MOSCOW, Idaho — Seattle's top two high-school jazz bands, longtime rivals, both won at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival last weekend.

They both lost, too.

In a festival notable for exciting daytime competitions and excellent evening concerts, Garfield and Roosevelt competed against different bands, so each received an award for AAAA Outstanding High School Band.

Both were bested, however, in the "sweepstakes" for Outstanding Festival Band by Arts and Communication Magnet Academy, from Beaverton, Ore.

"They're tough," said Garfield band director Clarence Acox of the Beaverton outfit.

In another exciting contest, Roosevelt's Logan Strosahl plucked the tenor saxophone solo award from a field that included worthy Garfield competitor Andrew Mulherkar.

Alto vocalist Isabella Graf won a soloist award, singing "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me," in one of the most natural, compelling performances ever on the Hampton main stage.

Other first-place honors were Washington Middle School and the University of Washington.

After the daytime student competitions, evening concerts by the pros in the Kibbie Dome offered some especially fine programs.

Trumpeter Roy Hargrove, looking spiffy with a new, short haircut and a sharp suit, played with fire and precision. He fronted the house rhythm section — Benny Green (piano), Jeff Hamilton (drums), John Clayton (bass) and Russell Malone (guitar) — which offered some of the weekend's sharpest musical moments.

The wonderfully fluid singer Roberta Gambarini was in fine voice, as was former Seattle vocalist Dee Daniels, who rocked the house with a gospelized piano/vocal on "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

Father-and-son guitar duo Bucky and John Pizzarelli danced through a delightful pas de deux, and riffed through "Air Mail Special" in a "guitar summit" with John Stowell, Russell Malone and Corey Christiansen.

A Russian all-star youth septet, sponsored by the Library of Congress' Open World Leadership Program, played in a hip, late-'60s Miles Davis style.

Flutist Holly Hofmann offered a breathtakingly tender ballad tribute to the late Ray Brown, a former festival regular.

Offering a foil to another festival veteran, Bill Watrous, Australian virtuoso James Morrison presented a tour de force, alternating between trombone and trumpet — on the same tune. At one point, he engaged in a "conversation" between high-note cadenzas on the small horn and multiphonics — producing three notes at the same time — on the larger one.

The closing set by the raucous Lionel Hampton New York Big Band offered a particularly touching moment, courtesy of Dr. Lynn J. Skinner, the festival's avuncular executive director. With Morrison playing lead trombone, Skinner conducted a ballad he'd written and arranged in honor of the many late, great musicians who have passed through the Kibbie Dome, including Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown and Hampton.

The Lionel Hampton Center also presented an excellent program on women in jazz, featuring a screening of the rough cut of Seattle filmmaker Kay D. Ray's smart documentary on women instrumentalists, "Lady Be Good," and an informative talk by feminist jazz scholar Sherrie Tucker.

Here is a list of Seattle-area musicians rated "outstanding": Junior Division (vocal) alto, Siobhan Brugger, King's Jr. High (Seattle); Junior Division Choir, King's Junior High, Darla Pumphrey, director; College Tenor Saxophone Solo, Neil Welch, University of Washington; College Vocal Alto Solo, Brecklynn Bradford, Pierce College; College Vocal Soprano Solo, Marissa Whelan, Olympic College (Bremerton); College Vocal Tenor Solo, Joey Walbaum, Olympic College; College Vocal Bass Solo, Zach Trandum, Bellevue Community College; Community College Band, Pierce College II, Jere Knudtsen, director; Community College Combo, Bellevue Community College, Thomas Almli, director; College Multi-Mic Choir, Olympic College, Teresa Fraser, director; Guest College Band, University of Washington, Vern Sielert, director; AAAA Choir, Garfield High School, Carol Burton, director; Junior Division Choir, Eckstein Middle School, Moc Escobedo, director; Multi-Mic Choir, Kamiak High School (Mill Creek), Scott McKinlay, director; Alto Solo, Isabella Graf, Roosevelt High School; Soprano Solo, Aubrey Logan, Jackson High School (Mill Creek); AAA Band, site 1, Newport High School (Bellevue), Matt Eisenhauer, director; AAAA Band, site 1, Garfield High School I, Clarence Acox, director; AAAA Band, site 2, Roosevelt High School, Scott Brown, director; AAAA Combo, Roosevelt; Junior Division Band, Washington Middle School, Robert Knatt, director; Junior Division Combo, Washington; Alto Sax Solo, Rob Hanlon, Garfield; Tenor Sax Solo, Logan Strosahl, Roosevelt; Bozouki Solo, Elias Dotis, Bishop Blanchet High School; Drum Solo, Eytan Nicholson, Garfield; Lead Trumpet Player, Andrew Miller, Roosevelt.

Paul de Barros: 206-464-3247 or pdebarros@seattletimes.com