3 Seattle-area schools intend to prove their Essentially Ellington prowess this weekend

Essentially Ellington, the nation's premier high-school jazz band competition, begins in New York City today, and once again, Seattle-area schools are there. The 2009 field includes Seattle's Garfield and Roosevelt high schools, plus Bellevue's Newport High School.

Roosevelt won the 2008 contest, with Garfield finishing second, showing Seattle's continued dominance of the competition. Seattle-area schools have been so successful at Essentially Ellington (EE), it's easy to forget that when the jazz-band competition first convened in 1996, entrance was extended only to schools on the East Coast.

Since schools from West were allowed in starting in 1999, jazz bands from Washington state have been wildly successful, in particular Roosevelt and Garfield, perennial contenders that must be considered the favorites at EE, which starts this afternoon at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Roosevelt, Garfield and Newport make up one-fifth of the field of 15, which also has three schools from California and Wisconsin, plus two from Massachusetts and one each from New York, Florida, Indiana and Pennsylvania.

The bands each perform Saturday or Sunday, then the top three bands play are put in a Sunday evening concert at Avery Fisher Hall, with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Every year since 2000, either Garfield or Roosevelt has won EE or placed among the top three. Garfield finished on top in 2003 and 2004; Roosevelt won in 2002, 2007 and 2008, the only three-time winner in Ellington history. They are the only two schools to win in consecutive years. No one has won it three years in a row, something Roosevelt has a fighting chance to do this weekend.

"We're going to perform for the sake of the audience, ourselves and the music," said Roosevelt band director Scott Brown. "And if you do that at the highest level of integrity and ability, the competitive things fall into place."

Brown continued: "We've won two times in a row. In a way, it takes the pressure off a little bit. We'd love to win it again, but we can hold our heads up high, no matter what happens."

Under director Matt Eisenhauer, Newport is making its third trip to Ellington, an accomplishment overshadowed by the dominance of Garfield and Roosevelt. Newport, Mountlake Terrace, Edmonds-Woodway and Mead High School in Spokane have made repeat trips to New York.

"Garfield and Roosevelt have been really good longer than rest of us," Eisenhauer said. "My colleagues don't like it when I say it, but they're just better than we are."

This weekend's showdown is considered the EE finals: The 15 entrants were culled from a field of 107 bands, which played and recorded scores of Duke Ellington and Benny Carter songs.

The Ellington competition has been a catalyst of sorts for the quality of jazz education in the Seattle area, which in the past decade-plus has gained a national reputation.

The story of jazz in Seattle has been the high schools and middle schools, the consistency of the instruction, the parental support and involvement, and the mentoring that, when combined have sent legions of students to some of the best music conservatories in the country — and turned more than a few into successful, professional jazz musicians. It has been Seattle's distinct contribution to jazz.

Area schools were producing good musicians before the Ellington competition: saxophonist Mark Taylor graduated from Roosevelt 18 years ago and drummer Matt Jorgensen played the drums (and first base) for the Ingraham High Rams in the early '90s, but the national competition gave the local talent something to shoot for, and a scale to measure itself by.

"Every year we go is very special, trust me," said Clarence Acox, Garfield's band director. "For these kids, there's nothing like going to New York and playing at Lincoln Center. There are kids who have been wanting this since elementary school."

Hugo Kugiya: hkugiya@yahoo.com