17 October 2011 by ben.

Local area jazz fans were treated to a spectacular Seattle sunset just minutes before Mountlake Terrace took the stage at Seattle’s Town Hall on Friday the 14th of October at the opening performance of the Earshot Jazz Festival.  Executive Director John Gilbreath opened the festival with many kind words about the strong jazz traditions in the northwest including both Roosevelt High School and Mountlake Terrace High School, which placed 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in the 2011 Essentially Ellington Jazz Festival in New York City last May.

Both bands treated jazz lovers with a diverse selection of big band arrangements and two World Premier compositions, one by Roosevelt pianist Chris McCarthy and another by Roosevelt lead trombone Andrew Karboski.

Roosevelt Jazz Band at Earshot Jazz Festival (click for photo archive)

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7 March 2011 by ben.

It was bitterly cold in the Moscow, Idaho area during the festival this year, with the thermometer plunging to -11 degrees Fahrenheit (-24 C) on Friday evening.  Brrr…

All groups performed well for the judges, although because of the way the student concert has morphed in the past two or three years, hardly anybody comes to hear the bands, instead going to dinner in preparation for the evening concert.  I personally miss the excitement of the festival from a few years earlier when winners and runners up were announced, soloists performed on the big stage, and winner bands performed on the big stage.  When Bonnie and Sandy performed with their middle school winning band just five years ago, several thousand students, parents, and jazz fans heard them perform.  This year when the same middle school performed, there were 90% fewer people listening.  Clearly, the train has come off the tracks for the student concert.

Regardless, there were photo ops galore as Kim and I followed the Roosevelt Jazz kids around.  Vocal Jazz did have their chance to perform on the Kibbie Dome stage, mostly to their friends from Roosevelt and Garfield High School.

Click on the image below to view the complete archive.

Roosevelt Vocal Jazz Ensemble at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival

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9 February 2011 by ben.

Roosevelt High School sent two bands to the Clark College Jazz Festival in Vancouver Washington on the 29th of January:  the Roosevelt Jazz Band (JB1), directed by Scott Brown, and Roosevelt Jazz Band 2 (JB2), directed by Stuart MacDonald.

Since JB2 performed at 10:40 and Vancouver was over three hours south of Seattle, the bus had to depart the high school in near darkness at 6:45 AM.  After a groggy and speedy trip down I-5 and straight Clark College, we checked into the festival and JB2 climbed the stairs to the warm up room.  They would perform just 20 minutes later.

JB 2’s set sounded strong and drew much applause, and they were invited to perform in the AAA finals that evening with the other top AAA bands.  After the lunch break, JB1 performed an inspired set and were also invited to perform in the finals that evening as one of the top AAAA bands.

A dinner break followed, with the bus taking us over the Columbia River to Portland’s Janzen Beach mall area.  Chaperons, students, and directors scattered in all directions on a quest for food.  After our return to Clark College just over an hour later, both bands warmed up and coincidentally played back to back in the finals, something that rarely happens.  The JB1 set included a crowd pleasing rendition of Every Day I Have the Blues featuring vocalists Eric Reiman and Katherine Stuber that totally energized the jazz loving audience.

Final results:  JB2 won 4th place honors in AAA and JB1 won the 1st place AAAA trophy.  In addition, the award for Sweepstakes Band (best band of festival) was awarded to Roosevelt’s JB1.  Next year, they will be the honorary band who will not compete and will perform the final set of the evening (as Garfield Jazz Band did this year).

Click photo for archive:

Roosevelt Jazz Band members accepting the AAAA 1st place trophy

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6 December 2010 by ben.

For the 11th consecutive year, the Roosevelt Jazz Band in Seattle performed the Jazz Nutcracker, as arranged by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington in 1960. This annual tradition brightens the theater with thoughtful and articulate performances of this increasingly popular jazz version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.  Many attendees had kids in the jazz programs in previous years and come to the concert to hear this great music again and to see some old friends, too.

Click the photo for the rest of the archive:

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3 December 2010 by ben.

On Friday, 3 December, Roosevelt Jazz Band put on a special pair of concerts for area 4th and 5th graders.  In each concert, the band played selections from the jazz version of the Nutcracker, as arranged by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington.  The band played a few selections, and then director Scott Brown solicited questions from the audience, some of which showed surprising insight.  One boy wanted to know, “What does that big saxaphone sound like?”  A girl asked a question about jazz improvisation, wondering if the musician played completely on their own, or interacted with other musicians on the stage.  That was probably the most insightful question ever asked at these concerts for the local middle school kids over the past decade.

And here are some photos I took of the event, click the one below to see the full archive: 

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20 June 2010 by ben.

A dozen Roosevelt Jazz Band students performed in their final spring concert at the high school concert hall on June 18th.  They sounded terrific as usual, performing from the Ellington catalog and from other selections from this past year.  Director Scott Brown gave out a musicianship award to senior drummer Nolan Woodle.

Jazz Band at the spring concert.  Click photo for photo archive.

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12 June 2010 by ben.

On 9 June, Roosevelt and Garfield jazz bands were invited to perform on one of the most prestigious stages in Seattle:  McCaw Hall.  Usually reserved for operas and other extravaganzas, the concert hall hosted these two award winning jazz bands for a special fund raising performance in which all donations were split between the bands.  Approximately 1000 people attended this free concert.

Roosevelt Jazz Band at Benaroya Hall (click for larger version)

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13 June 2009 by ben.

Stuart MacDonald led Jazz Band 2 and Jazz Band 3 through their end-of-year concert last Thursday evening.  Both bands showed off their chops as they swung through a challenging pair of sets largely of compositions written by local area composers.

Jazz Band 2 entered the stage in surprise garb meant to reflect Stuart’s preference for wearing sweaters onstage.  Both band’s contributed towards a pair of stylish retro shoes for Stuart.

Stuart MacDonald and the Roosevelt High School Jazz Band II

Stuart MacDonald and the Roosevelt High School Jazz Band III 

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31 August 2008 by ben.

Sandy and Bonnie both performed at the Reno Jazz Festival in May of 2008.  They flew, while Kim and I shuttled middle school equipment by driving down.  So for us, it was a sort of getaway as we took two days both ways and stopped to see a few sights along the way.  The first of these was beautiful Multnomah falls in Oregon, just south of the Columbia River a few miles east of Portland.

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30 August 2008 by ben.

OK, I’m way behind on my blog.  I have a few entries I still plan to get to, from 2007 (!).  Bad me.  Especially our trip to Durango, filled with many sights and sounds.

So in the short term, I plan to make a few entries about some of the highlights that passed this year, so far.

And the first of these… Read the rest of this entry »

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