In this third presentation of the Earshot Jazz Spring Series, Sierra Maestra put on a spell binding performance on Saturday March 31st at Town Hall, that had a large portion of the audience up on the floor dancing the entire concert with some so moved they came up on the stage for brief cameos.

Revered in Cuba for decades, Sierra Maestra was originally formed by Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, who subsequently served as guiding spirit and musical director for the Buena Vista Social Club. As the first of the modern-era groups to play in the old-style son lineup – tres, guitar, trumpet, bongo, guiro and vocals – Sierra Maestra recalls the style’s golden age of the 1920s and 30s.

Five of the original nine members remain: Alejandro Suarez Galarraga, band director and claves; Carlos Puisseaux Mansfarroll, guiro; Eduardo Himely Pino, bass; Luis Barzaga Sosa, vocals; Alberto Virgilio Valdes Decalo, vocals and maracas. They are pioneers in reviving this style for new generations and reintroducing it into the Cuban – and global – mainstream.

Joining the five originals are Yelfris Valdes Espinosa, trumpet; Eduardo “Niquito” Rico Menendez, bongos, congas and cowbell; Jesus Bello Diaz, vocals and acoustic guitar; Emilio Ramos Batista, vocals and tres.
The group was nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2010 and now celebrates 35 years since their formation. World Music Central says, “If son is indeed the soul of Cuba, then Sierra Maestra are the heartbeat at the center of that soul.”

Though son is a traditional, rural music with roots that stretch back almost a century, this simply isn’t a golden oldies kind of a band. Yes, four-part harmonies and acoustic instruments, but Sierra Maestra is as formidable and powerful a band as the mountain range in eastern Cuba for which they are named – their tribute to the birthplace of son.

Check out Rumbero Soy (2002), on which the group invites guest guitarist Marc Ribot for a couple of tracks and guests Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo of the Buena Vista Social Club for additional vocals. It’s a great recording that ventures beyond traditional son. Also seek out Tibiri Tabara (2005), a challenge in the age of embargo.

In the second presentation of the Earshot Jazz Spring Series, Ben Williams put on a tremendously pleasing show last Saturday night. Rising-star bassist Ben Williams performed with his group at the Seattle Art Museum, downtown. The Washington DC-born, Harlem-based bandleader, musical educator, composer, electric and acoustic bassist was the winner of the 2009 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition, an award that helped the young artist produce his debut CD release State of Art. That record has galvanized Williams as an emerging and prominent voice in the jazz today.

State of Art is a mature statement stamped with his voice: “I wanted to make an album that regular nine-to-five people could enjoy,” Williams says, “and to make a deep artistic statement as well. I like music that grooves, and I make sure that my music feels good.” Even before the release of State of Art, Williams was one of the most sought after young bassists in the world; his resume is a who’s who of jazz wisdom: Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Terence Blanchard, Christian McBride Big Band, Nicholas Payton, Paquito D’Rivera, Cyrus Chestnut, Benny Golson, Roy Hargrove, and Mulgrew Miller, to name a few. Williams’ warm, woody tone, flowing groove, melodic phrasing and storytelling approach has found favor among musicians, but also a larger audience.

On the bassist’s appeal, Nate Chinen of the New York Times writes, “Williams took several long solos in his first set at The Jazz Gallery … and each one felt more like an entitlement than an indulgence.” He’s a natural who shares through his music what he sees happening in the world right now. From the liner notes of State of Art, by Williams: “This album is my honest and humble attempt at expressing (musically) what it feels like to be alive in 2011.” In this February’s issue of JazzTimes magazine, writer Giovanni Russonello reports on Williams and contemporaries in Harlem doing just that – Christian Scott, Gerald Clayton, Justin Brown, Jamire Williams. “It’s almost like a second coming of the Harlem Renaissance,” trumpeter Christian Scott says.

Travis Shook Trio at Tula’s

Earshot Jazz Festival 2011 presented the Travis Shook Trio at Tula’s last Friday and Saturday nights. this was one of my favorite performances of the festival so far. Travis with Matt Jorgensen (drums) and Essiet Essiet (bass) played some really cool sounding jazz from some standards, to Beetles tunes to his own compositions. Travis – a former Seattleite who was Earshot Golden Ear Award winner for best emerging jazz artist in 1992 and 1993 – gained early notoriety with drum legend Tony Williams, vocalist Betty Carter, and his own brilliant trio releases. Check out the Earshot Jazz Festival Schedule to see what’s next in the last week of the 2011 Festival lineup.

A former Sony/Columbia recording artist, Travis Shook has been called a “man of mystery” by JazzTimes, “pianist-in-exile” by Time Out New York, and he has been highly praised by the likes of Tony Williams and Ahmad Jamal. Shook’s playing demonstrates an unusually wide scope of feeling from the simple to the complex, the conventional to the unconventional, and from the softest, most lush ballads, to the fiercest, hard-driving jazz.

Born in Orville, California, on March 10, 1969, Shook (who began studying the piano at the age of 7) moved to Olympia, Washington, with his parents when he was 10 and spent his adolescent years in the Pacific Northwest. At 18, Shook moved to New Jersey to attend William Paterson College, graduating in 1990 with a BA in jazz performance. He then returned to Washington State and spent three years in the band of veteran bassist Buddy Catlett (famous for his work with Count Basie and Louis Armstrong, among others). In 1993 – the year Shook moved to New York City – Columbia released his self-titled debut album, which boasted the late Tony Williams on drums, Bunky Green on alto sax and Ira Coleman on bass. (But Shook’s association with Columbia turned out to be short-lived. When Columbia’s jazz department went through a major regime change, Shook was dropped from the label along with Horace Silver, Joey DeFrancesco and many others.)

Then in 1994, jazz vocal innovator Betty Carter hired Shook as her pianist, and he ended up touring Europe extensively with her. The future looked promising for Shook, but not long after that European tour concluded, he entered a very dark period of his life and struggled with addiction for a few years, reaching sobriety in the late 1990s with the help of his wife, jazz vocalist Veronica Nunn. In 1999, he and Nunn started their own company, Full Gallop Entertainment, which includes his label, Dead Horse Records. They have released a trilogy of albums on Dead Horse: Nunn’s debut album, American Lullaby; Shook’s second album, Awake; and his third album, Travis Shook Plays Kurt Weill.

Reggie Workman, Eddie Harris, Joe Lovano, Toots Thielemans, Rufus Reid, Chuck Israels, Ernestine Anderson, Branford Marsalis, Benny Golson and Clifford Jordan are among the many jazz greats Shook has played with along the way. He maintains a busy performance schedule in New York, and Earshot Jazz is pleased to welcome him back to Seattle for tonight’s concert. – Danielle Bias from the Earshot Jazz Festival Schedule

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Wes “Warm Daddy” Anderson at Tula’s Monday

Earshot Jazz Festival 2011 presented a special jazz lesson from soulful, searing alto saxophonist Wessell “Warm Daddy” Anderson, with Phill Sparks on bass, Bill Anschell, piano and D’Vonne Lewis, drums.

A former member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet and charter member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, alto saxophonist Wessell “Warmdaddy” Anderson blends traditional jazz, some bebop and swinging sounds in a blues-inflected style that has drawn flattering comparisons to Cannonball Adderley. For over a decade and a half, he was part of Marsalis’ efforts at Jazz at Lincoln Center, but he left in 2006 to join the jazz faculty at Michigan State University.

“Always one of the most popular members of Jazz at Lincoln Center, many fans of the venerable institution were saddened to hear about Anderson’s stroke in 2007. Following the stroke, much of the left side of his body was numb, and many speculated as to whether he would play again. Musicians who knew Anderson well, however, were not surprised when he returned triumphantly to the bandstand after just a few months.”

“is 2010 return to a New York stage at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola was applauded by fans and critics alike. Nate Chinen, reviewing the outing in the New York Times, wrote: “And how did he sound? Excellent, unchanged. His mellow, sweet-tart tone was a physical presence, and he gave it plenty of air, often holding a note for a long stretch, then taking a breath and modulating to another one … In his alto style, there’s no chasm between the chivalrous croon of Johnny Hodges and the roguish charisma of Charlie Parker.”

“Born into a musical family in Brooklyn, Anderson played piano from an early age, starting to study classical music when he was 12. However, two years later he switched genres and instruments. His father, a drummer, had worked with Cecil Payne and directed his son towards jazz. Hearing records by Charlie Parker prompted the shift from piano to alto saxophone. Anderson studied with various teachers, including several he met through the Jazzmobile workshops.

“In 1983, he was heard by Branford Marsalis, who urged him to pursue his studies, this time under Alvin Batiste. Five years later, Anderson joined Wynton Marsalis’ band, touring internationally, with the corresponding gain in reputation and audience awareness that this brought about. Anderson, who also plays soprano and sopranino saxophones, has also worked with Betty Carter, Ted Nash, Marc Cary, Victor Goines and many others. For this concert, he is joined by Seattle’s top sidemen.”

]]> http://eyeshotphotos.com/2012/01/04/wessell-andersons-quartet/feed/ 0 http://eyeshotphotos.com/2011/12/05/bill-anschell-trio/ http://eyeshotphotos.com/2011/12/05/bill-anschell-trio/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:20:39 +0000 admin http://eyeshotphotos.com/?p=1213

Bill Anschell  at Tula’s in the last performance of the Earshot Jazz Festival.

Earshot Jazz Festival 2011 presented the Bill Anschell Trio as its last performance on Sunday Nov 9th. closing out the three week long annual festival.Nearly 10 years have passed since Seattle native Bill Anschell returned to the Emerald City after spending 25 years studying, composing and performing across the country and around the world. The pianist, composer and arranger has played and recorded with a host of jazz greats, including Floyd Standifer, Richard Davis, Ron Carter, Benny Golson, Nnenna Freelon and Russell Malone. In 2005, Anschell received the Golden Ear Award for Northwest Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year, and in 2006 his trio was named the Best Northwest Acoustic Jazz Ensemble. He will lead a festival close-out celebration with a standards trio for Seattle, featuring bassist Chris Symer and drummer Jose Martinez. The festivities also include food, drink, gratitude and good cheer.

Grace Kelly Quintet at Tula’s in the last week of the Earshot Jazz Festival.

Earshot Jazz Festival 2011 presented the 19-year-old jazz wonder, saxophonist/vocalist Grace Kelly  who “plays with intelligence, wit, and feeling,” says one of her many fans, Wynton Marsalis.

Just five years ago at the age of 14, Grace Kelly garnered the first of her ASCAP Foundation awards and landed an invitation to perform with the Boston Pops. Kelly met this challenge by writing her first full orchestral arrangement and performing it in Boston’s iconic Symphony Hall. Since then, she has garnered accolades for many of the artists she has grown up revering. She has already performed and recorded with the likes of Dave Brubeck, Phil Woods, Harry Connick Jr., Jamie Cullum, Frank Morgan, Esperanza Spalding, Chris Potter, Cedar Walton, James Cotton and Terri Lynn Carrington, among many others. Perhaps her most intensive connection has been with Lee Konitz, whom Kelly has studied with since age 13.

Lately acclaimed for her recordings of “gospel jazz,” she was joined by Jason Palmer (trumpet), Doug Johnson (piano), Evan Gregor (bass), and JordanPerlson (drums).

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Earshot Jazz Festival 2011 presented the energetic Seattle quartet Hardcoretet who performed originals drawn from jazz, rock, soul, and improvised music, inspired by fusion supergroups as well as modern jazz outfits like Chris Potter’s Underground and Kneebody. It featured Art Brown (alto sax), Aaron Otheim (keys), Tim Carey (bass), and Tarik Abouzied (drums).

With Art Brown on saxophone, Aaron Otheim on keys, Tim Carey on bass, and Tarik Abouzied on drums, Hardcoretet presents original material written by each of its members. Brown, Otheim, Carey and Abouzied have all worked on a variety of projects over the years, encompassing a broad range of genres and sounds. From the free jazz sounds of Speak to the funky rhythms of Pocket Change, each group including members of Hardcoretet has proved to be prolific in the Seattle Jazz scene. Hardcoetet members have performed both nationally and globally, and the band has shared the stage with heavy hitters such as Bill Frisell, Cuong Vu, Mike Stern, John Medeski, Bobby Previte, and Charlie Hunter.

Hardcoretet’s second album, Do It Live, to be released at Tula’s during this year’s festival, further propels Hardcoretet on their way to becoming one of Seattle’s most exciting and unique mixed-genre bands. Their debut album, Experiments in Vibe, released in 2009, started the group on that path with a nomination for Mixed Genre Album of the Year at Seattle’s Lucid I/O Awards.

Influenced by artists from Miles Davis and John Coltrane to Soundgarden and Led Zeppelin, Hardcoretet’s sound is an amalgam of the best aspects of many genres. Combining elements of jazz, rock, soul and improvised music, Hardcoretet’s sound is similar to that of fusion groups like Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters and Chick Corea’s Return to Forever. Simultaneously, their modern vibe has been likened to the works of Chris Potter’s Underground and Kneebody. Hardcoretet’s compositions, combined with their vibrant energy, make for a show not to be missed. – Abi Swanson, from the Earshot Jazz Festival schedule program

Earshot Jazz Festival 2011 presented Evan Flory-Barnes Acknowledgement of a Celebration at the Kirkland Performance Center and it was my second time to see and hear it. As a  reprise of the 2009 Earshot Golden Ear performance of the year, Evan brought back his Earshot- and Meet the Composer-commissioned work for large-ensemble fusion of jazz, hip-hop, and classical music with dancers and break-dancers. I was taken with how much fun he seemed to be having this time. Here are some pictures from the performance. ans some of the words from the Earshot Jazz program guide by Steve Griggs

Check out the Earshot Jazz Festival Schedule to see what’s next in the 2011 Festival lineup.

“Evan Flory-Barnes stands six foot three, in suit and tie, in front of a thirty-five member chamber orchestra at Seattle’s Town Hall. He scans the musicians. Left. Right. He rubs his palms together. No baton. He smiles broadly and adjusts his jacket. He glances down at the score. His head tips back. His eyes close. He whispers in a slow tempo, “One, two, three, four …” as he conducts with both hands, fingers gently closed. The count off is more like a jazz ensemble leader starting a familiar ballad than a conductor launching a symphony debut.”

“Violas and cellos sway back and forth in unison between two notes. A celeste chimes like an old fashioned clock. Glissandos rise from a harp. Dense chords drift in from wind instruments. An oboe moans. French horns herald an opening melody. Acknowledgement of a Celebration, a ten movement, fifty-five minute opus commissioned by Meet the Composer, rises into the air.”

“The commission for Celebration requires four public performances. It premiered November 8, 2009, at Town Hall and was restaged in 2010 at Benaroya Hall. Flory-Barnes’ alma mater, Garfield High School, is being considered for the final yet to be scheduled performance. We will let you know when it will be performed next.”

“Celebration combines rhythmic loops, orchestral instrumentation, and melodic improvisation to propel a group of male break dancers and female modern dancers in spontaneous choreography. In the second movement, dancers lie on the ground while an oboe and cello solo over a slow drum pulse and bowed chords. One by one, feet and legs rise, twist slow motion in the air, bodies upended on heads and hands. Another movement matches a break dancer with a modern dancer in a contact version of Brazilian capoeira. Yet another section has side-by-side break dancers hypnotically stepping in unison then breaking into solos.”

“The scale of this work transcends the leadership of a single artist. While Flory-Barnes cultivates a growing reputation as composer, collaborator and catalyst, violist Brianna Atwell handles personnel and logistics for Celebration. Dancer Emma Klein organizes the gravity defying sliding, tumbling and spinning performers. Ryan Price leads the technical direction for the Kirkland performance space.”

“The full title of the piece is Acknowledgment of a Celebration: Inheritance, Authenticity and Healing. Flory-Barnes explains the autobiographic title as the inner process to open one’s heart to life, family and self. This enables a compassionate, loving response to negativity. “My mother provided lessons of unconditional love and my father provided a way to practice those lessons.” Flory-Barnes father, a Vietnam veteran, struggled with substance abuse and died when his son was sixteen. “There were times I wanted to remove ‘Barnes’ from my last name,” he says.”

“Hints of the narrative arc in Celebration can be traced by the movement titles – Please Know This, A Boy’s Dream A Man’s Majesty, Dance of the Girl Obscured, The End of Old Days, Letting Go of What Isn’t Yours to Begin With, Marching Towards the Now, An Alarm Call to Presence, A Hero Driven by His Tears, Requiem for a Love Misunderstood, Return to a Home Unseen.”

“Chances to hear Flory-Barnes in the Pacific Northwest are becoming more precious as his career begins to take flight. Frequently on the road with Meklit Hadero, recent tours took him from Bumbershoot all the way to Kenya and Ethiopia. “Meklit’s music is deep and simple. We can stretch it and grow. She’s like Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, and Nora Jones – a modern song writer through an Ethiopian filter.” Deep throated, dark and musky vocals croon of flirty love and loss to catchy grooves.” – Steve Griggs Read more in the Earshot Jazz Festival Schedule

Near the end of the  performance,  Evan jumped down from the conductors podium and picked up a standup bass and dove into the music. After handing off the bass he moved stage center and joined in with the dancers.

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Emi Meyer and her Japan Trio performed at Tula’s as part of the 2011 Earshot Jazz Festival and I was taken aback with how wonderful she played and sang. The Kyoto-born, Seattle-raised pianist and vocalist, who won the Seattle-Kobe Jazz Vocalist Competition in 2007 and has topped Japanese jazz charts, appeared with Motoki Yamaguchi (drums) and Masanori Hattori (bass). In addition she had local guitarist MILO PETERSEN sit in and join them. Emi and Milo met last spring at a benefit performance raising funds for Japanese victims of the earthquake and hit it off.See the rest of the Earshot Jazz Festival Schedule

Born in Kyoto, Japan, and raised in Seattle, Emi Meyer’s culturally rich heritage has shaped the unique jazz-inspired pop sound heard on her three albums to date, including one recorded entirely in Japanese. Meyer began her musical career early in life, starting with classical piano at the age of 6 and eventually expanding to jazz “for the spontaneity it offered.”

It was her jazz background that paved the way for her win at the 2007 Seattle-Kobe Jazz Vocalist Competition – a contest between residents of Seattle and its sister city of Kobe, Japan. Following her win, Meyer had the first of many performances in Japan, where she has subsequently enjoyed a great deal of success, and she credits the competition with giving her the courage to ultimately pursue her musical ambitions. With the release of her first album, Curious Creature, Emi was invited to perform at the legendary Sundance Film Festival and shot to the very top of the Japanese jazz charts after her single “Room Blue” was chosen Single of the Week on iTunes.

She continues to evolve as an artist, and her latest work, Suitcase of Stones, is a refreshingly unique blend of jazz, pop and soul, using powerful lyrics carried effortlessly along by her signature melodies. The record was mixed and mastered by Husky Huskolds, who has worked with the likes of Norah Jones and Yael Naim. Japan Times praised Meyer’s performance on Suitcase of Stones, citing Meyer’s “gift for belting out warm, wistful songs with a hint of nostalgia.”

Fresh from a string of charity concerts to support the country that has given her so much, Meyer is joined for this Earshot Jazz Festival performance by Motoki Yamaguchi (drums) and Masanori Hattori (bass).It was her jazz background that paved the way for her win at the 2007 Seattle-Kobe Jazz Vocalist Competition – a contest between residents of Seattle and its sister city of Kobe, Japan. Following her win, Meyer had the first of many performances in Japan, where she has subsequently enjoyed a great deal of success, and she credits the competition with giving her the courage to ultimately pursue her musical ambitions. With the release of her first album, Curious Creature, Emi was invited to perform at the legendary Sundance Film Festival and shot to the very top of the Japanese jazz charts after her single “Room Blue” was chosen Single of the Week on iTunes.

Eric Vloeimans and his group Gatecrash, put on an amazing and mesmerizing performance at The Seattle Art Museum as the first week of the Earshot Jazz Festival opens. The stellar Dutchman’s Gatecrash chain-links lazy lounge, hard-core beats, spaced-out moods and Zappaesque meters.

Eric Vloeimans has joined the ranks of European jazzmen altering the art form with a mixture of dazzling skill and soaring imagination. Whether performing original compositions or making use of a wide variety of others’, he draws from a rich palette to achieve a distinctive personal style, at once sonically polished and stylistically daring. That, and also technically dazzling. Those attributes have won him numerous Dutch and European awards, including the prestigious Bird Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival and four Edison Awards for accomplishment in jazz performance and recording.

“He’s got the technical command you’d expect of a conservatory-trained virtuoso, and the kind of expressive potency that can only be learned on the improvising bandstand, but what’s most impressive about his music is that it’s so deliciously good-natured,” wrote Alex Varty of Vancouver’s Georgia Straight.

Vloeimans’ Gatecrash quartet is winning rave reviews for its “lush, exuberant melody,” and its “warm, plaintive, sometimes soaring, sometimes contemplative” sound – “one part jazz, one part late-19th-century Romanticism, with influences from the pampas of Argentina to the Portuguese coast.”

It derives those qualities from locked-in intuitive cooperation among its four members – Vloeimans, soundscapist Jeroen van Vliet on keyboards, Gulli Gudmundsson from Iceland on bass and effects, and emerging drum star Jasper van Hulten – all of whom inflect the band’s sound with surprise. Reviewers have cited Gatecrash’s “polished, sophisticated, under-the-radar music, exceptionally conceived and played,” and its leader’s “melodic style evocative of late-period Miles Davis.” The results are “breathable, seriously unpretentious, fun, beautiful, profound and just plain good” (All About Jazz).

– Peter Monaghan