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First Prize: Kelsey Van Dalfsen
Mountlake Terrace High School
Mountlake Terrace, Washington
What It's All About
I can still remember where I was sitting the night it happened. Despite being only a handful of rows from the back of the balcony, I was entirely immersed in music that in composition outdated me by over half a century, but in inventiveness was far ahead of anything I had ever heard. I went in to Benaroya Hall for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra concert as a thirteen-year-old whose arm had been twisted by her family to attend. Merely two hours later, I left as a young musician, fully entranced by both the swinging simplicity and creative sophistication of jazz music. My relationship with jazz would never be the same because of two realizations I had sitting in the back of the hall that night: I loved my instrument, and I finally knew what jazz was all about.
About eight months before, I switched from the Alto Saxophone to the Baritone. In all honesty, I didn't know that there was any purpose in playing that beast of a saxophone besides filling a chair that was often left empty. That night, Lincoln Center closed with “Symphonette” from Duke Ellington's “Black, Brown, and Beige”, which featured Joe Temperley on the Bari Sax. I had never heard the instrument played that way before, and in that moment, the horn transformed from being an instrument that I simply played, to being my instrument. I understood how rich of a sound the horn was capable of and wanted little more than to be able to play like that. Taking ownership of my instrument that night was a crucial turning point in what was to become my musical career.
Although this concert was my first experience with the music on a profoundly personal level, I was no newcomer to the sounds of big band jazz. I had spent the preceding four years tagging along with my saxophone-playing older brother to various jazz festivals and concerts. I had decided before that I, too, would play the saxophone, because I wanted to have the opportunities that my brother had – among which were traveling to Europe, participating in festivals such as Essentially Ellington, and building friendships with people of similar interest. As I sat in my chair intoxicated by the sounds and feelings coming from the stage, all of these misconceptions faded away and it dawned on me. Playing jazz wasn't about getting to do any of those things. It was about developing meaningful connections – between the musician and her horn, the musician and her music, the musician and her fellow musicians, and most importantly: between the musician's mind and her heart.
Four years later, I can look back on that experience and know that what I realized that night is my "why". That's not to say that it isn't hard work, or to say that there aren't other opportunities or reasons that make playing jazz fun. Knowing what it's all about is, however, the one constant that has kept me loving it – and I know will always be the one thing I can count on to keep me loving it.
Return to the Essentially Ellington Essay Contest
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