Dillard Center for the Arts
Ellington Experience
About the Program
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EE is unique among educational resources for high school jazz bands.
Each year Jazz at Lincoln Center transcribes, publishes, and distributes
Duke Ellington Orchestra charts, along with recordings and additional
educational materials, to high school bands in the U.S., Canada, and
American schools abroad.
These charts are original transcriptions of recordings by the Duke
Ellington Orchestra, not simplified arrangements.
In 2008, Jazz at Lincoln Center began including non-Ellington repertoire.
While the music of Duke Ellington will always be central to EE, the
program now explores other important big band arrangers and composers
as well—one each year. Featured artists have included Benny Carter, Mary
Lou Williams, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie.
Throughout the school year, EE provides ongoing support to students and
teachers participating in the program. Jazz professionals develop mentoring
relationships with students through email correspondence, various
conference presentations, and the season-ending festival weekend.
Band directors receive quarterly newsletters and have access to online
teaching guides and rehearsal videos that correspond directly to the
current year’s charts and offer practical ideas for the high school band
room.
About the Program cont’d
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Directors are encouraged to make a recording of their band performing one, two, or three
charts, no matter what their level of ensemble or experience is. All participants have the
option of submitting recordings of their performances, to be judged in a blind screening process
by professional jazz educators/musicians. Every submission receives a thorough written
assessment and a signed certificate of merit. This is known as Comments Only.
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The recording can also be used as an application to the annual EE High School Jazz Band
Competition & Festival, held each May in New York City at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz
at Lincoln Center. Fifteen bands are selected as finalists, with each receiving an in-school
workshop led by a professional musician.
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The Jazz at Lincoln Center Band Director Academy, Launched in 2000, the BDA is an
intensive summer workshop for band directors, led by an outstanding faculty, during which they
can hone their skills in teaching big band music.
Membership Benefits
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Music Library – Free high quality charts from a variety of composers and
Big Band leaders; in various grades. The charts often times have the
transcribed solos.
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Young People Series – easier charts for Middle School and young high
school bands.
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Listening Library - Access to original recordings of Duke Ellington and
other original big bands. Tutti Player
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Album and Program Notes - Challenge directors and students
academically, adding rigor to the curriculum. Promotes virtuosity on the
instrument, (learn their instrument, develop musicality, (nuances), learn the
importance of listening, develop a good jazz vocabulary thus improving
their overall skills).
Regional Festivals
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In 2006, Jazz at Lincoln Center piloted its first EE High School Jazz Band Regional Festivals.
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These noncompetitive festivals are designed to offer high school jazz bands of all levels the
opportunity to perform the music of Duke Ellington and other big band composers, and to
receive professional feedback from Jazz at Lincoln Center clinicians and other jazz professionals
in their own communities, at various locations around the country.
Florida Essentially Ellington Regional Festival
Saturday, February 1, 2014
9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Bailey Hall (Central Campus)
3501 SW Davie Road
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314
We look forward to seeing you!
Send your questions to info@eefljazz.com
2014 Regional Festival Adjudicators
Reginald Thomas, Piano: Reginald ("Reggie") Thomas joined
the MSU College of Music as professor of jazz piano in 2011
after nearly 20 years as professor of music at Southern Illinois
University-Edwardsville. He regularly appears as a guest artist
at collegiate jazz festivals around the country. He is also a
consultant/clinician for Jazz at Lincoln Center, working with
the Essentially Ellington Program and the Band Director
Academy.
He has served on several summer jazz faculties across the
country and abroad including the International Association for
Jazz Education Teacher Training Institute, the Birch Creek
Music Center, the Eastman School of Music Summer Jazz
Camp, the Summer Jazz Academy in Chodziez, Poland, and,
most recently, the Barbican Center in London.
Michael Dease, Trombone: Michael Dease was appointed
assistant professor of jazz trombone at the Michigan State
University College of Music in 2013. In addition to teaching
jazz trombone majors, Dease conducts one of the jazz
orchestras, the Spartan Jazz Bones ensemble, and leads
courses in arranging and improvisation.
An Augusta, Georgia, native, Dease moved to New York in
2001 to study at the Juilliard School earning his B.M and M.M
of Music. Active as a sideman, studio artist, and leader, he
released four critically acclaimed solo CDs, recorded on more
than 100 albums as a sideman, and has collaborated with the
leading artists in jazz and popular music, including Christian
McBride, Roy Hargrove, Nicholas Payton, Wynton Marsalis,
Lewis Nash, and Alicia Keys.
Dease serves as president and producer at his jazz record
label, D Clef Records.
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Reginald Thomas
Michael Dease
2014 Essentially Ellington
2014 Essentially Ellington Competition & Festival
May 8-10, 2014 at Rose Hall
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The annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival is one of the
most innovative jazz education events in the world. Each year, high school musicians from
across North America travel to New York City to spend three days immersed in
workshops, jam sessions, rehearsals and performances at the “House of Swing,” Frederick
P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
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Each finalist band receives an in-school workshop led by a professional musician before
coming to New York to put up their “Dukes” and perform before Wynton Marsalis and a
panel of esteemed judges.
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Past workshop clinicians have included trumpeter Terell Stafford; jazz educator Ronald
Carter; Justin DiCioccio, director of Jazz Studies at Manhattan School of Music;
saxophonist Loren Schoenberg; pianist and educator Reginald Thomas; Rodney Whitaker,
Director of Jazz Studies at Michigan State University; and members of the Jazz at Lincoln
Center Orchestra.
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The festival concludes with a concert and awards ceremony featuring the three topplacing bands and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.
DCA Jazz Accomplishments
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December 20, 2013 performance at the 67th Annual Midwest Clinic,
an International Band and Orchestra Conference – Chicago, IL.
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Performed with Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director of Jazz @ Lincoln
Center, at the 66th Annual Midwest Clinic, an International Band and
Orchestra Conference – Chicago, IL – December 20, 2012.
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The 2012, 2011 & 2010 winners of the Swing Central Jazz
Competition and Workshop in Savannah, GA. Second Place 2009 and
2008.
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Superior ratings with the Florida Band Masters Association nine
consecutive years at the District level and five consecutive years at
the State level.
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Several jazz band members selected for participation in Grammy
Band, Jazz Band of America, Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, All
State Jazz Band and All County Jazz Band.
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DCA Jazz graduates on scholarships to Manhattan School of Music,
Julliard, New School of Jazz, University of Miami, Michigan State
University and Florida State University.
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Scholarship winners of the Gold Coast Jazz Society (Jeanette M.
Russell Scholarship) attended various jazz workshops i. e.: Vail Jazz
Workshop, Brubeck Summer Jazz Colony, Centrum Jazz Workshop,
Stanford University, Michigan State University and Abersold Jazz
Camp.
Accomplishments - Ellington
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2009 – submitted audition CD and was in top 30, but not selected as one
of 15 finalists to participate in the competition.
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2010 - Second Place
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2011 - First Place
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2012 - First Place
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2013 - Fourth Place*
Note: Three finalists are selected from five national regions as of 2013
DCA Jazz Video Clip
More Information
Christopher Dorsey
954-604-3635
info@eefljazz.com