North Carolina Regional Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Festival
2024 Registration Information

*Directors: please see the electronic registration form and online payment forms at the bottom of this page*

About the High School Festival:

Each year high school jazz bands and jazz combos participate in the Carolina Jazz Festival where they perform for other high schools, parents, band directors, and for our clinicians and faculty adjudicators.  Founded in 1977 by Jim Ketch, the Carolina Jazz Festival (CJF) promotes a broad range of programming spanning performance, education, and scholarship.  Headlining the 2024 festival is the The Christian McBride Quintet.  Additionally, saxophonist, Sharel Cassity, will serve as the UNC Jazz Studies guest artist for the festival and will participate in coaching the high school jazz ensembles among other faculty adjudicators. For additional information about the Carolina Jazz Festival, Stephen Anderson, Director of Jazz Studies (anderssr@email.unc.edu).

The Carolina Jazz Festival collaborates with the educational wing of Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC). The festival features the North Carolina Regional Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Festival which has engaged student participation from North Carolina, Virginia, Washington D.C., Georgia, and New Jersey. In addition to the guest artists, JALC also provides additional clinicians for the regional festival who are involved with Essentially Ellington nationally.  The Carolina Jazz Festival is funded by donors whose generous contributions make the festival possible annually, and the festival also partners with Carolina Performing Arts at UNC who host our headliner performers each year.

Carolina Jazz Festival Rules – High School Jazz Band Division

High School Jazz Bands will be required to perform three selections as follows:

• One score must be a swing tune.
• One score must be a ballad.
• One score to be a director’s choice from any genre.
• One of these three compositions, whether swing, ballad, Latin, etc., must be from either the current repertoire or previous titles listed in the JALC Essentially Ellington library.
• All eligible charts from the Essentially Ellington library are published by either Warner Bros Publications or Alfred Publishing Co. and prominently feature an Essentially Ellington logo on the cover of the conductor’s score.  In addition to the charts received through membership with the 2022-2023 Essentially Ellington program, you may also elect to perform any of the previously published EE charts.

For a complete list of all titles in the Essentially Ellington library, visit https://academy.jazz.org/ee/ and select “Library” from within the red “Resources” tab on the right.  Please contact EE staff at ee@jazz.org to secure a chart released in previous years.

Procedures for Big Bands

Each band will receive 25 minutes total for their performance. This includes set-up, tuning, and exit from the stage. A warm-up room will be available to each band 25 minutes prior to their scheduled performance time. Adjudicators will provide a critique of your performance and provide numerical ratings on a festival adjudication sheet. Directors are not required to provide adjudicators with scores. We prefer our judges to listen and observe, rather than to be focused too much on viewing and studying a printed score.

We ask that each director fill out the electronic forms provided below that includes information about your program and about the student soloists and performers so that the adjudicators will know who the students are when providing feedback and when considering which students should receive awards.  For the big band division (only), there is a separate stage plot form that we ask that you please fill out so that the adjudicators will have the names of each member of the band.  Once you fill out the stage plot form, you may either scan or take a picture of the form and upload it at the links provided below.  By filling out the page on the electronic form below, I can print the forms and give them to the adjudicators at the festival so that you won’t have to bring paper copies anymore as we did in past years.  We ask that you please fill out the form once for each group that you are bringing.  On the “back-end,” we’ll receive each of your submissions as separate pages that we can download and give to the adjudicators.

Post-performance clinic with judge
Each jazz band will receive a 20-minute clinic with one of our Essentially Ellington clinicians.

Carolina Jazz Festival Rules – Combo Division

High School Jazz Combos will be required to perform a minimum of two selections.  A third selection is optional if placed within the performance time.  We encourage everyone in the combo to improvise.

Procedures for Combos

Each combo will receive 30 minutes for their performance and post-performance clinic.  Adjudicators will provide a coaching to the students after they perform, and they will also provide written comments and  a numerical ratings on a festival adjudication sheet.  Directors of combos are not required to provide adjudicators with scores or lead sheets.  We prefer our judges to watch and listen, rather than be focused too much on a printed score.

We do ask that each director to:

1. Fill out the forms below that will provide a program guide for the judges. The program guide should list the compositions, composers and/or arrangers, the soloists for each selection, and the entire personnel for the combo.
2. We recommend that the students perform 2-3 tunes, playing a 15 minute set.  This will allow our faculty and guest adjudicators approximately 15 minutes to work with your students to provide coaching.

By filling out the page on the “Repertoire” electronic form below, I can print the forms and give them to the adjudicators at the festival so that you won’t have to bring paper copies anymore as we did in past years.

Community Division Ensemble
Community jazz bands and/or combos are welcome to register and perform at the festival. These bands, selected from across a city or region are now eligible for the Outstanding Big Band and/or Outstanding Combo Awards.

Adjudicators – Essentially Ellington Jazz Band Division and Combo Division
Serving as adjudicators for the Carolina Jazz Festival are the following artists:

• Sharel Cassity, Saxophone (Guest Artist for 2024 Carolina Jazz Festival)
• JALC Clinician to be announced (Sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center)
• JALC Clinician to be announced (Sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center)
• Rahsaan Barber, Saxophone (UNC Jazz Studies, Assistant Professor)
• JC Martin, Jazz Faculty guitar, University of North Carolina
• Stephen Anderson, Jazz Faculty (piano/composition), Director of Jazz Studies
• Jason Foureman, Jazz Faculty bass, University of North Carolina
• Dan Davis, Jazz Faculty drum set, University of North Carolina

Awards – We will present plaques to the following ensembles:

• Outstanding High School Jazz Band
• Outstanding High School Community Jazz Band
• Overall Outstanding High School Jazz Band (selected from one and two above)
• Outstanding High School Jazz Combo
• Outstanding High School Community Jazz Combo
• A $60 coupon redeemable by Jamey Aebersold Jazz will be presented to each of the 5 ensembles listed above. The judges will also identify Outstanding Soloists and Outstanding Performers during the festival. At the awards ceremony these individuals will be recognized and provided with a certificate signed by the guest artists.

Tentative Schedule for Saturday, February 17, 2024 North Carolina Regional Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Festival at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

All EE events to be held in the Kenan Music Building and Hill Hall.

8:30am-Noon   Performances by High School Jazz Bands and Combos
Noon-1:00pm   Lunch
1:00-4:00pm     Performances by High School Jazz Bands and Combos
4:15-4:50pm     Mini-Concert UNC Jazz Band featuring Sharel Cassity
5pm                  Awards Ceremony

Registration and Fees: 

There are two registration processes, one for the Carolina Jazz Festival, and one for Jazz At Lincoln Center as explained below.

• For directors who prefer to pay with paper checks, please mail checks to:
  Carolina Jazz Festival, UNC Jazz Studies
  Department of Music
  CB#3320, University of North Carolina
  Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3320

Directors, for those of you who are bringing multiple groups, please fill out the form below separately for each group that you are bringing to the festival.  On the “back-end,” we’ll receive them as separate pages each time you fill out the form.  Please indicate whether the group is a Jazz Band or a Jazz Combo when filling out the form.  By filling out the page on the electronic form below, I can print the forms and give them to the adjudicators at the festival so that you won’t have to bring paper copies anymore as we did in past years.

Jazz Band Division and Jazz Combo Repertoire and Soloist Form

Ensemble

Director

Performers & Instruments

Performance time:

Repertoire

Please list below the selections you will perform (ensembles will have 25 minutes for set up and performance).

Title 1

Composer/Arranger 1

Soloist(s) and Instrument(s) 1

Title 2

Composer/Arranger 2

Soloist(s) and Instrument(s) 2

Title 3

Composer/Arranger 3

Soloist(s) and Instrument(s) 3

Stage Plot & Ensemble Personnel

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Upload Stage Plot & Ensemble Personnel

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UNC JAZZ STUDIES FACULTY

Dr. Stephen Anderson, Director of Jazz Studies, Jazz Piano, Composition
Rahsaan Barber, Director of the UNC Jazz Band, Saxophone, Improvisation
JC Martin, Lecturer, Jazz Guitar
Jason Foureman, Lecturer, Jazz Bass
Dan Davis, Lecturer, Drumset
Dr. Juan Álamo, Associate Professor of Percussion, Jazz Studies

CONTACT INFORMATION  

If you have questions about the festival, please contact Dr. Stephen Anderson.