Eckstein/Garfield/Roosevelt Shine at the Reno Jazz Festival

The Times is reporting that Eckstein won two division places and four soloist awards at the Reno Jazz Festival yesterday.

Garfield's combo, won first place in the AAA division (probably some salve to the wound of not going to the Essentially Ellington contest in May in NYC).

Roosevelt's Jazz Band III won second place in the Apprentice II division. 

From the story:

The legacy and influence of Seattle's nationally-renowned school jazz band programs was manifest at the festival. Garfield high school alum Tatum Greenblatt played trumpet in one of the festival's featured professional ensembles, The Mingus Big Band. The middle school jazz band competition winner, from Lindero Canyon, Calif., is directed by Matt McKagan, brother of former Guns N'Roses bassist Duff McKagan, both graduates of Roosevelt High School.

Congratulations to all these fine young musicians and the great teachers who guide them (and the parents who back them).

Comments

Eric Orlin said…
Why no shout-out for the Sealth Jazz Ensemble? They received a rating of gold at the Worldstrides Heritage Jazz Festival in New Orleans, LA, and trumpet player Cameron Nakatani received a Maestro Award for outstanding solo from the three-judge panel that included professors from Arizona State University, Tulane, and Loyola. The news was on the West Seattle Blog, whom you obviously read.

Not to take anything away from these schools, but there is good music being produced all over the Seattle school system - Let's spread the love!
4/30/12, 10:09 AM
Jan said…
Duly noted, Eric. Thanks for posting. What this city does with middle/high schoolers and jazz is just so incredible.
4/30/12, 3:29 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, gr...
Read more

Education News Roundup

From the ever-amusing Washington Policy Center : Vouchers are Pell Grants for students under 18.  Vouchers are no different than Pell Grants or GI benefits, except the money goes to the families of students younger than age 18.  Except they are. Pell Grants were created to help needy students and that's not really the goal of the voucher program.  The Pell grant website does have a couple of great studies on why low-income students drop out before finishing their higher ed and what makes a difference.
Read more