By Gary Alexander
Special to the Weekly
How do you get to Lincoln Center in New York City? Practice, practice and more practice. The Garfield High School Jazz Ensemble has been delighting Lopez Island audiences since October of 2008. That band went on to win the #1 spot in the national “Essentially Ellington” high school big band competition in Jazz at Lincoln Center, led by Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis. Then the band toured Europe and recorded a CD from that tour called “An Italian Love Affair.”
This year, the Garfield band will return to Woodmen Hall, 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10. The Garfield High School Jazz Ensemble is a 33-member jazz band (with two complete saxophone sections and a deep bench in the rhythm section), including students from a variety of cultural and economic backgrounds. Garfield is a Seattle-based public high school with such an interest in jazz that it maintains three levels of jazz bands in its curriculum. The “Jazz Ensemble” that will visit Lopez this week is the top jazz band in this highly competitive student program.
Garfield’s jazz band has been under the direction of Clarence Acox since 1979. The music of Duke Ellington and Count Basie form the cornerstone of Garfield’s swinging band book at jazz festivals across America and in 11 European tours over the last 25 years. Since 1999, they have been invited to the Essentially Ellington finals 12 times and have won the top spot a record four times. (The winner last May was Portland’s American Music Program.) The Garfield band has been named Outstanding Instrumental Ensemble at the Reno Jazz Festival a record four times and Outstanding Festival Band at Idaho’s Lionel Hampton jazz festival a record seven times.
Here’s a sample school year agenda for Garfield’s Jazz Ensemble:
First public concert: Lopez Island in October
Mid-year appearances at West coast jazz festivals
Final school-year goal: Lincoln Center in May
Summer break: Jazz festivals in France and Italy
Some of the band members form a connection with Lopez that lasts far beyond their high school years. Last year, three brass players from the 2006-09 Garfield bands (along with trombonist Andy Clausen from Roosevelt High) released an album which they recorded on Lopez Island the previous year. Calling themselves “The Westerlies,” the four musicians called their CD, “Wish the Children Would Come on Home.” Well, they came “home” to Lopez earlier this year at Port Stanley School! Two Garfield brass players in the Westerlies – trumpeter Riley Mulherkar and trombonist Willem de Koch – were in that first band that visited Lopez on Oct. 18, 2008.
Garfield has a tradition of excellence in every section. At the 2015 Awards Ceremony in New York, Garfield received three Outstanding Section honors – for their Trumpets, Trombones and overall Brass Section. In addition, some of their Outstanding Soloist award winners on several instruments will be coming to Lopez this week – Fedor Paretsky on alto sax and Ben Lindenburg, tenor sax, as well as trombonists Michael Dalton and Isaac Poole.
Whatever fortunes await this band in the spring, we on Lopez can say “we heard them first.” You don’t have to travel to France – or even Seattle – to hear this world-class youth band. Come to Woodmen Hall on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. for the best big band you’ll ever hear….here.
Gary Alexander programs jazz and The Great American Songbook on KLOI, 3 to 6 p.m. each Friday and Monday. Tune in for an extended sample of Garfield’s big band recordings this Friday on KLOI, 102.9-fm or streaming live audio at www.KLOI.org (click box: “Listen Live”)
Special thanks to Dean & Carolyn Jacobsen for making this series possible, along with Friends of Woodmen Hall, Clarence Acox, Garfield Jazz Foundation, band members and their families.
