Sun Prairie High School Jazz I - Essentially Ellington 2019

Jazz 1 going to NYC for Essentially Ellington 2019! 
Click "donate" below to help support the cause!

Upcoming Jazz I Performances:

March 22 - Swing into Spring - Patrick Marsh (Pie Auction!!)
April 1 - Clinic with J@LC clinician - Tatum Greenblatt - 5-9pm
April 4  -  Jazz Concert - Jazz II, combo, Jazz I, 7:30pm in the PAC
April  8  -  Band O Rama - field house 7pm
April 29 - Carl Allen clinic 6-9pm
May 6 - Send Off Concert - PAC
May 8 - Depart for NYC!!

Jazz I Food Nights:

Support Sun Prairie High School Jazz’s trip to Essentially Ellington in New York City by eating locally at one of these restaurants.
  • Tuesday March 26 - Burrachos
  • April 1 -26: Beans N Cream
    ​    Purchase a 12 oz. bag of beans in-store or
    online and $1.50 of sale will be donated to Jazz I!
  • Monday April 8 - Dairy Queen
  • Wednesday April 24 - Day One Pizza​

Student Info & Downloads:

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Jazz I NYC Raffle List:

Drawing to be held at Jazz I Send-off Concert  (need not be present to win)

Congrats - SPHS Jazz 1 invited to Essentially Ellington 2019!

From Wynton Marsalis, Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center & Essentially Ellington:
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''Essentially Ellington shows off America’s young people at their best,'' Jazz at the Lincoln Center Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis said in a statement. "High school students from across this nation have worked tirelessly on the highest quality of our orchestral music. They’ve met the challenge of mastering vocal effects on horns, of improvising fresh, new individual ideas, and of swinging, which means embracing and nurturing the common ground, and in these divisive times, it’s important to teach and celebrate our most scared values: freedom of speech, empathetic listening, and constructive engagement with others. These kids have a lot to teach us. I’m looking forward to hearing them play, and to being instructed and inspired by them.
"Duke Ellington envisioned the unlimited creative possibilities afforded to all of us by our way of life. This musician shared that vision and made it real. This is the banner under which we fight. It more enlightened and engaged America.''
Congratulations to the 15 finalist bands that will compete in the 24th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival May 9-11th.
  • Beloit Memorial High School (Beloit, WI)
  • Denver School of the Arts (Denver, CO)
  • Dillard Center for the Arts (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
  • Foxboro High School (Foxborough, MA)
  • Garfield High School (Seattle, WA)
  • Middleton High School (Middleton, WI)
  • Mount Si High School (Snoqualmie, WA)
  • Newark Academy (Livingston, NJ)
  • Rio Americano High School (Sacramento, CA)
  • Roosevelt High School (Seattle, WA)
  • San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts (San Diego, CA)
  • Sun Prairie High School (Sun Prairie, WI)
  • Tarpon Springs High School (Tarpon Springs, FL)
  • Philharmonic Association Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble (Raleigh, NC)
  • William H. Hall High School (West Hartford, CT)

Start spreading the news....Jazz 1 goes back to NYC for Essentially Ellington!
SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. - Three southern Wisconsin high schools are among 15 chosen to attend a national jazz competition and festival in New York this spring.
Beloit Memorial, Middleton and Sun Prairie high schools' jazz bands will head to the 24th annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival at the Lincoln Center.
"That is pretty crazy,” Sun Prairie band director Steve Sveum said. “Three from the 608 area code. I don’t think that’s happened before."

At Sun Prairie's annual Essentially Ellington jazz fest Saturday, bands from across the region heard pointers from professional Jazz at Lincoln Center clinicians.
Sun Prairie's jazz band took note as they get ready for the national competition in May.

"It's a great, life-changing experience,” Sveum said. "They refer to it as the Super Bowl of jazz competitions. It really is." His students don’t call him coach, but Sveum leads the way. 
"There's a lot of growth, and you never know where that's going to take you, and that's the fun part about this,” he said.  One clinician referred to senior saxophonist Megan Rault as the Tom Brady of the team during practice.

"I don't really know football. I'm practicing a lot of the time, though,” Rault said. "But I feel like jazz band is more of a collaboration between everybody."  Each plays their own part to create something bigger.  "It's such an incredible feeling to feel. Everybody else is on the same page, beat, groove,” Rault said. “They can feel it, you can feel it. It's a good feeling."  "These kids are working hard, and they're swinging,” said Steve Renko, assistant of student and family programs at the Jazz at Lincoln Center. “You hear how quickly they listen and sort of engage with the material they're given and how quickly they can change and become better, like that," he said, snapping his fingers.
Sun Prairie’s jazz band has made it this far. Now, they're building up to May's competition, in which the three top-placing bands perform alongside the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and jazz legend Wynton Marsalis.   "That means you're the best jazz band in the country,” Rault said. “That would be crazy to think about."  In Rault’s eyes, the opportunity is enough.  "I think if we do the best we can do, I don't care the place we get,” she said.   Sveum said he and the band directors from Beloit and Middleton are planning to hold a concert locally sometime before the national Essentially Ellington festival takes place.

From Channel 3000.com

STAY CONNECTED!

To join in on the "EE" excitement, check out the following social media provided by Jazz at Lincoln Center. The entire weekend of EE events, including the final concert featuring the three top-placing bands and the JLCO, will be webcast live on jazz.org/live.

The Competition & Festival is the culmination of the annualEssentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Program (EE), which also includes non-competitive regional festivals around the country, teaching resources, a summer Band Director Academy, newsletters, and more. The year-long Essentially Ellington program will have distributed 30,000 newly transcribed scores by the end of this school year. For more information including background, history, photos, and audio recordings of the Essentially Ellington2016 repertoire, and more, visit: jazz.org/ee

The Essentially Ellington Competition & Festival  is media-accessible via JALC social media on Facebook, Twitter @EssEllington, Instagram @jazzdotorg, and Tumblr. Students, viewers, and participators can share their thoughts and photos by using the hashtag #EE2018