
Photo courtesy of Hoover High School
The Hoover High School First Edition Jazz Band at the Jen Festival in Atlanta in January 2025.
Hoover High School’s First Edition Jazz Band this week was named one of the top 30 high school jazz bands in the nation and selected to compete in the 30th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival hosted by the Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.
The competition, scheduled for May 7-11, this year for the first time has been expanded from 15 bands to 30 bands. The finalists were selected from bands at 127 schools who submitted recordings of select tunes from the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s R. Theodore Ammon Archives and Music Library.
In years past, the competition was held over three days but this year was expanded to cover five days on two stages. The final concert and awards ceremony will be May 11 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.