Mountlake Terrace High School Jazz 1 performed Friday at the 2025 Essentially Ellington Jazz Festival and Competition in New York. Band Director Darin Faul opened the set with recognition for the tremendous support in and around Mountlake Terrace. “We’ve experienced unprecedented support and encouragement from our community,” he acknowledged to the audience. “We feel that, and we really appreciate all of you for that. It matters!”
The band chose to perform all Duke Ellington songs this year. They opened their set with the chugging, shuffle rhythms of Happy Go Lucky Local, slowed it down with What Am I Here For and finished with the swinging Kinda Dukish/Rockin’ in Rhythm. You can watch Mountlake Terrace Jazz 1’s complete performance on the Mountlake Terrace High School Jazz YouTube Channel.
“While Jazz 1 was not selected to move to the semifinals, the band displayed phenomenal musicianship that carried them to New York to share the stage with top high school jazz talent from around the world,” said Brett Holt of the MTHS Music Boosters.
Jazz bands from Garfield, Roosevelt and Bothell also performed at this year’s Essentially Ellington Jazz Festival, with the Washington state talent demonstrating the strong commitment to jazz education.
Our community should be enormously proud – and supportive – of the MLT High School’s music program and its students. On my father’s passing, I donated a number of his instruments to the school.
The talents of these young people are shaped and developed along constructive and rewarding pathways, and their accomplishments should continue to be celebrated, along with the dedication of their teachers.
More so, in this time of threats to the essential financial support of arts programs across the nation, our community should provide its tangible support to this and other arts programs.