The Byron Center High School jazz band prepares for the prestigious ‘Essentially Ellington’ competition in New York, fostering lasting friendships and honing skills.

BYRON CENTER, Mich. — The seniors in the Byron Center High School jazz band are holding onto the memories, and the notes, as they prepare for this year’s ‘Essentially Ellington’ high school jazz band competition in New York City.

“This is a special group, and we’re really close with each other, and it’s just that friendship throughout the end of the year, you want to hold on to that even like going and graduating, you won’t be with this group ever again,” says senior Audrey Wolfe.

The competition showcases the top 20 high school jazz bands in the world. 

Senior saxophonist Jack Denning said that the band preps for the competition for months. 

“We started recording and sometime in November, near the end of November, so we’ve been preparing for a while, and then we submit them by the first week of January, and we figured out few weeks later, and ever since then, it’s just been hitting the road as fast as we can and trying to lock things down,” Denning said.

Monday, the band got some pointers from renowned jazz saxophonist and instructor Chad Eby, who worked with the students directly and shared his techniques. 

“I know, like, 600 or 700 songs, I stopped counting, and most of them with a few weird exceptions, I could play them in whatever key you wanted me to, just because, like, I’ve been doing it long enough that, like, the structures all make sense to me,” Eby told the students.

This is the ninth time that the Byron Center band has been in the competition, named after jazz legend Duke Ellington. 

The students, including Denning and Wolfe, appreciated that Eby took time to help them, as they continue to prepare to compete among the best. 

“He just has experienced so much, and he knows so much about jazz history, and he can give us that, like, background info that can help us play it even just a little bit better,” Wolfe said.

The program is happening in the Big Apple, April 30th through May 2nd.