2015 marks the 20th anniversary of Jazz at Lincoln Center's annual ESSENTIALLY ELLINGTON High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival. Each year, ESSENTIALLY ELLINGTON brings together some of North America’s most talented high school jazz bands to compete in front of Wynton Marsalis and a panel of esteemed judges. Watch and listen to Marsalis and others recount the program's story, from its inception to its evolution into one of the most innovative jazz education events in the world. Subscribe to our channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP108sGgYT_TlG2YRColGcg?sub_confirmation=1 To learn more about Jazz at Lincoln Center, visit us at http://www.jazz.org Director/Editor: Eric Suquet Producers: Eric Suquet, Eugenia Han Director of Photography: William Thomas Sound Engineer: Aaron Chandler Production Assistant: Richard Emery Creative Direction: Casey Walter Graphics: Jeff Hunt Webcast Director: James Sapione Webcast Camera Operators: Hiram Becker, Andrew Trost Additional footage by: Jason Hutt, Joshua Z. Weinstein, Peter Doddenhoff Special thanks to Lakecia Benjamin, Aaron Diehl, Carlos Henriquez, Laura Johnson, Wynton Marsalis, Maegan McHugh, Kabir Sehgal, Todd Stoll, and Doug Tidaback