Seattle Schools Community Forum

Two items of note: Your youth jazz story can become a KCTS film! Do you have a connection to a jazz program, jazz teacher or jazz student, and have an idea for a story you think should be told? The instructors at KCTS’s 9 Media Lab can help you tell it and share it with our viewers. Beginning in March, we will be offering free workshops to individuals interested in learning the fundamentals of video production to create their Jazzed! story. No experience necessary! Professional filmmakers will teach you how to tell your story about young jazz musicians and jazz education in Seattle. Participants will come to the 9 Media Lab and learn storytelling skills as well as how to shoot, produce and edit video. Final films may be shared with the community on KCTS9.org and considered for broadcast. The program is free of charge, but space is limited so sign up now! For more information and to register click here . Do you know someone who might be interested? Please feel free to forward thi...

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).

The Roosevelt High School Jazz Band took second place at this year's Essentially Ellington competition in NYC.  They also were awarded prizes for many individual and ensemble awards.    (Dillard High in Fort Lauderdale, FL took first place.)  Details in the Times' article. The article also explained why Garfield wasn't there (and I hadn't heard this before).  According to Massey, Garfield inadvertently failed to renew its membership in Essentially Ellington on time, so the school's sheet music arrived only a week before the due date for an audition CD.

First up are two pieces of good news from the northwest corner of the district. My Ballard reports that a Salmon Bay student, Leo Pfeifer, won recognition by C-SPAN for his documentary, "Homelessness: An American Crisis."  He is one of 30 students to be recognized out of 1,100 entries and won 1 of 4 second prizes ($1500, not shabby).   On Friday, he and his cameraman, Ian Derby,  will be honored at an assembly at Salmon Bay and presented with a check.  From the district's website, Ballard High band director, Michael James, was selected as one of five directors from around the country to receive a full scholarship to the Lincoln Center's Band Director Academy.  He was chosen based on the quality of recordings submitted to the Essentially Ellington Jazz Festival.  More jazz band honors for SPS. Also, Bryant and Thurgood Marshall won the City Finals in the 2011 Global Reading Challenge .  They advance to the Video Conference final with Canada...

The Essentially Ellington contest, the premier high school jazz band competition in the country, announced the finalists for the competition today. Roosevelt made the cut as did Mountlake Terrace High School. Garfield, the first place winner for the last two years, did not make the cut. I'm sure this is a blow to their fine program but I'm sure it will just be a blip and they will come back strong next year. Good luck, Roosevelt.