Mark Taylor and Jay Thomas performing in Japan
Northwest jazz musicians have been making their mark on jazz scenes beyond our own.
Here are some quick updates on recent and up-coming travels by Seattle jazz musicians:
Jay Thomas made another semi-annual trip to Japan in March for a week of performances with the CUG Jazz Orchestra. Joining him on this trip was saxophonist Mark Taylor.
Pianist Bill Anschell, along with bassist Chris Symer and percussionist Jeff Busch, traveled to Peru in April.
Bassist Phil Sparks will head to Japan at the end of this month for three performances with Mose Allison.
Human Spirit, featuring Thomas Marriott, Mark Taylor and Matt Jorgensen, are performing at The Cellar Jazz Club this weekend in Vancouver, BC. They are promoting their new CD, Dialogue, which comes out next Tuesday.
Trumpeter Chad McCullough introduced his new group, The Spin Quartet, on a recent mini-tour of the Northwest. He also headed down to Eugene, OR, for a concert of original music at The Broadway House. Next month he heads across Canada with the group Tunnel Six and later this year heads back to Europe for performances with pianist Bram Weijters. McCullough and Weijters will also be performing at Boxley’s on May 24, a house concert on May 25, The Castle Key in Port Townsend on May 26 and Locol in West Seattle on May 27.
Bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John Bishop continue to accompany New York pianist Hal Galper on performances throughout Canada, Seattle, Portland, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Denton, TX, at the University of North Texas.
The Teaching (Josh Rawlings – piano; Evan Flory-Barnes – bass; Jeremy Jones – drums) recently returned from a mini-tour of Denver and other stops in Colorado.
Vocalist Katy Bourne is headed to Oklahoma, with pianist Randy Halberstadt, for a performance this weekend.
Trumpeter and composer Daniel Barry received a Fulbright Award to serve as a Composer-in-Residence at the Federal University in Campinas (Unicamp). He’s currently been there for 10 weeks and will return to Seattle at the end of May. Barry writes, “I’m rehearsing and conducting several orchestras in the state of Sao Paulo. We are performing the music of Ellington, Mingus and my own compositions.”
Bad Luck, which is Neil Welch on saxophone and Chris Icasiano on drums, is currently on a tour that will take them Santa Barbara, Lost Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Berkley, Eugene, Portland and Seattle.
Note: I’m sure there are plenty of artists we are missing. If you can add to this list, send a quick note to [email protected] and we’ll update in a few days.
In the twilight days of the compact disc as a sound storage device, the most compelling reason for keeping what still seems a “new” audio media (compared to wax cylinders and 78s) in the face of purely electronic media is “concept” or “thematic” releases. One such example was drummer Todd Bishop’s Pop Art 4 album,