John Gilbreath photo by Bill Uznay
Here at Earshot Jazz, we have one foot firmly in our real-time mid-summer activities – including the presentation of six fascinating new groups on this year’s juried concert series, Jazz: The Second Century – and the other foot stretched out into the fall, making preparations for another exciting Earshot Jazz Festival.
This issue of Earshot Jazz sneaks an early look at some of the 2014 festival plans, offering you a chance to consider your jazz-immersion options for the fall. A full and exact schedule of artists, dates, and places will be available later this month. Stay tuned.
Hopefully, this issue will also introduce you to some artists and aspects of the Seattle jazz scene with which you may not be familiar. This Earshot profiles an established, but lesser-known fixture on the scene, surveys options for younger jazz artists in the region, reports on a new concert series by the Table and Chairs organization, and previews remaining summer festivals in the region. And, as always, we list as many of this region’s live performances as we can get our hands on.
Jazz culture as a whole plays happily with the tensions of time. Its mandate for reinvention moves us forward and back, creating new possibilities from honored traditions. Seattle has a distinct place in this continuum – we are part of the greater whole, yet distinctly individual.
As Seattle’s non-profit jazz-support organization, we are delighted to focus attention on the exciting growth of our respected jazz ecology, and to present emerging resident artists performing their original work in respectful concert settings. And, of course, we are proud to present world-renowned masters and monsters alongside of our own brilliant jazz artists on the annual Earshot festival.
We invite you to join Earshot Jazz in this creative space, between the legacy of our collective history and the creativity of our plans for the future. Get involved in any way. Support this wonderful world of jazz.
John Gilbreath
Executive Director
