KPLU Local News
(2010-05-02)
Listen Now:
null
Scott Brown directs the award-winning Roosevelt High School jazz band in Seattle.
Florangela Davila (KPLU)
The students file in, unbuckle their instrument cases and start messing around. Then Scott Brown gets their attention by making a funny noise.
He's schooling his high school saxophone players in vibrato.
"There. There it is. That's it! OK," he responds as a student saxophonist plays.
Here at Seattle's Roosevelt High, Brown is chatty, bubbly and one of the best jazz music teachers in the country. That's apparent by the awards and musical mementos decorating his office.
In high school jazz circles, the silvery first place trophy awarded at the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival is the Oscar wrapped up in the Heisman.
And Brown's got four of them.
He's also got some stiff competition.
In the festival's 15 year history, only one other person has led his musicians to the same number of first place wins. And that's Clarence Acox, holding court just across town at Seattle's Garfield High.
"So when you guys are playing that can you hear Riley?" Acox asks his musicians. "Were you even listening to him? I'm just asking. Don't lie! No, I can tell you weren't listening. Do it again!"
 |
| Clarence Acox leads Garfield High School's jazz programFlorangela Davila |
"It's very high level festival," Acox says. "The judges are people that are well- known in the jazz community. They know the music and we know that they know the music so we definitely have to be on our best."
From the pool of entries - every school submits a recording - fifteen finalists get named. Which means an invitation to New York. Make it into the top three and you'll join trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra in concert at legendary Avery Fisher Hall.
Since first competing in 1999, Garfield and Roosevelt have placed - and won - so many times they're now household names among the jazz elite.
Walter Blanding plays clarinet as well as tenor and soprano sax with Wynton Marsalis.
"Seattle, they win almost every year," Blanding says. "We talk about it at Lincoln Center. Wow! Is it that incredible? How is that so? It's beautiful."
At Roosevelt, Brown says: "People back in New York and people around d the country are always asking, What's in the water out in Seattle?' He laughs. "It's not really in the water. We think it's the coffee."
Scott Brown's got his cup of coffee, 26 years worth of teaching and the profound respect of his Roosevelt students who describe him as "dedicated, straightforward, intense, passionate."
Brown grew up on Bainbridge Island, studied music at the University of Washington and, more importantly, worked as a resident advisor in the dorms.
"I just found myself really drawn to working with large groups of people and also doing third party intervention and counseling. And it just seemed to tie in really well with a career in music education," Brown says.
His dad played the banjo and he'd bring Dixieland jazz and big band combos home. Brown played the piano and trombone as a kid. He still plays - with Acox, actually - in the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra.
But he says there's no greater thrill than, after months of rehearsals and coaching and finetuning, to stand in front of his students and hear them perform at their peak.
"There's that level of heightened awareness and emotion that you're totally in the moment. And the students are totally with you. It's a very emotional thing," Brown says.
The emotion at both schools, about returning to New York, is high. But they also have a deep mutual respect for one another, something instilled by the festival itself. Essentially Ellington insists that all 15 finalists listen to every competitor. So if there is a rivalry between Garfield and Roosevelt, it's a very polite one.
Roosevelt trumpeter Corey Dansereau:
"Garfield is definitely the competition this year. They have a ton of really good musicians and they're really precise and well-rehearsed. It'll be tough to beat them. But it's always like that."
After back-to-back championships for Roosevelt, Garfield snagged first place last year. Sure, they'd like a repeat. But Garfield senior Carmen Rothwell, who plays the double bass, won't be crushed if they don't.
"It's just such a privilege to be there at all," she says. "We know there are so many other great bands. I mean Roosevelt, especially, they're consistently really, really good."
Clarence Acox is a good-natured taskmaster in the classroom. He's Seattle's unofficial dean of jazz who's led Garfield's program since 1971.
"The thing that makes, I think, the Garfield jazz ensemble unique is we've always had very great soloists. We always swing very hard. And I believe that music should be played with a certain degree of spirit. I'm from New Orleans so we should play it like the musicians from New Orleans play it. With a lot of spirit, a lot of heart, a lot of feeling."
Whatever band comes in first this weekend in New York will earn $5,000 in prize money and if, history repeats itself, a one-of-a-kind basketball game. After winning last year Garfield challenged - but lost - to Wynton Marsalis in a game of hoops.
Florangela Davila, KPLU News
The 15th annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival starts Saturday. Also vying for top honors is Edmonds-Woodway High School.
Listen to the 2009 final concerts by Garfield and Roosevelt high schools
See a list of previous winners and finalists
Read the award-winning Essentially Ellington writing competition winners, including an essay by Edmonds-Woodway student Jack Chelgren
Listen to both schools play on KPLU's School of Jazz
Return to the Artscape homepage
© Copyright 2012, KPLU
