Seattle Jazz Scene

Earshot Jazz presents former Seattle, now New York resident, Kendra Shank and her New York Quartet at the Seattle Art Museum on Thursday, May 8th at 5:30pm.

Seattle Art Museum Downtown
1300 First Avenue, Seattle
Free with museum admission.
http://earshot.org/Events/Art_of_Jazz.html

The following is a review from a recent performance at Flushing Town Hall.

REVIEW: KENDRA SHANK AT FLUSHING TOWN HALL
Queens, New York, April 4, 2008

By Andrew Freund

Welcome to Flushing Town Hall, a surprising two-story Victorian structure dating to the mid-19th Century, well before a few separate regions coalesced into one mammoth New York City. We are in famously heterogeneous, residential northern Queens, and the institution is an anomaly in a neighborhood typified by sometimes perplexingly foreign businesses and store signs in various Asian scripts. An open-minded, savvy administration turned the hall into a notable arts center fifteen years ago, drawing significant stars and companies from the worlds of classical, jazz, and international music to an old-fashioned chamber setting far from Manhattan, along the way creating its very own devoted audience.

Tonight, the first floor L-shaped performance space (this place was originally designed for politics, not music) finds Kendra Shank and her musical companions of just under a decade — pianist Frank Kimbrough, bassist Dean Johnson and traps and hand drummer Tony Moreno – in its fulcrum, warmly essaying the knowing, love-saturated vibe of Cole Porter’s All of You. Those of us in a different kind of know are immediately reminded of Kendra’s many musical virtues, her lovely natural instrument (if she were a wine, she would be a merlot), her gracious sense of proportion (no rough edges here), her combination of innate musicality and lightly expressed wisdom. In a word, Kendra is an adult.

Kendra’s latest CD, A Spirit Free, is an homage to the compositions of her friend and mentor, the resplendent vocalist Abbey Lincoln, and tonight’s next song is Abbey’s most performed work, the philosophical Throw it Away (self-help really, redeemed by unforgettable lyrics and music). Kendra has recorded this modern standard on her last two recordings, in very different versions, and here is another variation — again opening with Kendra’s Incantation in the imaginary, African-sounding language she has been developing in recent years, before featuring Tony Moreno playing his drum kit with his hands. The Town Hall audience does not seem to be a jazz crowd (more a membership grouping, maybe), and I suspect most have never heard the song. Yet I am also certain that given Kendra’s nonpareil communicative ability, they have caught every nuance of Lincoln’s boldly idiosyncratic exhortation. Read More

Tuesday, April 29, 7:30 pm
Benefit for Andrew D’Angelo

Performing: Cuong Vu’s University of Washington student ensemble and the award-winning Roosevelt High School Jazz Band

Roosevelt High School Auditorium
1410 NE 66th Street, Seattle

$10 general, $5 students
Tickets available at Earshot Jazz at (206) 547-6763 and online

All proceeds benefit Andrew D’Angelo

Here’s your opportunity to help out a Seattle native son of jazz who is in dire medical straits.

Raised in our town, and educated at Roosevelt High, Andrew D’Angelo is experiencing a health crisis after being diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor. On January 25, the saxophonist and composer suffered a major seizure in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives. Tests revealed a large tumor in his brain. After surgeons removed most of the tumor, they determined that the growth was cancerous. He faces a long and difficult battle over the next several years if he is to regain his health.

At this writing, it is unclear what form his treatment will take. Andrew has been frankly discussing his experiences on his website, www.andrewdangelo.com, and his entries there suggest that the most likely options are radiation and chemotherapy, with or without further surgery.

He speaks on the blog of the difficulties he faces in affording the extensive treatment he has already undergone, and the additional treatments he will need. One aspect of his struggle will strike many jazz musicians, and working musicians of any kind, as sadly and chillingly familiar: Andrew has no health insurance. And already he has amassed huge medical bills. Read More

The Heartsong of Charging Elk: A workshop performance for 4 voices and 10 chamber instruments

Music by Wayne Horvitz
Libretto by Rinde Eckert
Additional Text by Robin Holcomb
Based on the novel by James Welch in collaboration with Sherman Alexie

Saturday, May 31st 2008 / 8 pm
Chapel Performance Space
The Good Shepherd Center
4649 Sunnyside Avenue North
Seattle, WA

Composer Wayne Horvitz and renowned writer/director Rinde Eckert, along with composer/songwriter Robin Holcomb, have collaborated to adapt The Heartsong of Charging Elk into an oratorio for 4 voices and 10 chamber instruments. A workshop performance of the piece will premiere on May 31st at the Chapel Performance Space.

Mr. Horvitz describes the genesis of the piece:

I originally found out about James Welch’s novel from Sherman Alexie, and Sherman and I made plans to work together on the adaptation. Unfortunately by the time I was ready to start writing, Sherman was in the middle of two book tours, so we decided to proceed with Rinde writing most of the text for the workshop, and Sherman acting as a creative consultant for the project. This performance will essentially be the template for a full evening length work that I hope to complete with all the contributing collaborators by 2010. It will then be fully staged, with sets, lights and so forth.

This collaboration was made possible through the generous support of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and 4Culture, with additional support from Earshot Jazz.