from The Seattle Times:

Longtime Seattle jazz fans no doubt remember the motto of the old Bud’s Jazz Records in Pioneer Square: “Jazz in all its forms.”

That’s the story this week in Seattle, where a wide spectrum of jazz, from ultraviolet to infrared, is on offer. Some folks, of course, would say the improvised abstractions of this weekend’s Racer Sessions festival aren’t really jazz — not to mention the buzz of Kenny G’s smooth jazz, which returns to Jazz Alley on Thursday — but if we adhere to Bud’s more catholic view, there’s a whole lotta jazz in town this week.

The marquee show is the Monterey Jazz Festival 55th Anniversary Celebration On Tour, at Benaroya Hall Tuesday. Grammy and Tony award-winning vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater is center stage. Though she has a distinctly tangy personality of her own, Bridgewater specializes in homages to classic jazz singers, her latest subject being the late Billie Holiday.

Saxophonist Chris Potter, whose epic new album, “The Sirens,” is due Jan. 29, is also on the program, as are fiery young trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, veteran bassist Christian McBride, pianist Benny Green and drummer Lewis Nash.

Long before a tragic multiple homicide put the University District’s Cafe Racer on the map in the worst way, fans of experimental music knew this cozy, communal hang as a place where eccentric musicians come together Sundays to forge new ways of making music. The scene is back on track, with “Cry & Roar: A Festival Celebrating Three Years of the Racer Sessions.”

It’s a great gumbo of scruffy, scrape-y and trance-y stuff, including the septet King Tears Bat Trip, which starts where Albert Ayler and John Coltrane left off; ferocious improvising saxophonist Neil Welch’s Sleeper Ensemble; the electronic folk jazz duo Syrinx Effect (Kate Olson, Naomi Segel); Christian Pincock’s Soundpainting, which uses signed gestures to cue the music; the spontaneous improv trio Japanese Guy; the haunting sextet Wand; and the offbeat jazz trio Insistent Caterpillars.

Continue reading at The Seattle Times for more about what’s happening next week.

Category:
Seattle Jazz