Seattle Jazz Scene

from KBCS’ RadioActivity newsletter:

Robert Glasper: Double Booked, Blue Note
Issa Bagayogo: Mali Koura, Six Degrees
Rudresh Mananthappa: Kinsmen, PI Recordings
Rokia Traore: Tchemanche, Nonesuch
Thomas Marriott: Flexicon, Origin
Gretchen Parlatto: In a Dream, Oblique Sound
John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble: Eternal Interlude, Sunnyside
Anouar Brahem: The Astounding Eyes of Rita, ECM
Tinariwen: Imidiwan, World Village
Allen Toussaint: The Bright Mississippi, Nonesuch

TULA’S JAZZ CLUB: Stephanie Porter

SERAFINA: Fred Hoadley Trio

BOXLEY’S: Karen Shivers & Greg Williamson Quartet

BAKE’S PLACE: Little Bill & Blue Notes

NORTH CITY BISTRO: Fm Duo

THAIKU: Jon Alberts, Jeff Johnson & Tad Britton

EGAN’S BALLARD JAM HOUSE:
7pm – Le Trio with Michael Owcharuk (piano/accordion), Nate Omdal (bass) and Mike Dodge (clarinet/tenor sax)
9pm-2010 – Leif Totusek and Mohammed Shaibu

SORRENTO HOTEL: Overton Berry

HIGH DIVE: Skerik, Andy Coe, Joe Doria, D’vonne Lewis

LUCID JAZZ LOUNGE: The Teaching

A number of Northwest jazz releases made it into All About Jazz columnist Dan McClenaghan’s Top Ten of 2009.

Jessica Williams, “Art of the Piano”
Origin Records
Always a fine pianist, Jessica Williams has driven deeper into her artistry since she started her own record label. This live set features Jessica Williams at the peak of her solo piano powers.

Todd Bishop’s Pop Art 4, “69 Annee Erotique”
Origin Records
A meticulously-crafted jazz/pop mix nod to the music of the late French musical Renaissance man, Serge Gainsbourg.

Bridge Quartet, Night
Origin Records
A top notch quartet, sax and piano/bass/drums, sounding devil-may-care relaxed, giving some familiar tunes a wild ride.

See the complete list at All About Jazz.com

TULA’S JAZZ CLUB: Bruce Staelens Quintet

NEW ORLEANS: Legacy Quartet w/Clarence Acox

BALLARD JAM HOUSE:
7pm – Mike Gullo and Daniel Berryman with Scotty Bemis (piano), Will Gerhardt (piano), Colleen Gilligan (bass) and Brian Greggs (drums)
9pm – Vocal Jam hosted by Leah Stillwell, with Darin Clendenin (piano), Larry Halloway (bass) and Robert Rushing (drums)

NECTAR: Garaj Mahal & Andrew Oliver Kora Band
412 N 36th St, 8:00pm

BOXLEY’S: John Hansen Trio

NORTH CITY BISTRO: Sandy Carbary & Bill Chism

SERAFINA: Kelly Ash Trio

THAIKU: Ron Weinstein Trio

Thank you to everyone who has read and keeps reading Seattle Jazz Scene every day. We are quickly approaching our 1500th post!

Keep sending in your Seattle jazz scene news stories. Tell your friends. Support your neighborhood jazz joint.

Happy New Year,
Seattle Jazz Scene

TULA’S JAZZ CLUB: Katrina Kope/ Jose Gonzalez

EGAN’S BALLARD JAM HOUSE:
7pm – Peter Kenagy Quintet with Peter Kenagy (trumpet), Chris Johansen (tenor sax), Carmen Staaf (piano), Kendall Eddy (bass) and Matt Jorgensen (drums)
9pm – The Zubin Hensler Group, with Zubin Hensler (trumpet), Zach Para (drums), Devin Lowe (bass), Marcus Hoy (spoken word) and Gus Carnes (piano)

NEW ORLEANS: Holotradband

DEXTER AND HAYES: Tim Kennedy Trio

MARTIN’S ON MADISON: Karin Kajita

TOST: Jon Sheckler Group; Kelly Ash And The Funk Band

MIX: Don Mock

Lawrence M. Halpern, Ph.D, 78, died peacefully in his home December 21st.

Born in New York on July 3, 1931, Larry lived a large life and touched the lives of many. After graduating from Bronx High School of Science, Larry joined the Navy Corps. Later Larry attended Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He was an Emeritus Associate Professor at the University Of Washington School Of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology from 1965 to 2005. A pioneer in the world of pain management, Larry was a published, international lecturer and founding member of Hospice of Seattle. He also served on the board of many organizations.

Larry was a patron of the arts, a board member of the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, and supported many individual musicians. He loved sailing and traveling with his wife Gail; was an avid photographer; a food lover who loved to cook, and a ham radio enthusiast. In short, Larry was a true renaissance man. He was a talented saxophone and flute player whose deep passion for music permeated all aspects of his life, leading him at 55 to attend Cornish College of the Arts, studying Jazz Performance. He attended the Centrum Jazz Workshop for many years, and became a member of the Seattle Flute Society, the NW School of Music Flute Choir, and Jim Knapp’s Big Band.

Larry is survived by his wife Gail Arshon Halpern, his children Gordon Raphael, Lisa Halpern and her husband Jose J. Gonzales, Cherron Halpern, and his niece Anne Rosenbaum. Services have been set for 11:00a.m. on Wednesday, December 23rd at the Herzl Memorial Park, 16501 Dayton Avenue, Seattle, WA 98133. Remembrances may be sent to Hospice of Seattle or Swedish Hospice.

TULA’S JAZZ CLUB: Carmen Staaf Trio

TRIPLE DOOR: Squirrel Nut Zippers

NEW ORLEANS: New Orleans Quintet

TOST: Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder

POGGIE TAVERN: Falingo Machaz w/ Marc Smason & Pavel Shepp

RICKY’S IN SHORELINE: Richard Cole Group
632 NW Richmond Beach Rd Shoreline,WA

from The Seattle Times:

In 1965, the Pulitzer Prize’s three-member music jury voted unanimously to award Duke Ellington a special citation for his prodigious contributions to American music, an award unceremoniously rejected by the Pulitzer’s 14-member advisory board.

The 66-year-old Ellington handled the snub and resulting controversy with customary aplomb. “Fate is being kind to me,” the Maestro said. “Fate doesn’t want me to be famous too young.”

In truth, Ellington had his eye on loftier concerns. On Sept. 16 of that year, the Duke Ellington Orchestra premiered “A Concert of Sacred Music” at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, the first of three Sacred Music programs that he considered his most important work.

These days there’s little argument about Ellington’s status as a singularly creative force in 20th-century music, but compared to his beloved standards and ambitious longer suites with Billy Strayhorn, his Sacred Music is rarely performed.

Continue reading at The Seattle Times.

TOWN HALL: Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music w/ SRJO

TRIPLE DOOR: Here & Now Quintet

BOXLEY’S: Carolyn Graye Quartet

LOMBARDI’S: Leah Stillwell Trio

EL GAUCHO BELLEVUE: Trish Hatley Trio

TULA’S JAZZ CLUB:Ray Ohls Trio with Louis Ledbetter and Tim Malland

SERAFINA: Alex Guilbert Trio

EGAN’S BALLARD JAM HOUSE:
7pm – Jon Sheckler Group, featuring Chad McCullough, with Jon Sheckler (drums), Erika Price (piano), Dean Schmidt (bass) and Chad McCullough (trumpet)
9pm – Kristin Chambers Quintet, with Jamie Dieveney (piano), Lauren Hendrix (bass), Glen Allen (guitar) and Brad Gibson (drums)
11pm – Jim Knodle and the Distract Band

Here is the only events we could find online … know of anything else? Send us an email at [email protected].

NEW ORLEANS: Ham Carson Quintet

THAIKU: Jon Alberts, Jeff Johnson & Tad Britton

TULA’S JAZZ CLUB: Tatum Greenblatt, Jay Thomas, Ben Roseth & Friends

THAIKU: Ron Weinstein Trio

BOXLEY’S: Emerald City Little Big Band

NEW ORLEANS: Legacy Band w/ Clarence Acox

NORTH CITY BISTRO: Sandy Carbary & Bill Chism

LUCID JAZZ LOUNGE: Le Trio: A Christmas Special

CHAPEL: Perry Robinson & Marc Smason

EGAN’S BALLARD JAM HOUSE: 9pm – Slant Quartet, with Devon Yesberger (piano), Max Holmberg (drums), Xavier del Castillo (tenor sax) and Trevor Brown (bass)

from The Seattle Times:

Thomas Marriott, “Flexicon” (Origin)
Seattle trumpeter Marriott tips his hat to horn heroes Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis without ceding his own identity as a melodically inventive composer and consistently incisive improviser whose lines simmer anxiously without boiling over. A top-shelf cast featuring pianist/keyboardist Bill Anschell, bassist Jeff Johnson, drummer Matt Jorgenson, saxophonist Mark Taylor and vibraphonist extraordinaire Joe Locke (on two tracks) brings Marriott’s expansive vision vividly to life.

{buy Flexicon from Origin Records}

TOST: Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder

TULA’S JAZZ CLUB: Darin Clendenin Trio Jazz Jam

NEW ORLEANS: New Orleans Quintet

POGGIE TAVERN: Better World w/ Marc Smason & Joanne Klein

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19

Reservations: 206-443-4221

featuring:
Hadley Caliman – saxophone
Thomas Marriott – trumpet
Eric Verlinde – piano
Phil Sparks – bass
Matt Jorgensen – drums

Saxophonist Hadley Caliman celebrates the release of his new CD Straight Ahead (Origin Records) this Saturday, December 19, at Tula’s Jazz Club.

Call and reserve your spot: 206-443-4221

Concert of Sacred Music by Duke Ellington

Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra
+ NW Chamber Chorus
+ vocalist Everett Greene

Saturday, December 26, 2009
Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm
1119 Eight Avenue (at Seneca), Seattle

Tickets now on sale through brownpapertickets.com.

Preferred Section Seating: $28 (this section is sold out)
General Seating Section: $24(tickets still available)
Discounts available for Earshot Jazz members, senior citizens and full-time students.

On December 26th, the beloved Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra returns with its annual concert of Sacred Music by Duke Ellington. For the first time, vocalist Everett Greene, a renowned Emmy Award winning vocalist currently recording and touring with the Count Basie Orchestra, joins the SRJO and its co-directors alto saxophonist Michael Brockman, an Ellington scholar and professor of music at the University of Washington, and drummer Clarence Acox, the award-winning director of Garfield High School’s nationally-ranked jazz program. Returning for this year’s concert is vocalist Nichol Venee Eskridge (who is also featured on the SRJO’s Sacred Music of Duke Ellington CD), tap-dancer Alex Dugdale, and the Northwest Chamber Chorus under Director Mark Kloepper.

As always, the SRJO aims to recapture the spirit of Ellington’s original Sacred Music that debuted on September 16, 1965 at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. It was at the conclusion of this landmark concert that Ellington proclaimed, “I’m sure this is the most important statement we’ve ever made.” Ellington considered the Sacred Concert to be amongst his most significant accomplishments and devoted the last years of his life to performing the programs hundreds of times throughout the world.
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The Susan Pascal Quartet in concert at The Seattle Art Museum (photo by Harlan Chinn)

A recent concert by the Susan Pascal Quartet at the Seattle Art Museum will air on Jazz Northwest Sunday, December 20 at 1 PM Pacific Time on 88.5, KPLU. This month, the Susan Pascal Quartet is revisiting the music of The Modern Jazz Quartet, one of the most long-lived jazz groups which played concerts all over the world for more than 40 years with the same personnel.

Susan Pascal transcribed a selection of music recorded by the MJQ for her quartet and the instrumentation is identical: vibraharp (Susan Pascal), piano (Bill Anschell), string bass (Chuck Deardorf) and drums (Matt Jorgensen). The music includes several seasonal pieces including one original arrangement by Bill Anschell.

Originally the rhythm section of the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band in the 40s, the Modern Jazz Quartet recorded and toured extensively and was one of the most successful and popular groups in the history of jazz. The delicate, crystalline music they played had overtones of classical music and their audiences listened with the same rapt attention given to a classical string quartet. However, there was a strong rhythmic pulse and a blues-based core in addition to contrapuntal interplay. Pianist John Lewis and vibist Milt Jackson composed most of the music played by the quartet whose other members were Percy Heath, bass and Connie Kay, drums.

The Art of Jazz Series at the Seattle Art Museum is produced by Earshot Jazz, John Gilbreath Executive Director, and presented on the second Thursday of each month. The next concert on January 14 will feature the Hadley Caliman Quintet.

Jazz Northwest is recorded and produced by Jim Wilke exclusively for 88.5 KPLU and kplu.org. A podcast of the program will be available at kplu.org after the airdate.

Listen to an audio sample below.