Roosevelt band jazzed up after exciting year

E-mail this article Print this article

Veteran jazz musicians will tell you the only way a good band can become a great band is to go on the road.

The Roosevelt High School Jazz Band has learned that lesson well this year. It has logged more than 20,000 miles, playing in Beijing, Shanghai and New York. It has done big-band dances and coffeehouse gigs and elementary-school shows, sometimes all in the same day.

It's been a phenomenal year for this talented batch of young musicians. In April, the band did a 12-day tour of China, playing for audiences of up to 4,000.

Two weeks ago, the band placed second in the highly competitive annual Essentially Ellington competition in New York, the best finish ever for this region. That scored them a performance with Wynton Marsalis in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York. And that was after taking the best-of-festival "sweepstakes" at the Viking Jazz Festival, a statewide competition.

All that jazz Though school lets out soon, there are still a couple more chances to hear the Roosevelt High School Jazz Band. At 6 p.m. tomorrow, the band plays at the New Orleans Creole Restaurant (206-622-2563; $5) in Seattle. The 16-piece Vocal Jazz Ensemble - whose soloists Katie Schoepflin and Lauren Graf picked up a couple of prizes at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival this past February - also will perform, as well as the Jazz Lab, directed by saxophonist Dan Greenblatt. The event is a fund-raiser aimed at recouping some of the year's travel expenses. On June 16, Roosevelt plays a final date at the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center (206-684-4757; free) Seattle, where the band will honor a senior with the annual Waldo King Jazz Award.

"It's been one of the best experiences of my life," says 16-year-old pianist Brian Kinsella, a junior, of his musical year. "This is the best band I've ever been in."

Seattle has been raising eyebrows at Essentially Ellington for three years, ever since the competition opened up to schools west of the Mississippi. Of 15 finalists chosen from around the country, the Seattle area twice has sent four bands. Last year, Roosevelt placed third. This time, they hit number two.

"This band has been growing together for a long time," said Roosevelt band director Scott Brown.

"When we first started going to this festival most of those students were sophomores, and there were even a few freshmen. We've done a lot. We've gone to Mazatlan; we did an East Coast tour last year. But 12 days in China is going to kill a band or bring 'em together. I think that made the biggest difference for us."

The trip was "a blast," by all accounts. The band hiked to a remote part of the Great Wall, then tobogganed down a zigzagging metal water trough. Band members ate at a "hot pot" restaurant in Chengdu, deep-frying frog legs and eel in kettles of spicy oil, and shopped for jade and pearls in fancy department stores in Shanghai.

They traded rhythmic ideas with a Chinese percussion orchestra and had cross-cultural discussions about high-school life with their Chinese peers.

But it was not a trip without mishaps. A few days before the band left China, an American EP-3 surveillance plane collided with a Chinese jet fighter, starting an international dispute.

"I was a little nervous," said trumpet player Meghan Miller, a senior. "But people didn't hold that against us. They were really accepting."

When the band arrived in Beijing, however, their instruments were seized by customs for three days. Then in Shanghai, trip coordinator Carol Andersen got her foot caught between two rolling stages and had to go to a hospital. Andersen is still in a cast.

China was a once-in-a-lifetime cultural experience. But when you're a jazz kid, playing with the most famous jazz musician in the world - jazz at Lincoln Center with artistic director Wynton Marsalis - is hard to beat. The three finalists at Essentially Ellington got a private rehearsal with Marsalis, then performed with him.

"He helped us `dial in' our shuffle groove on `Tutti for Cootie,' " said bassist Andrew Pulkrabek "That was really fun."

"We really let it rip," said Brown. "When we played with Wynton, it was happening."

After the concert, Marsalis acknowledged to Brown that the horse race for first place had been "very, very close."

Roosevelt soloists also picked up five awards: Alex Mabe, alto saxophone; Katie Schoepflin, clarinet; Brian Kinsella, piano; and Adam Kessler and D'Vonne Lewis, drums. Connie Schoepflin received an award for outstanding vocalist.

Duke Ellington kept some of the same personnel 50 years. But high-school band members graduate and move on. Roosevelt loses three seniors this year: Miller, Kessler and bass trombonist James Ianelli. But the future looks bright. The band's star soloists - Mabe, Kinsella and tenor saxophonist Johnny Butler - will still be around.

They're already talking about "next year."