High-school bands from Western Washington state claimed two of the top four honors at Lincoln Center's elite Essentially Ellington jazz competition Saturday while one local high school senior garnered an Ella Fitzgerald Outstanding Vocalist Award.
This is the fourth year four bands from Washington made the finals. But it was Roosevelt senior Isabella Du Graf's first trip to the competition in New York. She received the outstanding vocalist award after singing Duke Ellington's “Rocks in My Bed."
“It was the entire band," Du Graf said of her award. “They set the groove for me."
The audience was “hooting and hollering while she was singing, Du Graf said.
“You just want to smile, but you have to maintain the story."
Battle Ground High School from Battle Ground, Clark County, near Vancouver, placed second on its first foray into the finals in New York City. Seattle's Garfield High, which has won the competition twice in years past, finished third.
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This is the fourth year four bands from Washington made the finals. But it was Roosevelt senior Isabella Du Graf's first trip to the competition in New York. She received the outstanding vocalist award after singing Duke Ellington's “Rocks in My Bed."
“It was the entire band," Du Graf said of her award. “They set the groove for me."
The audience was “hooting and hollering while she was singing, Du Graf said.
“You just want to smile, but you have to maintain the story."
Battle Ground High School from Battle Ground, Clark County, near Vancouver, placed second on its first foray into the finals in New York City. Seattle's Garfield High, which has won the competition twice in years past, finished third.
Continue...
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