This Sunday on Jazz Northwest
Jazz and Summertime are natural partners and next Tuesday night fans will be heading to the North City neighborhood of Shoreline for the 9th annual North City Jazz Walk from 7 to 10 PM. This Sunday, Jazz Northwest previews the Jazz Walk with music by Greta Matassa, Pearl Django and Jacqueline Tabor. These are three of the ten artists and groups appearing on August 11 in ten venues within walking distance of each other around 175th and 15th Avenue NE.
Also on this week’s show are the Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra, Dmitiri Matheny and Stephanie Porter, all of whom will also be playing in the Seattle area next week. News about live jazz opportunities are always a part of Jazz Northwest on Sunday afternoons at 2 PM Pacific on 88.5 KPLU and streaming at kplu.org.
Next week, Jazz Northwest presents the first in a series of shows originating from Centrum’s Jazz Port Townsend the last weekend of July. On August 16, you’ll hear highlights from an informal gig in downtown Port Townsend featuring international jazz stars Terell Stafford, Steve Wilson, Eric Reed and others.
More info:
northcityjazzwalk.org
jazznw.org
Serendipity is defined as the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. It’s also a word that can apply to a lot of good jazz experiences… the unexpected combination of musicians, a scrap of improvisation that inspires a new development in the music or even an unusual location to hear jazz.
In 1957, Duke Ellington completed and presented “Such Sweet Thunder” in concert for the first time. Working with Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington composed a suite of musical portraits of characters from Shakespeare’s plays; Hamlet, Lady MacBeth, Caesar, Cleopatra, Henry V, Iago and others. In two unique performances last month, The Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra was joined by actors from the Seattle Shakespeare Company to perform the Ellington suite with related excerpts from Shakespeare’s plays.
Seattle jazz icon pianist Overton Berry leads his trio in an “Art of Jazz” concert at The Seattle Art Museum on the next Jazz Northwest on 88.5 KPLU. Overton Berry is a member of the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame and his career goes back for six decades not only in Seattle and the West Coast, but beyond to Hong Kong, Vietnam, and elsewhere.
Pianist Bill Anschell was born in Seattle and began his career here, but he’s ranged far and wide since then. He’s been a jazz coordinator for the Southern Arts Federation, produced radio programs, been musical director and pianist for Nnenna Freelon with whom he toured and recorded, and he’s toured widely in South America.
Jazz Northwest previews and samples upcoming events every Sunday afternoon at 2 on 88.5 KPLU. This Sunday (10/27) will include CDs by Roy Hargrove, Roberta Gambarini, the Jim Knapp Orchestra, Darcy James Argue and others appearing in Seattle concerts, as well as some new releases by resident Northwest musicians.
John Gilbreath, Executive Director of Earshot Jazz, will talk with Jim Wilke about the current Earshot Jazz Festival on Jazz Northwest on Sunday October 6. The 25th Earshot Jazz Festival began this week and will continue through November 17 with over 60 individual events at various locations around Seattle. Music on this program includes John Hollenbeck’s Claudia Quintet which will be appearing on Sunday, October 6 at the Poncho Theatre at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Other groups appearing at the festival and on this program include Dave Douglas, Darcy James Argue, Steve Treseler, Ingrid Jensen and Cuong Vu.