From May 7-11, five Aragon students attended the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Festival with the Stanford Jazz Workshop Miles Ahead Big Band. The group was one of 30 high school jazz bands from throughout the world to be selected for the festival, which is run by the famous Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and is revered by jazz professionals.
“[People] consider this particular festival to be the Super Bowl of high school jazz festivals,” said MABB director Michael Galisatus.
Part of the festival’s prestige comes from the participation of famous jazz musician Wynton Marsalis.
“Anybody who’s relatively big in any big band scene knows Wyn Marsalis because he leads the Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra, which is essentially the most prestigious big band in the entire world,” said senior alto saxophonist Dominic Kudzia.
Because of the festival’s reputation, the MABB members did not expect to be selected, and many were pleasantly surprised to find out about their success.
“It seems like a far away thing to go to New York and play at this festival with bands from across the U.S. [and] … international bands,” said sophomore and baritone saxophonist Elizabeth Yuan. “I was very excited … [and] shocked.”
At the festival, the bands only played music by Duke Ellington, a famous jazz musician and composer, as a way to pay homage to Ellington’s contributions to jazz and to focus on more traditional jazz music.
“[The Essentially Ellington Festival] brings in the best young musicians to carry on the legacy of playing music from the past,” Kudzia said. “And that’s sort of the whole idea of this festival, especially since we’re playing the music of Duke Ellington … [who is such a] well known composer and probably one of, if not the largest driving force of jazz.”
However, playing Ellington’s music presented the band with some unique challenges.
“Wynton’s idea was to expose high school students to the music of Duke Ellington and to have them perform it as authentically as possible,” Galisatus said. “So that’s the challenge of the music, is to make it sound authentic, to make it sound like Ellington’s band.”
Making the music sound authentic to Duke Ellington’s style requires both precision and adaptability.
“There’s certain stylistic nuances … in the way that each person plays and breathes and phrases within their sections and within the recordings of these songs that you really have to focus [on],” Kudzia said. “And it’s natural … for stuff that takes place on the recording to not be written out in the [sheet music]. So you just have to hear that and then adapt it into your playing even though it’s not written out specifically for you.”
Despite the many challenges of playing Ellington’s music, the bands that participated in the festival were highly talented and performed their music well, according to the attendees.
“Every single band I heard was insanely good,” said sophomore and baritone saxophonist Brandon Lin. “That was really cool to see, because I’ve probably never listened to that many bands in one spot that sounded that good. All the soloists were really good and [it was] great to be exposed to such [a] high level of musicianship.”
The bands competed against one another and were judged by professional jazz musicians. While the MABB was not chosen to move to the second round of competition, many still viewed the festival as a positive experience because of the friendly atmosphere.
“It was a competition, but it was more friendship-oriented,” Galisatus said. “There was so much camaraderie among the students and the directors. So even though it was competitive, it was really more of an opportunity for students to get to know each other … and create lifelong friends.”
Following the festival in New York, the focus for the Miles Ahead Big Band is now auditions for the 2025-26 school year, and eventually, returning to the Essentially Ellington Festival.
