A Mirror and Focus for the Jazz Community
June 2007 Vol. 23, No. 6
Seattle, Washington
Scott Brown and the
Roosevelt High School Jazz Band
Photo by Daniel Sheehan
Notes
Art of Jazz, Other Earshot Events
This month’s presentation in the Art
of Jazz series, which the Seattle Art Museum and Earshot Jazz sponsor, is the
outstanding guitarist Mimi Fox and her
trio. They appear on Thursday, June 14
at 5pm at the newly reopened Seattle Art
Museum downtown. Admission to events
in the series is free in main lobby. In coming months, the series presents Kelley
Johnson, on July 12; Dave Peck’s reﬁned
piano trio on August 9; and another ﬁne
keyboardists Marc Seales, and group, on
September 13.
Among other events that Earshot is
sponsoring this month is the first of
three concerts in the Sounds Outside
series at Cal Anderson Park, on Capitol
Hill, Saturday, June 2, 2-8pm, free: Degenerate Art Ensemble, Sunship, Seattle
Harmonic Voices, ﬁgeater.
This month’s Earshot Eastside Showcase features the outstanding quartet
Big Neighborhood and takes place at
Crossroads Center, Bellevue, Friday June
29, at 7:30pm, free of charge.
See Calendar pages or www.earshot.org
for more details.
And don’t miss the Jazz Cruise aboard
S.S. Virginia V, on Lake Union, June
10. Clarence Acox’s quartet provides the
music. There’s much more. For details,
see page 18.
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Events Listings
Please send gig listings to
[email protected]. Also send
links to your own websites, so we can
update our links page. Please format
your gig listings in keeping with the
way they appear in the calendar in this
issue. And if you have news of your jazz
projects, or of anything at all relating to
your carrer, please feel free to email them
to [email protected], as we are always
looking for items to use in In One Ear
and as fodder for feature articles in this
publication.
EARSHOT JAZZ
A Mirror and Focus for the Jazz Community
Executive Director: John Gilbreath
Earshot Jazz Editor: Peter Monaghan
Assistant Editor: Schraepfer Harvey
Contributing Writers: Andrew Bartlett,
Paul Harding, Elaine M. Hayes, Josie
Holtzman, Kevin Kniestedt, Peter
Monaghan, Lloyd Peterson, Kimberly M.
Reason, Harvey Siders, Randy Smith
Photography: Steve Korn, Daniel
Sheehan
Layout: Katherine Lambrecht
Mailing: Lola Pedrini
Program Manager: Karen Caropepe
Program Assistant: Josie Holtzman
Calendar Information: 3429 Fremont
Place #309, Seattle WA 98103; fax (206)
547-6286; [email protected]
Board of Directors: Genesee Adkins
(president), Paul Harding (vicepresident), Fred Gilbert (treasurer),
Hideo Makihara (secretary),
Clarence Acox, George Heidorn, Thomas
Marriott, Lola Pedrini
Earshot Jazz is published monthly by
Earshot Jazz Society of Seattle and is
available online at www.earshot.org.
Subscription (with membership): $35
3429 Fremont Place #309
Seattle, WA 98103
T: (206) 547-6763
F: (206) 547-6286
Earshot Jazz ISSN 1077-0984
Printed by Paciﬁc Publishing Company.
©2007 Earshot Jazz Society of Seattle
Earshot Jazz
Mission Statement
Earshot Jazz is a non-proﬁt arts
and service organization formed in
1986 to cultivate a support system
for jazz in the community and to
increase awareness of jazz. Earshot
Jazz pursues its mission through
publishing a monthly newsletter,
presenting creative music, providing
educational programs, identifying and
ﬁlling career needs for jazz artists,
increasing listenership, augmenting
and complementing existing services
and programs, and networking with
the national and international jazz
community.
2 • Earshot Jazz • June 2007
In One Ear
a one-time collaborator with Christian
Vander in the singular Magma.
Here’s a heads-up about a concert not
to be missed. The great French guitarist
Richard Pinhas, pioneer with his epochal
band Heldon of a fusion of guitar rock,
noise, and electronics that showed the
way for much that came later in industrial
and techno, will appear here in Seattle
(zounds!) early in July. The show is slated
for July 3 at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard,
with local openers: Bill Horist, solo, and
Dennis Rea’s quintet Moraine.
Pinhas is a curious and essential ﬁgure in modern music. Heldon evolved
from scorching guitar conflagration
that sounded like it was driven by huge
industrial turbines to ambient electronic
soundscape. The band comprised Pinhas’s
commentary on technology, industrialism, and art, as if he had read a lot of Heidegger as he traveled in the tour bus.
In fact, Pinhas earned a PhD in philosophy at the Sorbonne under Gilles
Deleuze, who may yet go down as the
most inﬂuential of 20th-century French
poststructuralists, or at least the most
sensible. Deleuze even recorded with
Pinhas, as did Philip K. Dick. Pinhas
took the name Heldon from science-ﬁction writer Normal Spinrad, reﬂecting
another of his obsessions.
Looking for a place to start in his work?
Try Un rêve sans conséquence spéciale from
1976. Makes the heaviest metal seem like
wind-up toys you’d ﬁnd in cereal boxes.
From there, there’s much more to explore, including his latest, Metraton, a 2CD set with video track, on Cuneiform,
which has been championing Pinhas’s
work with reissues of, among other
things, the glorious Heldon catalog.
For his North American tour, Pinhas,
wielding guitar and electronics, brings
along two pals from Metraton, laptoppiste
Jérôme Schmidt and, on batterie (which
would be: drums) Antoine Paganotti,
Saxophonist Greg Sinibaldi just returned from a three-week residency at the
Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida.
He worked on an electro/acoustic CD
that he’ll ﬁnish by fall. Read all about it
at gregsinibaldi.blogspot.com.
Also available, at tfjhp.blogspot.com, is
a podcast of a radio interview he did with
Tarans Free Jazz Hour in Paris, France.
“We had a great conversation about
Frieze of Life and the Seattle scene,” Sinibaldi says. “It was broadcast throughout
Europe too!” It’s a really great show and
...he plays great music, too.”
You can learn all sorts of fascinating
things on MySpaces. Vocalist Nikki DeCaires, who performs at Egan’s on June
8, grew up in Hawaii hearing local and
reggae music as well as pop and Broadway
tunes that her DJ dad played and her
aunt sang. She performed as a child in
talent shows, then sang and danced in
high-school musicals. At 17, she went
to France as an exchange student, and
played weddings and church gigs. Back
in the US, in SFO, she studied classical voice and sang lots more casuals.
Early 2000, she had the opportunity to
perform with bluegrass legend Ralph
Stanley in Berkeley. Moved to Nashville and worked honky tonks and with
Stanley some more. While in Tennessee,
discovered jazz (!) and went oﬀ to study
it at U of North Texas. Fronted an allfemale jazz/funk band around Dallas
while studying languages and vocal jazz,
and took part in numerous jazz and big
band projects. Got to Seattle in 2003,
and spent two years with a popular cover
band. Now freelances with jazz, R&B,
and bossa nova bands while working as
a vocal instructor. There you have it. She
sings a pleasant repertoire of jazz and
Brazilian standards.
A Celebration of Adventurous
Music and Community
Cal Anderson Park
1632 11th Ave
(between Denny/Pine)
FREE!
all shows 2-8 PM
July 14
Paul Rucker
Gust Burns
Orkestar Zirkonium
Non Grata
August 4
Trio KVH (Feat. Wayne Horvitz,
Briggan Krauss, Dylan van der Schyff)
(Feat. Skerik, Joe Doria,
McTuff
Andy Coe and Dvonne Lewis)
Reptet
Deal's Number
In this issue...
Notes ________________________________ 2
Summer Jazz Festivals _______________ 14
In One Ear ____________________________ 3
Great Day in Seattle Jazz _____________ 16
Roosevelt Jazz Band __________________ 4
Preview: Denis Colin Trio ____________ 17
Essentially Ellington __________________ 7
Practice This! w/ Dawn Clement _____ 19
Dennis Rea profile ____________________ 9
Jazz Cruise __________________________ 18
Preview: Vancouver Jazz Festival ______ 11
Jazz Calendar _______________________ 20
Graphics Design Joseph P Gray Grauwald.com
June 2007 • Earshot Jazz • 3
Roosevelt’s Band Strikes It Up, Big
Left to right: Spencer Leroux, Evan Woodle (w/ cymbal), Sam Sidoine, Scotty Bemis, Tom Ferensen (back), Xavier McHugh (front w/ cymbal), Ross Eustis, Colin Pulkrabek (front w/
trombone), Peter Freeman (back), Logan Strosahl (w/ sax), Scott Brown, director (front), Nicholas Freedman (back) , Ken Christofferson (front), Charlie Fisher (back), Steven Mann (middle),
Reed Ferris (w/ banjo), Andrew Morrill (back), Nolan Woodle (w/ bass), Michael Davis, Wyatt Palmer, Alex Dugdale (w/ clarinet); absent: Gus Carns; photo: Daniel Sheeehan; illustrations:
Jakob Zoepﬂ, Roosevelt HS freshman.
BY PETER MONAGHAN
Duke Ellington’s “The Shepherd,” which
For Scott Brown, this is a year of triRight now, Roosevelt High School has the band performed in New York.
umph to equal 2002, when he won his
the best school jazz band in the country.
Then comes a blat from Michael Davis’s ﬁrst Essentially Ellington award; and his
And that makes them, essentially, the best muted trumpet, from deep in some swap band kids know it. “It’s really amazing to
in the world.
outside N’Orle’ns. Serious swing.
be one of the only two bands to have won
That rings true when you hear
Scott Brown, 23 years into his this,” says guitarist/banjoist Reed Ferris.
the mighty outﬁt perform. It
Roosevelt tenure, almost pops
“It feels like we’ve been immortalized,”
boasts a swag of ace soloists,
from his skin with the thrill says Logan Strosahl, lead alto sax player.
sections of the highest caliber,
of it all as he signals a shift of “The 2002 band was the standard, in a
and ensemble playing so tight
emphasis. His charges instantly way. Now we’ve cemented our own place
you could use it for shock aband eﬀortlessly respond to his in Roosevelt history, really.”
sorbers on a pickup.
directions – a hand gesture
Heightening that eﬀect was that many
Last month, those qualities
here, a “sit on it” there.
members have played together since at
took Roosevelt to ﬁrst place in
And the young cats act like middle schools in the area.
Scotty Bemis
this year’s Essentially Ellington
old pros on the bandstand.
And, adds Charlie Fisher, lead trumpet,
competition at the Lincoln Center in The horns chat; the whole crew looks as “It was even better, because we got to play
New York, the undisputed heavyweight relaxed as if on the band bus; and they’re with Wynton Marsalis. While we were
crown of school jazz.
right there when time comes
playing with him, the whole
Under the enthusiastic direction of Scott to work modulate between
competition part of it just went
Brown, Roosevelt beat out 14 fellow ﬁ- scouring blats and swoopaway, because we were making
nalists, as well as 74 other bands that had ing vrooms. When Brown
the greatest music of our lives
aspired to make it to New York.
works the rhythm section to
with the greatest musician.”
It was the Roughriders’ second win from a sashaying plod, you can feel
Alex Dugdale, a alto and clarieight ﬁnals appearances during nine years the steam rise up right oﬀ the
net player who also won the
Wyatt Palmer
of eligibility for the meet. That record is Mississippi.
competition’s annual essay commatched only by crosstown friendly rival
On all its Ellington renditions, the ponent, says: “What also made it really
Garﬁeld High, which again was a ﬁnalist, Roosevelt squad displays a savvy sense nice is that all the other bands were really,
but not, this time, a place-getter (see El- of the urbane character and color of the really supportive, and that made winning
lington competition details, page 7).
Duke’s charts – no mean feat, for 14 to 17 worthwhile; it made it feel extra good.”
When Roosevelt plays, its sterling quali- year olds. And they swing ya socks oﬀ.
The moment of realizing that they had
ties quickly emerge. There’s Scotty Bemis
If this is not the most enjoyable ways to won came slowly for bandmembers.
picking out a sly, slouching opening to go to high school ever invented...
Says Reed Ferris, who won an individual
4 • Earshot Jazz • June 2007
honor in New York for his banjo playing:
“Just seeing Mr. Brown so excited about
it really got me excited about it.”
“Then you guys pig-piled me,” responds
Brown, and the band bursts out a belly
laugh of fondness and pride.
A local who gave back
Brown came up as a local boy, in a musical family, on Bainbridge Island. His
father played a plectrum banjo, “so we
always had musicians over to the house,”
says Brown, who took piano lessons and
then trombone before middle school.
At home he heard his father’s tradjazz favorites, “old warhorses” like “Bill
Bailey” and “Sweet Georgia Brown” (no
relation); at school he learned a more
modern repertoire – Count Basie, Maynard Ferguson, and Stan Kenton charts.
From that start, Brown says, “I pretty
much followed that path.” He went to the
UW, and studied under trombone great
Stuart Dempster and the late trumpeter,
Roy Cummings. The UW band was a
studio jazz band that placed less emphasis
on performance than on mastering reading and a wide range of jazz styles.
With that grounding, Brown was ideally
suited to take over at Roosevelt, which
he did right out of the UW. At the time,
the band program, jazz and other, was
far smaller than it is today. Then, it had
40 students, total, while today he is in
charge of over 200 musicians, including
over 70 in two jazz bands and a vocaljazz ensemble; the second, “Jazz Lab”
band also has registered many Northwest
festival wins this year.
In addition, Roosevelt has a concert
band and marching bands that many of
the jazz players take part in, and an orchestra, too. Many jazzers also take part
in musicals – Thoroughly Modern Millie
has been this semester’s production.
When Brown took over in 1984, Waldo
King had been in charge of jazz for many
years, and had emphasized swing. That
suited Brown ﬁne, he says. “There were
three or four students from his band
when I started, and they were a big inﬂuence on me,” he says. “It was a great
ﬁt. I arrived here and musically I felt
completely at home.”
But the band directorship wasn’t fulltime, so Brown directed musical theater
in the evenings, for MusicComedy
June 2007 • Earshot Jazz • 5
Northwest. “That was a great experience,
but the company folded,” he says.
So he also started working at South
Shore Middle School, part-time. He
came to Roosevelt after school, when the
jazz and marching bands practiced.
That, of course, has long since changed.
Now, the top band meets every day at
12:25pm to rehearse, while the second
band meets after
school, so its players
have an incentive to
step up.
For the growth,
Brown praises
Roosevelt parents.
“The parent support
Scott Brown
is just incredible,”
he says. “From organizational logistics,
to promotions, to arranging hotels and
travel, and selling merchandise – CDs
and hats. It’s almost a business. There’s a
tremendous amount of money raised for
scholarships to help kids go to summer
camps.”
The support has made the band a muchenvied opportunity for students. It takes
them not just around the Northwest, and
the U.S., but to places far aﬁeld.
Last summer, in Pori, Finland, Roosevelt
opened a Sting concert. “That’s been one
of the most amazing experiences, for me,”
Brown says. “And the band was totally up
for it. There was no hesitation, no nerves.
It was in front of 15,000 people.
“That set things up for this year. The
setting, and how free they were. It established an attitude for this year: ‘Let’s
always do our best and not worry so
much about the other bands.’”
Keeping a high-performance band on
task and on top is no mean feat, when
each yeear several members move on. This
year, for instance, the turnover resulted
in the loss of all four girls in the band, so
that for the ﬁrst time ever since Brown
arrived, the band is all-male.
The success of the program is, of course,
a great recruiting tool. Every person at
Roosevelt is aware of the accomplishments – soon after their return last month
from New York, for example, the band
played at an all-school assembly – and
only the most diehard too-cool-forschool types could dismiss as band nerds
musicians like Brown’s who can play the
brass oﬀ their horns’ bells.
6 • Earshot Jazz • June 2007
The band’s repertoire is relatively hip,
too. Despite their success at the all-Ellington meet, they tend more towards
the Basie style than the Ellington, Brown
says; but they also perform modern works,
such as those of Maria Schneider, Bob
Mintzer, George Stone, and longtime Pat
Metheny collaborator Lyle Mays. “I like
to lay a foundation of blues and swing
and make sure the bands understand that
and feel it, then as we go through the year,
we expand out from that, for example to
latin and funk tunes.
“But it’s based on swing, ﬁrst.”
The frequency with which Roosevelt
and Garfield have
been to Essentially Ellington is all the more
remarkable when one
takes into account
that if a school has
been to the ﬁnals in
either of the previous two years, it must
Reed Ferris
compete for one of
only 5 of the 15 ﬁnals spots. That keeps
the event open to new schools, but also
ensures ﬁerce competition. Still, the Seattle area has often had between two and
four schools in the ﬁnal 15.
One aspect of Brown’s directorship of
the band that deserves particular praise
– and this also goes for Clarence Acox
at Garﬁeld, and many of the other band
directors in this rich region – is his style
as an educator. What most hearteningly
recommends the Roosevelt band is that
Scott Brown achieves with it that magical
educational accomplishment of both providing students with a tight ship of learning and (self-)discipline, and a venue for
personal expression. As a whole, the band
has achieved this year – as it always does
whether in the top prize-winning ranks or
not – a sense of shared achievement and
thrill in music and fellowship, as well as
a stage for each individual player to stand
up and play, whether for a couple of bars
or an extended blow, himself.
Roosevelt Jazz Band on stage
Sunday, June 10: Triple Door
Friday, June 15: Jazz bands, Roosevelt
High School
Monday, June 18: Vocal jazz ensemble,
Roosevelt High School
Info: www.rooseveltjazz.org
Going to Lincoln Center for Wins,
Places, and the Thrill of It All
Here’s how the Essentially Ellington
competition works.
The nonproﬁt Jazz at Lincoln Center
in New York, with director Wynton
Marsalis, invites high schools to submit
tapes of three compositions by Duke
Ellington, from among six choices. This
year, JLC sent scores of the six tunes
– “C Jam Blues,” “The Flaming Sword,”
“Jumpin’ Punkins,” “Old Man Blues,”
“Second Line,” and “Sophisticated Lady,”
to more than 900 schools in the U.S.
and Canada, and to American schools
in several countries.
JLC’s judges selected 15 ﬁnalists from
the 88 entrants. During the ﬁrst two days
of competition, May 4 and 5, Marsalis,
David Baker, a Pulitzer Prize nominee
and band leader, fellow bandleader David
Berger, and composer and jazz writer
Gunther Schuller chose the top three
entrants from among those 15.
On the meet’s ﬁnal day, May 6, the
ﬁnalists performed in competition; then
the JLC Orchestra, an all-star outﬁt of
devotees to Marsalis’s jazz vision, joined
each band in unjudged performance.
Marsalis then announced outstanding
soloist and section awardees, and ﬁnally
let the three ﬁnalists know how they
placed – third, second, or ﬁrst.
Four Washington State high schools
were among the 15 ﬁnalists this year:
Roosevelt, Garﬁeld, Edmonds-Woodway, and Mead (Spokane).
Roosevelt High School won the competition, as it did in 2002. It came second
in 2005 and 2001, and third in 2000. It
was a ﬁnalist in 2006, 2004, and 1999.
It has, then, been a ﬁnalist for eight of
the nine years that the competition has
admitted Western schools.
So has Garﬁeld High School, which was
again among the ﬁnalists this year. It won
the event in 2003 and 2004, came second
in 2002, and third in 2006; it won an
honorable mention in 2000 and 1999,
and was a ﬁnalist in 2005.
Edmonds-Woodway High School
was making its second appearance as
a ﬁnalist; the ﬁrst was in 2003. Mead
High School, from Spokane, also made
its second showing, after getting to the
Lincoln Center in 2004.
Several Washington State students won
best-soloist awards. Clarinet: Hannah
Jones (Edmonds-Woodway) & Carl
Majeau (Garﬁeld); alto saxophone: John
Cheadle (Garﬁeld) & Logan Strosahl
(Roosevelt); tenor sax: Joel Gombiner
& Devin Mooers (both Garﬁeld); piano:
Devon Yesberger (Edmonds-Woodway),
Benjamin Hamaji (Garfield), Scotty
Bemis (Roosevelt); banjo: Reed Ferris
(Roosevelt).
Outstanding-section awards went to
Roosevelt for its reed, trombone, trumpet, and rhythm sections, and to Mead
for its trombone section.
This year’s other two top-three ﬁnalists
were Agoura High School, from California, and Foxboro High School, from
Massachusetts.
June 2007 • Earshot Jazz • 7
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8 • Earshot Jazz • June 2007
Several other Washington schools
have made the finals during the last
nine years. Battle Ground (near Vancouver, WA) finished second last year.
Newport was a finalist in 2005 and
2001. Mountlake Terrace finished
third in 2005, won an honorable
mention in 2002, and was a finalist in
2000. Shorewood was an honorable
mention in 2005, and was a finalist in
2001 and 2000. Kentlake was a finalist
in 2001, as Kentridge was in 1999. Of
140 finalists since 1999, 31 have been
from Washington State.
Other components of the Essentially Ellington program are regional
festivals, curriculum materials, and a
summer band-director academy. The
program also includes an annual essay competition: students are asked to
describe the place of jazz in their lives.
This year’s winner was from Roosevelt,
too: It was Alex Dugdale.
In “Taking the ‘A’ Train,” he described
how an experience in a subway as he
traveled to the annual New York tapdancing festival exerted a powerful
force on him. He wrote: “I heard a
sound. Not the sound of the subway,
but a train of a different sort. I heard
a man playing Duke Ellington’s “Take
the “A” Train” on the steel drums. ...
I heard ... the quiet yet unmistakable
sound of a train rolling in at medium
swing. I put on my tap shoes, and
took the “A” train with the steel drum
player and we started jamming to it.
The people in the station started to
hear our conversation and watched
and listened as we spoke through the
music. As we conducted this train, the
crowd got with the beat, and followed
us on board.”
That experience alerted to him to
characteristics of jazz that he had
earlier missed, Dugdale wrote: “It was
not just music, but a language spoken
by all those who listen and play. Up
until that moment, I knew only the
rhythmic dialect of that language,
but I came away from jamming in the
subway with a thirst to be fluent in all
of its aspects.”
The upshot: He went this year to
Essentially Ellington with Roosevelt’s
band.
On Guitar, Dennis Rea
BY PETER MONAGHAN
Several of Dennis Rea’s projects (and there are many) are as
good as anything you’ll hear in
progressive and avant jazz.
That’s about the size of it.
Rea is, simply put, a jewel in
Seattle’s music crown, albeit one
that glitters less than it should,
due to his eclecticism (is he
jazzer, or rocker – why mince
categories?) and also to the incuriousness of too many ears.
It is also due, though, to Rea’s
complete lack of bluster and
swagger, at sharp odds with
guitarists with a fraction of his
talent who play to stadiums to
gobsmacked fans. His skills and
imagination are as large as the
venues he plays tend to be small.
So it goes.
Rea, who is in full musical bloom as he
approaches 50, has honed his enormous
skills over many years of ever-shifting
playing, whether here in Seattle or on
unlikely but fertile ground for jazz and
rock extensions: China and Taiwan.
His key current project, Moraine, is a
towering quintet that harks back to the
three years he proﬁtably spent in the two
Chinas. He has arranged for it a small
number of choice Chinese tunes, old
and recent, traditional and not, which
become gorgeous jazz- and rock-inﬂected
pieces in his and his colleagues’ hands.
But the group covers a lot of terrain,
drawing on “fractured bebop,” as Rea
puts it, as well as math-rock – crankedup, rhythmically complex rock – and
much more. Rea writes most of the
material, or arranges it, in the case of the
Chinese tunes, and plays guitar.
Moraines, as just about everyone in this
outdoors-obsessed town should know, are
those masses of rocks and sediment that
glaciers deposit along their borders. Moraine, the band, creates formidable ediﬁces of sound constructed from styles and
elements that coursing musical culture
has scour up and heaped at the margins
for the curious to deploy or enjoy.
own Axolotl, “went belly up,”
much to his disappointment.
Still, he says, “that presented
an opportunity to conduct a
thorough reassessment of my
musical goals.” He let go several of his many, varied activities in presenting, publicizing,
and organizing creative music,
particularly in the free-improv
scene. He had, for instance, put
in a stint as co-organizer of the
longrunning Seattle Improvised
Music Festival.
That left him time to complete
his book about the emergence
of a rock scene in China, which
he witnessed and took part in.
“After having worked on it in ﬁts
and starts for 10 years, I decided
to ge serious about it,” he says.
Photo by Daniel Sheehan
With his book out, he can concentrate on “what’s important
Listening to the electric-string-quartetplus-drums, you may ﬁnd yourself swept to me, in music,” without distraction
over ice ﬁelds or other little-considered by “whatever the passing musical trends
terrain. The project is the latest of many happen to be. I’ve honed in on what it is
assured, convincing Rea projects. With that speaks to me in music, and am unhis mastery of styles and mood, and his apologetically dishing it out for people.”
ability to shred in glorious guitar-rock In Moraine, “I don’t feel bound by genre
style as readily as to slip into lyrical in any way. We move from jazz to art tock
streams, he has amassed credits all over to monkeyed-up Chinese music.”
In addition to adapting Chinese pieces,
the map. He spent time in the band of
Chinese rock megastar Cui Jian (for that Rea has written several new pieces or refascinating story, read Rea’s book; see vived earlier works. Just as the repertoire
below); he has also taken part in a long crosses eras of Rea’s writing, the band
list of innovative Seattle jazz-ish bands; combines generations of players. Bassist
and rockers from big-name bands – King Mike Davidson, long a ﬁxture of Seattle
Crimson, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Sound- rock and punk, has known Rea since their
garden, Ministry – have been happy to groundbreaking 1991 concert tour of
China with Rea’s band, the Vagaries.
collaborate with him.
Alicia Allen, Moraine’s violinist, has for
Among local honors, he won a Golden
several
years been Rea’s colleague in the
Ear Award for Best Northwest Outside
Jazz Group in 2000 with the juggernaut band of the seriously undersung local
free-jazz quartet Stackpole, a furious, songster of the bleak, Eric Apoe.
Drummer Jay Jaskot is an old Rea
riveting improvising aﬀair with Gregg
Keplinger on drums, Wally Shoup on alto friend, master of many styles, and ultimately a proﬁcient in his own.
sax, and Geoﬀ Harper on bass.
Bassist Ruth Davidson is the band’s
Despite such acclaim, “after a lot of
X-factor.
“Ferociously talented,” as Rea
visibility and activity in the 1990s, I
slipped largely out of sight for a time,” puts it, she comes with an impressive
classical pedigree and a voracious appetite
Rea says.
Stackpole, and his other two major for instruments – cello, guitar, bass...
bands, Jeff Greinke’s LAND and his – and musical styles. She makes, as she
June 2007 • Earshot Jazz • 9
puts it, “free improv, speed metal, noise
rock, pretty melodies, and combinations
thereof ” with complicated, loud, and fast
upstarts Scary Bear and Malak.
Rea also has a jazz-rock improv outﬁt,
Iron Kim Style, that he calls “more of
a social musical arrangement than a
goal-driven project,” inspired by Olivier
Messiaen, electric-period Miles Davis,
and North Korean martial music... Well,
you get the picture.
Among Rea’s other projects, his most
unusual is Tempered Steel, an ampliﬁed,
electronically processed thumb-piano trio
with Ffej and Frank Junk.
Another, which Rea clearly cherishes,
is a duo with fellow guitarist Ed Petry
– “the most unique guitarist in Seattle,”
says Rea. “But he’s such an extreme wallﬂower that very few people get exposed
to his idiosyncratic genius.” A recording
that the two are working on may change
that, but probably not much.
By his own reckoning, Rea has “a penchant for assembling international casts
of musical characters in unusual places.”
In China in the late 1980s and early
1990s, with an evolving cast of foreign
residents, “against all odds, we managed
to generate some fairly respectable music,
but the experience of making music in
that context was at least as important.”
He still collaborates with old friends
from those days – some in Seattle, some
in Germany, where he spent some time
in 2005. With bassist and programmer
Andreas Vath, and keyboardist Volker
Wiedersheim, he recorded some tracks
for “the fusion record I always wanted
to make. I was very deeply inﬂuenced by
early jazz-rock fusion stuﬀ. Seattle hasn’t
been the right context to listen to that
kind of music in the last 10 years or so,
but with Andreas it seemed a natural.”
Rea says he will continue to pursue such
“legacy projects,” in Seattle if possible, of
friends from his China days.
They were on hand for tumultuous days
(the days of Tiananmen Square) that Rea
describes in his book, Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China
and Taiwan. Read all about it at Rea’s
web site. Suﬃce it to say, here, that Rea
demonstrates in its pages that his musical
talents are easily matched by his powers
of observation, description, and cultural
commentary.
10 • Earshot Jazz • June 2007
Play with Dennis Rea?
Hear Dennis Rea
Dennis Rea and Stuart Dempster are
looking for musicians born on July 7
or August 7 to take part in a concert on
07/07/07, their shared birthday (Rea’s
50th) and a date celebrated in Japan and
China in connection with the ‘Tanabata’
legend. Tanabata-born musicians will
improvise, perform tanabata-related
music, and ‘channel’ the spirits of July
7 musicians including Gustav Mahler
and Pinetop Perkins. To take part, write
[email protected]. (Concert takes
place July 7 at the Performance Space
at the Good Shepherd Center; 649
Sunnyside Ave N, Wallingford, 8 pm,
$5-15.)
Online: www.dennisrea.com and www.
myspace.com/dennisrea (links to sites with
sound clips, e.g. www.myspace.com/moraineseattle)
Friday, June 1: Moraine, Floating Leaves
Tea House (2213 NW Market St, Ballard,
7:30 pm, by donation).
Saturday, June 2: Moraine, w/ Diminished
Men, SS Marie Antoinette artists’ co-op
(1235 Westlake Ave N), 9:30pm.
July 3, Sunset Tavern: (5433 Ballard
Ave): Moraine opens for French prog-rock
legend Richard Pinhas who headed the
epochal band Heldon, a stunning fusion
of guitar rock, noise, and electronics
that showed the way for much that
came later in industrial and techno. With
drummer Antoine Paganotti (of Magma) and
laptoppiste Jérôme Schmidt.
Vancouver: Passport to Great Jazz
The Vancouver International Jazz Festival (June 22-July 1) continues to be
the most ambitious jazz event in North
America. Also indisputable is that, despite tightening borders, it’s still an easy
jaunt up there. And there’s something
for everyone. So, here are a few tips on
what might catch your fancy, regardless
of genre prejudices.
June 12
Festival warm-up: The incomparable,
Cape Verdean Cesaria Evora sings her
version of the islands’ mournful morna
ballad form, a relative of Portuguese fado
with more African inﬂections.
June 22
Legendary saxophonist Sonny Rollins
retains stunning, unfathomable inventiveness. Yeah, the band’s just there as
platform for his inexhaustible exploration
of jazz history and its geographic reach;
don’t complain, just soar along.
Osaka-born, Berlin-based pianist Aki
Takase performs her tribute to the
uproarious vocalist/pianist of yore and
for all time, Fats Waller. The project is
impressive not just because Takase has
recorded work by all manner of jazz
pioneers, from the trad to the avant,
but because in her Waller work, for
which she won the prestigious German
Record Critics Award, she collaborates
with – wow! – Nils Wogram trombone,
Eugene Chadbourne guitar/vocals, drum
legend Paul Lovens, and German bass
clarinet monster Rudi Mahall.
Chadbourne and Lovens also team up
for improvisations of a high order. Chadbourne has experimented to acclaim in
many genres, while Lovens, whether with
Globe Unity Orchestra, the Schlippenbach Trio, or in duo with Paul Lytton, has
been a celebrated experimentalist.
Talking about complete idiosyncratics, the electronic sound sculptor Amon
Tobin makes transcendent, visceral art
where many computer-wielding DJs are
mere arrivistes. He sculpts raw material
from jazz, hip hop, ambient elements,
dub, electronica, breaks, and strings.
June 23
Vancouver pianist Kris Davis, now well
set in New York, always presents distinctive, intricate compositions. Saxophonist
Tony Malaby, bassist Eivind Opsvik, and
drummer Jeﬀ Davis join her.
Bellevue-born trumpeter Cuong Vu, a
highly evolved, idiosyncratic player now
back in Seattle after establishing his renown in New York with his own bands
and with Pat Metheny, appears with his
sterling trio, with Stomu Takeishi electric
bass and Ted Poor drums.
Today, and the 25th, leading Swedish
piano experimentalist Sten Sandell brings
a stellar quartet with incomparable English saxophonist John Butcher and Scandinavian drum titan Paal Nilssen-Love. If
you haven’t heard Butcher play, do.
June 24
If you miss Butcher on the 23rd, you
can always see him today, in a trio with
Vancouver aces Torsten Müller (bass)
and Dylan van der Schyﬀ (drums).
The Vancouver meet features several of
the greatest big bands in jazz that don’t
resemble Ellington and Basie’s, other than
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June 2007 • Earshot Jazz • 11
in reach and quality. Here’s one, from
Denmark: Pierre Dørge’s New Jungle
Orchestra, 27 years into its startling
cocktail of jazz, cabaret, highlife, and
Asian and European styles.
Also: the duo of I’m-out-of-superlatives
guitarist Bill Frisell and pedal-steel guitar
wiz Greg Leisz, whom Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson, and Lucinda Williams have all
employed because he’s the best.
Highly renowned in Canada, but less so
down here, is “Canada’s greatest gift to
the piano since Oscar Peterson,” Oliver
Jones. With ﬁnesse, ﬂeetness, grace, masterful technique, and range, he sketches
lightly or hammers with force.
Catch Vancouver guitarist Gordon
Grdina’s two bands, Box Cutter and
Sketches, on the same bill (or, on June
26). The ﬁrst is a fresh chamber quartet
with clarinet wiz François Houle, while
Sketches is a ﬁne guitar/sax/drums trio.
Vienna-based Tunisian singer and oud
player Dhafer Youssef ’s Suﬁ-inspired and
jazz/rock/electronica-inflected music,
with tabla player, three violinists, and a
cellist, is “hypnotically sublime” (Jazzwise); today and tomorrow.
June 25
Brazilian diva of cool, singer-songwriter
Bebel Gilberto (daugher of demi-god
Joao Gilberto, creator of the bossa nova,
and vocalist Miucha, a collaborator with
Jobim and Sinatra) presents her seductively pop-electronica take on bossa.
Opening is a Cape Verdean revelation,
Tcheka, who adapts percussion beats to
guitar in the batuque style.
Also today, another chance to hear John
Butcher’s riveting sax extensions, with
bassist Torsten Müller, cellist Peggy Lee,
and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love.
Nilssen-Love also appears with pianist
Sten Sandell’s trio. Among Stendall’s
distinctions is his extension of modern art
12 • Earshot Jazz • June 2007
music and post-Paul Bley-&-Cecil Taylor
jazz. John Corbett in Down Beat praised
his “absolute polyrhythmic directness
(threes and two overlaid like an absolute
metronome!), startling vocal interjections and a sensational manipulation of
energy.” (See also June 26.)
Quebec sax ace François Carrier and his
trio will overdrive your brain, with hugely
talented bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel, a
Steve Lacy group vet.
June 26
Another big-band, this time UMO Jazz
Orchestra, from Helsinki.Thirty-two
years and 23 albums into it, they’ve superbly recorded Muhal Richard Abrams
and Miles Davis projects and arresting
renditions of tunes by fellow Finns.
Near-neighboring Swedes Sten Sandell
and trio are on the bill, too.
June 27
You inevitably labor in the shadows
when you’re, say, the younger brother of
Nat King Cole. Such is Freddy Cole, who
with any other brother would surely be
far more widely noted for his huge vocal
talent. Catch the quartet of “overall the
most maturely expressive male jazz singer
of his generation” (New York Times).
Or, go to another stylistic spectrum and
catch the saxophonist and clarinetist of
the powerful Nordic quartet Atomic,
Fredrik Ljungkvist, with his Yun Kan 5, a
free-wheeling quintet for sax, piano, bass,
drums, and tuba. (Also, June 28.)
June 28
You love him or you hate him, and you
get the feeling love doesn’t tempt him, in
your case: Don Byron. The clarinet virtuoso has presented projects of klezmer,
Igor Stravinsky, Sly Stone, and Herb Alpert, and now turns to Junior Walker. The
soul legend, Byron says, perfected “an
instrumental improvisational style out
of the gospel/blues techniques that were
transforming popular singing.” Byron’s
sextet includes vocalist Dean Bowman,
guitarist David Gilmore, and George
Colligan on Hammond B-3 organ.
Speaking of wizzes, been wondering
what’s become of Seattle piano wiz Aaron
Parks? In Vancouver, he appears in guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel’s New York group.
They’re on the same bill as Byron.
Also on this day: champion SFO turntable and ﬁlm-manipulator MIKE Relm;
Montreal’s Maxime Morin, aka Champion, purveyor of “minimal techno beats,
piercing blues-based song and layers of
twinkling, groaning, howling, crunching
guitars piled one on top of the other”; and
the quite popular pianist/singer/songwriter, Norah Jones, who unlike many
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label beat-ups occasionally lives up to her
billing, and huge sales.
June 29
Speaking of physically attractive female
jazz artists whom we middle-aged male
jazz scribes fall all over, the over-lauded
French-American one, Madeleine Peyroux, appears tonight. I don’t really get
what the fuss is about, with Peyroux, but
there’s something to be said for jazz interpretations of songs by Leonard Cohen,
Joni Mitchell, and the iconic dolphin
enthusiast Fred Neil.
Misha Mengelberg, gnomic Dutch
Misha Mengelberg, photo by Francesco Martinelli
piano re-creator, co-leader for eons of the
ICP Orchestra, concocts the darnedest
music, all art, no crap. He’ll do that here
with a Dutch/Canadian trio.
For that matter, no one plays French
horn jazz better than now-Seattleite Tom
Varner, who leads a trio, here, and also
appears in quartet with clarinet virtuoso
Francois Houle.
Making this a day of winds too-littleheard in jazz, Chicago’s ﬁne ﬂutist, Nicole Mitchell, fronts up with two other
Windy City titans, drummer Hamid
Drake and bassist Harrison Bankhead in
the Indigo Trio. (Also July 1.)
Potentially transporting are the Jazzland
Community presentations tonight and
tomorrow. The Norwegian label/stable
led by pianist/composer/producer Bugge
Wesseltoft includes incomparable vocalist Sidsel Endresen who has recorded
with Wesseltoft, often, and earlier, on
startling ECM discs. Jazzland also boasts
sax monster Hakon Kornstad’s electroacoustic Wibutee and “nujazz” guitarist
Eivind Aarset whose debut Electronique
Noir was “one of the best post-Miles
electric jazz albums,” per the NYT.
continued on page 23
June 2007 • Earshot Jazz • 13
Jazz Festivals – Summer & Fall
Gas may be three-ﬁfty but don’t let your
jazz elasticity of demand tumble before a
development such as that. You know it’s
all a plot by some cartel, somewhere...
Don’t give them the satisfaction.
Rather, indulge in jazz in the sun, or the
sunshowers. Much of that will be on tap
this summe, and into the fall.
Within a day or two’s drive from Seattle,
a variety of jazz gatherings will take place,
as below. They’re in urban hotspots, highsky mountain spots, sun-bleached seaside
spots, loaﬁng-about valley spots. Or they’re
right in the environs of Seattle itself.
Details are accurate at time of printing
– you might want to check websites for
breaking news, ticket availability, lastminute cancellations, and so forth.
And please do let us know (at
[email protected]) about any other
area jazz festivals we’ve missed.
Cathedral Park Jazz Festival
Pony Boy Records Jazz Picnic
Jazz Port Townsend
Pender Harbour Jazz Festival
Britt Festivals
Mt. Hood Jazz Festival
June 18-July 27
Britt Pavilion, Jacksonville OR
Roster: Herbie Hancock Quartet (June 18); Madeleine
Peyroux (June 23); Ahmad Jamal/Regina Carter Quintet
(July 8); David Sanborn/Tower of Power (July 27)
(800) 882-7488, (541) 773-6077; www.brittfest.org
Helena Jazz Jubilee
June 14-16; Helena MT
Roster: trad bands
(406) 495-1205; www.helenajazzjubilee.com
July TBA
Beneath St. John’s Bridge
Roster: TBA
http://www.cpjazz.com/
July 27-29
Various stages and venues, Port Townsend WA
Roster: Houston Person Trio, Vanda Brothers Latin
Jazz All Stars, Joe Locke/Roberta Gambarini, Festival
All Star Big Band, Roy Hargrove Quintet, others (Jazz
in the Clubs includes: Lynne Arriale, Nancy King, Dee
Daniels, Ignrid Jensen, Benny Green, Gary Smulyan,
Joe Locke, Birth of the Cool Nonet, Dave Peck, Dawn
Clement Trio, many others)
(360) 385-3102 x106, bill@centrum,org
www.centrum.org/jazz/
Jazz in the Valley
July 27-29
Various stages and venues, Ellensburg WA
Roster: Darrell Grant Trio, Eddie Daniels, Greta
Matassa, Michael Powers, Mel Brown, others
Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce,
(509) 925-2002, (888) 925-2204
www.jazzinthevalley.com/
August 3-4
Various venues, Gresham OR
Roster: Django Reinhardt Festival All-Stars, Christian
McBride Band, Lionel Loueke, Nicholas Payton Quintet,
others
(503) 661-2700; www.mthoodjazz.org/
98.9 Smooth Jazz Festival
September 9
Magnuson Park Amphitheatre, Seattle WA
Roster: TBA
(206) 522 2210; www.ponyboyrecords.com
September 14-16; Pender Habour BC
Roster: Marc Atkinson Trio, Jane Bunnett, Allan
Matheson Big Band, others
[email protected]; www.phjazz.ca
Anacortes Jazz Festival
September 1-2
Curtis Wharf & clubs, Anacortes WA
Roster: Jessica Williams Trio, others TBA
(360) 293-7911
Vancouver DixieFest
September 28-30
Sheraton Guildford, Surry BC
Roster: trad bands
(604) 987-6544; http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vdjs/
DjangoFest
September 19-23
Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, Langley WA
Roster: TBA
(360) 221-8268, (800) 638-7631
http://www.djangofest.com/nw/
Glacier Jazz Stampede
October 5-8; Kalispell MT
Roster: trad bands
(888) 888-2308; www.kalispellchamber.com/jazz/
Medford Jazz Jubilee
August 4-5
Chateu Ste. Michelle Winery, Woodinville, WA
Roster: Dave Koz, Mindi Abair, Al Jarreau, others
(425) 653-9455; www.kwjz.com
October 12-14; Medford OR
Roster: trad bands
(800) 599-0039, (541) 770-6972; www.medfordjazz.org
June 22-30
Various venues, Victoria BC
Roster: Holly Cole, Sonny Rollins, Chris Botti, Freddy
Cole, Oliver Jones, Madeleine Peyroux, others
Victoria Jazz Society,
(250) 388-4423; www.vicjazz.bc.ca/jazzfest/
Jazz & Oysters in Oysterville
October 17-21; Sun Valley ID
Roster: trad bands
(877) 478-5277; www.sunvalleyjazz.com
Vancouver International Jazz
Festival
August 24-26; Vancouver WA
Roster: TBA
(360) 906-0441; www.vancouverwinejazz.com
JazzFest International
June 22 - July 1
Various venues, Vancouver BC
Roster: (see this issue for details)
(604) 872-5200; www.coastaljazz.ca
Banff Summer Arts Festival
June 2-23
Banff Centre, Banff AB
Roster:began in May; remaining jazz acts include Dave
Douglas Septet (June 2), ICP Orchestra w/ Dave
Douglas (June 9); Banff Jazz Orchestra (June 18),
Banff Jazz Orchestra w/ Maria Schneider (June 23),
and jazz in the clubs
Information: (800) 413-8368, (403) 762-6301
www.banffcentre.ca/events/jazz/2007/
14 • Earshot Jazz • June 2007
August 19; Long Beach Peninsula WA
Roster: Ron Steen Group
(360) 665-4466; www.watermusicfestival.com
Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival
Bumbershoot Arts Festival
September 1-3 (Labor Day Weekend)
Seattle Center
Roster: TBA
(206) 281-7788; www.bumbershoot.org
Pentastic Hot Jazz Festival
September 7-9; Penticton BC
Roster: trad bands
(250) 770-3494; www.pentasticjazz.com/
Sisters Jazz Festival
September 14-16; Sisters OR
Roster: trad bands
(800) 549-1332; www.sistersjazzfestival.com
Swing ’n Dixie Jazz Jamboree
Earshot Jazz Festival
October 19 - November 4
Various venues, Seattle WA
Roster: Ahmad Jamal, John Zorn, Toots Thielemans,
Musafir, Fred Hersch Trio, Cyrus Chestnut w/ Kevin
Mahogany, Vieux Farka Touré, John Abercrombie,
many others
(206) 547-9787; www.earshot.org
Diggin’ Dixie at the Beach
November 2-4
Ocean Shores WA
Roster: trad bands
(360) 289-4094; users.techline.com/diggindixie/
Think Swing! New Orleans Jazz
Festival
November 7-11; Spokane WA
Roster: Trad bands
(509) 74-STAGE
www.myspace.com/thinkswing
Let’s just come right out and say it: ��
–Seattle Times
June 22 - July 1, 2007
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TICKETMASTER NORTHWEST 206.628.0888
JAZZ HOTLINE 1.888.438.5200
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June 2007 • Earshot Jazz • 15
A Great Day for Jazz in Seattle
Some 300 Seattle jazz musicians lined
the steps of Seattle’s City Hall on May 6
for a photo shoot marking Seattle’s long
history of cherishing and fostering the
art form.
Several generations of jazz players came
out to the shoot, where Pulitzer Prizewinning photographer Daniel Sheehan
was behind the shutter.
Trumpeter Thomas Marriott organized
the event.
The event was billed as “A Great Day
in Seattle,” echoing the much-celebrated
1958 photograph by Art Kane, “A Great
Day in Harlem,” which captured 57 of
the icons of American jazz of the day in
one astonishing image (see www.artkane.
com).
Posters of a photograph from the event
will go on sale next year, with proceeds to
beneﬁt MusiCares Foundation, a charitable arm of The Recording Academy that
provides ﬁnancial, medical, and personal
assistance to needy musicians.
The poster will be labeled, permitting
fans to see who the city can boast of
– our counterparts of the ﬁgures in the
1958 portrait.
There’ll be more news as the project
advances. The projected poster sale date
is July 2008.
Among those in attendance was Rick
Kitaeﬀ, a longtime jazz pianist in Seattle,
who describes his response to the event.
Rick Kitaeff Reports:
Sunday, May 6 was a special day for
the Seattle jazz community. Dubbed
Great Day in Seattle, the gathering on
the steps of the Federal Court House on
4th Avenue was an attempt to re-enact
for Seattle the 1958 group photo in
Harlem that included many of the jazz
greats of that period, including Count
Basie, Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie,
Coleman Hawkins, Thelonius Monk,
Art Blakey, Marian McPartland, Maxine
Sullivan, and Milt Hinton. A Great Day
in Harlem was also the subject of an
Academy Award-nominated documentary. While some of the local musicians
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On KBCS hear the `B’ sides and genres found nowhere else on
the dial, programmed by volunteers driven by their passion for
the music. From jazz to reggae, folk to modern global, hip-hop
to blues to electronica, you’ll hear it on KBCS.
��
We air social justice-focused programs like Democracy Now!,
along with locally produced public affairs shows Voices of
Diversity and One World Report. KBCS covers issues, places,
and people who don’t always make it to the front page of the
mainstream media. It’s radio that’s handcrafted here at home, by
hundreds of volunteers tuned into what’s local and what’s relevant.
Listener-supported,
Non-commercial
Community Radio
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16 • Earshot Jazz • June 2007
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Our purpose is to entertain, educate, and involve. KBCS is the
only station in the greater Seattle area offering ongoing training
opportunities. Become the media at KBCS.
were especially invited, the word went
out in the Seattle Times from Thomas
Marriott, the organizer, that every jazz
musician in the area was welcome to be
a part of the historic event. Hundreds
began to appear over an hour before the
shoot and lined up in the Court House
lobby to register and sign about thirty
photo frames. The photos would later be
auctioned for charity.
The gathering on the steps was an occasion for ample back-slapping reunions
and conversations with friends and
strangers who quickly became musical
comrades.
continued on page 18
Preview
Denis Colin Trio
w/ Gwen Matthews
June 27, 8pm
Langston Hughes Cultural Arts
Center
Denis Colin leads his trio, for over a decade one of France’s most-accomplished
jazz combos. His album, Etude de Terrain,
was chosen by a panel of leading French
critics from as Jazz Record of the Year
in 2000.
Colin is a bass clarinetist of great originality and improvisational skill, as Archie
Shepp recognized a few years ago when
he invited Colin into his quartet for a
stint as guest soloist. Their duo album
will appear later this year.
Also within the last few years, Colin
had an ongoing project with Minnesota
bassist Anthony Cox. He also has a current project, Colorphone, with ex-Soft
Machine bassist Hugh Hopper.
The Denis Colin Trio performs a heady
mix of originals saturated with musical
forms of the world, as well as distinctive
covers of such perhaps unlikely vehicles
for exciting jazz as Jimi Hendrix’s “Crosstown Traffic,” Crosby Stills & Nash’s
“Ohio,” Stevie Wonder’s “They Won’t
Go When I Go,” and John Coltrane’s
“Amen.”
GRETA MATASSA
In his trio, which until recently performed only Colin originals, the bass
Vocal/Rhythm Section
clarinetist is accompanied by classiWorkshops
cally trained cellist Didier Petit, famed
Four
weeks
of 1/2-hour sessions with
in France for his long history of jazz
one of Seattle’s top rhythm sections and
experimentation, and percussionist Pablo vocalists. Final concert at Tula’s, Seattle’s
Cueco, who plays the zarb (a Persian
premier jazz club, w/ optional recording.
Workshops every month. Cost: $250
equivalent of the dumbek frame drum).
Limited to 8 vocalists. 206-937-1262
One critic compared the combo to the
gretamatassa.com (see Teaching page)
legendary group Oregon, “if they’d originated from Tehran.”
For their ﬁrst appearance in Seattle, the
trio appears, as it now often does, with
Minneapolis gospel and blues singer
Gwen Matthews. Her own project is
Songs for Swans, which has recently
toured Europe and major North American jazz festivals.
As the trio demonstrated on Something
in Common (Sunnyside, 2004), it is “one
of the most poetic groups in contempoEarshot Jazz Magazine, 1-unit vertical ad
rary jazz [with] a magniﬁcent sound,” as
height, 3-1/4
Télérama said. In his review in AllAboutwidth,
2-3/8
Jazz, Matthew Werthrich wrote: “Th
e
group’s repertoire fuses diverse streams
of the African-American musical tradiClient: Greta Matassa, 206-937-1262
tion,” whether performing Wyclef Jean’s
“Diallo,” in which they blend reggae
and hip-hop “with a folk sensibility,”Designer:
or
Susan Pascal, 206-932-5336
Hendrix’s “If 6 Was 9,” which they render
as “a hip-hop/free-jazz chant.”
Revised 1-18-06
“For three French players to interpret
this material with the intent of examining black culture takes a big risk,” said
Werthrich. “Yet they keep the music from
becoming derivative.”
For French jazz critic, Jean Rochard,
“Colin stands apart on the French scene.”
He has, says Rochard, found a way into
jazz’s future without needing “to take
refuge in a supposedly radical pose.
Colin’s evolution, reﬁned and sure, lies
in his constant desire for a real exchange
between himself and the public.”
Admission $14/12, Langston Hughes
Center, 104 17th Ave S, Seattle, (206)
684-4757
June 2007 • Earshot Jazz • 17
Jazz Cruise
June 10, 3-6pm
Lakes Union & Washington
In celebration of the 85th anniversary
of the Steamboat Virginia V, and to recall
the infamous Seattle Jazz Society cruises
of the 1960s, a one-time, summer-afternoon jazz cruise will leave from the South
Lake Union Heritage Wharf. Passengers
may board from 2:30pm; music starts at
3pm; the boat departs at 3:30pm.
In addition to hearty light hors d’oeuvres
and hearty cocktails, there’ll be plenty of
live jazz from Boatswain Clarence Acox
and his ﬁne, swashbuckling Quintet.
This event is a collaboration of the
Virginia V Foundation, Earshot Jazz,
and nautical jazz fan, Jim Wilke, the
Pluggd
www.pluggd.com/tag/jazz
Find
Jazz
Podcasts
Photo, from page 18
Many long-time jazz icons of the Seattle scene were recognizable, and a few
genuine jazz legends, like Ernestine Anderson and Buddy Catlett, also appeared.
Standards of dress varied widely, ranging
from formal wear and ﬂamboyant hats
to “good enough for jazz.” Perhaps some
were mindful of Thelonious Monk’s
www.pluggd.com/tag/jazz
Daniel Sheehan
Pluggd, Inc.
122 S. Washington Street
Seattle, WA 98104
www.pluggd.com
18 • Earshot Jazz • June 2007
host of the nationally syndicated radio
program Jazz After Hours. Jim will emcee
the event, and dispatch anyone caught
not having fun for a good keelhauling.
With so hardy a seaman at the helm, you
should sail as safely as you do swingingly.
In the 1990s a $6.5 million restoration
brought the Virginia V improved wood,
a new certiﬁed boiler, and a U.S. Coast
Guard Passenger Boat License. The ship
retains the Heﬀernan Iron Works engine
built in 1898 in Pioneer Square. The ship
is a National Historic Landmark Vessel
under the care of the non-proﬁt Virginia
V Foundation.
$45 adults, $80 couple, $20 under 12.
Cash bar. Reservations (required): (206)
624-9119; [email protected]; www.
virginiav.org/ride.html. Info: Earshot Jazz,
206-547-6763.
choice of an all-white suit, making him
stand out in the 1958 Harlem photo. I
found myself standing on the steps beside
Gerry Hammond, a veteran of jazz scenes
in other American cities, who was making
the point strongly that this is what Seattle
needs - to assert its jazz identity like the
great jazz scenes of cities like New York,
Boston, and Detroit.
Finally, the super-wide lens took in the
sprawling group and everyone reluctantly
dispersed. I’m sure that others were left
with the impression I had – that this was
a rare aﬃrmation of the survival of the
Seattle jazz community.
Rick Kitaeﬀ is a pianist and composer who
performs with Jazz Quintessence.
The organizers of Great Day in Seattle,
Thomas Marriott, Chad McCullough,
Jane Peck, and Greg Williamson, write:
“What a Great Day! We wanted to
thank you for your participation and
patience during the day’s activities.
We are all very excited to see how the
photograph turned out. Check in to the
website (www.agreatdayinseattle.com) for
details on the release of the photograph
and how to claim your poster. If you
have any candid shots from the day that
you would like to share send them along
through the website and we will post as
many as we can. We would especially
like to thank Daniel Sheehan, City Year,
The Mayor’s Oﬃce of Film and Music,
Althea Cudaback, Innervisions Posters &
Framing, Ron and Chris Hudson, Matt
Jorgensen, Tim Tyler, Curt Weiss and The
Seattle Channel, Gogerty Stark Marriott
Inc., Paciﬁc Northwest Chapter of the
Recording Academy, and most of all our
great jazz family.”
Pharaoh Sanders, Edmonia Jarrett, Nancy
King, Ingrid Jensen, Louis Moutin, Hadley
Caliman, Buddy Catlett, John Clayton,
Ron Steen, Chuck Deardorf, Reade Whitwell, Mercer Ellington, Jane Ira Bloom, and
Bobby Previte.
Practice This!
Dawn
Clement
Intervals
Pianist Dawn Clement is one of the busiest performers and educators in the Paciﬁc
Northwest. In 2003, she released her ﬁrst
album, Hush, on Conduit Records. Other
highlights include a performance at the
Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.) as one
of ﬁve ﬁnalists in the Mary Lou Williams
Jazz Piano Competition, in 2006; an invitation to compete at the 3rd International
Martial Solal Jazz Piano Competition in
Paris, in 2002; Earshot Jazz Golden Ear
awards for Best Emerging Artist of 2000,
Best Jazz Quartet and Best Album of 2003
for her performance with the legendary
trombonist Julian Priester (In Deep End
Dance), and a nomination for Earshot Jazz
Record of the Year in 2004 for Hush. She
has performed with such notable artists as
In music, an interval is the distance between two notes. All music is composed
of intervals. Each interval has its own,
familiar sound. For instance, what we call
a perfect fourth (an example of a perfect
fourth is C to F) is the ﬁrst two notes of
“Here Comes the Bride,” a song that most
people know. Think of the part of the tune
that is “Here comes” – that is the sound
of a perfect fourth. Another example of
a common interval is a major sixth (C to
A), which is the ﬁrst interval in the song
“My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.”
Each interval has its own, specific
sound and its own name; some of them
have multiple names. Here are all of the
intervals and examples of each interval.
Each example will use C as the ﬁrst note,
but an interval is the space between any
two notes, so they don’t have to start on
the note C.
Minor Second – C to C#
Major Second – C to D
Minor Third – C to Eb
Major Third – C to E
Perfect Fourth – C to F
Augmented Fourth – C to F# (also
called a Diminished Fifth or a Tri-tone)
Perfect Fifth – C to G
Minor Sixth – C to G#
Seattle Drum School
www.thelabatsds.com
Summer Workshops include:
Saturday Jazz Buffett
Jazz Combo Classes
Performance Ear Training
Intro to Piano
Reading Band
Rock Band Camps
Drum Camps
(camps taught at both locations)
ou
v is i t
r n ew
own
t
e
g
r
Geo nch
B ra . Ba i ley
Com
e
10 S
0
1
t
a
Seattle: 12510 15th Ave NE - 206.364.8815
Georgetown: 1010 S. Bailey - 206.763.9700
drum, guitar, bass, piano, trumpet, trombone, woodwind & DJ lessons available
Major Sixth – C to A
Minor Seventh – C to Bb
Major Seventh – C to B
Octave – C to C
When improvising, I like to use the intervals in the melody of a tune to play oﬀ
of. If the last two notes of a tune’s melody
are an interesting interval, rather than just
using the last two notes as a starting place
to improvise, I can think of the interval
between those two notes as a starting
point. Then I can play that interval over
the chord changes to the tune.
So, if I start with a sixth at the beginning of a solo, I can keep playing sixths
and move them around to ﬁt the chords,
rather than just playing any notes in the
chord and hoping to form them into a
melodic solo.
If I use the same interval a few times
in a row, it can hook the listener better
because even if the notes are diﬀerent, the
space between them stays the same, giving the improvisation a more organized
sound and feel.
Some tunes are composed of only one
type of interval. Thelonious Monk’s
composition “Mysterioso” is all major
sixths moving up and down. The idea
or concept of moving one type interval
can be used when improvising as well as
composing. Intervals can also be used to
shape the sound of a chord.
Examples of this can be heard by visiting
the Earshot Jazz website and downloading the audio version of this article at
www.earshot.org.
Practice This! is an educational project organized by
Thomas Marriott for Earshot
Jazz with sponsorship from
The Seattle Drum School. Each
month in Earshot Jazz a new
lesson by a different local jazz
artist will appear for students
to learn from and for non-musician readers to gain insight
into the craft of improvising.
An expanded online version
of the lesson can be downloaded at www.earshot.org.
June 2007 • Earshot Jazz • 19
1 FRIDAY
C* Duo Juum, Chapel Performance Space,
gschapel.blogspot.com/, 8
C* Marc Smason, Columbia City Beatwalk
(Bookworm Exchange, 4860 Rainier Ave S), 7
& 10
EB Jason Parker Quartet CD release, w/ Josh
Rawlings (piano), Evan Flory-Barnes (bass), &
D’Vonne Lewis (drums), $10, 7
EB And How! Quintet, $7, 10
FL Moraine, 7:30
HS Jon Hamar Trio, Jazz & Sushi series, 7:30
JA Kevin Eubanks, 7:30 & 9:30
JB Michael Powers CD release
TU Susan Pascal Quartet, $12. 8:30
2 SATURDAY
C* Moraine, Diminished Men, Sugar Skulls, SS
Marie Antoinette (1235 Westlake Ave N)
C* Dean Moore, Chapel Performance Space,
gschapel.blogspot.com/, 8
C* Degenerate Art Ensemble, Sunship, Seattle
Harmonic Voices, figeater; Sounds Outside
series, Cal Anderson Park, 2-8pm, free.
C* Marc Smason & the Katatonics, McCormick
Park, Duvall, 4:45 & 5:30
C* UW Women’s Vocal Jazz ensembles, w/ Daniel
Rossi, trombonist; Brechemin Auditorium,
UW School of Music, $5, 206-685-8384, www.
music.washington.edu/events; 7:30
C* Far Corner, Wayward Coffeehouse (8570
Greenwood Ave N, 706-3240), 8
BP Karen Plato Trio, 8
EB Tom Baker Quartet, 7
EB Momentum Jazz Quartet, 10
JA Kevin Eubanks, 7:30 & 9:30
TU Kelley Johnson Quartet, $12, 8:30
UW Vocal Jazz Night III, 7:30
3 SUNDAY
C* Pearl Django, Seattle Jazz Vespers, Seattle
First Baptist Church, Seneca & Harvard, 3256051, www.SeattleFirstBaptist.org/SJV, 6
C* Ernestine Anderson, Greenwood Senior Center
benefit, Taproot Theater (312 N 85th St, 2976370; www.greenwoodseniorcenter.org/).
C* Washington Middle School, New School,
Garfield High jazz bands w/ Michael Powers
Group, Concerts in the Park series, Seward
Park Amphitheater, free, 1
JA Kevin Eubanks, 7:30
NO Jay Thomas Big Band
TU Reggie Goings/Hadley Caliman Quintet, $7, 3
TU Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra, $5, 8
3 SEED CONCERT
SouthEast Effective Development (SEED) and
the Seward Park Environmental & Audubon
Center launch SEED’s 30th annual Concerts
in the Park series. Featuring guitarist Michael
Powers’ group, area school jazz bands, studentled nature tours, food, eagles’ nests, old growth
forest, and a pottery art studio, this community
celebration is at Seward Park from 1-5pm. On the
bill are the award-winning Garfield High band,
Washington Middle School Senior Jazz Band, and
the New School Ensemble. Michael Powers, with
Doug Barnett on bass and Dave Austin on drums
celebrate the release of Cinco de Michael. Power
will also perform with the Garfield Jazz Band.
Hayrides and park tours, too. Info: 760-4286.
4 MONDAY
C* Jim Knapp Orchestra, Seattle Drum School
(12510 15th Ave NE; 364-8815; $10/$5), 8
TU Greta Matassa jam, $7, 8
4 JIM KNAPP ORCHESTRA
The Jim Knapp Orchestra is well known for
its original style, superior writing, and virtuoso
performers, including saxophonists Mark
Taylor, Steve Treseler, and Stuart MacDonald,
trumpeters Jay Thomas and Vern Sielert, French
hornist virtuoso Tom Varner, and trombonists
Jeff Hay and Chris Stover. The rhythm section
is John Hansen on piano, Phil Sparks on bass,
and drummer Matt Jorgensen. The brass is
driven by the lead trumpet of Brad Allison, and
anchored by the baritone sax of Jim Dejoie. Paul
Taub on flutes secures the top end. The L.A.B.
performance space at the Seattle Drum School
is a small theatre with perfect sound and an
excellent piano. It is all ages, no alcohol, and
has easy parking. The Orchestra has recorded
On Going Home (Seabreeze), Things For Now (ARecords) and Secular Breathing (Origin).
5 TUESDAY
EB Chuck Ogmund Trio, 7
JA Avishai Cohen Trio, 7:30
TU Jay Thomas Big Band, $5, 8
6 WEDNESDAY
C* John Bishop, Hendrix Electric Lounge,
Columbia City Theater (4916 Rainier Ave. S.,
206-723-0088), 8
EB
EB
JA
HL
TB
TR
TU
Jennifer Hoyt, 6
Vocal jam w/ Carrie Wicks; $5; 8
Avishai Cohen Trio, 7:30
John Bishop, 8
Katy Bourne, 6:30
Native Blue, 7:30
SCCC Jazz Orchestra/Lonnie Mardis, $7:30, 8
6 JENNIFER HOYT
The winner of this year’s Seattle-Kobe Sister
City jazz vocalist competition performs at Egan’s
Ballard Jam House.
6/13/20/27 HENDRIX LOUNGE
The jazz series Hendrix Electric Lounge, held
each week adjacent to the Columbia City Theater
(4916 Rainier Ave S, 723-0088), features artists
on the sterling Origin Records label. It’s all good,
in an intimate room in which five people feels
like a crowd – ah, nice! – and admission is dead
inexpensive at $5 (free w/ theater stub).
7 THURSDAY
C* Chris Pugh/Jack Gold Molina CD release w/
Sidewalk Frequencies, Blue Moon (712 NE
45th St), 9
C* Ziggurat Quartet, NW Piano Showcase Series,
Sherman Clay/Steinway Pianos (1624 4th Ave,
6220-7580), $5-15 sliding scale, 7:30
EB Students, Ed Hartman Percussion Studio, $5, 7
EB Ed Hartman & Northwest Passage, $7, 9
JA Joshua Redman Trio, 7:30
TU Tony Bonjorno showcase, $8, 8
7 PIANO SHOWCASE
The Ziggurat Quartet is pianist Bill Anschell,
saxophonist Eric Barber, bassist Doug Miller,
and drummer Byron Vannoy, four leaders of
the Seattle scene. They promise passion for
rhythmic experimentation that drives their
complex original compositions. Many of the
pieces are deeply influenced by the rhythms
of East Indian music, as well as jazz and
contemporary chamber music. Coupled with
stellar improvising, the result is a virtuoso mix of
engaging, spontaneous, and compelling music.
Members of the quartet bring a personal voice
and broad aesthetic horizons to the ensemble,
each charting new directions for jazz quartet.
8 FRIDAY
C* DXArts group show, Chapel Performance
Space, gschapel.blogspot.com/, 8
Get your gigs listed!
To submit your gig information go to www.earshot.org/data/gigsubmit.asp or e-mail us at [email protected] with
details of the venue, start-time, and date. As always, the deadline for getting your listing in print is the 15th of the previous month. The online calendar is
maintained throughout the month, so if you are playing in the Seattle metro area, let us know!
CALENDAR KEY
AY
BP
C*
CP
DC
DH
EB
FL
GT
HL
JA
JB
NI
Asteroid Cafe, 3601 Fremont Ave N, 547-9000
Bake’s Place, 4135 Providence Point Dr SE, Issaquah, 425-391-3335
Concert and Special Events
C&P Coffee, 5612 California Ave SW, 933-3125
Dulces Latin Bistro, 1430 34th Ave, 322-5453
Dexter & Hayes Public House, 1628 Dexter Ave N, 283-7786
Egan’s Ballard Jam House, 1707 NW Market St, 789-1621
Floating Leaves Teahouse,
Gallery 1412, 1412 18th Ave, 2213 NW Market St
Hendrix Electric Lounge, Columbia City Theater, 4916 Rainier Ave S, 723-0088
Jazz Alley, 2033 6th Ave, 441-9729
Jazzbones, 2803 6th Ave, Tacoma, 253-396-9169
Nijo Sushi, 83 Spring St, 340-8880
20 • Earshot Jazz • June 2007
NO
OW
PC
SB
SF
SY
TB
TC
TD
TI
TR
TU
WB
WI
New Orleans Restaurant, 114 First Ave S, 622-2563
Owl ’n’ Thistle, 808 Post Ave, 621-7777
Plymouth Congregational Church, 1217 6th Ave
Seamonster Lounge, 2202 N 45th St, 633-1824
Serafina, 2043 Eastlake Ave E, 323-0807
Salty’s on Alki, 1936 Harbor Ave SW, 526-1188
Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria, 4918 Rainier Ave S, 721-3501
Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria, 4411 Stone Way N., 633-3800
Triple Door, 216 Union St, 838-4333
Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park, 366-3333
Trospers Bar and Grill, 707 Trospers Road S.W., Tumwater, (360) 753-6626
Tula’s, 2214 2nd Ave, 443-4221
Wasabi Bistro, 2311 2nd Ave, 441-6044
Whiskey Bar, 2000 2nd Ave, 443-4490
EB
HS
JA
TU
Nikki DeCaires, $7, 10
Buddy Catlett Quartet, Jazz & Sushi, 7:30
Joshua Redman Trio, 7:30 & 9:30
Bill Anschell Trio, $12, 8:30
9 SATURDAY
C*
BP
EB
EB
JA
SF
TU
Native Blue, Olympia Farmer’s Market, 11
Kelley Johnson Trio, 8
Julie Cascioppo Experience, $10, 7
Passarim, $7, 10
Joshua Redman Trio, 7:30 & 9:30
Karin Kajita, Kay Bailey & Mark Bullis, 9
Greta Matassa Quartet, $12, 8:30
10 SUNDAY
C* Jazz Cruise aboard Virginia V, Lake
Union and Lake Washington, 3-6pm;
reservations required; $45 adults, $80
couple, $20 children under 12. Cash bar
on board. Reservations: (206) 624-9119;
[email protected]; www.virginav.org/ride.
html. Info: Earshot Jazz, 206-547-6763.
C* Chicago 7, Sculpture Garden (790 N. 34th St.,
675-8875), 2
JA Joshua Redman Trio, 7:30
NO John Holte Radio Rhythm Orchestra
TU Jazz Police Big Band, $5, 3
TU Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra, $5, 8
12 TUESDAY
C* Deardorf/Peterson Group, Eastside Jazz Club,
Sherman Clay Pianos (1000 Bellevue Way
NE, Bellevue; 425-274-0633; $12/6 includes
refreshments)
C* The Deardorf/Peterson Group, Sherman Clay
Piano Store (1000 Bellevue Way, Bellevue, 425454-0633), 7:30
EB Victor Noriega & Ariel Lapidus, 7
TU Emerald City Big Band, $5, 8
12 DEARDORF/PETERSON GROUP
Drawing from their many years of touring
and recording with artists like Kenny Barron,
Art Lande, Bob Moses, Paul Motian, and dozens
of others, bassist Chuck Deardorf & guitarist/
composer Dave Peterson, educators at Cornish
College for 25 years, man this alternately
reflective and fiery quartet with drummer John
Bishop. Their new disc, Portal, showcases the
compositions of Dave Peterson as well as new
takes on Wayne Shorter’s “Ana Maria” and the
classic “Invitation.” For this show features, their
guest is pianist Bill Anschell. All-ages; 7:30pm,
Sherman Clay Pianos (1000 Bellevue Way NE,
Bellevue; 425-274-0633).
13 WEDNESDAY
EB Vocal jam w/ Carrie Wicks, $5, 8
HL David White Trio, 8
TU Vern Sielert Dektet CD release, $7, 8
14 THURSDAY
C* Beacon Hill Orchestra w/ Marc Smason,
Nana’s Soup House (3418 NE 55th St), 7
C* Mimi Fox Trio, Art of Jazz series, Seattle Art
Museum, 5, free w/ museum admission
EB David White Trio w/ David White (guitar),
Doug Miller (bass), & Phil Parisot (drums), 9
EB Gayle Cloud, $15, 7
TU SCCC Jazz Ensemble w/ Brian Kirk, 7:30, $6
15 FRIDAY
BP
EB
EB
HS
NO
TI
TU
Mimi Fox featuring Greta Matassa, 8
Katy Bourne w/ Randy Halberstadt, $10, 7
How Now Brown Cow, $5, 10
Chuck Kistler Bebop Trio, Jazz & Sushi, 7:30
Two Scoops Moore
Chicago 7, 7:30
Hadley Caliman Quartet, $12, 8:30
16 SATURDAY
C* Native Blue, Evergreen State College KAOS
Stage, 2:40
C* Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, We
Love Pops: A Tribute to Louis Armstrong,
Nordstrom Recital Hall (Benaroya Hall), 7:30
BP Greta Matassa, 8
EB Lee Pence Trio, $5, 7
EB Sunship w/ Stuart Dempster, $7, 10
TU Richard Cole Quartet, $12, 8:30
16-17 SATCHMO
Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra presents
“We Love Pops: A Tribute to Louis Armstrong,”
with special guest trumpeters Jon Pugh, Vern
Sielert, Tatum Greenblatt, and other leading
Seattle jazz trumpeters, including the SRJO’s
own Jay Thomas and Thomas Marriott. But
wait, there’s more. Bernie Jacobs, some jazz
observers’ favorite vocalist in the region, who
(as vocalist and multihornman) has recently
taken over from Floyd Standifer at the late
great’s Wednesday night gig at the New Orleans
Restaurant, will appear, as will bassist Buddy
Catlett, one of the greatest jazzmen this city
has ever produced, and one who graced the
bandstand and recording studios with Satchmo
for five years. Selections include “Wild Man
Blues,” “Do You Know What It Means To Miss New
Orleans,” “Basin Street Blues,” and much more.
At Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall, on
Saturday, June 16, at 7:30pm, and Sunday June
17, at Kirkland Performance Centre, at 3pm.
Tickets: $16-34, from SRJO (206-523-6159),
www.srjo.org, Kirkland Performance Center,
Benaroya Hall (walkup only).
17 SUNDAY
Recurring Weekly Performances
MONDAYS
NO New Orleans Quintet
WB City Jazz, 9:30
TUESDAYS
DC Eric Verlinde, 6:30
DH Tim Kennedy Trio
NO HoloTrad Jazz
OW Bebop & Destruction jam
WB Louisiana Jazz, 9:30
WEDNESDAYS
DC Eric Verlinde, 6:30
NI Buckshot Jazz, 6:30
NO Floyd Standifer Tribute
Group, 8
PC Susan Pascal/Murl Allen
Sanders/Phil Sparks, Noon
WB Jazz & R&B, 9:30
WI Ronnie Pierce Ensemble, 10
THURSDAYS
AY Space Girlz jam, 9:30
NO Ham Carson Quintet, 7
SB Drunken Masters, 10:30
WB Brazilian Jazz, 9:30
SATURDAYS
SY Victor Janusz, 10am
SUNDAYS
SY Victor Janusz, 10am
C* Katy Bourne, Edmonds Arts Festival, 3
��
SUNDAY, June 10, 3-6 pm
Clarence Acox Quintet
Come aboard the S.S. Virginia V and celebrate
the 85th anniversary of the historic steamboat.
Reservations required. Tickets $45/person
or $80/couple. Call (206) 624-9119 or email
[email protected].
The S.S. Virginia V
860 Terry St. N, Seattle, WA 98109
www.virginiav.org/ride.html#rides
Sponsored by the Virginia V Foundation, Earshot Jazz and Jazz After Hours
June 2007 • Earshot Jazz • 21
C* Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, We Love
Pops: A Tribute to Louis Armstrong, Kirkland
Performance Center, 3
NO South Sound Youth Jazz, 3
NO Reggie Goings Band, 8
TU Jay Thomas Big Band, $5, 4
TU Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra, $5, 8
18 MONDAY
TU Kelley Johnson jam, $7, 8
19 TUESDAY
EB
JA
TC
TU
Bill Anschell Quartet, 7
Melvin Sparks B3 Trio, 7:30
Katy Bourne, 6:30
Roadside Attraction big band, $5, 8
20 WEDNESDAY
EB Douglas Acosta’s South of the Border: Songs
from Sinatra & Jobim, w/ Paul Sawyer &
Clipper Anderson, $8, 6
EB Vocal jam w/ Carrie Wicks, $5, 8
HL Big Neighborhood, 8
JA Melvin Sparks B3 Trio, 7:30
TR Native Blue, 7:30
21 THURSDAY
EB Karin Kajita Quintet, Tom Baker Quartet, Jack
Straw Artist Showcase, 7
JA Robert Glasper Trio, 7:30
TU Sonando, $10, 8
21 JACK STRAW SHOWCASE
JUNE MUSIC
1-2
3
The Mark Whitman
Band
Jay Thomas Big Band
8-9
Becki Sue & Her Big
Rockin’ Daddies
10
John Holte Radio
Rhythm Orchestra
directed by Pete
Leinnonen
15
Two Scoops Moore
16
Mark Fresne Band
17
South Sound Youth
Jazz (3-6pm)
Reggie Goings Band
(8-11pm)
22- 23
The Rent Collectors
24
Reuel Lubag Trio
29-30
Kim Fields Band
Regular Weekday Shows are Free!
MON: New Orleans Quintet
TUES: Holotrad Jazz
WED: Tribute to Floyd
Standifer Group
THU: Ham Carson & Friends
FOR DINNER RESERVATIONS
CALL 622-2563
22 • Earshot Jazz • June 2007
Pianist Karin Kajita’s quintet and guitarist Tom
Baker’s quartet appear in the Jack Straw series,
a bi-annual concert presenting artists in the
Jack Straw Artist Support and Artist Assistance
Program. The Tom Baker Quartet will perform
songs from Gospel of the Red Hot All-Stars, an
“operatorio” based on texts by Margaret Atwood,
and original jazz compositions. At Egan’s Ballard
Jamhouse, 1707 NW Market St, 7pm; admission
$10; reservations recommended: reservations@
ballardjamhouse.com.
22 FRIDAY
C* Doug Haire, Chapel Performance Space,
gschapel.blogspot.com/, 8
C* Native Blue, HG Bistro (1618 E. Main Ave.,
Puyallup, 253-845-5747), 8:30
EB Jump Ensemble, $5, 7
EB Deal’s Number, 10
HS Greg Williamson Quartet, Jazz & Sushi, 7:30
JA Terence Blanchard, 7:30 & 9:30
TU Marriott Brothers Jazz Quintet, $12, 8:30
23 SATURDAY
C* However, Chapel Performance Space,
gschapel.blogspot.com/, 8
C* Seattle Jazz Singers “Jazz in June,” Edmonds
Ctr for the Arts (410 Fourth Ave N, Edmonds,
425-771-0824), $12, 7:30
BP Dina Blade’s “Let’s Fall in Love,” romantic
songs of 1930/40s), dinner & show 7, show 8
BP Butch Harrison Quartet, 8
EB Buckshot Jazz w/ Karen Shivers, $10, 10
JA Terence Blanchard, 7:30 & 9:30
TU Milo Petersen & Jazz Disciples, $12, 8:30
24 SUNDAY
C* Karin Kajita Jazz Quintet, Shoreline Arts
Festival, 10
C* Dennis Rea & Friends, Le Pichet (1931 First
Ave), free
CP Marc Smason, 3
JA Terence Blanchard, 7:30
NO Reuel Lubag Trio
TU Fairly Honest Big Band, $5, 4
TU Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra, $5, 8
26 TUESDAY
C* Bill Frisell & Friends, Lincoln Theater,
Mt. Vernon, 7:30; tickets $18-29, www.
lincolntheatre.org
EB Julie Olson (vocals) w/ Josh Rawlings (piano),
Evan Florey-Barnes (bass), Jamael Nance
(drums), $7, 7
TU Hal Sherman’s Monday Night Jazz Orch., $7, 8
26, 28-JULY 1 FRIENDS
OF
FRISELL
Idiosyncratic guitar master Bill Frisell
performs with an all-star cast of some longtime
collaborators and one or two newer ones, too.
With bassist Tony Scherr (Sex Mob, Joey Baron’s
Killer Joey, Maria Schneider Orchestra, Lounge
Lizards...) and drummer Rudy Royston (JD Allen
Trio, Ron Miles’ Blossom...), with special guests
Ron Miles (trumpet) and Chris Cheek (sax). Frisell
is just back from Ireland, where he performed
with Celtic violin wiz Martin Hayes and guitarist
Dennis Cahill, erstwhile residents of our fair
city. He arrives back in the Northwest, first for a
one-night stand with Scherr and Royston at the
Lincoln Theater in Mt. Vernon, and then these
four nights at Jazz Alley.
27 WEDNESDAY
C* Dennis Colin Trio w/ Gwen Matthews,
Langston Hughes Center (104 17th Ave S.
684-4757), admission $14/12, 8
EB Billy Brandt, 6
EB Vocal jam w/ Carrie Wicks, $5, 8
HL Matt Jorgensen, 8
TU Greta Matassa jazz workshop, $8, 8
28 THURSDAY
EB EMS - Ethan Cudaback (drums), Seth
Alexander (sax), Matt Norman (keys), 10
EB Martine Bron, $8, 7
JA Bill Frisell & Friends, 7:30 & 9:30
TU Andrienne Wilson vocal showcase, $8, 8
28 MARTINE BRON,
DE LA
SUISSE
Martine Bron was in these parts early this
century, and recorded some very tasty tracks with
Dawn Clement and other Cornish luminaries. She
has an affecting voice in rendering standards, all
the more so for her accented vocal delivery, which
makes songs like “Misty” and “The Thrill Is Gone”
sound all the more painful, which – let’s face it
– a good proportion of standards are, if carefully
observed. The Swiss scene is extraordinarily
fertile, although more for its avant-garde
explorations than for fine, mainstream vocals
like these. At Egan’s, the perfect intimate setting
to catch every inflection.
29 FRIDAY
C* Big Neighborhood, Earshot Eastside Showcase,
Crossroads Center, Bellevue, free, 7:30
C* Byron Au Young, Christopher Yohmei
Blasdel, Chapel Performance Space, gschapel.
blogspot.com/, 8
C* Greg Sinibaldi Band, Christoff Gallery (6004
12th Ave S, Georgetown), 9:30
C* Native Blue, Taste of Tacoma, Pt. Defiance
Park, 98.9-FM Smooth Jazz Stage, 2:30
EB Rochelle House, 7
EB Khazak, 10
GT Bill Smith Trio, 8
HS Hans Brehmer Trio, Jazz & Sushi series, 7:30
JA Bill Frisell & Friends, 7:30 & 9:30
TU Greta Matassa Quintet, $12, 8:30
29 BILL SMITH TRIO
Clarinet legend Bill Smith takes on tunes he
might be unlikely to play with longtime associate
Dave Brubeck. With Brian Cobb on bass and
Greg Campbell playing drums and French horn
(sometimes simultaneously), the trio will play
compositions by Smith, Eric Dolphy, Ornette
Coleman, Sun Ra, and Henry Threadgill. At
Gallery 1412 (1412 18th Ave, at 18th & Union),
at 8pm; cover $5-15 sliding scale.
30 SATURDAY
C* HJeffrey Allport/Tim Olive, Jason Anderson/
Haime Fennelly, Chapel Performance Space,
gschapel.blogspot.com/, 8
EB Greg Sinibaldi Band, 7
EB Michael Stegner Trio, 10
JA Bill Frisell & Friends, 7:30 & 9:30
TU Jay Thomas Quartet, $12, 8:30
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On Music, from page 13
June 30
Jazzland is today, too. Other oﬀerings
include LA multi-winds player Vinny
Golia and his quartet featuring trumpet
legend Bobby Bradford, an early Ornette
collaborator who went on to bolster clarinetist John Carter’s innovative, historyladen music. (Also on July 1.)
Each year, the Vancouver festival reaches
across oceans for great talent. From
China comes haunting, soulful vocalist
Coco Zhao, who performs his originals in
Chinese, which proves well-suited to jazz.
The son of small-town traditional opera
musicians, Zhao studied oboe and composition at the Shanghai conservatory,
__________________________________________
Please mail to: Earshot Jazz
3429 Fremont Place N, #309
Seattle, WA 98103
Earshot Jazz is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization.
then learned jazz singing in Shanghai
bars. He bewitchingly interprets tunes
from the city’s jazz and cabaret heyday
of the mid-20th century.
For an idiosyncratic laptop and drums
duo, the festival goes to Londonian Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) and drummer
Steve Reid (Vandellas, Fela Kuti, Miles
Davis, James Brown, Sun Ra...). Hebden
stitches sampled hip hop, electronica,
techno, jazz, and folk to arrive at an
amalgam that, like Amon Tobin’s (see,
above), makes exciting art.
Every night of the Vancouver festival,
you need to be prepared to zip about to
catch even half of what’s worth hearing.
Today boasts the magniﬁcent, 40-yearsrunning but timeless ICP (Instant Composers Pool) Orchestra, the uproarious
and thrilling Dutch outfit of pianist
Misha Mengelberg and drummer Han
Bennink. They travel the history of jazz,
with wacked improv thrown in.
July 1
A short nap later, Mengelberg will be
back to perform solo, a great treat.
ICP bandmate Tobias Delius, a ﬁne sax
player who blows a distillation of sax-jazz
history, appears with his quartet of equally awe-inspiring performers, inimitable
drummer Han Bennink, cellist Tristan
Honsinger, and bassist Joe Williamson.
If you thought the ICP was hot, you’ll
love Belgian counterparts, Flat Earth
Society, a rollicking, 14-man aﬀair that
combines big-band belt with ﬂourishes
of mambo, French song, cabaret, R&B,
and free jazz. It’s a truly heady mix. As
Pitchforkmedia.com said, they’re “an unruly conﬂuence of Carl Stalling’s ‘Merrie
Melodies,’ Henry Mancini’s cosmopolitan swank, and Sun Ra’s cosmic slop – all
performed with the whiplash attention
span of John Zorn’s Naked City.”
Also in from Belgium is the trio of
piano prodigy Jef Neve, who deserves
the epithet. He plays a ton of stuﬀ, with
incredible chops and touch.
Another pianist today is Vancouverite
Lisa Miller, much heralded for her ﬁery
grace, in performance with an all-star BC
quartet atuned to Miller’s amalgam of
cutting-edge jazz, contemporary classical
composition, and free improv.
Finally, on this night, Swiss pianist Nik
Bartsch’s RONIN performs, inspired by
the spirit of the samurai – step back or
they’ll lop your noggin oﬀ. But subtly.
As Bartsch, Kaspar Rast (drums), Björn
Meyer (bass), Andi Pupato (percussion),
and Sha (bass- and contrabass clarinet),
demonstrate on their ECM disc Stoa and
its predecessor, this is truly new music
that intricately shifts and slices with a
sense of great assuredness and purpose.
But don’t take my word for all this. Go
up and explore.
For more information, including many
sound ﬁles of scheduled performers, and
for tickets, visit http://www.coastaljazz.
ca/index.cfm
June 2007 • Earshot Jazz • 23
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SATURDAY
1
2
Susan
Pascal
Quartet
Kelley
Johnson
Quartet
8:30-12:30 $12 8:30-12:30 $12
com/leadcatpress Lessons cover material from Susan Palmer’s book, The
FRIDAY
3
4
5
Reggie Goings
JAZZ JAM BIG BAND JAZZ
with
Jay
Quintet
Greta
Thomas
3-7 $7
Jim Cutler Matassa Big Band
Hadley Caliman
Jazz Orch.
8-12 $7
8-12 $5
10
11
12
6
7
8
9
BIG BAND JAZZ
Tony
Bill
Greta
14
15
16
SCCC Jazz Bonjorno Anschell Matassa
Orchestra Showcase
Trio
Quartet
8:30-12:30 $12 8:30-12:30 $12
w/Lonnie
8-12 $8
Mardis
7-11 $7.50
8-12 $5
Jazz Police JAZZ JAM
Big Band
with the
3-7 $5
Darin
Jim Cutler Clendenin
Jazz Orch.
Trio
BIG BAND JAZZ
Emerald
City Jazz
Orchestra
13
CD Release:
From There to Here
Vern
Sielert
Dektet
8-12 $5
8-12 $7
8-12 $5
8-12 $7
17
18
19
20
SCCC Jazz Hadley
Ensemble Caliman
with
Brian Kirk
7:30-11:30 $6
21
Quartet
Richard
Cole
Quartet
22
23
8:30-12:30 $12 8:30-12:30 $12
Jay Thomas JAZZ JAM
Milo
BIG BAND JAZZ Katie King LATIN JAZZ Marriott Petersen
Big Band
with
Brothers
Roadside
with
and the
4-7 $5
Kelley Attraction Vocal
Jazz
Sonando
Jazz
Showcase
Jim Cutler Johnson
8-12 $5
Quintet Disciples
8-11 $10
8-12 $8
Jazz Orch. 8-12 $7
8:30-12:30 $12 8:30-12:30 $12
8-12 $5
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Fairly
Honest JAZZ JAM BIG BAND JAZZ Greta Andrienne Greta
Jay
Jazz Band with the Hal Sherman’s Matassa Wilson Matassa Thomas
Monday
3-7 $5
Darin
Jazz
Vocal
Quintet Quartet
Night Jazz
Jim Cutler Clendenin
Showcase
Orchestra Workshop
8-12 $8
8-12 $8
Jazz Orch.
Trio
8-12 $7
8-12 $5
8-12 $7
8:30-12:30 $12 8:30-12:30 $12