CD Release Parties this week at Tula’s
This week Tula’s Jazz Club features two CD Release Parties featuring groups with Seattle and national connections.
On Wednesday, June 23, drummer Jon Wikan returns to town for the release of “American Rock Beauty” with Danish guitarist Torben Waldorff and New York saxophonist John Ellis.
Thursday night, June 24, Thomas Marriott celebrates the release of his new CD, “East-West Trumpet Summit“, which is currently #1 on the JazzWeek National Airplay Chart and was recently featured on NPR’s Morning Edition. The “East” portion of the Trumpet Summit is usually Ray Vega, but because of family commitments Vega wasn’t able to make this performance. In his absence, Vern Sielert (still “East” of Seattle as Sielert is now teaching in Idaho), will join the band which also features Bill Anschell on piano, Phil Sparks on bass and Matt Jorgensen on drums.
Make sure and call Tula’s and make a reservation for these events (206-443-4221).
TULA’S JAZZ CLUB
2214 2nd Avenue
Seattle
206-443-4221
http://www.tulas.com
Tuesday Jazz
TULA’S JAZZ CLUB: Little Big Band
JAZZ ALLEY: Frank Vignola Trio
NEW ORLEANS: Holotradband
EGAN’S BALLARD JAM HOUSE: The Ben Darwish Group EP Release Tour, with Ben Darwish (piano/vocals), Chad McCullough (trumpet), Michael Rush (bass) and Jason Palmer (drums)
LUCID: Kelly Ash & Mikaela Romero Vocal Workshop
MARTIN’S ON MADISON: Karin Kajita
THE MIX: Don Mock
OWL ‘N THISTLE: Jam w/ Eric Verlinde & Jose Martinez
2010 Calgary Jazz Festival cancelled
from CBC News:
Organizers have cancelled the 2010 Calgary Jazz Festival because of financial constraints — just before the event was scheduled to start.
In a written release, interim C-Jazz president Richard Sherry said the decision came after a six-hour board meeting on Saturday, two days before the festival was to open.
The lineup for the festival this year included jazz legend Chick Corea, who was to perform Friday.
Sherry said the “painful” decision to cancel the festival followed an in-depth examination of all its financial aspects.
“For several months, the board had been asking the C-Jazz executive director for a detailed rundown of expenses and cash flow required for the 2010 festival,” Sherry said.
“It wasn’t until … two days before the festival that we finally got a look. We were surprised that our wishes to scale down the festival following the difficult 2009 festival were, for the most part, disregarded.”
Sherry said the board concluded that “there was no possibility of financial success in 2010.”
He said the board thought “less pain would be inflicted on the artists, volunteers and jazz music fans” by cancelling the event before the opening instead of during the festival next week, which seemed likely.
Arrangements are being made to enable refunds for people who bought passes or event tickets.
Monday Jazz
TULA’S JAZZ CLUB: JAZZ JAM with Darin Clendenin Trio
TOST: Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder
NEW ORLEANS: New Orleans Quintet
AMORE: Ronnie Pierce Jazz Ensemble
EL GAUCHO BELLEVUE: Primo Kim
POGGIE TAVERN: Better World w/ Marc Smason & Joanne Klein
Doug Ramsey receives Jazz Journalists Award
Writer Doug Ramsey, who now spends most of his time in Yakima, received a Jazz Journalist Award for his blog Rifftides earlier this week in New York.
For a complete list of winners, click here.
Review: Speak, “Speak”
from All About Jazz:
The Seattle-based quintet Speak explores a multitude of musical moods with their eponymous recording debut. An exemplary model of genre-defying music, the disc features original compositions that delve into odd-metered progressive rock grooves and spontaneous bursts of improvised sound that are at times explosive.
The opening cut “Amalgam in the Middle” makes anthemic pronouncements with an extended section for Aaron Otheim’s intensity building piano solo, garnering strength from the free-flowing interplay of bassist Luke Bergman and drummer Chris Icasiano. Trumpeter Cuong Vu (Pat Metheny, Laurie Anderson) leads the lyrical friendliness of Bergman’s “People or Cats,” a piece played out in multiple variations, each with an added layer of dissonance, rhythmic drive and harmonic clusters. Bergman’s “Polypockets” swells with a paradoxical pull between a rock-driven pulse and all-out tonal abandonment.
By the fourth track, saxophonist Andrew Swanson’s “Mustard Knuckles,” an ensemble mentality with shared ideals begins to emerge. This piece, suggesting Metallica meeting Weather Report, introduces clever themes that seem to bask together in a musical landscape found off the beaten path. Icasiano’s “Pure Hatred” begins with friendly banter and quickly melts into some kind of inescapable confrontation.
The disc ends with Otheim’s “Litany Split,” a somber, minimalistic dirge, culminating in an expanded final crescendo. Speak presents an open-ended direction, reliant on group dialogue, unfolding in the moment and paying heed to context.
This Sunday on Jazz Northwest
Tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin leads his New York trio with Boris Koslov on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums in music from an Art of Jazz concert on the next Jazz Northwest, Sunday, June 20 at 1 pm on 88.5, KPLU. The Trio plays original music by McCaslin in this concert at the Seattle Art Museum recorded at the conclusion of a West Coast tour this month. The concert was produced by Earshot Jazz in conjunction with SAM.
McCaslin has recorded eight CDs as a leader and was nominated for a Grammy for one of his solos with the Maria Schneider Orchestra. He has also performed and/or recorded with Gary Burton, Tom Harrell the Mingus Big Band and Pat Metheny among others.
New CDs by the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra and the Ziggarat Quartet are also included on this program. Jazz Northwest is recorded and produced by Jim Wilke exclusively for KPLU and kplu.org . The program is also available as a podcast from kplu.org after the airdate.
Friday Jazz
TULA’S JAZZ CLUB: Susan Pascal Quartet
JAZZ ALLEY: Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman & Eric Harland as JAMES FARM
TRIPLE DOOR MUSICQUARIUM: Peter Schmeeckle Sextet (5:30pm)
NEW ORLEANS: Thomas Marriott’s Flexicon
BAKE’S PLACE: Gail Pettis with special guest Darren Motamedy
LATONA PUB: Phil Sparks Trio
AMORE: Lonnie Williams
THE CHAPEL: Seattle Pianist Collective
from Earshot Jazz: The Seattle Pianist Collective performs an eclectic and dynamic program of works by only living composers. The program will include works by Henryk Gorecki, Wayne Horvitz, and Peter V Stevens, featuring new pieces for piano and Buddha Machine. Seattle Pianist Collective members performing at this concert include local stars Dawn Clement, Julie Ives, Michael Owcharuk, Peter V Stevens, and Kelly Wyse. The Seattle Pianist Collective’s mission is to present engaging and open programs of new and used music for piano. For more information about the collective and to hear them in action, visit myspace.com/seattlepianocollective. Night of the Living composers is Friday, June 18 at the Chapel Performance Space in the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford at 8pm.
SERAFINA: Karin Kajita
HIROSHI’S: Jazz & Sushi
Jazz pianist Aaron Parks is back on the farm — the James Farm
from The Seattle Times:
When exactly the jazz pianist Aaron Parks became a prodigy is unclear, although he fit the description by the time he enrolled, at age 14, in the University of Washington to study music.
Now 26, what Parks remembers more clearly is the day, about four years later, that it seemed his time was up, when someone much younger than he sat in front of him and played the piano.
“I remember hearing Eldar (Djangirov) when he was 12 years old,” said Parks, who was then 16. “He came to the Lionel Hampton festival (in Moscow, Idaho) where I was playing. Here was this kid who could hear a solo and play it right back to you, Oscar Peterson stuff with both hands … I was never like that.
“The youth worship is such a funny thing, just in general, and in any type of music, but this type (jazz) in particular. I don’t know why people even care how young they are. I just want to hear some music that’s emotionally compelling.”
Despite his early start and success in the business of jazz — he joined Terence Blanchard’s band at age 18, and two years ago recorded his own album, “Invisible Cinema,” with Blue Note Records — Parks has remained grounded and secure in his creative priorities, perhaps because he has had accommodating teachers, or perhaps because he was more concerned with what he could learn as a sideman than leading his own groups.
Continue reading at The Seattle Times.
Thursday Jazz
TULA’S JAZZ CLUB:
1:00pm: Memorial Reception for Manuel “Michael” Orias
8:00pm: Sonando
JAZZ ALLEY: Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman & Eric Harland as JAMES FARM
BARCA: Clark Gibson Trio
THAIKU: Jon Alberts, Jeff Johnson and Tad Britton
NEW ORLEANS: Ham Carson Quintet
LUCID: The Hang w/ The Teaching
BAD MONKEY: Gail Pettis
400 Boren Ave N
Wednesday Jazz
TULA’S JAZZ CLUB: Kelley Johnson Showcase
JAZZ ALLEY: Pearl Django CD Release
NEW ORLEANS: Legacy Quartet w/Clarence Acox
LUCID: Kelly Ash & Galen Green
THAIKU: Ron Weinstein Trio
EGAN’S BALLARD JAM HOUSE:
7pm – Dawn Clement Student Showcase! Backed by Chris Symer (bass) and Brad Gibson (drums) ($5 cover)
9pm – Kenny Mandell Jazzworks student showcase
Thomas Marriott & Ray Vega reaches #1 on JazzWeek
Thomas Marriott and Ray Vega’s new CD, East-West Trumpet Summit, just reached the #1 spot on JazzWeek’s National Airplay Chart. This is the first Origin title to reach the top spot. Earlier this year Hadley Caliman’s Straight Ahead (which also features Thomas Marriott) spent two weeks at #2.
You can hear samples and buy East-West Trumpet Summit at Origin Records’ website.
JAZZWEEK TOP 10:
1 RAY VEGA & THOMAS MARRIOTT East-West Trumpet Summit (Origin)
2 TROMBONE SHORTY Backatown (Verve Forecast)
3 DR. LONNIE SMITH Spiral (Palmetto)
4 JOE CHAMBERS Horace To Max (Savant)
5 ONE FOR ALL Incorrigible (JLP)
6 BRAD MEHLDAU Highway Rider (Nonesuch)
7 KEITH JARRETT & CHARLIE HADEN Jasmine (ECM)
8 BILL CHARLAP & RENEE ROSNES Double Portrait (Blue Note)
8 NNENNA FREELON Homefree (Concord)
10 JOHN FEDCHOCK Live At The Red Sea Jazz Festival (Capri)
Memorial for Manuel “Michael” Orias
On Thursday afternoon, June 17, 2010, at 1:00pm, Tula’s Jazz Club will host a reception to celebrate and remember the life of Manuel “Michael” Orias.
This reception will follow a funeral mass to be held at 10am at Our Lady of the Lake, 8900 35th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115.
As additional information becomes available it will be posted at http://www.tulas.com/artists/orias.html
Tula’s Jazz Club is located at 2214 2nd Ave.
Review: Wellstone Conspiracy
This recording is just a good old-fashioned blowing session. Seven of the straight-ahead tunes are originals by members of the group, with the only standard being Billy Strayhorn’s “A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing.” All of the music is in the hard-bop and post-bop jazz language, and all of the members of the ensemble are accomplished musicians in their own right. Johnson and Bishop, who have worked together frequently, have a real simpatico relationship. You can tell that just by the slightest nod of the head or rhythmic figuration they are able to change feel on a dime. Their actions are always in coordination with each other, and instantaneous. They exhibit this most especially on “Portrait” and “Doop Dee Doop.”
Anschell can be a fiery pianist, as on his own self-penned “Turbulator,” as well as be commanding when laying back and just playing in the groove. Jensen, who plays just soprano on this recording, sometimes will thin his sound for effect, as on “Turbulator,” or play with a warm reedy sound full of thick overtones, as on “Stories We Hold.”
If there is a flaw with this recording, and this is a minor one, is that the compositions don’t show off the abilities of the group to the fullest extent possible. While one wouldn’t want to hear these incredible musicians just play standards, perhaps ripping up some thicker harmonic material and neglected chestnuts by Duke Pearson, as well as others, might play perfectly into their hands. That small negativism aside, this group plays with a heart and soul lacking in many working jazz bands.
Dave Peck: If I Should Lose You
A preview for his up-coming show at Jazz Alley.
Dave Peck at Jazz Alley – Monday, June 14
MONDAY, JUNE 14, 7:30PM
JAZZ ALLEY
2033 6th Avenue
Seattle WA 98121
Reservations: 206-441-9729
Dave Peck – piano
Jeff Johnson – bass
Joe La Barbera – drums
Pacific Northwest pianist Dave Peck returns to Jazz Alley to debut his newest recording Modern Romance. Recorded live at Jazz Alley in the fall of 2007 this set of standard songs from the Great American Songbook continues the trio’s exploration into the reinvention of the jazz piano trio. Both rhythmic and romantic, the trio uses the standard repertoire as a framework for new composition and form. Their work is rich, intuitive, and harmonically complex with a unique and signature sound. Peck who is known for his deeply introspective and passionate style and for his focus on the profound beauty he finds in the narrative of this music has been lauded by the jazz press for his award winning CD’s.
The trio brings to this set of familiar standards a modern and fresh approach. Peck and Johnson have each discovered creative ways of playing. They have conceived their own dialect which they speak at every moment with true and pure improvisation. With the addition of Joe La Barbera the trio becomes grounded but not contained. Three original voices thoroughly influenced by the past and by their experience and yet newly invented at each performance. This is jazz.
Modern Romance is surprising and beautiful and comes to the listener in a swinging and easy way. The songs are love songs, old love songs but the interpretation is distinctly contemporary.
Michael Orias
We received word that Michael Orias, the manager and doorman at Tula’s Jazz Club, passed away on Friday June 11. He was surrounded by his extended family and friends.
Our thoughts are with his family and the staff at Tula’s.