Seattle Jazz Scene

Review by Cynthia Mullis

On Tuesday night I decided to defect from the happenings at the Seattle Drum School and instead head over to Katy Bourne’s gig at Tutta Bella on Stone Way in Wallingford. Katy Bourne is a fun and entertaining vocalist who performs with a top notch rhythm section—this time it was Doug Miller on bass and Randy Halberstadt at the piano (filling in for Bill Anschell, who is the regular on this gig). In addition to this monthly stand up north, Katy is a regular performer at the Columbia City Tutta Bella, as well as various other venues around town.

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Bill Barton has published a review from Wednesday’s Seattle Jazz Showcase featuring Thomas Marriott’s Willie Nelson Project and More Zero.

Night number three at The Seattle Jazz Showcase offered a resounding “yes, it’s really true” response to the oft-cited mention of diversity in Seattle’s jazz and improvised music community.
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The Willie Nelson Project is a group that has a decidedly electronic palette. It’s not a state-of-the-art, spruced-up, sleek, smooth, digital computer age kind of electronics though. We’re talking dirty, low-down analog funk, boys and girls.
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Stover’s “This is another dark, moody piece.” introduction led to the mesmerizing bass vamp and sonorous mallets on toms groove that was a little reminiscent of some of Eberhard Weber’s work filtered through a few years of drum ‘n’ bass and trance influences.

Click here to READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW.

Were you at the show? Post your review/comments about this concert.

Review by Bill Barton

The second night of The Seattle Jazz Showcase had a relaxed, intimate feeling.

Bassist Jon Hamar led a wonderful trio with Dawn Clement at the piano and Matt Jorgensen on drums. Hamar’s composition “Oblivion” was a particular standout and featured a rhythmically ingenious and driving piano solo. Another brilliant performance was Dawn Clement’s lovely, melancholy arrangement of John Lennon’s “Julia.” Hamar’s solo had the resonant depth, melodic imagination and subtle power of Charlie Haden at his best: an impressive solo. The blend of this piece, original compositions by Hamar and one by Astor Piazzolla provided plenty of variety.

Mark Taylor’s quartet featuring Los Angeles-based pianist Gary Fukushima (making a one-night-only appearance in Seattle) plus bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer Byron Vannoy presented a multi-faceted set with Taylor on alto saxophone for a majority of the time and on soprano for one tune. His composition “After Hours” was particularly exciting. Each of the players had eloquent solo moments throughout the set.

All in all it was a delightful evening of music.

Bill Barton has posted a review of the first night of The Seattle Jazz Showcase featuring the Hadley Caliman Quintet and the Marc Seales Group.

The Seattle Jazz Showcase series got off to an auspicious start Monday night, October 15, at the Seattle Drum School’s LAB Performance Space …

It’s common for musicians to hit the stage running by beginning with an up tempo piece to get both themselves and the audience warmed up. Not so with this stunningly nuanced set from the Seales group. There was a long, introspective, deeply spiritual solo piano introduction that wended its way through a panoply of elegant and subtle variations on two traditional spirituals – “Bye and Bye” and “Nobody Knows the Troubles I’ve Seen” – before morphing seamlessly into Seales’ composition “Soft.”

Click here to read the entire review.