Earshot Jazz, Seattle’s non-profit jazz support organization, has scheduled a series of summer concerts for June 26, 27, & 28, at 8 pm, in Seattle Art Museum’s Plestcheeff Auditorium. The series features established and emerging artists, with international acclaim and Seattle relevance, in three separately themed evenings. Appearing are the Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet on a bill with Darius Jones featuring Tarbaby, former Seattleites-now-in-New York Human Feel with The Westerlies, and Icelandic pianist Sunna Gunnlaugs and her trio sharing an evening with Seattle’s Dawn Clement Trio.
On Thursday, June 26, rising-star jazz trumpeter/composer Ambrose Akinmusire returns to the Earshot stage with his quintet of tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Justin Brown. The Oakland native’s second Blue Note record, the imagined savior is far easier to paint, has received wide critical acclaim and significant international awards. Sharing the night is the Brooklyn-based avant-garde saxophonist Darius Jones with the raucous piano trio Tarbaby, made up of Grammy Award-winning bassist/composer Eric Revis, acclaimed pianist Orrin Evans, and renowned drummer Nasheet Waits. {buy tickets}
Friday night, June 27, features two ensembles forged in Seattle jazz education, 20 years apart, and now integral to the jazz Mecca of New York and beyond. Combining elements of chamber music, alternative rock, and free jazz, the group Human Feel is comprised of Chris Speed and Andrew D’Angelo on saxophones, who, with drummer Jim Black, left the Seattle jazz scene for Boston in the early 1990’s and teamed up with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. Kicking off the evening is the brilliant chamber-jazz brass quartet, The Westerlies. Trumpeters Riley Mulherkar and Zubin Hensler, and trombonists Willem de Koch and Andy Clausen are all recent graduates of Seattle’s Garfield and Roosevelt high schools,, whose recent national acclaim includes a full-page Jazz Times rave by NY Times critic, Nate Chenin. Their debut album, Wish the Children Would Come On Home: The Music of Wayne Horvitz, is set to release May 13 on Canada’s Songlines Recordings. {buy tickets}
Two remarkable, women-led ensembles round out the series on Saturday, June 28. Sunna Gunnlaugs is a compelling Icelandic jazz pianist whose spare, lyrical playing is informed by American artists like Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans, as well as Scandinavian pianists like Bobo Stenson and Jon Balke. Her trio mates are Icelandic bassist Thorgrimur Jónsson and American drummer Scott McLemore. Pianist/vocalist/composer Dawn Clement is a faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts, and has emerged as one of the Northwest’s premiere jazz artists in recent years. Here, she explores new compositions from her fourth release, Tempest Cobalt, with a trio of Byron Vannoy on drums and Geoff Harper on bass. {buy tickets}
Tickets for the concert run from $18-24 general admission. Discounts are available for Earshot members, senior citizens and students. Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets at brownpapertickets.com or 1-800-838-3006.
For more information, contact Earshot Jazz at 206-547-6763 or go online to www.earshot.org.