Twenty of the nation’s top high school jazz bands will compete later this month in New York City’s Essentially Ellington Jazz Band Competition and Festival at Lincoln Center, to see who’s the best in the country. Three of those bands are from Texas.
Carroll Senior High’s jazz orchestra recently hosted Jazz at Lincoln Center visiting artist and clinician Pharez Whitted, a gigging jazz trumpeter and college instructor at Northern Illinois University.
On a recent afternoon, Whitted rehearsed the teenagers in the tunes they’ll take to New York City: Duke Ellington’s "Purple Gazelle," his "Giddybug Gallop," and "Gypsy" by William Gordon Reid.
Whitted danced and sang as he rehearsed, reminding the young musicians that a lot of jazz has been dance music and often sung, and they might improve their performance if they did both as well.
“That music is magical, right? Right? You’ve got to be magical!” he said after the band wrapped up “Gypsy.” He knows these students can play the notes; they’re that good. He hopes to unlock more from them.
“I want the spirit,” he tells them. “I'm crazy about this music. I'm crazy about what it can do for you. It's not just about playing music. It is going to change your life.”
Each of the nation’s qualifying bands will get a workshop like this. Neighboring McKinney North High Jazz Band and the Jazz Houston Youth Orchestra are also headed to the Essentially Ellington Competition. More than 100 hopefuls sent audition tapes.
This will be Carroll’s 8th time to go.
“I think that now, after Mr. Whitted's help, I'm going to attack it more with a lot more energy and a lot more spirit,” 18 year-old trumpeter Maggie Kester, who’s looking forward to returning.
It will be 16-year-old pianist Marco Longarini’s first time performing in the competition.
“I think [Whitted is] bringing a more emotional feel, and side, to our playing rather than just technical,” Longarini said. “I think he's making us feel - which is something that's really important to our band.”
Important because this band made it to Lincoln Center last year - an accomplishment all by itself. But this time they want to finish at the top. Band director David Lown believes last year’s experience will help
“They can visualize themselves in the space now.” Lown said. “And an additional motivation is I think a general feeling that … we didn't play as well as we could have last year. And so there's a little bit of hunger there.”
A hunger Whitted hopes to pair with talent in this band. With his help, he hopes the band’s performances improve this year and could even lead to a win, even knowing that’s not his real goal.
“Music is not competitive,” Whitted said. “It's about individuals expressing themselves. And the only one that can express you is you. We're about taking what we do to the highest level that we can go with it.”’
That’ll be trumpeter Maggie Kester’s approach this year.
“The competition's kind of secondary,” she said. “Of course, it would be great to win, it'd be great to get top three, but the old cliché of just go and have fun and go and say what we want to say and be who we want be.”
The Carroll Jazz Orchestra heads to the Essentially Ellington 3-day competition and festival in New York City, April 30 through May 2.
Bill Zeeble is KERA’s education reporter. Got a tip? Email Bill at bzeeble@kera.org. You can follow him on X @bzeeble.
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