Contemporary Big Band Swing
- Genre BLS -- Blues
- URL http://garfieldjazz.org
- Biography Garfield High School Jazz Ensemble The Garfield High School Jazz Ensemble this year is a 25-member jazz band that is comprised of students from a variety of cultural and economic backgrounds. Located in Seattle, Washington, Garfield is a public (tuition-free) high school with such an interest in jazz that it maintains three levels of jazz band in its curriculum. The “Jazz Ensemble” is the top jazz band in this program. The group has won every major competition on the west coast of the United States. In 2006 it was named the “Outstanding Festival Band” at the prestigious Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival for an unprecedented seventh time. In 2011 it was named the ‘Outstanding Instrumental Ensemble’ at the Reno Jazz Festival for a record fourth time. It is also a ‘four time’ winner of the Essentially Ellington National Jazz Band Competition & Festival, held in New York’s Lincoln Center. The music of Duke Ellington and Count Basie is the cornerstone of the Garfield Jazz Ensemble. E.E. music is played at festivals and concerts though out the school year. Garfield made its tenth tour of Europe during the summer of 2011. On that tour it played at Jazz a Vienne, in France in addition to other concerts through out, France and Italy. On its nine previous European tours, the band has performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival, in the Netherlands, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. It has been selected four times to perform at the conference of the prestigious IAJE (International Association for Jazz Education).
