Essentially Ellington Down Under

What is Essentially Ellington?

Essentially Ellington Down Under Festival

Jazz Music Institute (JMI) and Jazz at Lincoln Center are partnering to present the Essentially Ellington Down Under Festival, a performance festival for high school jazz bands.

The festivals offer high school jazz bands a performance and learning opportunity like no other. Jazz at Lincoln Center clinicians travel from the US to adjudicate and workshop Australian high school bands, providing an experience that is priceless for both students and teachers.

To enter the festival, you need to be a member of Essentially Ellington. As a participant of the festival, each group will:

• be required to perform three (3) charts in total
  • One (1) chart must be from the Essentially Ellington library
    • The Essentially Ellington chart does not have to be from the current season
    • You can search for charts from previous years here and request charts by contacting Jazz at Lincoln Center here
• be adjudicated by a Jazz at Lincoln Center clinician
• receive a private workshop with their adjudicator immediately after their performance
• receive a recording of their performance with audio comments made by a Jazz at Lincoln Center adjudicator

The Essentially Ellington Down Under Regional Festival will be adjudicated using the rubric developed by Jazz at Lincoln Center.  Click here to download the adjudication criteria and rubric.

Essentially Ellington Teacher Workshops

In addition to holding a festival in each major city, there will be a FULL DAY professional development workshop with the two Jazz at Lincoln Center representatives the following day.

The Essentially Ellington Teacher Workshop is open to anyone and is not restricted to directors performing in the festival.  The workshop is perfect for anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of jazz music and techniques for how to teach jazz to young people.

The Essentially Ellington Teacher Workshop is an excellent professional development opportunity to hear, engage and interact with two internationally renowned performers and educators.

There will be sessions in this workshop where the Jazz at Lincoln Center representatives will work directly with high school students, working through rehearsal techniques and giving attendees first-hand experiences of the techniques used to improve ensemble blending and dynamics, articulation and stylistic approaches.

Topics that are covered in the workshop include:

• A cultural approach to teaching jazz
• Developing improvisation skills
• Selecting big band repertoire & interpreting Ellington
• Rehearsal techniques for big band
• Developing your rhythm section

Jazz at Lincoln Center Clinicians in 2025

Vincent Gardner was born in Chicago in 1972 and was raised in Hampton, Virginia. After singing, playing piano, violin, saxophone, and French horn at an early age, he decided on the trombone at age 12. He attended Florida A&M University and the University of North Florida. He soon caught the ear of Mercer Ellington, who hired Gardner for his first professional job.

After graduating from college, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, completed a world tour with Lauryn Hill in 2000, then joined the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Gardner has served as instructor at The Juilliard School, as visiting instructor at Florida State University and Michigan State University, and as adjunct instructor at The New School.

He has contributed many arrangements to the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and other ensembles. In 2009 he was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center to write “The Jesse B. Semple Suite,” a 60-minute suite inspired by the short stories of Langston Hughes. Gardner is featured on a number of notable recordings and has recorded five CDs as a leader for Steeplechase Records. He has performed with The Duke Ellington Orchestra, Bobby McFerrin, Harry Connick, Jr., The Saturday Night Live Band, Chaka Khan, A Tribe Called Quest, and many others.

Jerome Jennings

Ask anyone who has ever experienced him play, he owns his music. There are no wasted beats, or breaks. Every sound, every moment of silence, has a purpose. You cannot hear him and not feel the intensity behind his playing. The rhythm talks to you and the conversation between sound and emotion has always been the best recipe for good music, with Jennings you get both.

Jerome has always valued education and the pursuit of excellence. In 2004 he graduated from Rutgers University Mason Gross School for the performing arts. Later, the summer of 2007 Jerome earned a Masters Degree from the prestigious Juilliard School in Manhattan NY. Beginning fall 2017, Jerome has accepted the position as Resident Director of The Juilliard Jazz Orchestra.

Currently, Jerome is keeping extremely busy teaching, conducting clinics, educational youth out reach in conjunction with Jazz At Lincoln Center’s Jazz for Young People (JFYP) program. As always, Jerome has remained a pertinent performer. His debut recording ‘The Beast’ was named one of the top 3 Jazz releases by NPR, received a 4 star rating in DownBeat Magazine, and nominated for the prestigious French ‘Grand Prix du disque’ award for Album Of The Year 2016.

To date Jerome has/is performing/recording/touring with; Sonny Rollins, Hank Jones, The Count Basie Orchestra, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Wynton Marsalis (J@LC), Christian McBride, Paula West, Ernestine Anderson, The Mingus Big Band, Catherine Russell, Craig Handy, Davell Crawford, Henry Butler, Houston Person, Mike “Philly” Phillips, Slide Hampton, Benny Golson, Gerald Wilson, Tim Reis, Bernard Fowler, Benny Powell, Ronnie Mathews, Curtis Fuller, Valery Ponomarev, and many more.