy.
That investment was on full display during a recent Jazz I rehearsal in Sessink’s trophy-lined band room. At the bell, the students scurried in, moving the grand piano into the center of the room, lining up chairs into three rows, and warming up on their instruments—all without a word from Sessink.
This sort of maturity and self-directedness is expected in Jazz I. With all the performances the band does, and the level at which they are playing and competing, Sessink said the band’s success really comes down to what the kids put into it.
“I tell them, this is really all you, go for it. Put everything you got into it, and then I'll see you on the other side,” Sessink said. “I'm just there to guide the ship and help them get clarity from what they're playing.”
Sessink gauges students for these qualities each spring during the audition for Jazz I. Students must display their understanding of the standard repertoire, improvisation, and solo transcription, and are asked point blank about their availability for travel and after school rehearsals. For some students, making Jazz I means dropping out of other time-consuming extracurriculars.
Once they get into Jazz I, it’s the students who manage most of the day-to-day details. Students must learn and refine their parts, of course, and using a shared Discord channel, they arrange before-school sectionals and communicate about gigs, audition dates, and attendance.
There are also two student band managers, junior Timothy Park and senior Peter Strickland. They serve as student representatives on the board of the Garfield Jazz Foundation, the parent booster group that raises funds for the band and helps arrange gigs in the community for the jazz students to play in small groups.
“That gig program is huge,” Sessink said. “[It’s] our hidden secret...we’re performing a ton.”
The first half of the school year was busier than usual. The group learned ten new pieces of music for the first-ever Battle of the Bands between the Garfield and Roosevelt High School Jazz Bands, and performed a festive winter concert at the Seattle Center Armory. Now, Jazz I is feverishly preparing to record their audition for Essentially Ellington, which happens annually in May.
On Tuesday, they did a dry run of the audition music for the public at the Royal Room. Later this week, the private audition recording session occurs in the school auditorium from Jan. 18-21. Students say it’s an intense time, especially because Sessink had to cut three students from the Essentially Ellington process right before winter break. Selections were made based on who could best perform the difficult music, some of which is professional-level.
“It's been kind of stressful because we have 28 people in the band this year and then you're only allowed to take 25 [to the competition],” said pianist Elliott Beck, the only freshman in Jazz I this year. Beck, along with his older brother, drummer Evan Beck, made the cut.
Senior Peter Strickland, who plays tenor saxophone and clarinet, also made the cut, but feels “conflicted” about the grueling Essentially Ellington process. Sometimes, it detracts from the joy that first got him into jazz band at Jane Adams Middle School, but not always.
“For the most part, it's really fun just being with people and doing something that makes you happy,” Strickland said.
Strickland and Park, who both attended Essentially Ellington with last year’s Jazz I, agree that attending the competition is really fun and that this year’s band has a good chance of making it again.
Even if they don’t, Jazz I has an exciting 2024 schedule to look forward to. Upcoming events include the Bellevue College Jazz Festival on Feb. 3, Starbucks Hot Java Cool Jazz on March 29, if they qualify, and Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in mid-April.
