EyeShotJazz | Jazz Photography

Dave Holland (bass), Kevin Eubanks (guitar), Craig Taborn (piano/keys) and Eric Harland (drums) –  played at Jazz Alley presenting songs from their CD Prism. a new project celebrating 40 years since Mr. Holland’s debut recording as a leader last September I photographed them for a cover story in Downbeat Magazine. Here are some of the pictures they ran.

 
(Jason Goessl, Brian Oppel, Phil Cali)

Earshot Jazz presented the last in the Jazz: The Second Century series last month ending the series with Trimtab. I really enjoyed listening to this group.

R. Buckminster Fuller, the great 20th century architect and theorist said, “We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.” The band Trimtab is the sonic answer to this call. Trimtab is the concept of guitarist Jason Goessl, who being heavily influenced by the ideas of Buckminster Fuller, saw an intrinsic link between architecture and musical form – a link he sought to express in sound. Initially formed in Minneapolis, Goessl moved west to Seattle and enlisted bassist Phil Cali and drummer Brian Oppel, to form the newest incarnation of Trimtab, and further realize his musical vision.

Sweeping dynamic changes, woven through hypnotic musical tensions, all set against persistent grooves, the music of Trimtab is a unique blend of the concrete and the sonic, the physical and the ephemeral. There is a unique gravitational pull in their music, much like the unseen forces that send skyscrapers into the heavens and lift bridges across impossible expanses. Trimtab, if they are the true architects of the future, call on the past and the future alike to forge a sound whose gravitational center is the inescapable present. If they are answering the call, hopefully someone is listening.

Earshot Jazz presented Sunna Gunnlaugs Trio at the Seattle Art Museum June 28th in a wonderful performance.
From Iceland comes a lyrical pianist with impeccable touch and time who, as The Washington Post said, “elegantly bridges soul-searching passages with uncluttered swing.” Three highly praised albums into a now-globetrotting career, Sunna demonstrates qualities that keep that lifestyle pleasurable: Her work is contemplative and unhurried, and yet fully capable of evoking great emotion and tension in her spacing and intonation. She counts as her influences the likes of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett – the former echoes in her touch, the latter in a yearning lyricism – as well as Scandinavians like Bobo Stenson and Jon Balke. Like the last two, her accomplishment is in imbuing drama and feeling into measured playing, as well as relating a complexity of soul and spirit in glimmers as if through a drawn-out far-Northern gloaming. She has steeped her responses in both schools. After coming to the U.S. in 1993 to attend William Paterson, Sunna ventured to close-by New York City. There she eventually teamed with the likes of saxophonist Tony Malaby and bassist Drew Gress. She wins high praise for a style at once highly personal and compellingly inclusive of her audiences. She interpreted her repertoire with truly accomplished trio-mates, fellow Icelander Thorgrimur Jónsson on bass, and her and long-time collaborator (and husband) Scott McLemore on drums.

One of the Northwest’s premiere jazz artists, pianist/vocalist/composer Dawn Clement is a sought after collaborator who has worked with the likes of Pharaoh Sanders, Nancy King, Ingrid Jensen, Jay Clayton, and more. The Seattle native is currently a member of the jazz faculty at Cornish College of the Arts, where she has served since 2000. Her fourth album, Tempest Cobalt, marks her debut as composer.
Joining Dawn will be Byron Vannoy on drums and Geoff Harper on bass. The Dawn Clement Trio  performed original compositions, as well as some music they’ve written for Priester’s Cue.