Music pro helps MTHS Jazz Band get tuned up for Essentially Ellington

Professional musician Chad Eby visited Mountlake Terrace High School Wednesday to help the school’s Jazz 1 Ensemble prepare for the Essentially Ellington competition in New York City in May.

Eby, a professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, professional saxophonist and composer, flew from the East Coast and went straight from Sea-Tac airport to Mountlake Terrace.

Despite the jet lag, he said he was ready to work with the student musicians and their instructor, Darin Faul, who has led the band to 10 Essentially Ellington competitions. This is the band’s first Elllington selection  since 2020.

“We’re still recovering from COVID,” Faul said of the school’s music program.

The MTHS jazz program took a hit due to pandemic restrictions, Faul said. Unlike other classes, group music performances can’t be done online. Faul explained that internet latency, commonly called lag, made keeping time with each other impossible.

Faul said that the entire Essentially Ellington process lets the musicians “achieve a level of musicianship that some haven’t experienced before.”

Part of the experience competing schools receive is coaching from professionals like Eby, courtesy of Essentially Ellington. The workshops help the bands with timing and the emotion or attitude behind it using musician terms like “rude” or letting a piano line “breathe.”

Eby also explained professionalism to the students and advised them to have a serious mindset about their music, saying of their skills, “You are the 1%.” Mountlake Terrace was one of four schools chosen in Washington state, along with Bothell, Garfield and Roosevelt High Schools.

Although he had only worked with the musicians for about two hours, Eby said he was already impressed, describing one musician’s talent as “scary.”

Eby said that the MTHS Jazz Band’s reputation preceded it, and until now, he had only heard the band’s music on livestreams.

“It’s inspiring to hear young people excel,” Eby said, adding that claims of today’s teens being lazy are inaccurate.

Two examples proving Generation Z’s naysayers wrong are drummer Luca Manzo and trumpeter Seth Tate. Both musicians have been playing their instrument for eight years and got into jazz through the MTHS program.

Manzo hopes to “keep pushing” and have a career as a professional drummer, a dream he said he’s had since he was little. But he’s going to attend college for a backup career.

Tate said he wants to go into music or general education rather than pursue a career as a performer.

“Music is something that never leaves you,” Tate said.

To hear a behind-the-scenes rehearsal, click here.

The 30th annual Essentially Ellington Competition and Festival will be May 7-11.

More information about Essentially Ellington can be found here.