Today is Independent Record Store Day
from The Seattle Times:
When Matt Vaughan heard that a Saturday in April had been set aside two years ago to honor indie-music stores, the owner of Seattle’s Easy Street Records thought it was “a waving of the white flag.” Still, he went along and opened his doors with modest expectations.
“To my surprise, it turned out to be the busiest day of the year,” said Vaughan, who has a store in West Seattle and another on Queen Anne. “I wasn’t even staffed for it.”
Now in its third year, Record Store Day has become bigger than Christmas for many mom-and-pop music shops, making it an important weapon in their fierce battle against digital downloads and big-box discount chains.
On April 17, die-hard music fans are expected to head to more than 1,400 record stores worldwide, including nearly three dozen in the Puget Sound region. The Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys and Soundgarden all plan to mark the occasion with exclusive releases. Some stores will host musical performances.
Continue reading at The Seattle Times
A surprisingly inventive duo plays spontaneous improvisations on Jazz Northwest on Sunday April 18 at 1 PM PDT on 88.5, KPLU. Pianist Bill Anschell and soprano saxophonist Brent Jensen have found each other molto simpatico when freely improvising on standards. Astute listeners as well as players, the two musicians often sound as if one mind is guiding ten fingers as they dissect familiar music in the course of playing it, examining and comparing fragments before reassembling a song. On this concert recorded at an Art of Jazz Concert at The Seattle Art Museum, the duo plays music ranging from Fats Waller to Thelonious Monk and several familiar standards.
There are no chairs to sit in when you listen to music at the Crocodile. An open floor has always worked best for the kind of music and audiences the famous rock club is known for.
Veteran tenor saxophonist Hadley Caliman—he was on the Central Avenue scene in Los Angeles during the ’50s—teams with golden-toned trumpeter Thomas Marriott on the frontline for this inspired outing. Flaunting a beautiful, burnished tone and remarkable fluidity on his horn, Caliman sails through his “Cigar Eddie,” Harold Land’s “Rapture” and Lee Morgan’s Latin-flavored “Totem Pole” with confidence and old-school swagger. And he acquits himself with rare elegance and taste on Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” and the poignant ballad “You Leave Me Breathless.” Marriott, who produced the session, also contributes the driving “Cathlamet,” and the two horns engage in some facile, energized exchanges with pianist Eric Verlinde on Joe Locke’s uptempo swinger “Blues for PT.”
Bring out your brass — and your marching drums.
TONIGHT, APRIL 9