Friday, October 10, 8pm | Town Hall Seattle
Opening Celebration: Monk 10/10
$24 general | $22 members & seniors | $12 students & veterans | $34 preferred seating
Co-presented with Town Hall Seattle. Support provided by The Boeing Company
The 2014 Earshot Jazz Festival begins with a celebration of the absolutely distinctive master of jazz life, Thelonious Sphere Monk. On 10/10, which would be Monk’s 97th birthday, Earshot takes festivities to Town Hall for a colossal Thelonious Monk tribute that is all about 10. The party includes one solo Monk composition each from 10 great Seattle pianists. Coming from various stylistic backgrounds, and expressing Monk’s profound influence on their own jazz continuum, this lineup of pianists would be impressive in any city in the world: Marc Seales, Dawn Clement, Dave Peck, Sumi Tonooka, Overton Berry, Marius “Butch” Nordahl, Darrius Willrich, Aaron Otheim, Wayne Horvitz and Tim Kennedy.
The genesis for this creative project is the Royal Room’s Piano Starts Here series, which looks to “highlight the work of the most prolific and talented pianists to have ever tackled the instrument.” In the series, each artist selects their own piece, without regard to possible duplications, assuming that no two pieces could be the same. Tonight’s piano performances offer 10 unique takes on Monk’s idiosyncratic contributions to jazz.
Balancing the stage tonight is a remarkable 10-tet assembled by Wayne Horvitz for this romp through straight transcriptions and improvisations on the landmark 1959 album The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall, commonly known at Monk at Town Hall. Horvitz conducts an amazing 10-tet that stays true to the spirit, the title, and the unusual instrumentation of the original performance. The band of Seattle jazz luminaries includes Greg Sinibaldi, Mark Taylor, and Skerik on saxophones; Al Keith on trumpet, and Christian Pincock on trombone, along with Tom Varner on French horn, and Julio Cruz on tuba. Driving the rhythm section are bassist Evan Flory-Barnes, pianist Ryan Burns, and drummer Ted Poor. The ensemble will burn through original Monk at Town Hall transcriptions and create two new Horvitz conductions on Monk compositions. We invite you to a fitting birthday tribute and a festive start to the festival season. Yes, there will be birthday cake, funny hats, and party favors!
Friday, October 10 & Saturday, October 11, 7:30pm | Tula’s Restaurant & Jazz Club
Larry Fuller Trio
$18 general | $16 members & seniors | $9 students & veterans
Former Seattle resident, Larry Fuller, is a pianist so superb that he was called to hold the piano chair in the legendary, and final, Ray Brown Trio. After moving to New York in 2004, Fuller gained additional fame as a long-time member of the popular John Pizzarelli Quartet and a mainstay on the New York scene. After too long an absence, he (finally) wings back to his longtime hometown to perform with drummer Matt Witek and bassist Katie Thiroux in the elegant, hard-swinging, and deeply satisfying tradition of the beloved jazz trio in an intimate jazz club.
Raised in Toledo, Ohio, Fuller began his musical studies at the age of 11 and immediately began showing an aptitude and talent for jazz. Candy Johnson, a veteran of the Count Basie and Duke Ellington Orchestras, took Fuller under his wing, both in and out of school, by hiring him for regular paying gigs when he was 13 and 14 years old. Fuller quickly became a regular on the jazz circuit, playing behind big-name artists and performing frequently in many major cities.
We’re grateful for this opportunity to catch up with an old friend, meet some new friends, and enjoy some fantastic, straight-up jazz. Larry Fuller’s self-titled CD has just been released, and will be available at Tula’s.
Saturday, October 11, 8pm | Chapel Performance Space
John Seman’s Lil Coop Quintet | Gregg Belisle-Chi
$14 general | $12 members & seniors | $7 students & veterans
Bassist, composer, archivist and advocate for improvised music John Seman explores composition and free improvisation and musical past and future – in the moment – with his Lil Coop Quintet, featuring Stephen Fandrich on piano, Robbie Beasley on trumpet, Kate Olson on soprano sax and Tom Zgonc on drums.
A fixture on the Seattle music scene for more than a decade, Seman is co-founder (with Mark Ostroski) of non-profit new music advocacy organization Monktail Creative Music Concern. Additionally, he holds a sound preservation and recording venture, RPM Preservation, and is a co-host of Floatation Device (91.3 KBCS), a program dedicated to highlighting improvised music from the Northwest and around the world.
Born in New Jersey and raised there and outside Philadelphia, Seman eventually enrolled at Oberlin Conservatory as a composition major. Part way through his studies there, he switched to an independent study program focused equally on ethnomusicology and music performance as a double bassist. Seman pursued graduate studies in ethnomusicology, with a particular interest in field recording and archiving, at the University of Maryland before moving to Seattle in 1999.
Guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi and vocalist Chelsea Crabtree also mine the intersections of composition and improvisation with dark, rich guitar work and pristine vocals.
The marriage of improvisation and composition in jazz has been tumultuous, especially in the technological age. But guitarist Belisle-Chi looks to reinvigorate this relationship. He sees improvisation and composition not as disparate entities at odds with one another, but two studies that serve each other – a view that is reflected in Belisle-Chi’s dark and rich fret-board wanderings.
Recordings from the Belisle-Chi curated Racer Session last March exist in beautiful and thought-provoking ambiguity: what seems structured is loose and free, improvisation is focused and informed. The future of Belisle-Chi’s music is one of exploration into the dark, liminal spaces between composition and improvisation, and even the earliest fruits of this adventure are thoughtful and impacting.
Sunday, October 12, 8pm | PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts
Tri Minh’s Quartet: Sounds from Hanoi
On tour as part of Center Stage
$18 general | $16 members & seniors | $9 students & veterans
This much-traveled pianist, a masterful mentor to a wholly new musical amalgam, excelled in composition at Hanoi Conservatory of Music and then revolutionized the jazz and electronica scenes of his city and country, infusing those genres with local elements. His quartet for piano, zither, and traditional and contemporary instruments is rivetingly fresh.
In Sounds from Hanoi, Trí Minh’s Quartet uses improvisation – a vital, though differently expressed component of both Vietnamese traditional forms and jazz – to create a dialogue between instruments in ways that echo Hanoi’s experimental side, a side Trí Minh and his friends connect with the growing voice of civil society in Vietnam.
Sophisticated, versatile and lithe, Tri Minh’s Quartet binds electronica, acoustic instruments, and traditional motifs in a program of collaborative and improvised works. Sounds from Hanoi opens a window onto one of the world’s unsung contemporary music scenes. “Like other trailblazers of his generation, Minh is using his creativity, connections and education to forge an artistic identity that is unmistakably global – yet uniquely Vietnamese – in the ever-widening spaces of Vietnam’s ongoing liberalization.” (Vietnamese Investment Review: Timeout)
Presented by Center Stage, an initiative of the U.S. Dept. of State’s Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs, produced by the New England Foundation for the Arts in cooperation with the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations, with additional support from the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and the Asian Cultural Council. General Management for Center Stage is provided by Lisa Booth Management, Inc.
Monday, October 13, 7:30pm | Triple Door
Taylor McFerrin
$22 general | $20 members & seniors | $11 students & veterans
The Brooklyn-based producer, composer, pianist, DJ, beatboxer and son of an iconic mentor performs “everything from soft ambient keys, moody guitar riffs and solemn choirs bellowing across shuffles, to spiraling synths arpeggiating into the unknown” (Contactmusic).
Taylor McFerrin released his first LP, Early Riser, in June 2014 on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder record label. Taylor’s musical style is equally influenced by the legends of 60s and 70s soul, the kings of the Modern Beat Generation, Golden Era hip-hop, free-form jazz and electronic music. By playing all of the instruments on his productions, while also relying heavily on sampling and chopping up his live takes, he has found a sound that seamlessly bridges myriad musical worlds and draws the listener into a constantly shifting audio soundscape.
Monday, October 13, 7:30pm | Tula’s Restaurant & Jazz Club
Oliver Groenewald Newnet
$12 general | $10 members & seniors | $6 students & veterans
Oliver Groenewald, an arranger, composer and trumpeter who works for several renowned German orchestras and ensembles, just recently moved from Germany to the region. Along with top Northwest players, he will perform his compelling Euro-Third Stream with a nine-piece band.
In Groenewald’s debut gig in Seattle, his Newnet features Brad Allison, trumpet, Travis Raney, tenor sax, Alex Dugdale, baritone sax, Dan Marcus, trombone, Chuck Kistler, bass, Adam Kessler, drums, and John Hansen, piano, with Jay Thomas on alto and soprano saxes.
Groenewald was educated at Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, Germany, where he also served as professor of trumpet for years. He studied trumpet with Art Farmer in Austria and Willie Thomas in the United States, and composition and arranging in the United States with Chuck Israels. He has written for World Brass, Canadian Brass, and other ensembles. Groenewald now resides on Orcas Island.
Tuesday, October 14, 7:30pm | Triple Door
Carmen Lundy Group
$22 general | $20 members & seniors | $11 students & veterans
Carmen Lundy has been ranked with the great vocalists, though her agile vocal style is utterly distinctive. Her sextet includes pianist Patrice Rushen and rising-star drummer Jamison Ross, winner of the 2012 Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition.
Lundy began her professional career in Miami, Florida, as a jazz vocalist and composer when there were very few young, gifted and aspiring jazz vocalists on the horizon. Over four decades later, Lundy is celebrated throughout the world for her vocal artistry and is highly regarded for her jazz innovation.
Currently on the Afrasia Productions label, Lundy releases her fourteenth album, Soul to Soul, on September 23. Almost two years in the making, it consists of new original songs by Lundy, and a few very special collaborations. Lundy spent more than a year working on Soul to Soul, composing and arranging 11 of the 13 tracks, and playing and recording all the instruments in her home studio.
The album features legendary artists including Patrice Rushen, Geri Allen, Randy Brecker, Ada Rovatti, Warren Wolf, Bennie Maupin, harpist Carol Robbins, and Simphiwe Dana, a stunning South African vocalist and composer, among others.
“I wrote the music with specific players in mind for each respective instrument,” Lundy says. “My producer and label co-owner Elisabeth Oei encouraged me to reach out to those musicians whose music I have loved and been inspired by.”
“It is an honor to have these players joining in this majestic musical adventure,” she adds. “I hope listeners – both new and established – enjoy the voyage.”
Wednesday, October 15, 8PM | Chapel Performance Space
Eric Vloeimans: Oliver’s Cinema
$14 general | $12 members & seniors | $7 students & veterans
Thanks to The Netherlands-America Foundation.
Jazz trio instruments that come to mind typically aren’t trumpet, accordion and cello. Nor was it necessarily so for Dutch trumpet sensation Eric Vloeimans (pronounced “Flooeymans”), who concocted the present ensemble by combining an instrument he loved (cello) with one he formerly hated (accordion) and added himself. The initial gig proved electrifying for audience and performers alike and, thus, Oliver’s Cinema (the name is an anagram of the trumpeter’s name) was born. Rounding out the trio are accordionist Tuur Florizoone from Belgium and cellist Jörg Brinkmann from Germany.
Regarded as one of Europe’s best performers, Vloeimans has been active in a wide variety of ensembles. He has toured the U.S. twice with his acoustic chamber jazz group, Fugimundi Trio, whose repertoire ranges from contemporary jazz, hymns, and world music to standards. He also leads Eric Vloeimans’ Gatecrash, which has earned a reputation as one of Europe’s top cross-over bands. Vloeimans has played with an array of international artists, among them Mercer Ellington, Peter Erskine, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Wayne Horvitz and Joey Baron.
Jörg Brinkmann studied at the college of Arnheim, Netherlands, and is renowned for his ability to play with jazz and pop bands. Tuur Florizoone is one of the most beloved musicians from Flanders, and has performed with a wide range of contemporary artists, including Carlos Nunez, Manu Chao, Zahava Seewald, and more.
The group’s 2013 CD takes the cinema theme seriously, and includes music written for film, including themes like Rosemary’s Baby and Cinema Paradiso, music with a cinematic quality, Ennio Morricone-like soundtracks and new, original and evocative compositions for imaginary films.
Thursday, October 16, 7pm & 9:30pm | Triple Door
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba
$24 general | $22 members & seniors | $12 students & veterans
Master of the West African ngoni, a forerunner of the banjo and guitar, Bassekou Kouyate has graced the recordings of countless Malian musicians, from Ali Farka Toure to Oumou Sangare. With his band Ngoni Ba, he released a power-packed masterpiece, I Speak Fula, on Seattle’s SubPop label.
An ancient traditional lute found throughout West Africa, the ngoni is the key instrument for the griot culture. Unlike the kora, whose history goes back only a few hundred years, the ngoni has been the main instrument in griot storytelling going back to the 13th century during the days of Soundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire. The repertoire Kouyate plays is Bambara music from the region of Segu. Bambara music is pentatonic in nature and as close to the blues as you can get in Africa.
Kouyate was born in a village called Garana, almost 40 miles from Segu, in the remote countryside on the banks of the Niger River. He was raised in a traditional musical environment, his mother a praise singer and his father and brothers exceptional ngoni players. He moved to Bamako when he was 19 years old, where he met the young Toumani Diabate. By the late 1980s Kouyate was part of Diabate’s trio, and they recorded their first albums together, Songhai and Djelika.
In 1996, Kouyate married the singer Amy Sacko (the “Tina Turner of Mali”), and they have been in high demand for the traditional wedding parties that happen in the streets of Bamako. After many years of being a sideman to many musicians both in Mali and globally, Kouyate has now put together his own band, Ngoni Ba (“the big ngoni”), Mali’s first ngoni quartet.
Thursday, October 16, 8pm | PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts
Johnaye Kendrick Group
$22 general | $17 members & seniors | $10 students & veterans
Presented by Cornish College of the Arts
Frequently seen on prestigious New York stages, vocalist Johnaye Kendrick has enriched the Seattle jazz community and mentored many other vocalists since becoming Associate Professor of Jazz Voice at Cornish College of the Arts in recent years.
Kendrick is respected for intelligent, soulful, and highly personal original compositions as well as fresh interpretations of beloved jazz and blues classics. Focusing on graceful renditions of originals and jazz standards Kendrick often accompanies herself on harmonium, violin, viola and percussion, playing and recording in the company of pianist Dawn Clement, bassist Chris Symer, and drummers Byron Vannoy and D’Vonne Lewis.
Kendrick earned a Bachelor of Music from Western Michigan University (2005), where she received a DownBeat Student Music Award for Outstanding Jazz Vocalist and was featured in an honors recital with pianist Fred Hersch. She then earned an Artist’s Diploma from the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, having worked with jazz masters including Terence Blanchard, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Danilo Perez, and Brian Blade. She received a master’s degree in jazz studies from Loyola University in 2009.
Kendrick has performed at numerous festivals, concert halls and jazz clubs, traveled extensively with the Nicholas Payton SEXTET, and has also been a featured vocalist with the Ellis Marsalis Quartet and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (a collaboration that won a Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for their release Book 1).
In 2013, she was nominated for an Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Award as Northwest Vocalist of the Year. In 2014, she recorded, produced and released her debut CD of original compositions, Here, for the johnygirl label.
Friday, October 17, 8pm | Royal Room
Amy Denio & OU
$20 general | $18 members & seniors | $10 students & veterans
Seattle’s well-traveled multi-instrumentalist, Amy Denio, has found remarkable synergy in Rome with OU. The sextet has a self-described sound of “simple form and unpredictable content” and have been described as delightful “world jazz folk anarchy.” OU first met Denio while seeking her attention during her tour in the summer of 2013. Denio worked with the band producing their record Pisces Crisis, released recently to strong reviews. The album, crafted with Floyd Reitsma at Litho Studios (Pearl Jam’s studio) in Seattle, is available on Denio’s Spoot Music label, giving OU a second home base in Seattle.
Together, Denio and OU conjure folk jazz infused with fiercely funky rhythms, topped with lush vocals sung by all seven members in Sardinian, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and English. The Rome-based band is composed of three Sardinian women and three Roman men. The group’s main composer, Ersilia Prosperi, originally corralled OU in 2012. Prosperi continues to contribute her compositions, vocals, flugelhorn and ukulele to the group and is joined by the talented Sabrina Coda: alto and soprano saxophones; Martina Fadda: lead vocals; Luca Venitucci: keyboards; Claudio Mosconi: bass; and Cristiano de Fabritiis: percussion including drums, kalimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel.
Friday, October 17 & Saturday, October 18, 7:30pm | Tula’s Restaurant & Jazz Club
Thomas Marriott: Urban Folklore
$20 general | $18 members & seniors | $10 students & veterans
This rich collaboration of Seattle’s premier trumpeter with New York heavyweights Orrin Evans (piano), Eric Revis (bass), and Donald Edwards (drums) generates intense, nuanced jazz, as heard on their recent CD.
Marriott’s first venture in extended, composed work, debuted in 2013. Urban Folklore is a musical collection of our personal yet commonly shared stories of frustrations, fears, hopes and joys – the stories we tell to connect to each other, Marriott says. The trumpeter is sharing his reflections of recent years, in musical stories. As such, no Kickstarter campaigns launched the project, no grant money, just a live experience, together, and a recording release, with a great band – a personal project, experienced with the public, as are our everyday lives.
Saturday, October 18, 8pm | Chapel Performance Space
William O. Smith: Compositions and Improvisations
$5-15 sliding scale
Presented by Nonsequitur
Described as a “man of prodigious talent both as a composer and clarinetist,” William O. Smith has been straddling the boundaries of classical, jazz and improvised music for nearly his whole musical life. He even goes by two names: Bill Smith for jazz, William O. Smith for classical.
Smith was born in Sacramento, California, and began playing the clarinet when he was 10. He soon found himself equally divided between pursuits in jazz and classical music: leading a jazz orchestra and playing in a symphony; attending The Juilliard School and playing in New York’s jazz clubs.
In 1946, Smith enrolled at Mills College in Oakland where French composer Darius Milhaud was on the faculty and Dave Brubeck was a student. Smith was part of what became the Dave Brubeck Octet, which emerged in part from Milhaud’s encouragement. Smith handled many of the group’s arrangements, and continued to perform with Brubeck throughout his career.
Smith went on to study with Roger Sessions at the University of California, Berkeley. After several teaching stints in California, he began his more than three-decade career at the University of Washington in 1966.
With a catalog of more than 200 published compositions, Smith has received numerous awards – including the Prix de Paris, the Rome Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship – and has performed and recorded with some of jazz’s most noted figures. A writer reviewing his work for the UK’s Jazz Journal remarked that Smith was “the most important jazz soloist since Parker and Gillespie.” He’s advanced classical clarinet technique and at the same time mastered a deliciously swinging style. He performs his captivating compositions with longtime friends: trombone master Stuart Dempster and clarinetist Jesse Canterbury.
Saturday, October 18, 8pm | Town Hall Seattle
Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas Quintet: Sound Prints featuring Lawrence Fields, Linda Oh, & Joey Baron
$26 general | $24 members & seniors | $13 students & veterans | $36 preferred seating
Grammy-winning saxophonist and composer Joe Lovano and two-time Grammy nominated trumpeter Dave Douglas are current masters on their respective instruments within the pantheon of modern jazz. From their collaborations on acclaimed recordings such as Trio Fascination: Edition Two and more recently John Zorn’s Stolas, Lovano and Douglas have shown that their distinct and robust voices can lead, blend and push the idiom forward both in composition and improvisation, while embracing the front-line masters of previous generations. In 2008, when Lovano and Douglas were co-leaders of the renowned SFJAZZ Collective, the group paid tribute to living icon Wayne Shorter, showcasing arrangements of Shorter originals alongside newly composed pieces influenced by Shorter’s compositional voice. This experience was a catalyst that led the two instrumentalists to conceive the Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas Quintet: Sound Prints, an all-star ensemble including emerging pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Linda Oh, and drummer Joey Baron. Performing new repertoire as well as brand new Shorter compositions in direct collaboration with Shorter, the quintet is less an homage to Wayne Shorter and more of a unique convergence of three unparalleled trajectories.
This new superstar ensemble unites the master saxophonist and revered trumpeter with serious firepower for an evening of limitless musical potential. This night will inspire!
Sunday, October 19, 7:30pm | PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts
Lew Tabackin Trio | Ben Flocks Trio
$18 general | $16 members & seniors | $9 students & veterans
Lew Tabackin, a monster saxophonist and flutist who transcends styles and cultures, is also respected as a master composer and arranger for the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra. His trio includes Boris Kozlov on bass and Mark Taylor on drums.
Tabackin is an artist of astonishing vision: His electrifying flute playing is at once virtuosic, primordial, cross-cultural and passionate; his distinctive tenor sax style shows the full range of possibilities of the instrument. He studied both in high school, and then majored in flute at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, studying privately with composer Vincent Persichetti.
Tabackin later moved to New York, where he played first with Tal Farlow and Don Friedman, and later in the big bands led by Cab Calloway, Les and Larry Elgart, Maynard Ferguson, Joe Henderson, Chuck Israels, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, Clark Terry and Duke Pearson.
During the late 1960s, Tabackin led a trio in Philadelphia in addition to playing in small groups with Donald Byrd, Roland Hanna, Elvin Jones and Attila Zoller. In those early years, he worked with Doc Severinsen and the studio band for Dick Cavett’s television show. He also spent some time in Europe, where he was a soloist with various orchestras, including the Danish Radio Orchestra and the Hamburg Jazz Workshop. In 1968, he met Toshiko Akiyoshi and the couple eventually married and moved to Los Angeles, where they formed the award-winning big band, the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra.
While in Los Angeles, Tabackin also played with Shelly Manne and with various trios of his own with Billy Higgins, John Heard and Charlie Haden. He also toured Japan frequently with the orchestra as well as with his own trio, which included drummer Joey Baron and bassist Michael Moore.
He continues to tour the world as a soloist, playing clubs and jazz festivals with his own groups and as featured soloist with the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra.
Tabackin once mentored the Brooklyn-based rising sax star Ben Flocks, whose trio with Garret Lang (bass) and Evan Hughes (drums) opens the evening with “a jovial mix of American musical styles” (DownBeat).
Santa Cruz-born, Brooklyn-based rising saxophone star Flocks has earned critical acclaim with performances at the Bern, Umbria, and Monterey Jazz Festivals. Growing up, Flocks took advantage of a multitude of musical opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area, attending shows at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center and camp at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, performing with both the SFJAZZ All-Star High School Ensembles and the Monterey Jazz Festival Next Generation Band, and studying with trumpeter and arranger Ray Brown.
In May 2011, Flocks graduated from the New School in New York City, earning a BFA in Jazz Performance, and during the summer completed a two-year mentorship program at the Stanford Jazz Workshop. Flocks now serves on faculty at Stanford and at the Calhoun School in New York. He also teaches throughout New York City schools as part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz for Young People programs. Flocks released his debut album Battle Mountain in February, to rave reviews.
Sunday, October 19, 8pm | Town Hall Seattle
Boban & Marko Markovic Orkestar
$30 general | $28 members & seniors | $15 students & veterans
The quintessential brass Balkan band, and universally acknowledged as the best, BMMO originates from Vladicin Han, southern Serbia, a twelve-piece band wholly defined by their own Roma lineage while giving a knowing nod toward other musical and cultural backgrounds closely related to that of the Romani’s.
Boban and the Orkestar have won all of the most prestigious accolades available to players in Serbia, and the last 8 years have seen the orchestra perform in excess of 700 shows around the world.
Boban’s son, Marko, a musical phenomenon, joined the ensemble at age 14, in 2002. He has subsequently become the main soloist as well as composer and arranger of new material. Now, with Marko as the visionary, they’re driving off in new directions, transporting the traditions to the world and bringing the world back home. This night of Roma celebration and dancing with the world’s most revered Balkan brass juggernaut is sure to be legendary.
Monday, October 20, 7pm | Triple Door
Garfield High School Jazz Band
$16 general | $14 members & seniors | $8 students & veterans | free for 12 & under
Garfield High School’s jazz culture is so strong that it maintains multiple levels of jazz bands in its curriculum for over 75 students. Under the leadership of Clarence Acox (now in his 42nd year as a music educator), Garfield continues to bring to young people the jazz traditions of such big bands as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Woody Herman.
The program’s Jazz Ensemble I has won every major competition on the West Coast, including the Reno Jazz Festival, Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival (named Outstanding Festival Band six times), Clark College Jazz Festival (seven-time Sweepstakes Award winner) and Mt. Hood Jazz Festival. Jazz Ensembles II and III have also competed successfully in events around in the Northwest.
Garfield is a frequent participant in the Essentially Ellington National Jazz Band Competition and Festival at Lincoln Center in New York City, the most prestigious high school jazz competition in the United States. Since 1999, Garfield has been selected as one of the 15 Essentially Ellington finalists thirteen times, including an unprecedented four first-place trophies (in 2003, 2004, 2009 and 2010), as well as second place finishes in 2002 and 2008 and third place in 2006.
Graduates of the Garfield jazz program have gone on to study at leading music schools throughout the country, such as the Berklee College of Music, The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, The New England Conservatory of Music, USC Thornton School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Cornish College of the Arts.
Wednesday, October 22, 8pm | PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts
Jacky Terrasson Trio
$24 general | $22 members & seniors | $12 students & veterans
Supported by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts through a grant to the Western Jazz Presenters Network
The scintillating French pianist and 1993 Thelonious Monk Piano Competition winner performs with bassist Dave Robaire and drummer Jamire Williams. Terrasson is renowned for his carefully controlled velocity, exquisite phrasing, and affinity to everything from the French Romantics, like Fauré, to American pop icons, like Michael Jackson.
Terrasson was born in Berlin and grew up in Paris. He started to learn the piano at age 5 and, after studying classical piano in school, studied jazz with Jeff Gardner. An encounter with Francis Paudras played an important role in his initiation into jazz. Terrasson later went to the United States to attend the Berklee College of Music.
In 1993, after winning the prestigious Thelonious Monk award, he began touring with Betty Carter. One year later, The New York Times introduced Terrasson as one of the 30 artists most likely to change American culture in the next 30 years. He then signed with the Blue Note label, for which he made three trio recordings. He has collaborated with greats such as Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jimmy Scott, Leon Parker, and Ugonna Okegwo. He performs regularly in solo and trio in the great jazz and piano festivals, and in countries around the world.
Thursday, October 23, 8pm | PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts
Greg Osby Quartet
$24 general | $22 members & seniors | $12 students & veterans
Supported in part by an award from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation through the Western Jazz Presenters Network
Veteran alto saxophonist Greg Osby, regarded for his insightful approach to composition and performance, takes the stage with his quartet – Simona Premazzi (piano), Martin Nevin (bass), and Adam Arruda (drums).
Osby has made an indelible mark on contemporary jazz as a leader of his own ensembles and as a guest artist with acclaimed jazz groups, for the past 20 years. He has earned numerous awards and critical acclaim for his recorded works and passionate live performances.
Born in St. Louis, Osby began his professional music career in 1975 after three years of private studies on clarinet, flute and alto saxophone. In 1978, Osby furthered his musical education at Howard University, where he majored in Jazz Studies, then at the Berklee College of Music.
Upon relocating to New York, Osby quickly established himself as a notable sideman for artists as varied as Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, Jack DeJohnette, and Jaki Byard, as well as with many ethnic and new music ensembles in the area. In 1985, he was invited to join Jack DeJohnette’s innovative group Special Edition.
Osby signed his first recording deal in 1987 with German label JMT; he later signed with Blue Note Records in 1990. In 2008, Osby launched his own label, Inner Circle Music.
Friday, October 24, 8pm | Royal Room
Living Daylights | Syrinx Effect
$20 general | $18 members & seniors | $10 students & veterans
Tonight, New York saxophonist/vocalist Jessica Lurie, another returning hero of the Seattle jazz community, reunites with electric bassist Arne Livingston, and drummer Dale Fanning, for a jazz-festival recreation of the great, forward-looking, and absolutely slamming power trio of the late 1990s Seattle scene, Living Daylights. After forming in 1995, the Daylights performed locally and toured with artists like John Scofield, Groove Collective, Robert Walter, Maceo Parker, and Soulive. They also joined Wayne Shorter’s Highlife band in the 1995 Earshot Jazz Festival.
The Stranger once wrote of the group: “Living Daylights has a lot more wattage than the usual pallid jam band. They get their jazz-rock groove on, but with a little outer-Balkan edge.” We are delighted to showcase this landmark recreation of a distinctly Seattle phenomenon. Expect guest artists and additional wattage on the late set.
As a solo artist, Lurie creates a pulsing, brimming, and expansive sound, pushing stylistic barriers not simply to ramble from one genre to another, but to construct new musical landscapes. Lurie’s musicianship is born from her discipline to life-long music composition and improvisation. She has expanded to many projects, including 2012’s Megaphone Heart by the Jessica Lurie Ensemble.
Also on the bill is Syrinx Effect, the magical duo of Kate Olson (saxophone) and Naomi Siegel (trombone), two bright lights in the scene of Seattle women in jazz. The performers play contemporary, improvised chamber music, using technology. Siegel incorporates guitar pedals with her brass instrument and Olson plays soprano saxophone with laptop and other aural toys. The duo got their start curating the Racer Sessions in Seattle, and have gone on to perform and collaborate often in the Seattle jazz and improvised-music scene, making music that is authentic and expressive. employing everything from simple folk melodies to abstract, ambient noise. Expect guest artists on the late set.
Friday, October 24, 7:30pm | Tula’s Restaurant & Jazz Club
Kareem Kandi Organ Trio
$14 general | $12 members & seniors | $7 students & veterans
The savvy south Sound saxophonist has shaped lessons from Seattle masters like Don Lanphere, Hadley Caliman, and Julian Priester into solid, hard-grooving jazz. Kandi’s fat tone, reminiscent of the great Dexter Gordon, is a perfect fit for Delvon Lamarr’s soulful B3 organ.
Growing up in the Northwest, with its vibrant music scene, allowed Kandi the opportunity to study with, listen to and perform with world class jazz artists residing in the area. Artists such as Tracy Knoop, Jay Thomas, Don Lanphere, Bill Ramsay, Hadley Caliman, Julian Priester and many others had a large impact on Kandi early in his musical education. This direction and guidance continues to inspire and lead him as he continues his lifelong passion.
Today, Kandi spends most of his time leading his Kareem Kandi Band, for which he composes and arranges most of the music. The band is constantly on the move as a sought after performing group and spends most of its time performing in and around the Pacific Northwest. When not leading his own group, Kandi can be seen and heard performing as a sideman with many other top-notch musical acts and projects, most notably The Paperboys from Vancouver BC.
As an educator, Kandi divides his time teaching jazz improvisation as an artist-in-residence at the Tacoma School of the Arts, directing the award-winning student jazz ensemble at Pierce College, conducting masterclasses and workshops at schools around the Puget Sound area, and maintaining a full load of private students.
Saturday, October 25, 8pm | PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts
Barry Altschul 3dom Factor
$18 general | $16 members & seniors | $9 students & veterans
This legendary drummer was everywhere adventurous jazz went in the heady heyday of Paul Bley, Anthony Braxton, Dave Holland, and many others. His powerful new trio, The 3dom Factor, performs original compositions and includes Hayes Greenfield (alto sax) and Joe Fonda (bass). As Jazz Inside said, “Even if he had retired from music 40 years ago, he would have gone down in jazz history.”
Altschul was a largely self-taught drummer until 1960, when he began study with Charlie Persip. From 1964 until 1970, Altschul played regularly with pianist Paul Bley; their relationship continued intermittently through the 1970s and 1980s. He was a member of the Jazz Composer’s Guild and the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra Association from 1964 to 1968. He spent a portion of the 1960s playing mainstream jazz in Europe. In the early 1970s, Altschul was the drummer for Circle – the free jazz ensemble including Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Anthony Braxton. Altschul’s drumming with that band was stylistically all-encompassing, thanks to his background in traditional jazz styles that gave him a solid grounding to build his free playing.
In the 1980s, Altschul made records of his own for Soul Note and continued his sideman work with such musicians as the Russian-born pianist Simon Nabotov and Kenny Drew, Sr. Altschul has played or recorded with many musicians, including Roswell Rudd, Dave Liebman, Andrew Hill, Sonny Criss, Hampton Hawes and Lee Konitz.
Sunday, October 26, 8pm | Seattle Art Museum Plestcheeff Auditorium
Daniel Barry’s Celestial Rhythm Orchestra
$20 general | $18 members & seniors | $10 students & veterans
Thanks to 4Culture and Artist Trust
Renowned for distinctive compositions and arrangements, this fine trumpeter has used much-sought regional grants to create music for a large ensemble of Seattle’s best players that is “fresh and imaginative, and has a hip, tongue-in-cheek sort of style” (Audiophile Audition).
Daniel Barry’s music falls primarily into the jazz category but assembles ideas from Afro-Cuban, Afro-Peruvian, Brazilian and Romanian musical traditions. During the last five years, Barry has conducted performances of his large ensemble compositions in Reykjavik, Iceland; Oslo, Norway; Rio de Janeiro, Manaus, Diadema, Sao Paulo, Campinas, and Tatui, Brazil; Lima, Peru; and Denver, Colorado.
With his Celestial Rhythm Orchestra, Daniel presents Ancestors, adapted from the original Of Ancestors, Children & Spirits, performed as part of the 1994 Golden Ear Award-winning Best Concert, the Jim Pepper Tribute Concert. The original concert featured Cecile Maxwell, great-great-grand niece of Chief Sealth, narrating a speech attributed to the chief himself: “In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets of your villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land. The White Man will never be alone.”
Tonight’s version of Ancestors will be purely instrumental, without narration, and will feature Paul Gillespie on tenor saxophone. The piece will be performed alongside the world premiere of the newly commissioned “Lovely Silver Goddess,” featuring Ben Thomas on glockenspiel, and original compositions “The Mighty Urubamba,” “Spirit World,” “Cry Out Loud,” “St. Cecilia’s Day,” “La Folia Lando,” and “The Happy Cemetery.”
The 20-piece orchestra is Daniel Barry (composer/conductor); Steve Treseler, Gordon Brown, Mark Taylor, Paul Gillespie, James DeJoie (saxophones); Steve Mostovoy, Mike Mines, Al Keith, Thomas Marriott (trumpets); Scott Brown, Naomi Siegel, Nathan Vetter, Dave Bentley (trombones); Dennis Rea (guitar); (Jovino Santos Neto (piano); Chris Symer (bass); Greg Campbell (drums); Ben Thomas and Chris Monroe (percussion).
“I’m so pleased to offer this concert with such an incredible cast of outstanding Seattle area musicians,” Barry says. “We will present orchestral jazz music composed over a span of twenty years.”
Wednesday, October 29, 7:30pm | EMP Level 3
Eric Revis Quartet | Kate Olson Sextet
$20 general | $18 members & seniors | $10 students & veterans
Presented in cooperation with EMP
Often called New York’s first-call bassist, Eric Revis has built a distinguished career as a session player and bandleader. He is known most for his work with the Branford Marsalis Quartet and the trio Tarbaby, which he “tri-leads” with Orrin Evans and Nasheet Waits.
For the Eric Revis Quartet, he has assembled an impressive lineup, featuring saxophonists Darius Jones and Bill McHenry, and drummer extraordinaire Chad Taylor. Among the words used to describe their recent release, In Memory of Things Yet Seen, in All About Jazz, were “formidable,” “ballsy,” and “hard-hitting,” as well as “swarming, episodic free-style dialogues, perky bop fabrications and exploratory ruminations.”
Born in Los Angeles, Revis began playing bass at age 13. When he later moved with his family to San Antonio, he played in an alternative rock band, but soon discovered a connection to jazz. “Jazz just kind of stuck,” he told Jazz Times in a recent interview. A bandmate from the alternative rock band he played in had a large record collection and would frequently loan Revis recordings. “He wasn’t separating the music by style; Miles Davis and Kenny Dorham came along with Ornette Coleman and the AACM. I really identified with everything,” he recalled.
Graduating from the University of New Orleans (in Ellis Marsalis’ program), Revis moved to New York in 1993 and soon began playing with the legendary jazz vocalist Betty Carter. In 1997, he joined the Branford Marsalis Quartet, of which he is still a member, and quickly gained a reputation for his powerful approach to playing the bass. “He plays with a certain kind of physical authority you don’t find very often,” Branford Marsalis told Jazz Times.
Since moving to Seattle in 2010, improvising saxophonist and woodwind teacher Kate Olson is fast becoming a mainstay on the local jazz and improvised music circuit. She can be heard performing with her own projects Syrinx Effect, KO SOLO, and the KO Ensemble, and as a collaborator with the Seattle Rock Orchestra, the Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, the Seattle Jazz Composer’s Ensemble and multiple other groups. In addition to Olson, the sextet comprises Sam Boshnack on trumpet, Chris Credit on tenor sax, Geoff Harper on bass, Tim Kennedy on keyboards, and Eric Eagle on drums.
Thursday, October 30, 8pm | PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts
Expansions: The Dave Liebman Group
$24 general | $22 members & seniors | $12 students & veterans
Soprano saxophonist, flautist, and NEA Jazz Master Dave Liebman presents the lineup of his just-out Samsara – longtime collaborator bassist Tony Marino and emerging trailblazers Bobby Avey (piano), reedman Matt Vashlishan, and drummer Alex Ritz.
Liebman helped to define the 1970s Miles Davis period, and is considered a renaissance man in contemporary music, with a career stretching over forty years, performing on over 500 recordings (with nearly 200 as a leader/co-leader) featuring several hundred original compositions. He has recorded as a leader in styles ranging from classical to rock to free jazz, and has played with many of the masters, including Miles Davis, Elvin Jones, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, McCoy Tyner and others. DownBeat magazine places Liebman “among the most important saxophonists in contemporary music … a leader and artist of integrity and independent direction.”
He is an author of books and instructional DVDs, which are acknowledged as classics in the jazz field. Liebman is a DownBeat/Jazz Times Critics Poll winner (soprano sax), and has further earned an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, multiple Grammy nominations, an honorary doctorate from the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki, Finland) and title of “Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters” from France. He founded the International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ) in 1989 and currently serves as Artistic Director.
Ben Ratliff of the New York Times said of Liebman, “While others of his 60s generation have fallen off their ambition, Liebman has remained dogged about composition and trying different styles…He’s a fighter.”
Friday, October 31, 6/8/10pm | Royal Room
Royal Room Halloween Party
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: $7 adults, $5 children w/ families | RRCME & Electric Circus, $18 general | full evening, $20 general
Wayne Horvitz has continually inspired new Seattle jazz. The composer, pianist and electronic musician has performed around the world, and performed and collaborated with Bill Frisell, Butch Morris, John Zorn, Robin Holcomb, Fred Frith, Julian Priester, Philip Wilson, Michael Shrieve, Bobby Previte, Marty Ehrlich, Skerik, William Parker, Ron Miles, Sara Schoenbeck, Peggy Lee, Steven Bernstein, Briggan Krauss, and Dylan van der Schyff, among others. Horvitz helped open the project-venue Royal Room in 2011, partnering with venue owners Tia Matthies and Steve Freeborn back in 2009.
This extraordinary three-part evening starts at 6pm with the silent film classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and live incidental music conducted by Horvitz.
At 8pm, the Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, a large improvisational ensemble conducted by Horvitz, celebrates its new CD.
The party continues at 10pm for those who are 21+ with Electric Circus, Horvitz’s arrangements of classic Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew tunes, and other gems of the new canon. The album, being a continuation of Davis’ experimentation with electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed In a Silent Way album, seems an appropriate and exciting choice by genre-defying, experimental Horvitz. With the use of instruments sksuch as the electric piano and guitar, Davis rejected traditional jazz rhythms in favor of a looser, rock-influenced improvisational style.
Friday, October 31, 8pm | Downstairs @ Town Hall Seattle
Chad McCullough: Spin Quartet
$16 general | $14 members & seniors | $8 students & veterans
Four modern jazz artists coming together to weave their stories, intertwine their art, and push forward in new directions – the Spin Quartet is a creative vehicle for saxophonist Geof Bradfield, trumpeter Chad McCullough, bassist Clark Sommers, and drummer Kobie Watkins to seamlessly blend as composers and instrumentalists of the highest caliber.
Spin Quartet features another triumphant Seattle return in Chad McCullough, the Seattle-reared trumpeter, and member of the Origin Records crew, who is now based in Chicago and gaining international recognition as, “a thoughtful improviser with technique to spare” (AllAboutJazz.com).
Though the four are considered rising jazz stars, they are also seasoned sidemen, associated with revered artists like Sonny Rollins & Kurt Elling, to name just a few.
This is music with purpose and sound with intent, by artists who work together to shape and define the music. The forward-looking melodic sensibility is steeped in tradition, but the in-the-moment dialog keeps listeners engaged and on their toes.
Formed in 2011, this group is accomplished and road tested. Their debut studio album, In Circles, will be released this month on Origin Records.
Saturday, November 1, 8pm | Royal Room
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey & McTuff
$18 general | $16 members & seniors | $9 students & veterans
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is the acclaimed, road-sharpened trio of Brian Haas (piano/Fender Rhodes/bass Moog/synth), Chris Combs (electric guitar/lap steel guitar/synth), and Josh Raymer (drums). “It swings, it sways, but the jazz trio form in their hands has an almost primitive, inside-your-head, idiosyncratic quality” (DownBeat). While navigating 20 years, 16 members, 25 albums, and countless tours around the world, JFJO has become an institution in modern music. Defined by evolution and change, the band has invented its own language, one which permeates JFJO’s sound regardless of configuration. Beginning in Tulsa, OK, in 1994 as a funky octet with MCs and horns, JFJO became an instrumental trio in 1999, a quartet in 2007, and expanded to a 9-piece ensemble for 2011’s acclaimed Race Riot Suite. Celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2014, this year finds the band returning to the trio setting with two new albums on the revered Brooklyn record label, Royal Potato Family. In October, JFJO drops Worker, a brand new collection of songs that defy expectation.
If you want organ-centric, you can’t do much better than Seattle’s McTuff. Led by Hammond organ maestro Joe Doria, McTuff also contains one of the region’s most dexterous guitarists, Andy Coe, and drummer Tarik Abouzied. Along with Afrocop, but in a bit more of straight-ahead manner than that younger group, McTuff writes alluringly malleable tunes, redolent of soul, ablaze with technical virtuosity, and often funky.
McTuff began in 2008 as an ode to jazz organ greats Jimmy Smith and Captain Jack McDuff, and has since evolved into a versatile and exciting group that has performed across the nation. The band has two albums under its belt: their 2009 release McTuff Vol. 1 and their 2011 follow-up McTuff Vol. 2: After the SHOW, with a third slated for release in Spring 2015. A McTuff cover (or better, a radical reinvention) of the Beatles’ “She’s So Heavy” has been witnessed during one of their weekly, free Tuesday shows at the Seamonster. McTuff is becoming a Seattle legend.
Friday, October 31 & Saturday, November 1, 7:30pm | Tula’s Restaurant & Jazz Club
Frank Catalano Quartet
$18 general | $16 members & seniors | $9 students & veterans
The brawny Chicago saxophonist ranges from tempered swing to the rapid-fire energy that has won him gigs with both Santana and Ministry. On the heels of two new recordings, the rock-solid quartet lights up two evenings at Seattle’s classic jazz club.
Frank Catalano’s new Ropeadope recording debuted at #1 on the iTunes jazz sales chart. Love Supreme Collective is an homage to John Coltrane and features Jimmy Chamberlin (Smashing Pumpkins), Percy Jones (Brand X), Chris Poland (Megadeath), and Adam Benjamin (Kneebody).
Now 37, Catalano is the only known saxman to have performed with Miles Davis, Randy Brecker, Charles Earland, Elvin Jones, Stan Getz, Betty Carter, Von Freeman, Tito Puente, Tony Bennett, Les Claypool and Louis Bellson while still in high school. This led to his signing to Delmark Records at age 18 and a string of critically acclaimed recordings. Catalano has been heard by millions of people all over the world, thanks in part to 3 Grammy-winning and 11 Grammy-nominated recordings with artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Destiny’s Child, and John Legend, and has performed live on Oprah with singer/composer Seal.
No stranger to adversity, Catalano cut off his right middle finger in an automobile accident. After several surgeries and much effort, Catalano relearned his signature technique, making him one of the most in-demand musicians today. He regularly donates his musical services to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
When not on tour or in the studio, Catalano enjoys composing classical music. He graduated from DePaul University with a BA in music composition and plays piano, drums and flute in addition to the saxophone.
Saturday, November 1, 8pm | Chapel Performance Space
Battle Trance
$14 general | $12 members & seniors | $7 students & veterans
What happens when you wake up one morning with the unshakable feeling that you need to start a tenor saxophone quartet with three people you barely know? If you’re Travis Laplante you don’t question the impulse, you just follow the muse. And follow it he did, as the ensemble, Battle Trance, was formed that very evening.
Described as music that not only transcends genres, but also time and space, the group’s 2014 debut recording, Palace of Wind (available on New Amsterdam Records), inhabits the cracks between contemporary classical music, avant-garde jazz, black metal, ambient, and world music. In terms of tradition, it draws on the whirling soundscapes of Evan Parker and is meant to dissolve the separation between listener and sound. Circular breathing, multiphonics, blisteringly fast lines, and unorthodox articulation meld to create hypnotic waves of sound that place the cerebral nature of composition and the visceral act of performance in a purely spiritual sonic space – one that has been described by The New York Times as “a floating tapestry of fascinating textures made up of tiny musical motifs … that throbs with tension between stillness and agitation, density and light.”
With comparisons to figures such as Anthony Braxton and Albert Ayler, Travis Laplante’s music aspires to the sublime and otherworldly. In addition to this newly created ensemble, he also plays in the trio Little Women with bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Ches Smith, and is highly regarded as an innovator on his instrument. He is joined in Battle Trance by three other leading tenor saxophonists: Matthew Nelson, Jeremy Viner, and Patrick Breiner.
Saturday, November 1, 7:30pm | Nordstrom Recital Hall
Sunday, November 2, 2pm | Kirkland Performance Center
Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra
$47 general | $44 seniors | $15 under 25
Presented by Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra
The mighty Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra celebrates its 20th anniversary season with several special events and more of the well-programmed excellence that has earned critical acclaim and devoted followers. For this special jazz-festival concert, the all-star SRJO big band celebrates Seattle’s renowned jazz masters with a not-to-be-missed concert called “Quincy and Ray on Jackson Street.”
Founded in 1995, the 17-piece big band is made up of the most prominent instrumentalists, educators, and bandleaders in the Seattle area. The SRJO’s extensive repertoire is drawn from the 100-year history of jazz, including works by America’s most famous jazz composers, like Fletcher Henderson, Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan, Thad Jones, and of course, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Their repertoire grows each year as the ensemble adds previously unpublished works to its library.
Directed by Michael Brockman and Clarence Acox, SRJO has become a Seattle institution. Tonight’s concert reprises material from the enormously popular “Genius + Soul = Jazz,” celebrating the meeting of Ray Charles and Quincy Jones on Seattle’s storied Jackson Street scene, and featuring favorite compositions of their collaborations into the early 60s. Seattle’s beloved vocalist Reggie Goings joins the fun.
Sunday, November 2, 7pm & 9:30pm | Triple Door
True Blues: Corey Harris & Alvin Youngblood Hart
$22 general | $20 members & seniors | $11 students & veterans
True Blues chronicles the extraordinary living culture of the blues in an evening of music and conversation. The True Blues concert vividly brings to life this crucial wellspring of American music.
Corey Harris, a MacArthur Award-winning Delta blues guitarist and vocalist with one foot in tradition and the other in contemporary experimentation, teams with Alvin Youngblood Hart, a Grammy-winning self-styled “cosmic love child of Howlin’ Wolf and Link Wray,” to seek out the DNA of the vast blues tradition. Blues is at the center of their artistry, and the blues takes center stage in True Blues, the concert.
Both Harris and Hart were featured in Martin Scorsese’s The Blues: A Musical Journey, which followed Harris on a roots journey to West Africa. Hart contributed, as well, to Wim Wenders’ The Soul of a Man and Denzel Washington’s The Great Debaters.
Sunday, November 2, 7:30pm | EMP Level 3
Industrial Revelation
Ted Poor, Cuong Vu, Pete Rende
$18 general | $16 members & seniors | $9 students & veterans
In cooperation with EMP and Argus Fund
This year’s nomination for The Stranger’s Genius Award is a perfect frame for the cross-genre, cross-generation, cross-racial, cross-economic, ever-morphing magic that Industrial Revelation continues to create. The soaring amalgam of jazz, hiphop, indie rock, punk, and soul, is seamless, substantial, and enormously entertaining. The genius of this band is honest, open, and uncalculated. People dance at these jazz concerts!
The Seattle Weekly calls D’Vonne Lewis (drums), Evan Flory-Barnes (bass), Josh Rawlings (keyboards), and Ahamefule J. Oluo (trumpet) “effortlessly, constantly inventive.” Featured as one of “50 Bands Rocking Seattle Music Right Now,” Seattle magazine praised their live performance as a “sweat-inducing jam, with big horn crescendo’s, rapid bass solos, lightning strikes of keys and rolling thunder drums.” Industrial Revelation embodies the great Seattle jazz continuum; past, present, and future.
Sharing the stage tonight is a new trio featuring Ted Poor on drums, Cuong Vu on trumpet and effects, and Pete Rende on synths. The well-documented, 10-year hook up of Ted Poor as the creatively rhythmic backbone to Cuong Vu’s torrential-but-virtuosic textures takes on brand new possibilities with Pete Rende on synths. The performance will be an emotive study in power and refinement, and the newest installment of a storied musical journey.
Widely recognized by jazz critics for his unique musical voice, Vu has established himself as one of the leading trumpeters in new jazz and improvised music. After an extended period in New York City, the Seattle native returned in 2007 as an associate professor at the University of Washington, where he is currently the Donald E. Peterson Endowed Professor and Chair of the Music Department’s Jazz Studies Program. Vu has extended great effort to support and grow the city’s local jazz and improvised music scenes. “His presence here has been crucial to expanding the local experimental music scene,” noted Seattle magazine in 2012. Vu advises the Improvised Music Project, a UW-based advocacy group comprised of many of his former students that promotes improvised music and regularly hosts performances at the Café Racer sessions. “By all accounts he has galvanized his students,” observed Nate Chinen in 2010, “charging them with a radical sense of purpose and advocating on their behalf.” It’s an ethos that more than vaguely resembles the 1990s “downtown” scene that Vu was part of early in his career, the energy of which he has likened to Seattle’s current jazz scene.
A frequent collaborator of Vu’s, Poor has held residencies and several prestigious academic institutions and is currently Artist in Residence at the University of Washington. The drummer graduated from the Eastman School of Music in 2003 and subsequently became a significant force in New York’s improvised music scene. Described by Modern Drummer as an “adventurous, truly dynamic, and forward thinking drummer, he is in high demand as a player and has performed and recorded Kurt Rosenwinkel, Bill Frisell, Mark Turner, Chris Potter, Kenny Werner, Maria Schneider, Aaron Parks and Ralph Alessi.
This concert, and interviews with the participating artists, will be filmed as a continuation of the polished, critically acclaimed documentary film, Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense.
Monday, November 3, 8pm | Barboza
Crystal Beth & the Boom Boom Band
$12 (restricted: 21+)
Beth Fleenor (clarinetist/vocalist/composer) has emerged as one of the most fearless and innovative musicians in the city, and in this new combo – Tristan Gianola (guitar), Michael Owcharuk (keyboard), Paul “PK” Kemmish (bass), and Adam Kozie (drums) – she unleashes her psychoactive, euphoric, libidinous Liberation Ritual 1, the first in the series.
Crystal Beth spins sound using voice, clarinet, loops and effects, weaving a particularly aural ritual that encompasses urban tribal chants and improvisations, alien disco breaks, and robot love songs. The Liberation Ritual will be heavy. At times it will be loud, at times tender and beautiful.
Fleenor harbors a strong love for variety an all sonic manipulation, moving freely through genres such as jazz, rock, classical, contemporary chamber, Slavic and American folk, metal, musique concrete, ambient and pop. Her work has been heard internationally from 100,000 seat rock festivals, maximum-security prisons, and performance art in rural bars, to art galleries, bunkers, sidewalks, sacred spaces, and some of the most prestigious concert halls, museums, clubs and theaters in the country. Believing that “art is the discipline of being,” Fleenor uses sound to open the channels of communication between and within individuals and environments. Her work as been heard in live music, recordings, theater, performance art, installation, modern dance, and film.
Tuesday, November 4, 8pm | PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts
Hal Galper Trio w/ Jeff Johnson & John Bishop
$16 general | $14 members & seniors | $8 students & veterans
Veteran bebop pianist Hal Galper, renowned since his collaborations with Chet Baker, Cannonball Adderley, and Phil Woods, joins the seasoned bass-and-drums pairing of Jeff Johnson and John Bishop for a night of what their 2006 Origin Records release of time-shifting originals and standards aptly called Furious Rubato. “The high level of integration and communication the trio displays is rare and quite thrilling to experience” (DownBeat).
A student of the piano from the age of six, Galper entered the Berklee School of Music on a scholarship in 1955 and studied technique with the famous Madam Chaloff. He quickly gravitated to the city’s jazz clubs, supplementing his formal Berklee training by studying the performances of such Boston stalwarts as Jaki Byard, Sam Rivers, and Herb Pomeroy.
Beginning his international performing career in a three-year stint with trumpeter Chet Baker, he went on to be an integral member of the bands of Cannonball Adderley and Phil Woods. He also worked with Sam Rivers, Joe Henderson, Lee Konitz and Roy Eldridge, among dozens of other major jazz figures. Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Galper formed one of his most critically acclaimed groups as a leader in the early 70s. With trumpeter Randy Brecker, his saxophonist brother Michael, bassist Wayne Dockery and drummer Billy Hart, the new Hal Galper Quintet debuted at Sweet Basil in New York’s Greenwich Village, eventually recording four albums.
Galper is a leader not only as a performer but also as an educator, with emphasis on theory, performance and the worldly side of music as a profession. He was a founding member of New York’s New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and recently retired from his 14-year tenure at Purchase Conservatory.
Tuesday, November 4, 7:30pm | Triple Door
Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra
featuring Grace Kelly
$20 general | $18 members & seniors | $10 students & veterans
Presented in partnership w/ SWOJO. Supported by 4Culture.
SWOJO has been showcasing our region’s talented female jazz artists for 14 years. This evening, the ensemble welcomes special guest Grace Kelly, already a master saxophonist at 22, who “plays with intelligence, wit and feeling,” according to Wynton Marsalis. “She has a great amount of natural ability and the ability to adapt that is the hallmark of a first-class jazz musician.”
The concert also features two world-premiere performances from the orchestra’s second annual competition for women jazz composers. The contest was created to encourage the composition of the highest possible quality jazz ensemble literature playable by high schools, honor bands, college bands and professional bands alike.
Jennifer Bellor of New York composed the winning piece, “Noir,” which judges considered “really beautiful and haunting,” and reminiscent “of Ornette’s collaboration with Howard Shore for the film Naked Lunch.”
“Deep Blue Sea,” by Jihye Lee, earned honorable mention in the composition contest. Lee is a current Berklee College of Music dual major in Jazz Composition and Vocal Performance.
Friday, November 7, 8pm | Town Hall Seattle
Pharoah Sanders Quartet
$26 general | $24 members & seniors | $13 students & veterans | $36 preferred seating
“Pharoah is a man of large spiritual reservoir, always trying to reach out to truth. He’s trying to allow his spiritual self to be his guide. He’s dealing, among other things, in energy, in integrity, in essences.” – John Coltrane
With his unmistakable questing, yearning tone, this legendary saxophonist has pursued a master plan through the major turns in jazz of the last 50 years. On his early classic recordings with John Coltrane, and then recordings under his own leadership, Sanders explosively liberated jazz form and expectations, yet also embraced timeless melody and sonorities – and his intensity has never waned. His quartet includes pianist William Henderson, bassist Nat Reeves, and drummer Joe Farnsworth.
Sanders possesses one of the most distinctive tenor saxophone sounds in jazz. Harmonically rich and heavy with overtones, Sanders’ sound can be as raw and abrasive as it is possible for a saxophonist to produce. Yet, Sanders is highly revered by a great many jazz fans. Although he made his name with expressionistic, nearly anarchic free jazz in Coltrane’s late ensembles of the mid-60s, Sanders’ later music is guided by more graceful concerns.
The hallmarks of Sanders’ playing at that time were naked aggression and unrestrained passion. In the years after Coltrane’s death, however, Sanders explored other, somewhat gentler and perhaps more cerebral avenues – without, it should be added, sacrificing any of the intensity that defined his work as an apprentice to Coltrane.
Pharoah Sanders (his given name, Ferrell Sanders) was born into a musical family. Sanders’ early favorites included Harold Land, James Moody, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane. Known in the San Francisco Bay Area as “Little Rock,” Sanders soon began playing bebop, rhythm & blues, and free jazz with many of the region’s finest musicians, including fellow saxophonists Dewey Redman and Sonny Simmons, as well as pianist Ed Kelly and drummer Smiley Winters. In 1961, Sanders moved to New York, where he struggled. Unable to make a living with his music, Sanders took to pawning his horn, working non-musical jobs, and sometimes sleeping on the subway. During this period he played with a number of free jazz luminaries, including Sun Ra, Don Cherry, and Billy Higgins.
In 1964, Coltrane asked Sanders to sit in with his band. The following year, Sanders was playing regularly with the Coltrane group. Coltrane’s ensembles with Sanders were some of the most controversial in the history of jazz. Their music represents a near total desertion of traditional jazz concepts, like swing and functional harmony, in favor of a teeming, irregularly structured, organic mixture of sound for sound’s sake. Strength was a necessity in that band, and as Coltrane realized, Sanders had it in abundance.
Sanders made his first record as a leader in 1964. After John Coltrane’s death in 1967, Sanders worked briefly with widow Alice Coltrane. From the late 60s, he worked primarily as a leader of his own ensembles.
In the decades after his first recordings with Coltrane, Sanders developed into a more well-rounded artist, capable of playing convincingly in a variety of contexts, from free to mainstream. Some of his best work is his most accessible. As a mature artist, Sanders discovered a hard-edged lyricism that has served him well.
Thursday, November 6 – Various times, locations, artists
Sax in the City
Free
To celebrate the 200th birthday of the idiosyncratic Adolphe Sax, the Earshot Festival dispatches players of his extraordinarily weird and wonderful instrument, now near ubiquitous in jazz, throughout the city, throughout the day and evening. Find pop-up sax concerts all over town.
Friday, November 7 & Saturday, November 8, 7:30pm | Tula’s Restaurant & Jazz Club
Anton Schwartz Quintet
$16 general | $14 members & seniors | $8 students & veterans
Anton Schwartz creates brainy jazz that also thrills with “upbeat vibe, strong melodies, and unflagging sense of swing” (Jazziz). No less a master than Illinois Jacquet has said of Schwartz: “You play the tenor sax like it’s meant to be played.” He performs the music of his much radio-played Flashmob with George Colligan (piano), Lorca Hart (drums), Thomas Marriott (trumpet), and Jon Hamar (bass).
Since 1995, Anton Schwartz has gained an enthusiastic following, as fans respond to what the San Francisco Chronicle calls his “warm, generous tone, impeccably developed solos and infectious performance energy.” Over the years, Anton has won over listeners and critics at high-profile jazz venues across the country, including the Blue Note in New York, Yoshi’s in Oakland and San Francisco, Washington DC’s Blues Alley and the Monterey Jazz Festival. He recently performed an hour-long concert of unaccompanied saxophone at the San Francisco Jazz Festival (2013) and at Boston Symphony Hall as a featured soloist with the Boston Pops (2014).
Schwartz is also in great demand as a teacher. He is a longtime faculty member of The Jazzschool and Stanford Jazz Workshop, a clinician at the Brubeck Institute, and has been artist-in-residence at Harvard University and the Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Colony.
Saturday, November 8, 7:30pm | Roosevelt High School Auditorium
Roosevelt High School Jazz Band
$16 general | $14 members & seniors | $8 students & veterans | free for 12 & under
Every year under the direction of Scott Brown, the Roosevelt students turn out impressively stylish and assured performances. Often finishing at or near the top of the prestigious Essentially Ellington competition in New York, Roosevelt Jazz has helped to define the excellence of Seattle jazz education and set a standard for high-school jazz orchestras nationwide.
Since 1969, the Roosevelt Jazz Program has engaged high school students in the artistry of jazz. Under the direction first of Waldo King, and now Brown, Roosevelt Jazz has matured into one of the nation’s most accomplished programs, advancing this uniquely American art form. Over the years, the Jazz Band has competed nationally in New York and Philadelphia and performed internationally in such diverse venues as Montreux, Switzerland; Beijing, China; and Mazatlan, Mexico. All of the program’s ensembles – Jazz Bands I, II, and III, and Vocal Jazz – also feature in regional jazz festivals.
Saturday, November 8, 8pm | Vermillion Art Gallery & Bar
Bad Luck | Scott Cutshall / John Gross Duo
$5-15 sliding scale
This summer, the world lost Charlie Haden, one of the true monsters, mentors, and masters of jazz. Haden once said, “Before music there was silence, and the duet format lets you build from that silence in a very special way.” November 8 will be a testament to those words as Bad Luck and John Gross & Scott Cutshall explore the sonic territory surrounding the silence.
Bad Luck, the duo of Chris Icasiano (drums) and Neil Welch (saxophone), are Seattle mainstays whose sound has gained the attention of All About Jazz and the New York Jazz Record. Described as “powerful and virtuosic” and “hard-edged and audacious,” Icasiano’s demanding drums and Welch’s waves of sound traverse from the bombastic to the wandering, creating an impressively diverse dynamic and sonic pallet for two instrumentalists.
Legendary saxophonist John Gross and drummer Scott Cutshall, who perform as part of the John Gross Trio, will be making the trip up from Portland to present their determined yet introspective improvisational explorations. Gross is heralded for his calm delivery and convincing ideas on the saxophone, and has been touted as one of the most significant players on the scene by the Saxophone Journal. Gross’s serenity creates a sharp contrast with Cutshall’s dry and feverish drumming, but forges a dynamic that is invigorating and pulsating with life. From the silence, both duos are sure to build tremendous and exceptional impressions of sound.
Sunday, November 9, 8pm | Café Racer
Racer Sessions +
Free
For several years, weekly curated sessions at this celebrated U District location have challenged and nurtured Seattle improvising musicians. To mark the mighty contribution of the gatherings, organizer and drummer Chris Icasiano produces this expanded jazz-festival edition.
Under the Seattle record label Table & Chairs, the Racer Sessions give musicians of all backgrounds and ages the opportunity to interact with and inspire one another, while establishing a community-accessible home for this music, which might otherwise only exist in classrooms, basements, outer space, etc.
Monday, November 10, 8pm | PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts
Miguel Zenón Quartet
$22 general | $20 members & seniors | $11 students & veterans
The Puerto Rican alto-sax phenom, whose brilliant playing and cultural integration won him a MacArthur Fellowship, performs with his explosive quartet of Luis Perdomo, piano; Hans Glawischnig, bass; and Eric Doob, drums. Expect intricate, soulful, intense, and locked-in playing that resonates with strains from throughout the Latin and forward-moving jazz worlds.
Multiple Grammy nominee and Guggenheim and MacArthur fellow Zenón is one of a select group of musicians who have masterfully balanced and blended the often contradictory poles of innovation and tradition. Widely considered one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists of his generation, he has also developed a unique voice as a composer and as a conceptualist, concentrating his efforts on perfecting a fine mix between Latin American folkloric music and jazz.
Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zenón has released seven recordings as a leader, including Rayuela (2012) and the Grammy-nominated Alma Adentro (2011). As a sideman he has worked with jazz luminaries such as the SFJAZZ Collective, Charlie Haden, David Sánchez, the Mingus Big Band, Bobby Hutcherson, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, and Steve Coleman. Zenón has topped the Rising Star Alto Sax category of the DownBeat critics’ poll on four different occasions. As a composer he has been commissioned by SFJAZZ, the New York State Council for the Arts, Chamber Music America, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and many of his peers. Zenón has given hundreds of lectures and master classes at institutions all over the world, and is a permanent faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music. In 2011, he founded Caravana Cultural, a program which presents free jazz concerts in rural areas of Puerto Rico. In 2008 Zenón was one of 25 distinguished individuals chosen to receive the coveted MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the “genius grant.”
“This young musician and composer is at once reestablishing the artistic, cultural, and social tradition of jazz while creating an entirely new jazz language for the 21st century” (MacArthur Foundation, 2008).
Tuesday, November 11, 7:30pm | Musicquarium @ Triple Door
Earshot Jazz Festival Wrap-up Party
Free
Join everyone who put on the Earshot Jazz festival, as well as musicians and your fellow fans, at this closing party and celebration.
With lots of gratitude and live jazz accompaniment.
