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SEATTLE SCHOOLS CONTINUE DECADE OF DOMINANCE AT ESSENTIALLY ELLINGTON

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Seattle Times
Another year at Essentially Ellington, another triumph for Seattle bands. Garfield High School won here and Roosevelt placed second in the 2009 festival, the top high-school jazz-band contest in the country, which wrapped up here last Sunday. “We kind of chuckle that people are going to get tired of seeing Garfield and Roosevelt all the time,” said Scott Brown, the band director at Roosevelt High School, which is located within five miles of Garfield. It’s been quite a decade for Seattle-area schools. In 2000, the fifth year of the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival, Roosevelt placed third and Garfield received an honorable mention. Entrance into the competition had only been opened to schools in the West the year before, and the talent was already weighted toward the Northwest.

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THREE SEATTLE-AREA SCHOOLS INTEND TO PROVE THEIR ESSENTIALLY ELLINGTON PROWESS THIS WEEKEND

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essentially ellingtonSeattle Times
Essentially Ellington, the nation’s premier high-school jazz band competition, begins in New York City today, and once again, Seattle-area schools are there. The 2009 field includes Seattle’s Garfield and Roosevelt high schools, plus Bellevue’s Newport High School. Every year since 2000, either Garfield or Roosevelt has won EE or placed among the top three. Garfield finished on top in 2003 and 2004; Roosevelt won in 2002, 2007 and 2008, the only three-time winner in Ellington history. They are the only two schools to win in consecutive years. No one has won it three years in a row, something Roosevelt has a fighting chance to do this weekend.

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