FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 7:30PM PDT TOWN HALL FORUM
Alex Dugdale Funk Band
Sponsored by BECU. Welcomed by Rainier Avenue Radio. In-person and livestream. $12-38
BY NATHAN BLUFORD
Saxophonist and tap dancer Alex Dugdale is one of Seattle’s most exciting young performers and educators. After delivering a home run performance series as Festival Resident Artist for last year’s Earshot Jazz Festival, Dugdale’s Funk Band will kick the 2023 festival off with a bang.
Dugdale was raised in Seattle after being adopted from Cali, Colombia. He played with the distinguished Roosevelt High School Jazz Band through his graduation in 2008, before going on to study saxophone performance at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.
Since returning to Seattle in 2013, Dugdale has kept busy, to say the least. Musically, he is all about variety. As a saxophonist, he is at home as much in small groups like his FADE Quintet as he was in the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra’s saxophone section – or at the helm of his own big band, whose rousing performance at Town Hall stood out as a highlight from last year’s festival. On top of all that, he also held the honor of first-call saxophonist during his time with the Seattle Symphony. As a tap dancer, Dugdale brings a unique layer of exciting energy to every stage he appears on. Additionally dedicated to community, Dugdale actively teaches in public schools and has previously served on the Earshot Jazz board.
Dugdale’s boundless applications of his talents don’t stop at the band – they apply to the bandstand, as well. When it came time to choose venues for his performances at the 2022 Earshot Festival, Dugdale jumped at the opportunity to juxtapose the architectural grandeur of Town Hall with the close quarters and festive atmosphere at Wallingford’s Sea Monster Lounge.
Dugdale’s most recent decade in Seattle leaves no doubt that his love for the extended jazz universe comes through in every performance. On that note, the Alex Dugdale Funk Band is sure to bring a creative approach to this funky evening. The 10-piece ensemble includes Dugdale, Melissa Montalto (keys/vocals) and Richard Radford (keys), Kelsey Mines (bass), D’Vonne Lewis (drums), Demarcus Baysmore (guitar), Jory Tindall (sax), Walter Cano and Jun Iida on trumpet, and Freddy Gonzalez (trombone).
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 7:30PM PDT TOWN HALL FORUM
Johnaye Kendrick’s Heart Songs
Sponsored by Seed IP. Welcomed by 91.3 KBCS. In-person and livestream. $12-38
BY FRANK KOHL
Earshot’s 2023 Artist in Residence, Johnaye Kendrick, certainly has earned her reputation as a vocalist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist to be reckoned with. In the grand tradition of historically important vocalists like Betty Carter and Ella Fitzgerald, Kendrick moves it all into the future. Whether it be her original music or an interpretation of a jazz standard, her phrasing, tone, and overall musicianship has the ability to capture the hearts, souls, and imagination of her audience.
In addition to the impressive sound of her music and performances, Kendrick has traveled far educationally with a bachelor’s from Western Michigan State University, master’s from Loyola University in New Orleans, and diploma from the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. She is currently a professor of jazz voice at Cornish College of the Arts. She has also had the honor of working with some of the genre’s iconic figures like Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock.
Kendrick’s debut CD, Here, features twelve original compositions and demonstrates her formidable ability as a composer. With a deep, emotional, and almost spiritual quality about it, we are drawn into this very rich musical expression. Flying, Kendrick’s second album is comprised of six originals and six jazz standards. These two records (both released on Kendrick’s label, Johnygirl Records) are a clear reflection of her skills as a musician who can crossover easily into different styles of music. From her masterful interpretation of jazz classics and her soaring scat solos to a more new age or even folkish sound, she demonstrates just how vast her musical palette is.
For this performance, Kendrick is joined by some of Seattle’s finest with Dawn Clement on piano, Chris Symer on bass, Steve Treseler on sax, and Ted Poor on drums. They will perform originals and arrangements from Kendrick’s forthcoming album, Heart Songs.
As well as this debut performance for the Earshot Festival, don’t miss her upcoming festival performances: on October 13 she performs with the Grammy-nominated vocalist supergroup, säje, and on November 2, Kendrick will perform at Cornish’s ultra-modern concert hall, Raisbeck Auditorium. Together with her musical comrades they are sure to carve a path into musical ecstasy. Broad and expansive, encompassing her many travels and influences.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8, 7:30PM PDT TOWN HALL GREAT HALL
Hiromi’s Sonicwonder
Sponsored by BECU. Welcomed by KNKX. $12-65
BY ERIC OLSON
Don’t be fooled by the sparse melody opening Hiromi’s “Seeker,” off her 2014 record Alive. If there’s one takeaway from the Japanese pianist’s discography, it’s that nothing is as it seems. The soft will turn heavy, the heavy will turn ponderous, and if a riff at any point begins to trot—as it does in “Seeker”—it might get very quick indeed.
Alive sits third in a string of four albums recorded by Hiromi’s now defunct Trio Project (Simon Phillips on drums, Anthony Jackson on bass). These records filtered formidable jazz chops through a bruising gamut of progressive rock, classical music, and straight-up oddity. But after the band hung up their uniforms in 2016, Hiromi veered down a more solitary path. Spectrum, 2019, was her first solo album in a decade, and Silver Lining Suite, a reflection on pandemic isolation, saw her accompanied by a string quartet.
Stylistic departures are the norm for Hiromi, continual surprise the expectation. This is the childhood star who performed with the Czech Philharmonic at age 14, who tutored under the great Ahmad Jamal at Berklee, who met Chick Corea in Tokyo at 17 and impressed him enough down the line (“she’s one of my favorites,” he said) to record a twelve-track live album, Duet, in 2008.
“I don’t want to put a name on my music,” says Hiromi. “Other people can put a name on what I do.”
Boy, have they tried. But whatever she’s labeled – The New York Times called her “A Whirligig of Jazz,” The Guardian, “relentlessly flashy” – Hiromi prevails. A mere two years ago she took center stage at the Tokyo Olympics’ opening ceremony, hammering out the blistering title track from Spectrum with her signature stage presence. Wild hair, brilliant ruby dress, fingers approaching the flash point. That was the “COVID Games” (lest we forget) and Hiromi’s opening night pyrotechnics deserved a packed stadium audience. She didn’t get it then, for obvious reasons, but she should have better luck on October 8 at Seattle’s Town Hall, highlighting the first weekend of 2023’s Earshot Jazz Festival.
Fans of the Trio Project will rejoice at Hiromi’s newest creation, a quartet called Sonicwonder featuring trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, bassist Hadrien Feraud, and drummer Gene Coye. The Trio Project had youthful energy, but Sonicwonder is legitimately youthful. Which is not to say inexperienced. O’Farrill has done work with Vijay Iyer, Feraud with Corea, Coye with Santana and Larry Carlton. This is the most up-and-coming jazz group Hiromi has assembled in over a decade, and if their newly released hyper-funk single – “Sonicwonder” – is any indication, the sounds will be fresh to match. Rhythm has always been Hiromi’s forte, and this group is built around her percussiveness. You won’t want to miss it, nor her latest creation Sonicwonderland out October 6 on Telarc.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 7:30PM PDT THE TRIPLE DOOR
Gretchen Parlato & Lionel Loueke
Sponsored by Seed IP. Welcomed by KNKX. $15-40
BY FRANK KOHL
Words can hardly describe the level of creativity reached by the duo of vocalist Gretchen Parlato and guitarist Lionel Loueke. A rhythmic, cultural, and lyrical smorgasbord that is a fine example of how only two musicians can present music that is so satisfying on so many levels.
Twice Grammy-nominated Gretchen Parlato began her musical journey in Los Angeles and attended the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at UCLA. Now a New York resident, she has received critical acclaim and awards from The New York Times, DownBeat and JazzTimes. Her unique approach and keen rhythm sense that incorporates Brazilian, African, and American influences possess a rare poetic magic. She is a guiding light that shines on the cultural diversity that is the future of jazz. Her more than twenty-year musical partnership that began at the Institute with guitarist Lionel Loueke has blossomed into a musical art form that defies cultural boundaries.
Lionel Loueke was born in Benin, West Africa, and has studied music in Paris, Boston, and LA. He currently resides in New York. His early influences were guitarists like George Benson, Joe Pass, and Wes Montgomery. His cultural background combined with his fascination for American jazz guitarists has shaped his playing in a way that makes him not only incredibly proficient but uniquely different. He has performed with heavy weights like Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Esperanza Spalding and has multiple records of his own. Four of his recordings can be found on the esteemed Blue Note Records label.
Their recently released recording Lean In tells the story. Born out of the grips of the pandemic, their musical bond takes center stage on this CD. We’re not just listening to two outstandingly accomplished musicians here but a partnership that merges to become its own entity. Loueke once referred to Parlato as his “musical soulmate” and as we listen, it all becomes perfectly clear how special that is.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 7PM PDT CHAPEL PERFORMANCE SPACE
Sheridan Riley
Sponsored by BECU. Welcomed by 91.3 KBCS. $10-30
BY NATHAN BLUFORD
Drummer Sheridan Riley will present their new ensemble piece “Meandering” as the first of the three commissioned works for this year’s Earshot Jazz Festival. “Meandering” will utilize melodic motifs, rhythmic cycles, polyrhythms, space, and delay to illustrate the ways in which every person is shaped by their own personal collage of past experiences.
Across its many forms, Riley’s music maintains an exuberantly restless quality that makes each performance a unique exploration for performer and audience alike. Take the kinetic sound collages on Riley’s 2022 EP Participant, for example. In just under 25 minutes, shifting drum beat melodies anchor soundscapes that layer contemplative spoken word passages over warm, droning instrumental textures.
While Participant’s pieces focus on experimentation and becoming, “Meandering” will take a somewhat more melodic approach to portraying memory and its influence on how we live in the moment. The piece will explore the ways in which art and music form touchstones that connect our present to our past.
Born in Long Beach, Califonia, Riley’s musical path has been a freewheeling tour through jazz, rock, pop, and whatever else comes up along the way. Their instrumental influences represent a percussive who’s who of the late 20th century – Karen Carpenter, Elvin Jones, Zigaboo Modeliste, and John Bonham are just a few.
Riley leads projects under both their own name and as Peg, whose breezy avant-pop can be enjoyed on their February release Shimmering. Indie rock fans will also be familiar with Riley through their drumming in bands like Alvvays, Avi Buffalo, and others.
“Meandering” was written to evoke happiness, self-reflection, and surprise in the audience – along with remembrance, of course. In addition to Riley on drums, the ensemble for this performance will include Mason Lynass on electronics, Ronan Delisle on guitar, Alina To on violin, James Falzone on clarinet, Marina Christopher on upright bass, and Wayne Horvitz on piano.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 7:30PM PDT TOWN HALL FORUM
Thomas Marriott All-Star Quartet
Welcomed by Rainier Avenue Radio. In-person and livestream. $12-38
BY PAUL RAUCH
Seattle trumpeter/composer Thomas Marriott is a veteran of the national jazz community and a community-engaged producer. His playing features an original, elegant sound on his instrument that shines in moments of great intensity or engaged in ardent romanticism. His work in the Seattle jazz community includes the founding of the Seattle Jazz Fellowship, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides a stage for Seattle jazz musicians, while lowering barriers to public access.
After winning the prestigious Carmine Caruso Jazz Trumpet Competition in 1999, Marriott followed the path blazed by many Seattle musicians before him—to New York City to join Maynard Ferguson’s band. Returning to Seattle in 2004, Marriott quickly became a fixture and a main attraction on the local scene. His national profile quickly rose to prominence as well, resulting in fourteen albums as a leader, and touring dates with Orrin Evans, Joe Locke, and Roy McCurdy among others.
Marriott’s work on all levels is guided by his keen sense and understanding of jazz music and culture. His playing is deeply rooted in the modern jazz tradition which includes a profound engagement with the blues, bebop language, and a commitment to the lineage of Black American music.
His three most recent recordings reflect the diversity of his musical vision and serve as a window into his stature as one of the finest trumpet players in modern jazz. Romance Language (Origin, 2018), recorded in 2017 in collaboration with pianist/composer Ryan Cohan and producer/vibraphonist Joe Locke, features ballads performed in an operatic setting. Marriott’s focus on the album is simply beauty, with the melody being the primary voice. Live From the Heat Dome (Imani, 2022) was born on the edge of the pandemic, when the trumpeter was aching for meaningful musical conversation with equally sympathetic musicians. The music is hard-hitting and swinging, pushing the boundaries of post-bop sensibilities. Coast to Coast (Origin, 2023) is the third installment of his East West Trumpet Summit collaboration with Latin and bebop trumpet master, Ray Vega.
For his appearance at the 2023 Earshot Jazz Festival, Marriott has formed a quartet in tribute to drummer and octogenarian Roy McCurdy featuring internationally acclaimed pianist George Colligan, double bass master Eric Revis, and McCurdy himself! Mr. McCurdy is a decorated veteran of the bands of Cannonball Adderley and Sonny Rollins, among many, many others.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 7:30PM PDT TOWN HALL GREAT HALL
säje
Sponsored by BECU. Welcomed by KNKX. $12-65
BY CAITLIN CARTER
säje is a vocal supergroup comprised of Seattle-raised Sara Gazarek and Seattle resident Johnaye Kendrick along with two other national stars, Amanda Taylor and Erin Bentlage. The four voices weave a spellbinding fabric of sound with a “silk-smooth vocal blend…heightened harmonic insight…[and] hair-trigger dynamic sensitivity” (Nate Chinen).
The Grammy-nominated group released their self-titled, self-funded, and self-produced album in late August and has already topped multiple Billboard charts, including #3 Top Jazz Album. Encompassing 10 tracks of original compositions, reimagined jazz standards, and inventive interpretations of contemporary tracks by Yebba, The Bad Plus, and The Beatles, the album features first-call guests Jacob Collier, Terri Lyne Carrington, Michael Mayo, and Ambrose Akinmusire.
säje opens with original composition “Desert Song,” which was written early in their journey inspired by a retreat in Palm Springs, where they forged a deep bond and experienced a creative breakthrough. “‘Desert Song’ opens with the sounds of a tender, rhythmic guitar that provides a simple yet sturdy canvas for which säje can paint their vocal magic,” writes David Benedict in Earshot Jazz.
Following their live debut performance at the Jazz Education Network Conference in 2020, the artists quickly launched into developing a suite of new material, most of which is found on the album.
Another standout original is “Never You Mind,” Johnaye Kendrick’s meditation on Black Lives Matter. “I needed to write a piece that acknowledged what is happening to Black people across our country,” she tells JazzTimes. “I needed to say their names.”
This year’s Earshot Festival Resident Artist, Kendrick has rocketed in the jazz community thanks to her deep repertoire and storied collaborations, as well as being on the faculty at Cornish College.
She’s not the only professor in säje; Gazarek was recently appointed as associate professor of jazz voice at the Eastman School of Music. The Roosevelt High School alumna has seen much success since leaving her roots in the Emerald City and is now considered one of her generation’s definitive jazz vocalists.
Bentlage, a faculty member at California State University-Northridge, has been featured on albums by Collier, Kate McGarry, and Amber Navran, as well as provided background vocals for bands Pomplamoose and Moonchild. Grammy-nominated arranger and in-demand teacher at schools across the country, Taylor is known for her work with The Manhattan Transfer and Groove for Thought. Her work can also be heard on games including World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and Shadow of Mordor.
Their individual credits aside, as a collective, säje, with their “dynamic range, perfect pitch, and emotive lyricism” (Paul Rauch, Earshot Jazz) is primed to win over audiences around the country as they tour this fall.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 7:30PM PDT THE ROYAL ROOM
Tina Raymond Trio
$12-30
BY JONATHAN SHIPLEY
How do you define jazz? “Funny you ask,” Tina Raymond said, “because I ask that question every year in my jazz history course over the course of the semester.” Raymond is director of jazz studies at California State University Northridge. “Our definitions change and morph…ultimately, the moment you put boundaries around jazz, it defies those boundaries.”
For Raymond, a DownBeat Educator Achievement Award-winner, jazz has been “the greatest teacher in my life. It’s given me my identity, passion, and community.”
That passion has been brought forth with a new album released in October. With Divinations, released by Imani Records, Raymond leads her trio (Andrew Renfroe on guitar and Karl McComas-Reichl on bass) through a set of new and original compositions inspired by tarot cards.
Getting into tarot readings with her friend during the pandemic she said, “It was a fun, whimsical way to reflect on life events and what I wanted to have transpire, and I wanted to put those qualities in music.” She’d write at the piano, pick a card, read the descriptions about it, and start to work on a song that she felt embodied the words or imagery of that card.”
She wrote the music to “tap into some core human emotions we, at times, don’t find the words for.” It’s as though, through her music, she’s defied a boundary. That, beyond it, she found once again, jazz.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 7:30PM PDT TOWN HALL GREAT HALL
The Bad Plus & Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog
Sponsored by Seed IP. Welcomed by KEXP. $12-65
BY M.V. SMITH
Two decades into their partnership as the rhythm section of The Bad Plus, bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King reimagined the band from the ground up.
As a piano trio with Ethan Iverson, The Bad Plus were among the best-selling jazz acts of the 2000s; following Iverson’s 2017 departure, King and Anderson released two well-received albums with renowned Philadelphia pianist Orrin Evans. When pandemic-inspired self-reflection prompted Evans to return his focus to his solo career, King and Anderson resolved to carry on, bringing saxophonist Chris Speed and guitarist Ben Monder into the fold.
Though the new version of The Bad Plus marks the quartet’s first official collaboration, Monder and Speed have, in one permutation or another, worked with King and Anderson since the 1990s. Anderson appeared with Monder on several albums led by saxophonist Bill McHenry, while King and Anderson joined Speed and Tim Berne in the Ornette Coleman/Julius Hemphill repertory ensemble Broken Shadows.
Pointedly self-titled, The Bad Plus’s 2022 album is the coming out party for a band reinvigorated. Speed’s unmistakable, breathy, burnished tone is a highlight of ballad “Stygian Pools,” while on “Not Even Close to Far Off,” Monder’s heavily distorted churn encourages the founding rhythm section to fully explore the hard rock influences hinted at by the original trio.
Opening for The Bad Plus is Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog. A fixture in avant-garde for forty years, guitar iconoclast Marc Ribot first earned acclaim for his lacerating lead work on Tom Waits’s 1985 masterpiece Rain Dogs. In the years since, Ribot’s projects have often evinced a taste for cutting against the grain. The Young Philadelphians ensemble juxtaposed smooth, Gamble and Huff-style Philly soul (complete with string section) with the punk-funk harmolodics of Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time, while Los Cubanos Postizos turned the compositions of pioneering Cuban songwriter Arsenio Rodríguez into rowdy party music.
The punk-influenced power trio Ceramic Dog, featuring bassist/keyboardist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Ches Smith, is the vehicle for Ribot’s most prankish impulses—debut album Party Intellectuals opens with an irreverent rampage through The Doors’ “Break on Through”—and his most impassioned political protests. Released in the thick of the Trump years, YRU Still Here? album track “Fuck La Migra” denounces ICE’s treatment of undocumented immigrants in the most profane terms; on “Muslim Jewish Resistance,” Ribot calls out Trump administration officials Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions by name.
Ceramic Dog’s latest album Connection features the most controlled expression of Ribot’s anger yet, a tense reading of The Band Wagon standard “That’s Entertainment,” as well as the most unhinged. On “Heart Attack,” Ribot free associates a wild speed freak rant, combining allusions to The Beatles and Billy Joel with a torrent of English and Italian profanity, all while Ismaily picks at his bass like a scab and Smith pummels his kit into submission.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 8PM PDT CORNISH RAISBECK AUDITORIUM
Stephan Crump, Ingrid Laubrock, Cory Smythe
$12-30
BY M.V. SMITH
Uniting three masters of the avant-garde, the trio of bassist Stephan Crump, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, and pianist Cory Smythe examines the porous boundaries between free jazz and contemporary classical music.
Best known for his lengthy association with pianist Vijay Iyer, Crump has a well-earned reputation for versatility. His brawny basslines were the earthy counterpoint to Marcus Gilmore’s adventurous drumming in Iyer’s trio, while in his own Rosetta Trio with guitarists Liberty Ellman and Jamie Fox, Crump revealed a gift for tender, folk-influenced melody. Laubrock’s thirty-year career has ranged from rough-and-ready sax and drum duets with her husband Tom Rainey to, on her 2018 album Contemporary Chaos Practices, long-form compositions melding a chamber orchestra with jazz soloists. A core member of the International Contemporary Ensemble and a 2015 Grammy winner for his stint accompanying classical violin star Hilary Hahn, Smythe has enjoyed long-lasting collaborations with drummer Tyshawn Sorey and trumpeter Nate Wooley alongside a wide-ranging solo career; on his most recent album, 2020’s Accelerate Every Voice, Smythe provides piano backing to a series of wildly elastic vocal arrangements featuring beatboxer Kari Francis.
Born from informal 2015 jam sessions at Laubrock’s Brooklyn home, over the course of two releases on the stalwart Swiss creative music label Intakt, the trio has explored the possibilities of sheer sonic texture and extended techniques — Smythe’s skitters up the keyboard often verge on cacophony, while Crump occasionally deploys his bass as percussion, rapping and tapping his instrument’s body with his fingers and fists. Just as noteworthy, however, is their near-telepathic musical rapport. On “Fluvium,” from the 2019 EP Channels, Crump matches his bowing — alternately delicate and frantic — to Laubrock’s ghostly murmurs and astringent bleats. For his part, Smythe ratchets up the tension with fractured arpeggios, or juxtaposes a handful of well-placed notes with the thick sonics of the Crump/Laubrock dialogue.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2:30PM PDT TOWN HALL GREAT HALL
Sona Jobarteh
Sponsored by Seattle Sacred Music & Arts. Welcomed by 91.3 KBCS. $12-65
BY DEVON LÉGER
A twenty-one-string harp from West Africa, the kora demands intense virtuosity, encouraging wickedly complex rapid-fire melodies, all performed with only two fingers on each hand. It’s an instrument of great beauty and difficulty, and an instrument of the griots: storytellers, songwriters, historians, and improvisers tied for centuries to West African royalty and class. Griots trace their lineage back hundreds of years, to illustrious names and legendary mythic figures, and primarily to their own families in a hereditary line. For Gambian singer, instrumentalist, and activist Sona Jobarteh, her family of griots has provided not only her inspiration as an artist but a grounding in the deep traditions of West Africa.
Though women can be griots, they are often seen more as singers, while men are the instrumentalists, the kora virtuosos. Jobarteh was encouraged by her grandmother to sing as well, though she stubbornly refused at a young age. Immediately drawn to the kora, Jobarteh rejected the cliché of men being the true kora virtuosos, and her father, kora master Sanjally Jobarteh, readily accepted her interest in the instrument. Now one of the foremost kora players in the world, Jobarteh is using her career to break down barriers and to encourage an interest in West African traditions amongst the region’s youth. She’s a passionate advocate for education, especially anti-colonialist education that foregrounds African knowledge, consulting with the UN and spending time at the school she’s founded, The Gambia Academy. Occupying a position of power as a critical voice pushing for change is very much in keeping with the traditional role of the griot in West Africa.
On her newest album, 2022’s Badinyaa Kumoo, Jobarteh is joined by a host of artists from the legendary Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour, to Yemeni singer Ravid Kahalani, and American jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum. She duets with another kora master, Ballaké Sissoko, a role model for her and for others of her generation. Though she may not have wished to be a singer at a young age, her voice rings clear and true today, interpreting songs about unity, community, diversity, and the celebration of women. Not just the celebration of women by other women, but celebrating women by men and asking people to raise their sons to celebrate women. An engine for change, a voice for the people, a keeper of West African history effaced by colonialism, Jobarteh truly is a griot.
Chief Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott)
Welcomed by KNKX. $12-65
BY HENRY COBA
This October, Chief Adjuah (formerly known as Christian Scott) makes his way to Seattle for an incredible evening at Town Hall Great Hall. The ensemble will include Chief Adjuah on trumpet and harp, Cecil Alexander on guitar, Ryoma Takenaga on bass, Elé Howell on drums, and Weedie Braimah on djembe and percussion.
Born Christian Andre Scott, the artist began performing under the name Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah in 2012 to represent his West African and Indigenous background and identity. This year, he changed his legal name to Xian aTunde Adjuah and performs under Chief Adjuah.
The deep cultural focus in Chief Adjuah’s art stems from his active involvement in various living traditions. His family lineage comes from the Maroon culture and Black Indian tradition of New Orleans. His grandfather, Donald Harrison Sr., led three Mardi Gras Indian tribes. His uncle, Donald Harrison Jr., is Big Chief of the Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans Cultural Group. Adjuah took part in his grandfather’s Guardians of the Flame project in 1988. In 1999, he joined his uncle’s Congo Square Nation as “gang spy”. Today, Adjuah is chieftan of the Xodokan Nation of Maroons tribes.
Since 2001, Adjuah has released thirteen critically acclaimed studio recordings, four live albums, and one greatest hits collection. He is widely recognized as the founder of the “Stretch Music” style, a 21st-century approach in jazz that asserts genre blindness and encourages diplomacy in music-making. This method is meant to include and push forward the rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic conventions of jazz in a way that shows respect for as many musical forms, languages, and cultures as possible. Adjuah’s creative belief is that “no form of expression is more valid than any other”.
Chief Adjuah is a vocal proponent of human rights and a resolute critic of injustices throughout the world. His community-based work includes holding master classes, creating and participating in discussion panels, and purchasing instruments for youth music programs and individual youth musicians. He has worked with several community organizations including Black Lives Matter, Girls First, and Guardians Institute, which is dedicated to reading and fiscal literacy, cultural retention, and a firm commitment to the participation of community elders and artists in uplifting and supporting youths from underserved areas in New Orleans.
Chief Adjuah has collaborated with several notable artists, including Prince and Marcus Miller. Adjuah produced music for Prince and is featured on his album Planet Earth. Prince “wanted to start a jazz supergroup” and had Adjuah in mind as the musical director. Adjuah and Miller collaborated on Tutu Revisited, an homage to Miles Davis that was performed live in France.
He was inducted into the inaugural constituency of the Black Genius Brain Trust, received the Changing Worlds Peacemaker Award, and most recently, the Doris Duke Award in the arts. Receiving the Doris Duke Award has allowed Adjuah more time and attention to “create new opportunities throughout his community”. Adjuah would often hear elders use the phrase “Take my song and pass it along”, a sentiment he now embodies in his art – the idea of passing along the gift of music to others.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 8PM PDT CORNISH RAISBECK AUDITORIUM
Jonah Parzen-Johnson
Here to Play
Sponsored by Seed IP. Welcomed by 91.3 KBCS. $12-30
BY HENRY COBA
Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based Jonah Parzen-Johnson, who honed his craft with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians’ Mwata Bowden brings his exceptional new music for baritone saxophone, flute, and electronics. Parzen-Johnson fuses synthesizers, meditative long tones, provocative percussive elements, and distortion to create a contemporary feeling that calls on the listener to look inward.
Oftentimes performing solo, Parzen-Johnson layers texture upon texture in a seamless way that draws us toward space and the expansive, unexplainable complexities of the universe. He approaches art and life by inquiring into the act of searching. On his track “Trying to Explain” from the album Helsinki 8. 12. 18, he describes “eating different foods, going different places, writing different songs and listening to different music” to find something that he has not yet found. This curious attitude is evident in the warbling, undefined abstractions that are his works.
For this North American tour, Parzen-Johnson performs his new suite entitled You’re Never Really Alone, a deeply intimate set of solo music meant to celebrate the “joyful collaboration between a creator and a listener”. Each performance calls on the basics: “a single acoustic instrument, an intimate room, and a few dozen people ready to listen and collaborate”. The intention is to fully embody the experience of creating something together in the space.
To initiate the evening of creative artwork is Here to Play: a captivating improvising trio with Kelsey Mines (bass), Neil Welch (tenor saxophone & electronics), and Seattle legend Gregg Keplinger (drums). The work of this trio accompanies well that of Parzen-Johnson. Here to Play offers a daring approach to free improvisation that embraces intense percussive interplay in a daring, emotionally forward manner. The sound calls on us to ask why things are the way they are.
Mines currently co-leads the quartet EarthtoneSkytone, contributes to the Latin-jazz group Eléré, teaches at numerous schools including Bellevue College and Seattle JazzED, and tours nationally and internationally. With 6 albums to date, Welch’s playing unabashedly embraces a vastness of sonic possibilities. All About Jazz calls his work “stunning and extraordinary.” Keplinger enjoys legendary status among aficionados of Northwest music for his powerful, individualistic percussion style and internationally for his unique, handmade snare drums.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 7:30PM PDT TOWN HALL FORUM
Winter in America—An Homage to Gil Scott-Heron
Co-presented with LANGSTON. Welcomed by KEXP. $12-38
BY ROBERT HAM
Gil Scott-Heron’s physical form has been gone from this planet for a dozen years now. The echoes and ripples of his spirit, however, continue to be felt, growing in strength and resonant energy with each passing day. The presence of this renowned poet/vocalist/activist responsible for such indelible sociopolitical tunes as “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” and “The Bottle” has survived in the ways you’d expect — a posthumous Grammy Award in 2012, induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 — and in surprising fashion as with Makaya McCraven’s incredible 2020 reworking of Scott-Heron’s final album We’re New Here.
Within that latter category sits Camilo Estrada’s upcoming Earshot Festival event Winter In America — An Homage to Gil Scott-Heron. The bassist/musical director first presented this concert tribute in 2022 at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute and will be bringing with him many of the same singers and instrumentalists that joined him last year. In the mix will be vocalists Ayesha Brooks and Ben Hunter, spoken word artist Shakiah Danielson, as well as trumpeter Chris Littlefield, guitarist Dan Rapport, keyboardist Darrius Willrich, Freddy Fuego on trombone and flute, and percussionists Ricardo Guity and Chris Patin.
Together, this all-star cast of Seattle artists will perform a wealth of Scott-Heron’s best known tunes while also using his work as a springboard to explore the current plight of the BIPOC (or, people of the global majority) community in the U.S. It’s the kind of expansion and reinterpretation befitting an artist who, while associated most with soul, funk and hip-hop, maintained the heart of a jazz artist. Scott-Heron never saw his work as sacrosanct, preferring to tweak and improvise his words and lyrics to better suit the mood of the moment and the tenor of the times. Estrada and co. will tap into that same mindset and let the music grow and expand and, most definitely, inspire all who will be on hand to bear witness.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 7:30PM PDT CENTURY BALLROOM
Birch Pereira’s Delta Jump
Sponsored by BECU. $12-38
BY ANDREW MEYER
Honey-toned singer and upright bassist, Birch Pereira, will bring his project, Delta Jump, to the Century Ballroom for an all-ages night centered on swing dance and Lindy Hop. Dancers and listeners alike will be immersed in the swinging sounds created by the multi-talented Pereira and some of the Northwest’s most sought-after musicians, including Jonathan Doyle (saxophone), Josh Roberts (guitar), Jerome Smith (trombone/tuba), and D’Vonne Lewis (drums). Should the dance floor continue to call you, ticket holders are welcome to stay for the regular 9pm DJ-ed Wednesday swing dance social with lesson included, courtesy of Century Ballroom (21+ only).
Birch Pereira, grew up studying classical cello before changing course at the University of Washington to pursue the double bass and a life in jazz. Pereira studied with Phil Sparks, Marc Seales, and Doug Miller whilst earning his bachelor degree in jazz bass performance before expanding his studies to seek the tutelage of Senegalese percussionist Ibrahima Camara, Latin jazz bassist Joe Santiago, and the funkiest guitarist in Seattle, Thaddeus Turner. Pereira is best known for his band Birch Pereira & the Gin Joints, which focuses on 1950s style swing, soul, and Americana and has toured the United States and Canada. He has also performed with jazz trumpeter Bria Skonberg, Celtic pop band The Paperboys, and Cajun soul artist Marc Broussard.
The Century Ballroom was founded in 1997 with the goal of creating a diverse and welcoming community through social dancing. This evening will be one of a kind, a true attraction for the music-loving dance community and the dance-loving music community.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 8:30PM PDT NECTAR LOUNGE 21+
Preston Singletary’s Khu.éex’
Mo’s Jamily Band feat. Estro Fiesta
Sponsored by Homestreet Bank. Welcomed by KEXP. $12-38
First set: Khu.éex’ at 8:30pm
BY NADYA BARGHOUTY
Khu.éex’ (pronounced koo-eex) is an Indigenous jazz funk band keeping endangered languages and Indigenous stories alive through music, dance and art. The collective is led by Tlingit glass artist, Preston Singletary (whose visual artwork is currently on view at Seattle Art Museum).
Khu.éex’ has embraced many members since its formation in 2013 and includes members of the Tlingit, Haida, and Blackfoot tribes. In 2016, the band lost two original members: keyboardist and co-founder Bernie Worrell and vocalist Clarissa Rizal. Their contributions live on through the group’s present work and spirit. The current lineup is an expansive 10-piece with Singletary on bass and vocals; Gene Tagaban on vocals, flute, and hand drum; Captain Raab on guitar and vocals; Denny Stern on percussion; Tim Kennedy on piano; Edward Littlefield on drums and vocals; Sondra Segundo on vocals and hand drum; Arias Hoyle (also known as Air Jazz) on vocals; and the True Loves’ Gordon Brown on saxophone and Jason Cressey on trombone.
Khu.éex’ performances are split into “happier” and “solemn” segments, portioned as such to facilitate healing of the audience’s spirit by releasing a collective grief. Listeners can expect an emotional journey aided by a blend of jazz, funk, and even rock ‘n’ roll. The musicians incorporate theatrics, spoken word, and dance to create an immersive experience.
Khu.éex’ translates to potlatch (a gift giving feast practiced by Indigenous peoples across the Pacific Northwest). Potlatches were banned in the United States for decades, classified as “un-Christian” and “reckless.” Before the ban was lifted in 1934, potlatches continued to take place, enduring in the face of colonization. Today, Khu.éex’ is reclaiming Indigenous traditions, using traditional masks and regalia to share their culture with pride and a deep love. Khu.éex’ is releasing three new albums in 2023, with the first being Siyáadlan (the Haida word for Seattle).
Following the performance, Mo’s Jamily Band takes the stage, with Estro Feista, for some late-night funk to carry out the rest of the evening. Estro Fiesta is Marina Albero (keys), Marina Christopher (bass), Celeste Sloan (guitar), Morgan Gilkeson (drums), Kate Olson (saxophone), Hannah Mowry (trumpet), Shaina Sheperd (vocals), and a special guest on trombone. The all-female/non-binary band, Estro Fiesta, is a presentation of the Mo’Jam All-Stars, curated by Mo’Jam’s Morgan Gilkeson. Gilkeson co-creates a space where musicians from diverse backgrounds can come together, collaborate, and create magic through the universal language of music. Since 2013, Mo’Jam has hosted weekly Monday night jams (Mo’Jam Mondays) that bring joy into spaces by facilitating musical improv.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 8:30PM PDT CLOCK-OUT LOUNGE 21+
Jun Iida
Sponsored by BECU. $12-30
BY PAUL RAUCH
When things began to slowly open up following the pandemic shutdown of 2020 and 2021, a new face began showing up at the historic jam session at the Owl ‘N Thistle. Jun Iida had arrived from Los Angeles, bringing with him a sound steeped in his classical roots and driven by his more natural leanings towards the improvised arts. Since that time, Iida has been frequently seen on stages around the city on gigs that range from bebop to modern soul.
The son of Japanese immigrants, Iida was born in St. Louis and raised in Pittsburgh, two cities with integral ties to jazz and Black American music. His performances as a leader have included Seattle stars Marina Albero, Jay Thomas, Kelsey Mines, and Bill Anschell.
For his performance at the 2023 Earshot Jazz Festival, Iida takes his quintet to the south side, to Beacon Hill, for a throwdown at the Clock-Out Lounge. Iida is joined by Albero on piano, a spectacular musician who arrived in Seattle in 2014 from Barcelona. Mines holds down the groove on bass, with Origin recording artist Xavier Lecouturier completing the rhythm section on drums. All three are significant bandleaders and composers on their own, with vital stage experience together as a section. Los Angeles-based guitarist Masami Kuroki makes the trip up the coast to complete this powerful fivesome.
Iida plays with a refined cool, a sound that reflects his classical roots and deep dive into the jazz artistry of classic players like Miles Davis. His modest use of pedals and electronics gives his approach a modern edge without abandoning orbit from the jazz tradition. His arrival in Seattle comes to full fruition with his appearance at the festival and a new album on the horizon slated to be released on Origin Records in January 2024.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 7:30PM PDT TOWN HALL FORUM
Todd Sickafoose’s Bear Proof
Welcomed by 91.3 KBCS. In-person and livestream. $12-38
BY JONATHAN SHIPLEY
Todd Sickafoose does not fit in any box. He’s a double bassist, a bandleader, and an orchestrator. He’s an arranger, a producer, and a composer. He’s won a Grammy Award. He’s won a Tony Award for the Broadway musical, Hadestown.
That’s not all. He’s performed and recorded with the likes of Don Byron and Trey Anastasio; Sean Hayes and Andrew Bird. He’s got his own band, too, Tiny Resistors. Also, since 2004, he has been performing with folk poet Ani DiFranco. They’ve made seven albums together.
That’s not all, but that gives one a sense of the omnivorous artist Sickafoose is. “Everything is connected,” he said. “Playing music gets my mind thinking about writing. Writing inspires me to work on my recordings. Recording music is never satisfying enough on its own,” he continued, “because the desire to play music in the midst of other humans is too strong.”
It’s a big loop, not a box. A loop Sickafoose hopes to never get out of.
And yet, at the same time, with jazz, a genre he holds dear, it’s, as he states, “a borderless land.” He said, “We see the jazz in everything; one of possibility and discovery.”
If jazz is, indeed, everything, boxes and loops are welcome along with those possibilities and discoveries.
Take Bear Proof, the album Sickafoose released just last month and will perform at the Earshot Jazz Festival. It’s an hour-long piece of music, commissioned by Chamber Music America, written for eight musicians: Sickafoose (acoustic bass/composer), Jenny Scheinman (violin), Adam Levy (guitar), Carmen Staaf (piano), Ben Goldberg (clarinet), Kirk Knuffke (cornet), Rob Reich (accordion), and Allison Miller (drums). It’s intended to be performed straight through — one long take. The piece is a rich, sometimes unpredictable palette with a kaleidoscope of instrumental combinations. It is also a surreal meditation on the ideas of boom and bust. “Is music perhaps better than words for talking about high times and utter ruin?”
The piece and Sickafoose are much like Walt Whitman, who wrote, years past, “I am large, I contain multitudes.”
What comes next for the artist along the borderless lands—more possibilities; more discoveries. Multitudinous.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 7:30PM PDT TOWN HALL FORUM
Elsa Nilsson’s Band Of Pulses
Jahnvi Madan
Sponsored by BECU. $12-38
BY M.V. SMITH
A native of Gothenburg, Sweden, flutist/composer Elsa Nilsson moved to Seattle to study at Cornish College of the Arts, eventually heading to New York to attend NYU’s graduate program in jazz studies. Since her departure for Brooklyn, Nilsson has maintained her ties to Seattle, forming the Esthesis Quartet with fellow ex-Seattleite Dawn Clement, and returning to town in the summer of 2023 to perform the music of legendary Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal with her former Cornish instructor — and former Pascoal bandmate — Jovino Santos Neto.
Nilsson’s work as a bandleader tends towards the conceptual. The Atlas of Sound series, a collaboration with pianist Jon Cowherd and bassist Chris Morrissey, is meant to evoke in the listener’s mind a specific location in the natural world: debut album Coast Redwoods 41°32’09.8”N 124°04’35.5”W was inspired by Nilsson’s visit to California’s majestic Redwood National Park.
Featuring pianist Santiago Leibson, bassist Marty Kenney, and drummer Rodrigo Recabarren, Nilsson’s latest release, Pulses, considers the musicality of the human voice. Using Maya Angelou’s recording of her poem “On the Pulse of Morning,” written for Bill Clinton’s first presidential inauguration, as source material, Nilsson and her band have crafted an eight-part suite to complement the instantly recognizable rhythms of Angelou’s recitation, obtaining permission from the Angelou estate to use her voice as part of their concerts. “I’ve always been drawn to Dr. Angelou’s work,” says Nilsson. “What I find compelling is her ability to look directly at difficult topics and approach them with both compassion and honesty. Her unflappable clarity in her expression of everything from the beautiful to the brutal is something I work to embody on my instrument as well.”
Opener Jahnvi Madan is one of three composers commissioned to premiere new works as part of the 2023 Earshot Jazz Festival. A gifted clarinetist, Madan grew up in Bellevue, and is currently a student at the New England Conservatory of Music. Madan is also an instructor and administrator for her alma mater Seattle JazzED, and has performed with local luminaries like Kelsey Mines, The Westerlies, and fellow 2023 commission recipient Carlos Snaider. For her festival premiere, Madan has composed a piece inspired by her family’s experiences as immigrants to the United States, as well her own identity as a first-generation Indian American.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, 7:30PM PDT TOWN HALL FORUM
Linda May Han Oh & Fabian Almazan
Sponsored by BECU. Welcomed by KNKX. $12-38
BY ROBERT HAM
Separately, bassist Linda May Han Oh and pianist Fabian Almazan have amassed resumes that are fit to inspire awe in even the most casual jazz fan. The former has, in addition to being a Grammy winner and producing several brilliant albums as a bandleader, logged time on stage and in the studio with the likes of Vijay Iyer, Dave Douglas, and Pat Metheny. Her work has earned her praise from Wall Street Journal, which called out “her innovative range and stellar improvisations.” Oh was even tapped to perform with Jon Batiste on the soundtrack for the Pixar film, Soul.
Meanwhile, her husband Fabian Almazan, has landed a pair of Grammy nominations and worked with Mark Guiliana, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Terence Blanchard. The latter musician gave the pianist a huge platform by inviting him to play on the scores for the Spike Lee films Chi-raq and Miracle at St. Anna. Almazan has also released numerous albums of his own, with several coming out on Biophilia, the record label he started as a platform to raise awareness for environmental causes and to lessen the footprint of the modern music industry. Together, the two artists will tap into their shared history, performing music from throughout their already storied careers with a likely emphasis on The Glass Hours, the album that Oh released earlier this year (on Biophilia, natch) made up of “works based on abstract themes of the fragility of time and life; exploring paradoxes seeded within our individual and societal values.” Or as Oh put it to the Charleston City Paper last year, music built from the idea of “what we choose to do in the limited time that we have on this earth.” Fans of jazz should be thankful that these two incredible talents have opted to spend much of their time on this mortal coil in one another’s company — inspiring each other to reach new creative plateaus either alone or in tandem.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 7:30PM PDT LANGSTON HUGHES PERFORMING ARTS INSTITUTE
John Escreet’s “Seismic Shift” w/ Eric Revis & Damion Reid
Co-presented with LANGSTON. Sponsored by Seed IP. Welcomed by 91.3 KBCS. $12-38
BY PAUL RAUCH
Los Angeles-based pianist John Escreet has garnered a reputation for musical diversity over the past fifteen years. His music tends to find middle ground between jazz and what critics may refer to as improvised music. In the end, he is a jazz musician with intent to view the jazz tradition through the lens of future impetus. His recent associations with modern jazz heavyweights Antonio Sánchez and Evan Parker speaks to his modernist leanings.
For his appearance at the 2023 Earshot Jazz Festival, Escreet celebrates his latest release, Seismic Shift (Whirlwind, 2022), leading a trio with bassist Eric Revis and drummer Damion Reid. Escreet has great imagination, and, more importantly, keen awareness of the moment—two keys for transforming his sparse compositions into vivid musical sculpture. The pianist’s first foray into the trio format has served as an explosive, explorative canvas for the variant currents of sound and influence that comprise his sound.
Bassist Revis has traveled a more traditional, modern jazz path to arrive at the farthest reaches of the music. His efforts as a leader, like those of Escreet’s, include a large embrace into the avant-garde, or freer expressive approaches to jazz. His quarter century as the grounding force of the eclectic Branford Marsalis Quartet in itself is a source of perhaps the entirety of the jazz tradition. It enables him to stir a dynamic conversation with a clear voice while taking a leap into the unknown.
Drummer Reid’s voice echoes the wide-ranging style of his mentor, the great Billy Higgins. His musical travels have included performance and recording dates with Billy Childs, Robert Glasper, Ravi Coltrane, Marquis Hill, and Steve Lehman among many others. The diversity of his experience has enabled a style that incorporates traditional jazz drumming with a celebratory modernist feel.
The piano trio lineage in jazz is a story of freedom. It is a tale of masterful spontaneous composition. Like verbal communication, it is more about listening than it is about speaking. With that principle in mind, that which is spoken, is steeped in wisdom. This may be the perfect trio to research that conception in depth.
TUESDAY OCTOBER 24, 7:30PM PDT LANGSTON HUGHES PERFORMING ARTS INSTITUTE
Jane Bunnett & Maqueque
Co-presented with LANGSTON. Welccomed by KNKX. $12-38
BY JONATHAN SHIPLEY
She’s in a cabin built by her ancestors decades ago in the cold, north of Toronto. There’s the lake nearby, and the dark pines, and the quiet solitude. It’s not the place you’d expect to find one of the players of Cuban jazz, but inspiration can strike anyone anywhere.
Jane Bunnett, a Toronto native, and thrice-nominated musician, first visited Cuba in the early 1980s. “From the moment I got out of the airport there was an abundance of music,” she said. “There were drummers, and singers, and trumpets, and cowbell. Duets, trios, quartets everywhere. It was unbelievable.”
It all spoke to her. “It was bright and beautiful. It was overwhelming.”
Ever since, Bunnett has immersed herself in Cuban music. So much so, she formed Maqueque, an all-female Cuban band. Formed to record and mentor young Cuban female musicians, they’ve become one of the top groups on the North American jazz scene. They won a Juno Award – the Canadian Grammy Awards – for their first album, Jane Bunnett and Maqueque (2014, Justin Time Records). They’ve also been nominated for a Grammy Award with their second release, Odarra (2016, Linus Entertainment) and were again nominated for a Juno Award for their third release, On Firm Ground/Tierra Firme (2019, Linus Entertainment).
Maqueque are: Jane Bunnett, soprano saxophone & flute; Joanna Tendai Majoko, vocals; MaryPaz Fernández, congas & vocals; Dánae Olano, piano; Tailin Marrero Zamora, acoustic & electric bass; and Yissy García, drums.
The band was recently voted as one of the top ten jazz groups by DownBeat magazine’s Critics Poll.
“Jazz allows you to be yourself,” Bunnett said from her cabin. “It’s an open space to be creative; to build on an existing genre and push it forward, adding color.”
Bunnett, who plays saxophone, flute, and piano, has added color to the genre with her effervescent music. She wants listeners to tap their toes; put a smile on their face; better yet, stand up and start dancing—feel joy in the music. “It’s special every time we play,” Bunnett said. “We hope we emanate that great feeling.”
It’s like she wants audiences to feel like she did that first time she skipped out onto the streets of Cuba—bright and beautiful.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 7:30PM PDT LANGSTON HUGHES PERFORMING ARTS INSTITUTE
Celebrating Mary Lou Williams: An Evening of Live Performance & Film
Co-presented with LANGSTON. Welccomed by KNKX. $12-38
BY NADYA BARGHOUTY
Seattle pianist and composer Ann Reynolds is continually inspired by great women in jazz. In 2021, her album Inspired by Women Composers won the Earshot Golden Ear Award for Best NW Jazz Recording and features an original song inspired by Mary Lou Williams.
Pianist, composer, and arranger Mary Lou Williams was active in the jazz community for over 50 years. Often dubbed as the “First Lady of Jazz,” Williams wrote over 300 compositions throughout her music career. She is most known for her contributions to the swing and bebop subgenres. Williams’ unique style attracted the eyes of top bandleaders of her time. Big names like Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong requested Williams to arrange songs for them. A major turning point in her career occurred in 1946 when the New York Philharmonic Orchestra performed her composition “Zodiac Suite.” Williams used her talents to mentor several up-and-coming musicians of the time like Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk.
Beyond playing music, Williams was also a pioneer in music production and publishing. As a Black woman in the music industry, Williams faced difficulties getting her music to the masses. She is famously quoted saying, “No one would record me. So I decided to record myself.” Mary Records was established in 1964 and created an avenue for Williams to record herself. She then established her own publishing company Cecilia Music Co.
Reynolds, along with film producer and director Kay D. Ray, invites you to a curated night of celebration. Fans of Williams can expect to hear renditions of classics such as “Froggy Bottom,” “Scratchin’ in the Gravel,” and “Credo.” Through tribute musical performances and rare archival film footage, the audience will be fully immersed in Williams’ life’s work. Ray is known for other notable jazz film works like Lady Be Good: Instrumental Women in Jazz, In Her Hands: Key Changes in Jazz, and Ernestine Anderson: There Will Never Be Another You. The musical performances will feature several talented musicians: pianists Ann Reynolds, Alex Guilbert, Nelda Swiggett, and Kent Stevenson; bassists Terry Morgan and Heather Chriscaden; Maria Wulf and Steven Banks on drums; Freddy “Fuego” Gonzalez (flute/trombone); and Reggie Garrett (vocals).
Catch this same performance again on Bainbridge Island, November 1, as part of the BIMA Within Earshot series. These performances are sponsored in part by smART Ventures through Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and 4Culture.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 7:30PM PDT LANGSTON HUGHES PERFORMING ARTS INSTITUTE
Kassa Overall
Co-presented with LANGSTON. Welcomed by KEXP. $12-38
BY CAITLIN CARTER
Grammy-nominated musician, emcee, singer, producer, and drummer Kassa Overall melds avant-garde experimentation with hip-hop production techniques to tilt the nexus of jazz and rap in unmapped directions. Fortunately for Seattle audiences, he points his compass to the Earshot stage this fall, touring in support of his latest venture, ANIMALS, released in May on Warp Records.
On ANIMALS, his third studio record, lyrical themes of mental health, survival, and the Black American experience swirl into a sonic kaleidoscope of jazz futurism and electro-hop. Throughout the album, Overall layers distorted vocals, propulsive 808, and spell-binding instrumentation to captivate listeners of every creed.
His “music is imaginative, expansive, and eclectic,” reviews PopMatters. “A deep appreciation of and skill with jazz and hip-hop are seamlessly woven together on an album that goes in multiple places with many different voices thrown into the mix.”
Those voices are a cast of top-flight jazz and hip-hop players including Seattle stalwart Shabazz Palaces, trumpeter Theo Croker, pianist Vijay Iyer, and saxophonist Tomoki Sanders. Sanders (the great Pharoah’s progeny) also joins Overall in tonight’s lineup, along with Bendji Allonce on percussion and Ian Finkelstein on keys—a configuration heard on ANIMALS track “Still Ain’t Find Me,” which PopMatters describes as “a wild and stirring piece, powered forward by percussionist Bendji Allonce and the piercing saxophone of Tomoki Sanders, proudly carrying on his late father’s legacy for the spiritual and avant-garde.”
Such collaborations have arisen through a career spanning both coasts. Reared in Seattle, Overall’s education took him from Garfield High School to Oberlin College in the Midwest, before making his way to New York, where he deepened his musicianship and developed a roster of legendary connections.
Overall has since returned to his native Seattle, sharing his unique sound with the community that raised him. In this, the first of two Earshot festival appearances, he invites audience members to join him as he questions humanity through his ANIMALS oeuvre: “We call ourselves humans, right? But we do animalistic shit towards each other. We justify immorality by almost stripping people of their humanity. He’s an animal, so we can treat him as such. All these different kinds of little questions in these songs point to questions about humanity: am I free? Or am I a circus animal? These questions intersect with the way I think about race.”
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 8PM PDT CHAPEL PERFORMANCE SPACE
Craig Taborn
Sponsored by Richard Thurston. $12-30
BY ANDREW MEYER
Craig Taborn’s solo piano releases, Avenging Angel, 2011, and Shadow Plays, 2021, demonstrate a patience and willingness to follow musical ideas to their fullest completion, with each improvisation teasing out every last nuance. Nothing is wasted, yet nothing more is needed. Taborn frequently finds inspiration in repeated rhythmic figures, not dissimilar to those found in much minimalist piano music but here they take on a rhythmic intensity and vitality seldom heard in solo piano performance. His clever use of repetitive ostinato figures allows audiences firm ground from which to experience the rolling waves of shifting harmonic patterns sparkling over top of his music.
Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Craig Taborn has become a stalwart of the New York creative and avant-garde jazz scenes for over twenty-five years. Taborn’s claims to be “not a classically trained pianist at all,” perhaps reflect his early interests in a variety of outsider musics. While in his teenage years, Taborn found himself drawn to the work of The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Sun Ra, heavy metal, and contemporary classical music and spent considerable time parsing out the works of Cecil Taylor. Taborn later went on to study English Literature at the University of Michigan where he quickly found like-minded students and established the electronic music group, the Tracey Science Quartet. During this time, he also studied with and worked alongside saxophonist James Carter.
Following his studies in Michigan and extensive touring with James Carter, Taborn moved to New York, where he quickly made a name for himself as one of the most in-demand keyboardists of the downtown scene. During this time, Taborn recorded with the likes of Dave Douglas, Tim Berne, Steve Coleman, Wadada Leo Smith, and Drew Gress. In 2001, he also gave his first solo piano performance, a practice which would grow to become a signature voice. Starting in 2005, Taborn recorded and toured extensively in North America and Europe with Chris Potter’s Underground band. This group, which did not feature a bass player relied heavily on Taborn’s ability to fill large portions of the sonic spectrum, a role that Taborn played frequently throughout the mid-2000s in multiple different contexts and no doubt an important aspect of his many solo performances.
Taborn is known to be highly selective of the recordings he is willing to release, bemoaning the “age of almost profligate documentation” in which artists work in modern times. In this light, audiences of Taborn’s solo performances can delight in the rarity and somewhat singular opportunity of hearing these long-form improvisations. Audiences can expect to hear small, often modular ideas be developed, reflected, and reworked in real time as Taborn creates music that embodies both space and time while reflecting a deep sense of almost meditative patience.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 7:30PM PDT THE ROYAL ROOM
Kassa Overall DJ Set
Phinehas Nyang’Oro
Co-presented with LANGSTON. Welcomed by Rainier Avenue Radio. $12-30
BY CAITLIN CARTER
As in his Shades of Flu series, this rare solo DJ set mixes vocals, power-drumming, and laptop fireworks with avant-garde experimentation, showing why Kassa Overall’s deep Seattle jazz roots make him a go-to player in the hip-hop world. Opening, singular, hard-swinging jazz vocalist, Phinehas Nyang’Oro’s, cracks open the evening in style.
Reared in Seattle, Kassa Overall grew up in a musical household, surrounded by instruments including a drum set, piano, saxophones, and even an early beat machine that he remembers playing with from an early age. “I almost took it for granted,” he recalls. “I thought that’s just how people grew up. Some kids had Legos, we had drum sets.” Between lessons, gigs, and finding inspiration in his parents’ extensive vinyl collection, which included old jazz and world music records, Overall’s musical identity began to take shape.
After graduating from Garfield High School, Overall attended Oberlin College, where he studied drums with NEA Jazz Master Billy Hart. There, he became more immersed in the jazz scene, but would make beats and raps in his dorm room on the side. Those worlds expanded as he made his way to New York, where he deepened his musicianship in each genre and developed a roster of legendary connections. Overall has since returned to his native Seattle, sharing his unique sound with the community that raised him.
Hailing from North Carolina as the child of Tanzanian parents, Phinehas Nyang’Oro is a vocalist and guitarist well-versed in American music and African tradition. While growing up in Durham, Nyang’Oro performed with jazz professors from area colleges in local churches, restaurants and bars, before studying in Paris at the American School of Modern Music after high school. Now in Cornish’s esteemed vocal jazz program, Nyang’Oro regularly performs around Seattle.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 8PM PDT LANGSTON HUGHES PERFORMING ARTS
INSTITUTE
Harriet Tubman
Co-presented with LANGSTON. Sponsored by BIMA. Welcomed by Rainier Avenue Radio. $12-38
BY NATHAN BLUFORD
Harriet Tubman, the great liberator, guided enslaved Black Americans to freedom along the Underground Railroad in the 1850s. Harriet Tubman, the band, was formed in 1998 by guitarist and vocalist Brandon Ross, bassist Melvin Gibbs, and drummer JT Lewis to “communicate a vision of musical freedom and musical invention.” The power trio’s musical philosophy celebrates the African American cultural tradition of creatively adapting technology in pursuit of liberation.
Based in New York City since their inception, Harriet Tubman shreds through musical boundaries with a joyous intensity that honors their namesake. A single-track sample of Harriet Tubman’s 2018 release The Terror End of Beauty might indicate a funk, fusion, or jazz-rock band. Each successive track, however, reveals another layer of their fiery sound, which channels blues, drone, heavy metal and more by way of infectious grooves and expansive soundscapes.
Far more than the sum of its parts, Harriet Tubman’s sonic profile recalls storied alchemists like Sonny Sharrock, James “Blood” Ulmer, and Seattle’s own Jimi Hendrix. Just like these groundbreaking guitarists, Harriet Tubman’s piercing timbres and heavy rhythms pour volcanic electricity all over everything from Mississippi Delta blues to out-jazz odysseys. Disdainful of the limitations imposed by genre, the trio identifies their art as “Open Music.”
The three members’ respective histories are crowded with on-stage and studio performances alongside some of the biggest names in high-octane experimentation. Combined, their resumes highlight work with the likes of Archie Shepp, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Henry Rollins, George Clinton, and Living Colour.
Harriet Tubman’s dazzling shows don’t require any credentials, however. Their recent appearances in Seattle include a celebrated concert at the 2018 Earshot Jazz Festival (cited as the Number 1 best live concert in 2018 by NPR jazz critic, Nate Chinen) and a masterful performance live on KEXP that was hosted by KEXP DJ and Earshot’s own John Gilbreath in early 2020. Their powerful, crunchy sets are full of surprises (including the occasional banjo feature), so audiences should expect the unexpected when they take the stage at this year’s festival.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 7:30PM PDT CORNISH RAISBECK AUDITORIUM
Tim Berne’s Oceans And
$12-30
BY ANDREW MEYER
Alto saxophonist and composer, Tim Berne, returns to the Pacific Northwest with a fresh palate of sounds that many listeners familiar with his past work may find refreshingly distinct. While Berne’s colossal alto tone and intensely felt improvisations remain at the core of this work, the trio featured on his latest recording, Oceans And, consisting of accordionist, clarinetist, and vocalist Aurora Nealand, and cellist Hank Roberts push Berne into more horizontal and textural sonorities. Though Berne’s playing in this context is easily identifiable through his powerful, vocal sound as well as his sheer emotive power, the altoist has largely traded his frequent use of off-kilter nervous rhythmic energy for sustained and frequently pensive lines. Nealand’s clarinet and Roberts’ cello provide real-time improvised counterpoint with energy cresting and dissipating organically. Other times, Nealand’s pure vocal tone soars above scurrying dissonant clusters comprised of rapid, breathy alto figures tightly woven within deeply vocal cello lines. This ensemble brings a real diversity of tone and emotional depth to performance.
Although born in Syracuse, New York, saxophonist Tim Berne found his inspiration for a lifetime in music in the Northwest whilst attending Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. He was originally drawn to the power and soulfulness found in R&B records, as well as the music of Julius Hemphill. An important leader both musically and in terms of the music business, Berne founded both Empire Records in 1979 and Screwgun Records in 1996. Berne’s powerful alto sound, which reaches from breathy and warm to robust and piercing as he navigates ambitious rhythmic territory can be heard in his extensive recorded output alongside a lengthy who’s who of avant- garde jazz musicians including Nels Cline, Paul Motian, Craig Taborn, John Zorn, Jim Black, and Drew Gress.
Self-described as living “at the intersection of lunatic and librarian,” New Orleans based multi- instrumentalist and vocalist, Aurora Nealand engages with fellow musicians and audiences in a profound manner, challenging each to rise to the occasion. Steeped in the New Orleans tradition of collective improvisation Nealand leads the Royal Roses, a non-traditional jazz ensemble tracing its lineage back through The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) to early New Orleans jazz pioneers whilst also mixing in 20th-century musique concrète and deep listening concepts founded in her love of listening to everyday objects, a practice developed while working with Pauline Oliveros. Nealand has been a featured artist at the Istanbul Jazz Festival, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center, the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, and Big Ears Festival.
Originally from Terre Haute, Indiana, Hank Roberts began to make a name for himself as a cellist in the 1980s downtown New York scene based around the Knitting Factory, where he could frequently be heard alongside the likes of John Zorn, Marc Ribot, and Bill Frisell, the latter of whom he has appeared with many times, including on Frisell’s Grammy Award-winning record, Unspeakable. Though frequently heard with leading modern jazz artists, Roberts’ career has found him mixing folk music, modern composition, free improvisation, and the raw power of rock music.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 8PM PDT LANGSTON HUGHES PERFORMING ARTS INSTITUTE
Georgia Anne Muldrow
Co-presented with LANGSTON. Welcomed by KEXP. $20-45
BY MARIANNE GONTERMAN
A marvel of genre-defying originality, Georgia Anne Muldrow has been deeply rooted in jazz throughout her life, born into the family of guitarist Ronald Muldrow (who played alongside Eddie Harris) and Rickie Byars, lead singer of Roland Hanna’s New York Jazz Quartet and the Pharoah Sanders Ensemble. The prolific songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist paints kaleidoscopic soundscapes traversing jazz, hip-hop, funk, soul, rock, electronica and beyond. Often acting as a one-woman studio band, she composes, arranges, records and performs her music entirely on her own. She appears under several different aliases, among them Jyoti, meaning “light” or “celestial flame”, a name bestowed to her by the late great Alice Coltrane.
Much of Muldrow’s music revolves around love, spirituality, and self-actualization. “The searching for one’s inner power and one’s inner ownership and one’s language—that’s what brings this music forward.” Most importantly though, she is a strong advocate for elevating and preserving Black culture as an uncompromising voice in her fervent opposition to the enduring state of racial inequality in the United States.
Having built an impressive discography, Muldrow has collaborated with artists at the forefront of innovative music, including Jason Moran, Robert Glasper, Adrian Younge, Ambrose Akinmusire, Justin Brown, Keyon Harrold, Dev Hynes, Erykah Badu, Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Bilal, and Mos Def. Since her first full-length album 17 years ago, she has released over 20 records exploring and blending virtually every shade of Black music into her own funky psychedelic textures. Her 2018 solo album Overload earned her a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album.
Muldrow produced a series of instrumental releases, setting aside her extraordinary vocals to shine a light on her talents as a beatmaker. Her 2021 record VWETO III is steeped in deep and vibe-heavy hip-hop beatscapes, mostly instrumental with occasional inspired vocals from Muldrow, singer Shana Jensen, and Detroit rapper Ayun Basa. Vweto means “gravity” in Kikongo, a Congolese Bantu language. Magic emanates from gyrating reverbs, hooks and sonic explorations, vividly creating an aura, even a tactile sensation. “I was listening to an Isaac Hayes LP where even the reverb had grain and texture. I want my music to create an environment.” This concert is a unique opportunity to experience Muldrow’s multilayered sonic journeys through ever-changing and surprising dimensions.
Prior to the evening’s performance, Muldrow will lead an afternoon workshop (included with ticket). Students and young artists are especially invited to participate.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2PM PDT IKEA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra feat. Marina Albero
Presented by Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra. $18-25
BY ERIC OLSON
“Middle school is where we most often see girls fall off the musical track,” says Marge Rosen, executive director and trumpet player with the Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra. SWOJO, for short. With their middle and high school jazz workshops, annual composition contests, and regular gigs around Western Washington, 16-member big band SWOJO aims to remedy jazz’s notable gender disparity. And to sound good doing it.
“The jazz scene is still a male-dominated environment,” says pianist Marina Albero, set to perform with the group at the Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center (note: the venue is located within Renton High School). “So projects like SWOJO are needed to counterbalance the lack of female composers and players.”
Among Albero’s many bona fides are Earshot Golden Ear Awards for both the 2022 Instrumentalist of the Year and Performance of the Year. In a field crowded with male players, she’s a deserving SWOJO sit-in. “It’s an honor being featured in a concert that can inspire future generations of female artists.”
SWOJO drummer and guest musical director Taryn Zickefoose agrees. “I’ve really enjoyed playing in an all-women’s jazz ensemble like SWOJO,” she says. “The vibe is relaxed and respectful. The music expectation is high and the values of the group stay central to what we do.” In addition to performing with notable Northwest-based groups such as SWOJO, The Jazz Conspiracy All-Teacher Jazz Band, and Blue Street Voices and being an active clinician around the Pacific Northwest, Zickafoose runs a private percussion and piano studio in Marysville.
Pulling from a “deep reserve of standards” (per Rosen) SWOJO also plays originals by band members and female PNW composers. Musical directors have arranged a hefty chunk of the American jazz songbook over the band’s 23 years. This will be SWOJO’s first Earshot Festival performance since the pandemic and this year’s performance is centered on celebrating women in jazz. Rosen says the group is particularly excited to reach young jazz artists in South Seattle – a student under 18 is free with the purchase of an adult ticket.“To women playing in the PNW,” says Zickefoose, “keep doing what you love and continue to push yourself to enter into new playing situations, even if they are uncomfortable. Take it on. Represent. Keep it about the music making.”
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 7:30PM PDT TOWN HALL GREAT HALL
Omara Portuondo
Sponsored by Seattle Sacred Music & Arts. Welcomed by KNKX. $12-65
BY ARMANDO FLEURY
The great Cuban singer Omara Portuondo, known the world over as a member of the Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon that lit a fire under Cuban music in 1996, will be celebrating her 93rd birthday in Seattle’s Town Hall, a stop on her Farewell Tour.
Born in Havana, Portuondo began dancing at Havana’s fabled cabaret, the Tropicana, at 15, where she still performs. Early on, she created a new sound with Frank Emilio’s band, dubbed “fillin” (“feeling”), for its emotional punch. Working with everyone from Édith Piaf to the great Cuban band leader Benny Moré, Portuondo toured the U.S. before the 1959 Cuban Revolution and in 1957 appeared on an album with Chico O’Farrill. Her own debut album, Magia Negra, came out the following year. She went to work with Los Van Van and others in Cuba, but the Buena Vista project brought her worldwide fame, followed by two Latin Grammy awards.
Most singers have thrown in the towel long before their 90s, but if her most recent recording, Vida, is any indication, Portuondo is still in good voice—a little worn at the edges, perhaps, but deeply resonant and as fragrant as a rose. The disc covers an array of music and styles, including the boleros—intense torch songs—she is famous for, as well as big band jazz and Son Cubano. The boleros are a highlight, including two associated with the late, great Argentinian singer, Mercedes Sosa, “Gracias A La Vida” and “Como La Cigarra.” The latter, by the way, has nothing to do with Cuban cigars, but refers to the curious rebirth of cicadas, written into the song as a metaphor for undying love but later taken as a symbol of Argentina’s politically “disappeared” (see Joan Baez, among others). The gorgeously flowing “Bolero A La Vida” features the album’s producer, Guatemalan singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno, with a lovely requinto obligato sprinkled over the top. (Benaroya Hall will present Moreno on October 6.)
The album was recorded during the pandemic and partly reflects the darkness of that time, including the concurrent police violence that harassed Black Lives Matter. “Now” nods (via Lena Horne) to the activism demanded by the murder of George Floyd and is an unusual instance of Portuondo singing in English. “Silencio” (“Be quiet / I don’t want the flowers to know I’m sad”) and “Duele” (“It hurts”) are just plain sad.
But Portuondo’s show is bound to give a lift, no matter what she’s singing. Those lucky enough to have seen her in Seattle back in 2000, with fellow Buena Vista members Ibrahim Ferrer and Rubén González, will recall how she and her compadres transformed the Showbox into a Havana nightclub – erotic and playful, dreamlike, and hypnotic. Portuondo has been back to Seattle a few times since, but this is her first appearance here since 2018.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 7:30PM PDT CORNISH RAISBECK AUDITORIUM
Mat Maneri’s Ash Quartet
$12-30
BY NATHAN BLUFORD
Life’s most powerful experiences leave a lasting residue. Moments and impressions are often recalled in an instant decades after the fact. The memories we carry guide our beliefs, actions, and decisions in ways that we don’t always consider on a conscious level – do you agree?
Mat Maneri’s Ash Quartet’s appearance at this year’s Earshot Jazz Festival celebrates the release of the violist’s new album Ash. Released this past August, Ash follows 2021’s Dust as the second installment in a planned trilogy of quartet recordings.
Thematically, the trilogy is centered on the subtle, long-term reminders that visceral life experiences leave in their wake. At 53 years old, Maneri specifically likens the album’s representation of his childhood and teenage years to the ash that remains from a blazing fire. Ash channels this theme musically as a cerebral, pensive journey through dark water and dissonant textures.
A lifelong Brooklynite, Mat Maneri is a household name in the world of experimental improvisation. His past collaborators include luminaries such as Cecil Taylor, William Parker, and Matthew Shipp. His late father, Joe Maneri’s work as a microtonal composer, saxophonist, and faculty member at the New England Conservatory made an enormous imprint on his creative trajectory.
Maneri’s effort to craft a violin sound that resembles popular jazz horn players such as Ben Webster and Miles Davis has been a critical foundation for his musical path. The abstract, immersive compositions on Ash, five of which are penned by Maneri, claim an expansive range of additional influences that include Baroque chamber music, 20th-century modernism, blues, and free jazz.
As an improviser, composer, and bandleader, Maneri seamlessly assembles these wide-ranging influences into a voice that is unique among his peers. Maneri’s quartet at this explorative performance will feature Lucian Ban on piano, Brandon Lopez on bass, and Randy Peterson on drums, all of whom except Lopez performed on both Ash and Dust.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 8:30PM PDT CLOCK-OUT LOUNGE 21+
High Pulp
$12-30
BY ERIC OLSON
It feels odd to call a group as young as High Pulp “veterans,” but jazz is a mercurial thing, and they’ve clearly worked hard enough to earn the label. This inventive, groove-in-the-front sextet came to the scene’s attention back in 2016, playing DIY gigs at a soon-to-be demolished artist’s space at the top of Beacon Hill. Unlike that structure (RIP), the band’s ensuing years have been fruitful.
Earshot Jazz Festival ‘23 finds High Pulp fresh off their first nationwide tour, with stops in landmark jazz towns like Montréal, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City. If you think that announces their trajectory, check out the guestlist on their July album Days in the Desert: MonoNeon, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Brandee Younger. Sheesh!
“Jazz is like basketball,” says saxophonist Victory Nguyen of these sit-ins. “You’ve got to take your shot and see if it goes in. Sometimes it does.”
As this very magazine wrote in 2022, “High Pulp is not a product of the jazz education industrial complex.” This isn’t a snub at our collective pedagogy but rather a salute to the band’s wide-ranging ear and penchant for exploration. Their albums generate a madcap series of soundscapes – trance, noise rock, trip hop – often all in the same track. And their live performances up the ante.
“There’s more attention drawn to the patterns in the melodies and the compositions feel more long-form,” says bassist Kaeli Earl, the group’s newest member. “It’s been cool watching the music progress.”
High Pulp is Antoine Martel (keyboard, synthesizer), Andrew Morrill (saxophone), Bobby Granfelt (drums), Rob Homan (keys), Victory Nguyen (tenor saxophone), and Kaeli Earle (bass).
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 7:30PM PDT CORNISH RAISBECK AUDITORIUM
Johnaye Kendrick’s Grounded
Sponsored by BECU. Welcomed by Rainier Avenue Radio. $12-30
BY FRANK KOHL
Vocalist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Johnaye Kendrick has been called the real deal. And she surely is just that with a professorship at Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts, degrees from Western Michigan University and Loyola University in New Orleans, and a diploma from the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. And now she’s this year’s Festival Artist in Residence. She has two critically acclaimed CDs to her name, Here (2014) and Flying (2018), and a third, Heart Songs, on the way. All this is only part of the story that brought Kendrick to the level she is at today.
Born in San Diego, she has traveled far and wide and her accomplishments are impressive. Her associations with iconic jazz figures like Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter and her vocal supergroup säje are but a few examples that speak to the level of excellence she has achieved. Her musical spectrum is broad, some of her music is straight up jazz that uses tunes from the standard jazz repertoire while incorporating some breathtaking scat singing. On the other hand, much of what she does is original and possesses elements of new age and folk with strong spiritual elements.
“Grounded” is her third appearance at the 2023 Earshot Jazz Festival and the premiere of her Chamber Music America and Jack Straw supported original suite. “Grounded” is an original, multi-movement piece for string quartet and jazz quartet with Kendrick on vocals, harmonium, and other healing instruments. The jazz quartet will feature some of Seattle’s finest musicians and regular bandmates including Dawn Clement (piano), Chris Symer (bass), and D’Vonne Lewis (drums). “Grounded” promises to be a musical event like no other. A work that incorporates many different levels of musical, cultural, and spiritual expression.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 8PM PDT THE ROYAL ROOM
Ted Poor Quartet
Sponsored by BECU. Welcomed by 91.3 KBCS. $12-30
BY PAUL RAUCH
Drummer/composer Ted Poor has achieved a true rarity in the world of percussion. While drumming and voice are the two modern ties to the ancient origins of human creative sound, modern innovation into drumming as a melodic, or even harmonic function has seldom been engaged to the extent that we see in his approach.
Poor has appeared onstage and in the studio with a full spectrum of musical adventurists, including Bill Frisell, Andrew Bird, Pat Metheny, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and a host of others. His orchestral style has enabled him to perform solo, creating music with great density and depth. He opened for Bird on a recent tour, performing solo.
Poor arrived in Seattle in 2013 as artist-in-residence at the University of Washington after ten years in New York, where he quickly developed a deep musical relationship with eclectic trumpeter, Cuong Vu. For his performance at the 2023 Earshot Jazz Festival, he partners with Vu in a new quartet featuring broad-based bassist Anna Butterss and dynamic alto saxophonist, Josh Johnson.
All four of these musicians play music that while being free and spontaneous, is also soulful and listenable. The musical facility and virtuosity they display is motivated by an explorative vision of the spirit of the music. While we are fortunate to have Poor and Vu with us in residence in Seattle, opportunities to see them play together here are not all that common. In that way, this band personifies jazz music in Seattle and perhaps the city itself – there is an openness in its expression, a free spirit in its nature, and an inclusion of the audience in its process.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 7:30PM PDT CORNISH RAISBECK AUDITORIUM
Michael Bisio & Timothy Hill
$12-35
BY ANDREW MEYER
Bassist/composer, Michael Bisio, and vocalist/guitarist, Timothy Hill, frequently flip expectations imposed upon their instruments with Bisio’s double bass often taking the melodic, exploratory role, set against Hill’s droning vocal harmonic textures and rolling, scratching guitar sonorities. On their 2023 Origin Records release, Inside Voice / Outside Voice, Bisio and Hill often move from this opening position toward a sort of sonic singularity where harmonics from bowed double bass blend seamlessly with vaporous, celestial vocal overtones and extended guitar technics. A mixture of original compositions, improvisations, and well-loved standards, Bisio and Hill’s variegated approach to texture is further contrasted by Hill’s frequently straightforward delivery of lyrics on ballads such as “My One and Only Love” and “I Fall In Love Too Easily”. Here, his muted, unaffected tone conjures images of a lone folk singer or echoes of Tom Jobim. Listeners are offered entry to survey these sonic vistas through the seeming familiarity created by the expansive use of human voice, as well as the familiarity of standard song forms.
Known equally as composer and performer, double bassist Michael Bisio is acclaimed for his improvisation which frequently features both lyrical bow work and daring extended technics. His considerable catalogue of recorded work features many leading names in new music, including Joe Giardullo, Joe McPhee, and Matthew Shipp, the latter of which Bisio has held a long and fruitful musical partnership with, yielding ten releases. Whatever the setting, Bisio is well regarded for pulling beauty and warmth from his instrument. As a composer, Bisio has created a wide-ranging list of works for diverse ensembles as well as works for theater, film, and animation.
In his artistic statement, Timothy Hill reflects on the role of music in relation to memory and the preservation of nearly all aspects of culture, alongside his intense interest in captivating solo performance. A master of harmonic singing, and respected for his talent in Tibetan chanting, Hill’s expansive vocal palate seems to tap into memory held at the cellular level. Hill’s vocal ability is captivating namely because he pushes the boundaries of what is possible with an instrument that we all possess, the human voice. This conflation of the otherworldly with the intimately familiar creates ethereal textures which give rise to the mystical and spiritual. Growing up in an artistic family, Hill came to absorb a diversity of musical thought from a young age and recalls Captain Beefheart, 1970s-era singer-songwriters, Chick Corea, and Terry Riley’s improvised concerts as important early influences. Studies at Portland State University with Robert Moran introduced Hill to the work of Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage and a decade plus mentorship with Keith Jarrett stoked Hill’s intense interest in solo performance. Hill further studied Hindustani classical vocal music with Sheila Dhar before presenting slam poetry with Allen Ginsberg and Jeff Buckley in New York’s East Village.
Listeners can expect long-form improvisation based on original compositions as well as sonically expansive takes on well-known standards from like-minded and sympathetic performers.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 8PM PDT CHAPEL PERFORMANCE SPACE
Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group
Co-produced by Earshot Jazz and Nonsequitur/Wayward Music. $10-30
BY JONATHAN SHIPLEY
The 34-year-old Portland resident was in Washington, D.C. at Malcolm X Park at a drum circle when it came to him. The elders there let him play; let him express himself; let him find something about himself and the world beyond. “There was a particular message I was hearing in the music,” said Roman Norfleet. “A dissonant unification. A vehicle for the next life.”
His next life led him to form and be the band leader of Be Present Art Group, who has a self-titled debut album out on Portland’s Mississippi Records. The group plays deeply felt, spirit, spacey music. It’s hard to put a finger on it, “it” being something as ephemeral as the here and now in music. “Improvisation,” Norfleet said, “is one of the best methods, if not the best, for spiritual development.” He continued, “It keeps us open as channels to receive cosmic messages.”
The evening’s ensemble includes Roman Norfleet (saxophone, percussion, vocals, keys), Andre Raiah (Brown Calvin) on keys, drummers Dae Bryant and Machado Mijiga, percussionist Cam Haskins, Harlan Silverman on cello, bassist Scotty Williams (Based Zeus), and on vocals—Jacque Hammond. The message the music is trying to impart is to assure us that we are light; that we are enlightened. That we are separate and entirely together; that we are part of the universe and the universe. Norfleet said, “The Universe and Celestial Creative Beings omits sounds and have music that can inform our being on planet Earth if we are willing to listen and learn.”
Norfleet, and his group, are always listening; always learning; finding that dissonant unification.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 7PM PDT ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM
Battle of the Bands: Garfield and Roosevelt High School Jazz Bands
Welcomed by KNKX. $10-50
BY M.V. SMITH
In Seattle, high school jazz bands are a big deal.
“The big band programs here are kind of like high school football in Texas,” as a local musician quoted in Playing Changes, Nate Chinen’s chronicle of modern jazz. Just as the Texas powerhouses are feeders for the top NCAA Division I football teams, the Roosevelt and Garfield programs regularly send students to prestigious conservatories like Juilliard in New York and Berklee in Boston, many of whom go on to professional careers. Between them, Garfield and Roosevelt have produced Kassa Overall, Roxy Coss, Sara Gazarek, and the Westerlies, not to mention folks like Alex Dugdale and D’Vonne Lewis who elected to stay closer to home.
In addition to boasting illustrious alumni, the Garfield and Roosevelt bands are frequent finalists — and champions — in nationwide competitions like Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington: both schools have placed first four times each. Though Garfield and Roosevelt were among the fifteen finalists at this year’s Essentially Ellington, neither band finished in the top three. Both schools, however, racked up accolades for section and solo work. Roosevelt was awarded Outstanding Rhythm Section, while Garfield earned nods for Outstanding Trumpet Section and Outstanding Trombone Section. Additionally, two Roosevelt students were named Outstanding Drums and Outstanding Tenor Saxophone, and four Garfield musicians were recognized as Outstanding Bass, Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, and Trumpet.
In another remarkable bit of symmetry, over the past few years Garfield and Roosevelt have both experienced leadership transitions. Jared Sessink took over for Garfield’s legendary Clarence Acox in 2019, while Hannah Mowry succeeded longtime Roosevelt director Scott Brown last fall.
For their joint performance at this year’s Earshot festival, Roosevelt hosts crosstown rivals Garfield at their North Seattle campus for an old-fashioned battle of the bands, featuring the music of big band pioneers Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
Saturday, November 4, 7:30PM PDT Benaroya Hall, Nordstrom Recital Hall
Sunday, November 5, 2PM PST Kirkland Performance Center
Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra w/ Anat Cohen
Produced by Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra. $35-75
BY ARMANDO FLEURY
Following her triumphant performance last year with her Quartetinho at the 2022 festival, the great Israeli reed player Anat Cohen returns for a second round fronting the region’s much-loved ensemble of veteran jazzers, the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra (SRJO), which first presented Cohen in a stunning performance in 2015. Over the past two decades, jazz lovers everywhere have fallen in love with Cohen’s carbonated clarinet solos and eclectic, jazz-world vibe on clarinet and tenor sax. For her 2023 festival performance, SRJO music director of the 17-piece ensemble Michael Brockman hints she’ll play a mix of tunes from the last show – including Lonnie Smith’s “And the World Weeps,” plusher tunes, “La Comparsa” and “Ingênuo” – as well as more recent material, such as “Louisiana,” which she performed last year with the Quartentinho, Brockman’s arrangement of “La Vie En Rose,” and Oded Lev-Ari’s “Lost and Found.” Brockman is also writing a new arrangement, specially for this show, of Cohen’s “Engole O Choro.”
Born in Tel Aviv, Cohen studied at the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Music Conservatory, where she played in a traditional New Orleans jazz band, then fulfilled her military service in the Israeli Air Force Band. After getting a degree from Boston’s Berklee College, she moved to Manhattan, in 1999, where she played with Sherrie Maricle’s DIVA Jazz Orchestra for a decade. In 2009, she headlined the Village Vanguard – a first for an Israeli – which resulted in her breakthrough recording, Clarinetwork: Live at the Village Vanguard. Cohen is a three-time Grammy nominee and has been selected clarinetist of the year by the Jazz Journalists Association every year since 2007 and has topped the DownBeat Critics and Readers Polls multiple times. Recently she has performed at Stanford Jazz Festival with pianist Sullivan Fortner and served as artistic director for SFJazz, in San Francisco.
Sunday, November 5, 7:30PM PST Century Ballroom 21+
La Dame Blanche
Carlos Snaider
Welcomed by KEXP. $12-38
BY DEVON LÉGER
Playing the flute, rapping, singing, holding court like a true diva, and posing for press pics with a huge cigar, Afro-Cuban artist La Dame Blanche just might be the “Lizzo meets Cesária Évora” combination we didn’t know we needed! She’s an uncommonly talented artist across a wide span of Latin genres, but she’s also heir to deep traditions of Cuban music. The daughter of Jesús “Aguaje” Ramos, trombonist and musical director of the legendary Buena Vista Social Club, La Dame Blanche aka Yaite Ramos Rodriguez grew up surrounded by Cuban music.
Interestingly, it was in moving to Paris that Rodriguez really developed her own sound. The Parisian Cuban community is little known but vibrant, and in the late 90s and early aughts, a band called Orishas was pioneering a fusion of hip-hop and Afro-Cuban religious and musical traditions that helped galvanize a new generation of Cuban artists with lives in France and Europe. Rodriguez came out of that world, tied to her longtime producer Marc “Babylotion” Damblé who worked extensively with Orishas.
On her newest album, Ella, Rodriguez taps into the cosmology at the heart of the Afro-Cuban religion Santería, delivering an homage to her mother and to mothers everywhere that’s tied to a feminine divine. The album is often political, taking aim at the patriarchy and its manifestations, and shouting out #NiUnaMenos (Not One More) a #TimesUp rallying cry in Latin America against femicide. The music ranges from the most current sounds of New York trap to makuta, an Afro-Cuban rhythm so old that its roots are Congolese. After all, as Rodriguez says, “This is an album for dancing, it’s not total war!”
Opening for La Dame Blanche, Seattle guitarist Carlos Snaider will bring his far-ranging musical curiosity to the stage. At home in wildly different musical worlds, from his own “avant-Latin” to jazz, South Indian carnatic music, and salsa, Snaider is one of three artists commissioned by Earshot Jazz to compose new music for the festival. Snaider will present, “Multiverso,” with a new quintet that packs in deep grooves, avant-Latin soundscapes and precise musical poetries.
