Big, loud, and bold is how Terrace’s Jazz Ensemble 1 performs. A week following Mountlake Terrace’s competion in the Newport High School Jazz Festival where they brought home a handful of awards, Jazz Ensemble 1 went to Seattle to rehearse and perform at the Paramount Theater alongside four other quality Puget Sound high schools.
The bands performed and were interviewed by Seattle-based coffee company Starbucks, and were once again given the opportunity to perform to a sold-out crowd.
On Mar. 29, the Friday before spring break, the band performed “Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie”, “A Little Minor Booze,” “Trav’lin Light” and “The Sunny Side of the Street” for an enthusiastic and appreciating crowd.
Hot Java Cool Jazz is a live performance funded by Starbucks with the goal to give back to high school music programs. For nearly 30 years, Starbucks has taken audition tapes from high school jazz bands all over the state, and then weeks later, five of those bands are invited to perform at the Paramount Theater in downtown Seattle.
In January these students worked day and night to practice and prepare audition tapes to be sent to
Starbucks.
Weeks later, the Terrace Jazz band found out that they were one of the five bands chosen for the 27th show. Mountlake Terrace, Edmonds-Woodway, Garfield, Mount Si and Roosevelt High Schools were also chosen to compete.
Although they weren’t selected for ‘Essentially Ellington’, a jazz fest held in New York every May, the MTHS jazz ensemble had beaten two of the bands selected in recent competitions. Jazz 1 won sweepstakes as well as first in their division at Newport High School.
Despite the ever-increasing challenges due to budget cuts within the performing arts program, director Darin Faul and his students persevered.
“Going into this year, we didn’t know what was going on due to the budget cuts. For part of the year Faul worked at another school, there was a lot of uncertainty coming into this year. We didn’t know our strengths and our weaknesses. [So] he figured out what we wanted to do and loved about band,” senior Owen Thorpe said.
The jazz band took advantage of the opportunity to demonstrate their excellence at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival held at the University of Idaho – one of the most prestigous jazz festivals in the nation. The festival lasted three days, and the both the Jazz ensemble and symphonic bands attended. While there, they competed against 82 high schools from surrounding states including Idaho, Oregon, Montana and even a few schools from Canada.
These musicians also played in the final concert of the festival. With Garfield High School as the runner up, Terrace was announced as the winners of their sweepstakes.
Individual musicians, juniors Mya Phin, Katarina Moye, Justin Ho, sophomore Travis Herberg, and freshman Luca Manzo were all recognized for their excellent work at the festival – including the entire trombone section: seniors Braden Ryder, Ben Dockter, juniors Bennett Harvey, Allen Vernon, and sophomore Wyatt Gutting.
Their win at ‘Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival’ went beyond bragging rights and a trophy, the band also won a free trip to next year’s festival.
This win brought home rotating trophies which will be returned and hopefully brought back home the following year.
Band students have spent months and have exhibited tremendous progress, all with the support of many of the coaches working with sections and the whole band. They have competed against dozens of bands in the area and came out on top.
