EyeShotJazz | Jazz Photography

The Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble playing Monday night at the Royal Room.

The RRCME is a 15-20 piece band featuring Seattle’s finest and most innovative improvisers under the direction of composer Wayne Horvitz and performed his compositions in a loosely constructed format using a combination of on-the-spot (re)arranging and various other techniques, some of which have come to be known as “conduction”.  Regular members include Beth Fleenor, Chad McCullough, Al Keith, Sam Boshnack, Ryan Burns, Geoff Harper, Greg Sinibaldi, Jacob Zimmerman, Craig Flory, Eric Eagle, Kate Olson, Naomi Siegel, Jacob Herring and Wayne Horvitz.

For moe on this amazing group of people look for the upcoming May issue of Earshot Jazz Magazine.

The Earshot Jazz Spring Series brought he ICPO live on Stage at the Seattle Art Museum on April 3rd to an almost full house. One of the most wonderful performances I can remember seeing in a long time. I always really enjoy seeing Han Bennink perform but the whole ensemble this time was memorable.

“Bit-by-bit zany and artistically and technically brilliant, the ICP Orchestra is likely the globe’s most startling and ear-stretching jazz ensembles. This lineup of the world’s greatest collaborative improvisers was minus it’s founding pianist Misha Mengelberg, now in his late seventies.

Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink, along with Willem Breuker, formed the group in Amsterdam in 1967, in the full throes of the free-jazz movement. The ICP Orchestra was then, and remains now, a marvel of instant composition driven by the spontaneity and idiosyncrasy of its members. In that lineup of maverick contributors: trombonist Wolter Wierbos, bassist Ernst Glerum, clarinetist and saxophonist Ab Baars, tenor saxophonist Tobias Delius, multi-reeds hornman Michael Moore, trumpeter Thomas Heberer, violist Mary Oliver, and cellist Tristan Honsinger.” – Peter Monaghan Read more on Earshot Jazz

 

Thomas Marriott’s Flexicon with Rick Mandyck on piano, Paul Gabrielson on bass, John Bishop on drums.
The 2012 Golden Ear Awards, celebrating the contributions and achievements in Seattle jazz, were presented at Tula’s on March 20 and Flexicon opened the evening. Here are some images from the evening of great sounds from some guys who have been around for a while.