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Our Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra members also get involved with EE every year as mentors, clinicians, and performers. Some have been involved since the first year of the program, and another is an EE alum! Read their “EE Stories” below.
Instrument Bass
Year(s) with JLCO 2001–present
How are you involved with EE?
I’ve been able to travel to schools and teach jazz to high school students, particularly the schools here in New York City. I was in the Essentially Ellington competition myself in 1996 with LaGuardia High School Jazz Orchestra. We won first prize that year, and in 1997 we won second place, and I got an award for bass solo. Now I’ve been in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for about nine years. Essentially Ellington is one of the best programs that New York City has ever had—especially for high schools. The arts community in New York City has taken a hit so drastically throughout the years that it’s unbelievable that a program like this is still sustained. It’s so valuable.
What is your favorite part about working with EE?
Being a mentor is great because after being a student and seeing the program nourish you as a performer, you get to become a mentor and see how it works from the other side. It’s always nice to see young kids developing on their instruments.
What is your best EE memory?
The best part about the competition is always the placing of the bands. That’s always the highest excitement because everybody’s all revved up trying to see if their band made it to the Final Concert or not. Then once your band makes it, it’s the placing at the end of the show that’s even more exciting. Those are always my memorable moments at Essentially Ellington—waiting for the placements.
Advice for students learning to play jazz:
Jazz is great music, but it’s a hard style of music to find work in. The people who want to just learn the art and craft of jazz—those are the people we look forward to meeting because those are the ones who actually propel the music. They’re the ones who attend our shows and become donors. You teach these students about the value of the art of jazz and hopefully as they progress, they end up working on mastering whatever they do in their field and they’ll eventually support the music that they loved as a kid and it will grow at a certain pace. Even if that person is not a professional musician and is just a hobbyist it will still enable us to grow as a community.
For more information about Carlos Henriquez, click here.
Instrument Trumpet
Year(s) with JLCO 1993–present
How are you involved with EE?
I’ve been in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra since 1993 and we started the Essentially Ellington program 15 years ago. After this year, I will have been to all 15. As far as being a member of the orchestra, each band member is assigned to one of the finalist bands as a mentor, meaning that we’ll be there with them, rehearse with them and give them encouragement to go out there and play the best they can. For us, it’s really a great thing because many of us didn’t have jazz bands in high school. So the fact that these kids are exposed to and playing this level of music at such a young age is amazing. It’s definitely my favorite time of the year because I love to teach and I love to spread the word about this great music to the next generation. It’s a great four days for us.
What is your favorite part about working with EE?
There are many, and of course, one of those is the mentoring and the teaching because I remember I had a great teacher in high school named David Hudson. We lost touch over the years and I finally got back in touch with him about three months before he died and we played together. We played “Amazing Grace” and “When The Saints Go Marching In.” It was so incredibly profound to play with the man who was my idol back when I was 12 or 13 years old. Two months later he went into the hospital while I was on tour and he couldn’t speak because he was so frail and sick, so I got on the speaker phone and I talked to him and played “Amazing Grace.” When I finished he was saying, “Marcus, play on brother Marcus, play on, play on...I love you, I love you!” He passed away the next day. So, with all that being said, from an educational standpoint, I know that’s a person who gave me my music and for me to be able to be in a position to carry on his tradition to all these kids that come every year, and through all the other various education programs that we do—it’s an honor to carry on the legacy given to me by my teacher, David Hudson.
The level of the musicians at Essentially Ellington gets better every year. I notice that there’s always a hot-shot player in each school and he feels like the best player there—that’s the situation that I was in when I was younger. I never had an ego or an attitude, but I never understood that I could get better until I met the great Marcus Roberts. Marcus basically humbled me and said, “Yeah, OK, man, you sound OK, but you need to practice.” So what I like about this festival is that there are 16 bands and one kid comes from one band and he’s the hot-shot soloist - and then he hears another kid who’s better than him and I can see the look on their faces when they see this kid who’s playing higher and more soulful and playing more lines. At first, they’re kind of taken aback, but then, at the same time, there’s so much love at this festival and I watch that transform into talking together and learning from each other and actually cheering each other on. That’s the whole spirit of music and that’s the spirit of Essentially Ellington.
What is your best EE memory?
The year that Douglas Anderson School of the Arts won the competition (2006), which is chronicled in the film CHOPS. I’ve known those kids since they were in middle school. I have a tie to Jacksonville because I went to college there so every now and then I’ll go back and visit my roommates and I’ll do teaching at the middle school and high school for a few days. I specifically asked to be assigned to be their mentor that year. Just seeing the whole process and the amount of soul, love, and spirit they had was amazing. And the fact that one of the fathers in the band was videotaping every second of it and for everything to culminate into them winning was just so emotional. My favorite moment—in spite of all of that—was right before they went on to compete. I’ve never seen a band as confident as this band was. They weren’t cocky, they weren’t arrogant—they were just so confident and right before they went on stage, the drummer assembled the entire band and they prayed. He said the most powerful prayer and everybody in the room was captivated and everyone was in tears and was like, “Wow, this is really beyond the normal scope of a band that’s just gonna go compete.” In that sense, I think they won before they even stepped on the stage to play. Just seeing the leadership that the drummer had to seeing the camaraderie that the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts jazz band had the year that they won…that’s the most special moment for me.
Advice for students coming to the EE Competition & Festival
Realize that they are all the cream of the crop as far as jazz bands go. This is so cliché to say, but there are no losers. Just to be in a band and to make it this far says a lot. Essentially Ellington has become a fraternity. It’s in its 15th year, so, if you think about it, back when it first started kids were seniors in high school...they were 17-18 years old. Now they’re 32-33 years old! I’ve seen other high school jazz bands perform at other competitions and their band directors are Essentially Ellington alumni. Essentially Ellington alumni come to me all the time and tell me that it “changed their life” and “was such a great experience and now I’m a band director— now my high school kids are going to be in Essentially Ellington.” Right now we are encountering the second generation of Essentially Ellington and this is just such a great festival. There are so many people who have been in the program who are doing great things. This program is for real. It’s spawned off a lot of great relationships and once you’ve made it here, you are a part of the family and part of that fraternity from across the generations. Just have fun and support each other and share the energy.
For more information about Marcus Printup, click here.
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