EyeShotJazz | Jazz Photography

Hubert Laws Quintet at the Bellevue Jazz Festival Jazz Photography by Daniel Sheehan

Hubert Laws performed at the the 5th annual Bellevue Jazz Festival at the Meydenbauer Center  on Saturday June 2nd. Internationally-renowned flutist Hubert Laws is one of the few classical artists who has also mastered jazz, pop, and rhythm-and-blues genres – moving effortlessly from one repertory to another. Winner of the prestigious 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award, Laws has appeared as a soloist with orchestras around the world.

Hubert Laws Quintet at the Bellevue Jazz Festival Jazz Photography by Daniel Sheehan

Laws was selected as the Number 1 flutist in Down Beat’s readers’ polls ten years in a row and was the critic’s choice for seven consecutive years. As a classical performer, he has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, with the orchestras of Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland, Amsterdam, Japan, Detroit, and with the Stanford String Quartet. He has given annual performances at Carnegie Hall, and has performed sold out performances in the Hollywood Bowl with fellow flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal.

Hubert Laws Quintet at the Bellevue Jazz Festival Jazz Photography by Daniel Sheehan

Hubert Laws Quintet at the Bellevue Jazz Festival Jazz Photography by Daniel Sheehan

Hubert Laws Quintet at the Bellevue Jazz Festival Jazz Photography by Daniel Sheehan

Hubert Laws Quintet at the Bellevue Jazz Festival Jazz Photography by Daniel Sheehan

Hubert Laws Quintet at the Bellevue Jazz Festival Jazz Photography by Daniel Sheehan

Hubert Laws Quintet at the Bellevue Jazz Festival Jazz Photography by Daniel Sheehan

Lary Barilleau and the Latin Jazz Collective performed at the the 5th annual Bellevue Jazz Festival  at Bake’s Place on Saturday June 2nd. Lary Barilleau is a first-call percussionist on the regional scene and has performed widely on the West Coast as well as in New York. The Latin Jazz Collective includes multi-instrumentalist Jay Thomas, Marc Seales, piano, Jeff Norwood, bass and Ricardo Guity, congas. Lary Barilleau has recorded a new CD “Carmen’s Mambo” with musicians from Seattle, San Francisco and New York which will be released later this year. The quintet played music ranging from Latin Jazz classics to newer compositions by Lary Barilleau and Jay Thomas.

Booker T Jones performed at the the 5th annual Bellevue Jazz Festival at the Meydenbauer Center  on Friday June 1st. Yes this was the Booker T of the famous Booker T and the MGs. This set blew me away. I had no idea he was still around and and the music was grand and I love the new group of young musicians he has playing with him now.

Booker T. Jones is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, and four-time GRAMMY Award winner, but he is best known as the front-man of the band Booker T. and the MGs. The musical seed was planted early in Jones. Before he was even a teenager he hauled his stack of newspapers to Phineas Newborn’s front yard where, he folded the papers for his after-school delivery route, and listened to the jazz great practice piano. With those notes ringing in his head, he’d set out into the neighborhood, picking up the sound of the streets, the sound of the city, the sound of the people – and form new rhythms in his musical mind.

Jones first entered into the professional music scene at age sixteen, when he played baritone saxophone on Satellite Records’ first hit, “Cause I Love You,” by Rufus and Carla Thomas. Over the next few years, Jones divided his time between studying classical music composition, composing and transposition at Indiana University and playing with the MGs in Memphis on the weekends. For more than 15 years at Stax Records (formally Satellite), he explored the potential of soul and rhythm-and-blues with the MGs, both on their own albums and behind vocalists.

Jones was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement GRAMMY Award in 2007. In 2011, Jones released The Road from Memphis. The backing band included Questlove (drums), “Captain” Kirk Douglas (guitar) and Owen Biddle (bass) from The Roots, as well as former Motown guitarist Dennis Coffey and percussionist Stewart Killen. The album features vocals by Yim Yames, Matt Berninger, Lou Reed, Sharon Jones and Booker T. Jones himself, as well as lyrics contributed by his daughter Liv Jones. In 2012 The Road from Memphis won at the 54th GRAMMY Awards for Best Pop Instrumental Album. Jones now holds a total of four GRAMMY Awards.

Tom Grant and his Trio played at Bake’s Place as part of the Bellevue Jazz Festival.  I went over there after covering the  Clayton Brothers and enjoyed Tom’s Trio. Here are some of my favorites from their performance.

Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto played at Bake’s Place as the Bellevue Jazz Festival continued through June 3rd this year, and I caught Jovino and his group on Friday June 1st. It was my first time shooting at Bake’s and the red light is kind of overwhelming but the band sounds great. Managed to tame it a bit here for these images and here are some of my favorites from their performance.

The 5th annual  Bellevue Jazz Festival started on Weds May 30th, and I began covering it on Thursday night at the Meydenbauer Center where the Clayton Brothers Quintet played a kick-ass set. The GRAMMY-nominated Clayton Brothers Quintet was formed in 1977 by brothers John and Jeff, and while their paths sometimes diverged, the brothers continue to share a common musical vision. Their album, Back in the Swing of Things, demonstrates their unique musical vision.

The album, as well as the songs “Expressions” and “Siblingity,” are bristling with surprises, delights, and the kind of musical telepathy that could only come from tuned in siblings. Their most recent recordings were nominated for GRAMMY Awards for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group. The brothers place a strong emphasis on sharing their knowledge and thus are dedicated jazz educators who travel extensively to participate in workshops and music clinics around the world.

The quintet also consists of John’s son and GRAMMY-nominee Gerald Clayton on piano, Obed Calvaire on drums, and Terell Stafford, a highly regarded trumpeter and band-leader.
Here are some highlights from the concert.

I had the privilege of meeting John Clayton before the set and watched as he warmed up on the 12o year old bass that once was the instrument belonging to legendary bassist Ray Brown.