SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
New York: When Anna Yamazaki was starting high school in Melbourne, clips from the Essential Ellington jazz program in New York City started popping up among her YouTube suggestions.
The competition attracts the creme de la creme of school jazz bands from across North America, who gather at the Lincoln Centre in Manhattan to play Duke Ellington tracks and other big band standards. For budding jazz musicians around the world, it’s the north star.
Blackburn High School Jazz Band plays at the Lefrak Concert Hall in Queens ahead of the Essentially Ellington festival.Credit: Alex Towle
“I’ve watched Ellington for years and years, and it’s always been a ‘what if’ thought,” says Yamazaki, who is now in year 12. “I never thought it would become a reality.”
Yamazaki and 19 other students from Blackburn High School, a public school in Melbourne’s east, will perform in the Big Apple this week after being selected as finalists for the competition’s special 30th anniversary instalment.
They are one of just three international school bands invited, the others being from Japan and Spain. In total, 30 schools will compete over four days, starting with the first round on Friday, local time.
The Blackburn High band will play three pieces – Ellington’s Cotton Club Stomp and Blues for New Orleans, as well as Every Day I Have the Blues, a blues standard popularised by Memphis Slim and B.B. King. If successful, they will be among just 10 bands to advance to round two, where they will add Ellington’s The Mooche to their repertoire. Only three bands will compete in Sunday’s final.
Music director Jason Ziino, Anna Yamazaki on saxophone, Jasmine Richards on trombone and band director Andrew O’Connell.Credit: Alex Towle
Jason Ziino, Blackburn High’s director of music, says Essentially Ellington is the most prestigious contest of its kind in the world. “It’s the pinnacle of jazz band performance and competition,” he says. “If you’re going to be a good big band or jazz ensemble, this is the place you want to be.”
It also means playing in one of New York’s hallowed music rooms, the Rose Theatre at the Lincoln Centre for Performing Arts. “You don’t get to book that,” says Ziino. “Schools can book Carnegie Hall and play there. You only get to play in that hall [the Rose] if you’re good enough and get invited.”
The gig didn’t just come out of the blue: the school participated in Essentially Ellington’s regional programs in Australia and was also invited to take part in an unusual virtual version of the main festival during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020. This is the first time a school from the southern hemisphere has performed at the festival in New York.
“We’ve done a fair bit with the organisation over the years, and we’ve built a lot of relationships,” says band director Andy O’Connell. “It’s a symmetry of our approach to music and their approach to music – we’re very aligned.”
Blackburn High School Jazz Band will be one of only three international groups to play at the New York festival. Credit: Alex Towle
The students have had a whirlwind week, spending Monday at Susan E. Wagner High School on Staten Island. The 3000-pupil school has a notable jazz ensemble and is an Essentially Ellington regular. On Tuesday, they performed at the Lefrak Concert Hall in Queens. All that’s left is to conquer Manhattan.
“I don’t think it’s even really sunk in yet for me,” says Jasmine Richards, who is in year 12 and plays trombone and bass trombone. “It feels a little bit not real. It had this massive build-up, and now it’s happening. It’s almost hard to comprehend because it’s so massive, and it’s amazing.”
O’Connell says the ensemble has had a fire underneath them since being told they wouldn’t be going to their usual festival – Generations in Jazz in Mount Gambier – this year, but would instead be heading to New York.
“Getting on the plane – we counted it, it was 27 hours from door to door – that’s a long time,” he says. “And then to go, ‘Right, we’ve done all of this work, now let’s play some music’ – the music means so much more when you get there.”
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