Welcome to the 36th Annual Earshot Jazz Festival!
October 17 - November 3, 2024
The Earshot Jazz Festival returns this year with performances from both resident and world renowned artists at venues all around Seattle!
We’re back with “Seattle’s most important annual jazz event” (DownBeat), once again presenting today’s brilliant jazz artists over the course of three weeks this fall in venues all over the city. Each day of the festival creates an intentional, comprehensive, and creative series that embodies the history, evolution, and spirit of jazz as it exists around the world as well as right here at home. Noted as, “a festival of adventurous au courant jazz” (JazzTimes), the festival kicks off on October 17 and winds down on November 3. In between are concerts and events by established legends and exciting emerging artists, truly representing today’s most dynamic and diffuse art form. The full schedule is below and you can purchase tickets to all Earshot presented shows here.
✨ More details coming soon with the launch of our new website on August 5 ✨
October 17-November 3 ➡️ What’s Going on: Conduction, Improvisation, and the Culture of Structure
Seven night festival within the Earshot Jazz Festival | Wayne Horvitz convenes a seven-concert series, from October 17th through November 3rd. Made possible by a generous grant from the Live Music Society.
October 18 ➡️ Skerik & Ahamfule J. Oluo Ensemble
Friday, October 18 @ 7:30 pm | This year’s Festival Resident Artist is one of Seattle’s most versatile, hard-driving, and prolific jazz musicians. The saxophonist known as Skerik is a force to be recokoned with and is not afarid to draw from many musical genres and traditions. Tonight’s ensemble includes Ahamefule J. Oluo on trumpet.
October 18 ➡️ Grace Love
Friday, October 18 @ 8:00 pm | Port Townsend-based with Memphis roots, Grace Love has been performing her authentic, contemporary and soulful sound to today’s music scene by challenging music genre boundaries. Performing both across the US and internationally since 2009, Grace Love’s sound has a raw and profound perspective.
October 19 ➡️ Garfield Plays Sun Ra and Lincoln Plays Wayne Shorter & Carla Bley
Saturday, October 19 @ 7:30 pm | Two talented local high school jazz bands. Garfield High School, directed by Jared Sessink, will play music from Sun Ra and Lincoln High School directed by Zachariah MacIntyre and assisted by startling saxophonist Neil Welch, will play music from Wayne Shorter and Carla Bley.
October 19 & 20 ➡️ Jenny Scheinman All Species Parade
Saturday, October 19 @ 8:00 pm and Sunday, October 20 @ 7:30 pm | Jenny Scheinman is a violinist, fiddler, singer, and writer of songs with and without words. She grew up on a homestead in Northern California and has been performing since she was a teenager. Scheinman has worked extensively with some of the most innovative jazz artists in the world such as Bill Frisell, Jason Moran, Brian Blade, Nels Cline, and Marc Ribot.
October 20 ➡️ Andy Clausen
Sunday, October 20 @ 2:30 pm | New York-based trombonist, Andy Clausen is a composer, producer, and educator whose most often known here in Seattle for his work as a member of the all brass quartet, The Westerlies but for his performance with the Earshot Jazz Festival, Clausen will be performing solo.
October 20 ➡️ Samantha Boshnack “Uncomfortable Subjects”
Sunday, October 20 @ 8:00 pm | Created more than four years ago with a delayed premiere due to a personal injury, Samantha Boshnack’s “Uncomfortable Subjects” is a genre busting song cycle for a 13-piece ensemble.
October 22 ➡️ Gabriel Teodros/ AfroCop
Tuesday, October 22 @ 7:30 pm | Hailing from South Seattle, musician, writer, and community leader Gabriel Teodros is a creative force. Opening for Teodros tonight is another Seattle stalwart, Afrocop, described by The Stranger as “psychadelic soul jazz shape-shifters.”
October 23 ➡️ Freddy “Fuego” Gonzalez
Wednesday, October 23 @ 7:30 pm | Freddy Fuego, the New York-raised, Seattle-based multi-instrumentalist (trombone, trumpet, flute, keys; and host of Jazz Caliente on KNKX) presents his latest work, an Earshot commission.
October 23 ➡️ Skerik – Solo
Wednesday, October 23 @ 8:00 pm | With Blazinspace (aka Gardenia Theroux) transforming the space with immersive digital projections, Festival Resident Artist, Skerik performs solo saxophone.
October 24 ➡️ Riley Mulherkar
Thursday, October 24 @ 7:30 pm | “über hip, modern yet timeless […]” Downbeat. Riley Mulherkar grew up in the Seattle jazz ecosystem, studying under Robert Knatt at Washington Middle School and Clarence Acox at Garfield High, as well as being mentored by Wayne Horvitz.
October 25 ➡️ Day Soul Exquisite
Friday, October 25 @ 8:00 pm | Day Soul Exquisite is a 6 piece band who has spent the last 3 years recording and performing original music throughout the Pacific Northwest. Formed during the pandemic, they explore sound as a means of collective healing.
October 25 ➡️ SHABAKA
Friday, October 25 @ 8:00 pm | The London-born, Barbados-raised multi-instrumentalist, Shabaka Hutchings, best known from Sons of Kemet, here creates stunning, genre-transcending music spanning Afro-Caribbean fusion, London dance music club culture, and the rich South African jazz tradition “all within the freedom afforded by the legacy of the American ‘jazz’ tradition,” he says.
October 25 ➡️ BOOMscat Workshop
Friday, October 25 @ 3:00 pm | Join Asha Santee and Jennifer Patience Rowe for a workshop. The Washington, DC based Peace Body Roll Duo BOOMscat journey meditatively through life, love, and relationships. Multi-instrumentalist/producer, Asha Santee (BOOM), and vocalist/songwriter Jennifer Patience Rowe (scat) create a sound that ignites vulnerability, elevation and self-reflection.
October 25 ➡️ BOOMscat
Friday, October 25 @ 8:00 pm | BOOMscat have released two albums—The West Wing Project (2014), and Kinetic (2018) along with an EP XXXMAS (2018). Their EP No Life Jacket reached #18 on Itunes, RnB albums. The Examiner describes their work—”it’s acoustic, it’s introspective, sexy and inviting while being forward and a little bit shy.”
October 26 ➡️ Legacy of Wayne Shorter: Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci, Brian Blade & Mark Turner
Saturday, October 26 @ 8:00 pm | Danilo Pérez (piano), John Patitucci (bass), and Brian Blade (drums) — with special guest Mark Turner, one of the most influential saxophonists of his generation — freely interpret Shorter’s compositions, honoring his pivotal contributions to jazz.
October 27 ➡️ Myra Melford Fire and Water Quintet
Sunday, October 27 @ 7:30 pm | Five of the top woman improvisers in jazz in a state-of-the-art group led by Myra Melford the transcendent pianist (and melodica player). She joins Mary Halvorson (guitar), Ingrid Laubrock (saxophones), Tomeka Reid (cello), and Lesley Mok (drums), all compelling creators.
October 27 ➡️ Skerik Quartet featuring Johnaye Kendrick
Sunday, October 27 @ 8:00 pm | Skerik the saxophonist demonstrates in this quartet that he embraces a very wide array of musical styles and developments, all riveting. With Tim Kennedy (piano), D’Vonne Lewis (drums), Geoff Harper (bass), and award-winning vocalist Johnaye Kendrick.
October 29 ➡️ Flat Earth Society
Tuesday, October 29 @ 7:30 pm | Flat Earth Society, the Belgian mega-big band of 15 players, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. It creates riveting, wildly entertaining music, smart and political. Expect jazz of unrivaled spirit and verve from this thrilling and friendly eclectic behemoth. With thanks to the Government of Belgium for touring support.
October 30 ➡️ Jessica Ackerly Trio / Syrinx Effect
Wednesday, October 30 @ 7:30 pm | Jessica Ackerly is noted as “one of the most exciting guitarists to have emerged from the US free music scene in recent years” (Wire Magazine). Opening for Ackerly is Syrinx Effect, the duo of saxophonist Kate Olson and making a much-anticipated return to Seattle— trombonist Naomi Moon Siegel.
October 30 ➡️ Bill Anschell Standards Trio
Wednesday, October 30 @ 8:00 pm | Bill Anschell one of the region’s finest jazz pianists, appears with one of the most outstanding rhythm sections: Jeff Johnson (bass) and D’Vonne Lewis (drums). The trio is known for its spontaneous, turn-on-a-dime approach to standards
October 31 ➡️ Vijay Iyer Trio
Thursday, October 31 @ 8:00 pm | Vijay Iyer, the pianist, described as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway” (NYTimes), is a MacArthur Fellow, Doris Duke Performing Artist, Grammy nominee, and leading voice of his generation.
November 1 ➡️ Edmonds-Woodway High School Jazz Band w/ Ryan Keberle & Catharsis
Friday, November 1 @ 7:30 pm | Ryan Keberle, Jazz Times’s 2020 Trombonist of the Year leads a band that the Los Angeles Times hailed as a “potent blend of cinematic sweep and lush, ear-grabbing melodies” will workshop with the Edmonds-Woodway Jazz Band (directed by Jake Bergevin), in the afternoon and then present an evening concert.
November 1 ➡️ Khu.éex’
Friday, November 1 @ 9:00 pm | Preston Singletary (bass) Sonda Segundo (vocals) Captain Raab (guitar), Arias Hoyle (vocals) and other members of the Tlingit, Haida, and Blackfoot tribes, convenes Khu.éex’. Khu.éex’ is an Indigenous band full of creative members, including storytellers, activists and artists, that bring this collective energy to the stage as one powerful unit.
November 2 ➡️ Ryan Keberle Catharsis
Saturday, November 2 @ 2:30 pm | The potent frontline of Ryan Keberle and saxophonist Scott Robinson and the rock-solid rhythm of bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Eric Doob, along with guitarist/vocalist Camila Meza, guarantee drama and intrigue.
November 2 ➡️ Nduduzo Makathini Trio
Saturday, November 2 @ 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm | A rare opportunity to hear the transcendent pianist and vocalist South Africa pianist Nduduzo Makathini with his trio in an intimate setting. His telepathic trio has Zwelakhe-Duma Bell Le Pere on bass and Francisco Mela on drums.
November 3 ➡️ Marina Albero Featuring Yusa
Sunday, November 3 @ 7:30 pm | The phenomenal Marina Albero, an award-winning, passionate composer, pianist, and community organizer (also on keytar and hammered dulcimer), releases her latest album, A Nomad of Sound… Joining her is a Cuban artist she has recently recorded her new album with in New Orleans: internationally acclaimed Cuban bassist, singer and composer, Yusa (also on guitar and vocals).
Support for the 2024 Earshot Jazz Festival provided by
