Toni Burks Photography
The Carroll Jazz Band made it into one of the most competitive jazz competitions in the nation for the sixth time. Every year, the Essentially Ellington Festival assembles jazz programs from around the country to participate in a weekend-long event. This year, Carroll Jazz was one of 15 bands announced as a finalist, with this being its third time in a row qualifying for the festival.
“This year we only submitted one tune,” CISD Director of Jazz Bands David Lown says. “With everything being so difficult, [Essentially Ellington] decided to reduce it to only one tune per band. That put a lot more pressure on our single tune.”
The Carroll Jazz Band won four outstanding awards during last year's event, as well as two honorable mentions. David says the band now needs to record two new pieces of music that will be played during the 2021 festival. Considering this is the second time Carroll Jazz has qualified for the national festival during the COVID-19 pandemic, David says he’s proud of his students for persevering through all of the challenges they’ve dealt with in the past year.
“I can’t emphasize enough how proud I am of these kids and this program,” David says. “Early on when I started, it was one of my biggest goals to be a consistent finalist for Essentially Ellington. To have been there three of the past four years feels like we have some momentum, and we just want to keep building on that.”
The 2021 Essentially Ellington Festival will be held virtually June 4-5. To learn more about the upcoming event, visit Academy.Jazz.org.