Olympia Free Jazz Festival: West Coast Free Jazz All-Stars + Spontanea

Olympia Free Jazz Festival 2024 Day 3
Come to West Central Park to enjoy the sounds of Free Jazz! Two great bands come together for a wild night of music.

The West Coast Free Jazz All-Stars—a special collection of improvisors hailing from San Francisco to Vancouver BC, this group includes Olympia stalwarts guitarist/composer Joe Mailhot, flautist Nancy Curtis, Craig Hoyer on keyboards, and bassist Erich Hahn, plus from the Bay Area the alto saxophonist Lewis Jordan and percussionist Yele Sadiq, with drummers Don Berman from Seattle and Gary Vancouver from BC. This collaboration will be a highlight of the festival.

Spontanea is a Seattle-based collective of improvisers of diverse backgrounds and influences, encompassing jazz, classical, rock, world and experimental music. The interactive work of four soloists defines Spontanea’a music: Guitar innovator Matt Benham employs a custom array of effects to stretch the sonic borders of his instrument. Carol J Levin plays an electrified harp, producing a span of sounds unique to that instrument’s pedigree. Kenny Mandell, an award-winning jazz performer and educator, uses reeds, woodwinds and percussion in myriad ways. Scott Schaffer adds bass and other strings to the mix. As their name suggests, everything Spontanea does is composed in the moment based on interactions of the members. The group has released three albums on Right Brain Records – Flow, Chromasonic and Quintaphonic. For this special performance Spontanea has added the viola of Heather Bentley, whose cello performance in last year’s festival was memorable.

Suggested Donation: $20