Three high school jazz bands from the region are heading to the 2019 Essentially Ellington Competition and Festival in New York this week. Roosevelt, Garfield and Mount Si students will be competing with musicians from a dozen other schools to win top honors at the event.
Mount Si senior and guitarist Ryan Horn attended the competition as a sophomore. He says he looks forward to returning.
"The really fun part about Ellington is the energy," Horn said. "Everybody's bringing their 'A game' and they're just there to play jazz, which is really cool. It's really hard to replicate that environment."
Sage Eisenhour is making her second appearance, as well. The senior trumpet player also serves as the band's lead vocalist.
"It is a little nervewracking being a vocalist for the group," Eisenhour said. "But I feel at home when I do it just because I know that I have a ton of people behind me just cheering me on, and it just feels right to be doing that with all of them."
She says she's excited for another opportunity to be on stage at New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center. Performing jazz makes her feel like she's part of history, she said.
"We're playing songs that were conceived when we were not even a thought, or far in the distance," Eisenhour said. "It's just this level of emotional attachment to the music that we all feel that makes it so special."
Horn says his affinity for jazz isn't just about being part of history; he also likes that the genre is a "living, breathing thing."
"You can't put a box on it," he said. "It has this super rich history. That's totally true. But I think jazz also has a huge future... and it's really, really cool to me that that community is just changing and it's like this melting pot of all these different influences that started so long ago, but is still continuing so strong today."
The competition and festival is May 9-11. It concludes with a concert and awards ceremony, featuring the three top-placing bands and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.
