The Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Program (EE) is unique among educational resources for high school jazz bands. Duke Ellington's music is at the very heart of America's 20th-century musical heritage and lies at the core of the rich cannon of jazz music. Jazz at Lincoln Center, committed to instilling a broader understanding of this music, created EE during the 1995-96 school year to make Ellington's music accessible to as many high school musicians as possible and to support the development of their school's music programs.

Each year Jazz at Lincoln Center transcribes, publishes, and distributes Duke Ellington Orchestra charts along with recordings and additional educational materials to high school bands in the U.S. and Canada and American schools abroad. These charts are original transcriptions of recordings by the Duke Ellington Orchestra, not simplified arrangements.

In 2008, Jazz at Lincoln Center began including non-Ellington repertoire in the charts distributed to schools. While the music of Duke Ellington will always be central to EE, the program now explores other seminal big band arrangers and composers as well – one each year. Featured artists have included Benny Carter, Mary Lou Williams, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie

Beyond providing these charts, EE also supports participating bands throughout the school year. EE strives to foster mentoring relationships between students and jazz professionals through email correspondence, various conference presentations, and the festival weekend. Band directors receive quarterly newsletters and have access to online teaching guides and rehearsal videos that correspond directly to the current year's charts and offer practical ideas for the high school band room. In 2006, Jazz at Lincoln Center piloted its first EE High School Jazz Band Regional Festivals. The noncompetitive regional festivals are designed to offer high school jazz bands of all levels the opportunity to perform the music of Duke Ellington and other seminal big band composers and to receive professional feedback from Jazz at Lincoln Center clinicians and other jazz professionals in their own communities.

All bands that receive the music have the option of submitting recordings of their performances. Entries are judged in a blind screening process by professional jazz educators/musicians and every submission receives a thorough written assessment and a signed certificate. Some choose to submit their recording as an application to the annual EE High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival, held held each May in New York City at Frederick P. Rose Hall, the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Fifteen bands are selected as finalists and to prepare, each band receives an in-school workshop in their community led by a professional musician. The three-day festival allows students, teachers and musicians from across North America toparticipate in workshops, rehearsals and performances. The festival concludes with an evening Concert and Awards Ceremony open to the public at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall featuring the three top-placing bands and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis in a concert featuring the music to be distributed the following year through Essentially Ellington.

EE has seen major growth in its sixteen years; originally open to schools in the New York metropolitan area, it expanded to all 26 states east of the Mississippi in 1998; in 1999, the centennial of Ellington’s birth, the competition opened up to all 50 states and U.S. territories, and in 2001, Canada became eligible. Also, in 2000, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Band Director Academy was launched. Each summer an outstanding faculty leads an intensive workshop for band directors to hone their skills in teaching big band music. In the program’s 16-year history, Jazz at Lincoln Center has distributed more than 90,000 charts to more than 4,500 schools and has reached more than 300,000 students. In 2009, EE Celebrates 15 introduced several initiatives to connect with alumni and fans and gather information on the impact that EE has had on the community.