EyeShotJazz | Jazz Photography

Earshot Jazz Festival 2011 continues and last night presented the Matt Slocum Trio at Tula’s Jazz Club.  I really enjoyed the performance of Matt and his group. The award-winning New York drummer and the expansive Danny Grissett (piano) and Darek Oles(bass) played in support of After the Storm, an inspired disc of originals, standards, and an arrangement of Ravel’s “Miroirs.” If you missed them last night you have another chance. They will be performing again tonight at Tula’s.(See the rest of the Earshot Jazz Festival Schedule)

The award-winning New York drummer and the expansive Danny Grissett (piano) and Darek Oles (bass) appear in support of After the Storm (2011), Slocum’s inspired recent release.

At 29, Slocum is emerging as a leading jazz artist of his generation. His original works on After the Stormshow a level of compositional depth, recently recognized with composition grants from the American Music Center, the Puffin Foundation, and the Meet the Composer Foundation. Slocum has been featured on more than twenty recordings and has performed or recorded with artists such as Shelly Berg, Seamus Blake, Alan Broadbent, Steve Cardenas, Bill Cunliffe, Taylor Eigsti, Larry Koonse, Lage Lund, Wynton Marsalis, Linda Oh, Alan Pasqua, Jerome Sabbagh, Jaleel Shaw, Walter Smith III, Dayna Stephens, Ben Wendel, Gerald Wiggins, Anthony Wilson and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. His jazz trio work has earned a reputation as some of the most modern yet swinging in jazz today.

Slocum was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and began playing the drums, after piano, at age 11. He attended the University of Southern California on a full scholarship, where he met classmates and collaborators Gerald Clayton and Massimo Biolcati. Now in New York, Slocum continues he growth of his artistry on the drums.

Slocum has been frequently noted as a musical drummer. “The man has found his dru mming voice, and at an early age!” Peter Erskine says. While Slocum has a deep understanding of the jazz tradition, his intuitive and interactive musical language on the drums avoids the predictable. He possesses a personal voice on the instrument and is a propulsive, melodic and dynamic accompanist and soloist. And like his band mates, Slocum’s identifiable touch and sound is greatly attuned to needs of the music.
– Compiled by Schraepfer Harvey (See the rest of the Earshot Jazz Festival Schedule)

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Dafnis Prieto performing last year with his Proverb Trio at the Crocodile as presented by the Earshot Jazz Festival 2010

It was announced today that jazz percussionist and composer Dafnis Prieto has been awarded a $500,000 so called “Genius Awards” by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

When the 25 year old Cuban born percussionist Dafnis Prieto’s arrived on the New York scene back in 1999 it sent shock waves throughout the jazz world. His subsequent years of performing, composing and recording have gone a long way toward cementing his place as one of the world’s preeminent percussionists. If fact, many believe he is revolutionizing the art of drumming. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation just might be among those who believe this.

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Just got back from THE CROCODILE where Dafnis Prieto Proverb Trio performed and with Cuong Vu / Andrew D’Angelo: Agogic doing the opening set. What a night. It is late so I will post a brief and add more on Tuesday.
When the 25 year old Cuban born percussionist Dafnis Prieto’s arrived on the New York scene back in 1999 it sent shock waves throughout the jazz world. His subsequent years of performing, composing and recording have gone a long way toward cementing his place as one of the world’s preeminent percussionists. If fact, many believe he is revolutionizing the art of drumming.

Continue reading at: EarshotJazz Festival

Click here for the complete schedule for the rest of the upcoming shows at the 2010 Earshot Jazz Festival

Jazz Photography by Seattle photographer Daniel Sheehan creating portraits for publications and a Seattle Wedding Photographer with a photojournalist style.

Three time Grammy Award winner Antonio Sanchez brought his quartet to Jazz Alley tonight and blistered.  Playing off of the saxophone tandem of Chris Potter and David Sanchez, and with veteran bassist Scott Colley, they played through a number of the songs on their 2007 album Migration.

“On a jazz scene brimming over with dazzling young drummers, Sanchez stands out as one of the most extravagantly gifted. He’s best known for his ongoing, decadelong gig with guitarist Pat Metheny, but in recent years the drummer has stepped forward with his own project, Migration…”

Migration marks his debut as a band leader and this was the Seattle debut for his group. “”I’ve always been drawn to the space you get when you don’t have a harmonic instrument playing in the band, particularly sax trios like Sonny Rollins used on ‘Freedom Suite’ and ‘Way Out West,’ ” says Sanchez, 38. “I love that space as a drummer. It allows me to play a little busier, without getting in the way.”
Read more in the Seattle Times article by Andrew Gilbert Jazz Photography by Seattle photographer Daniel Sheehan who covers jazz performances, and creates portrait photography for publications and corporations and a Seattle Wedding Photographer at A Beautiful Day Photography, a wedding photographer with an artistic photojournalist style. Visit his newest website EYESHOTPHOTOS.COM to see samples of all of his work as a Seattle Photographer.

Chris Icasiano playing in January with Bad Luck. Just got word that Chris will be playing in the upcoming Ballard Jazz Festival.

All photographs on this website are Daniel Sheehan © 2010. All Rights Reserved. Please inquire for permission to use.

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Jay Clayton, vocals, Jerry Granelli, drums, Anthony Cox, bass and Julian Priester, trombone, performed in a special reunion concert at Cornish College Saturday night part of the Earshot Jazz Spring Series.

Originally from Chicago, Julian Priester’s performing career is long and varied, beginning with stints in his teens playing with blues and R&B legends Muddy Waters, Dinah Washington, and Bo Diddley. In the early 1950s Priester was also a member of Sun Ra’s big band, and recorded several albums with that group before leaving Chicago in 1956 to tour with vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. Priester subsequently settled in New York, and between 1961 and 1969 appeared as a sideman on albums by Max Roach, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Blue Mitchell, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Charles Mingus, Johnny Griffin, and Sam Rivers. In 1969 he accepted an offer to play with Duke Ellington’s big band, then left in 1970 to join pianist Herbie Hancock’s fusion sextet. Since settling down in Seattle and joining the Cornish faculty in the late 1970s Priester has continued to perform as both a bandleader and sideman including tours with Sun Ra, Gary Peacock, the Dave Holland Quintet, Lester Bowie’s New York Organ Ensemble, and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra. His compositions have been recorded by Sun Ra, Ray Charles, Herbie Hancock, Philly Jo Jones, Lee Morgan, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Clifford Jordan, and Dave Holland. His own music can be heard on the Riverside, ECM, and Conduit record labels.

Jay Clayton has gained worldwide attention as both performer and teacher. She has appeared at major venues including Lincoln Center, Sweet Basil, Town Hall, the Kennedy Center, Jazz Alley, and the North Sea and Montmartre Festivals. She has taught at Universitat fur Musik in Austria, Bud Shank Jazz Workshop, and at City College and the New School in New York City. She co-taught with Sheila Jordan at the Vermont Jazz Workshop, and at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, and was on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts for twenty years. Her book Sing Your Story: a Practical Guide for Learning and Teaching the Art of Jazz Singing is published by Advance Music. Jay has performed and recorded throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe with leading jazz and new music artists including Muhal Richard Abrams, Steve Reich, Stanley Cowell, Kirk Nurock, Gary Bartz, George Cables, and Jane Ira Bloom as well as with the a cappella group Vocal Summit comprised of Urszula Dudziak, Bobby McFerrin, Jeanne Lee, and Norma Winstone. Her current projects integrate poetry and electronics into her music. Her projects reflect the diversity of her art and her live performances, which range from duo to sextet, and are unique events that draw from all of these collaborations.

Bassist Anthony Cox has recorded with Arthur Blythe, Dewey Redman, Geri Allen, Mike Cain, Uri Caine and many others.

Halifax-based percussionist-composer Jerry Granelli grew up in San Francisco where he studied with Joe Morello and drummed for pianists Denny Zeitlin and Vince Guaraldi (on many a Charlie Brown television specials). He pioneered world jazz fusion and electro-acoustic percussion during the ‘60s, established the music department at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado in the 1970s, and has taught continuously since then in Boulder, Seattle, Halifax and Berlin. In the early ‘80s he performed and recorded in a trio with Ralph Towner and Gary Peacock for ECM records. He has recorded as a leader for Evidence, Intuition, ITM, and the Koch labels, and performed and recorded with longtime musical associates Mose Allison, Jay Clayton, Jane Ira Bloom, Glen Moore, Anthony Cox, Dave Friedman, and Jamie Saft, as well as projects with Bill Frisell, Robben Ford, Julian Priester, Charlie Haden, Kenny Garrett, and Buck 64.

All photographs on this website are by Daniel Sheehan © 2010. All Rights Reserved. Please inquire for permission to use.

The band Bad Luck on stage at the Chapel Performance Space last Friday night.

Co-led by drummer Chris Icasiano and saxophonist Neil Welch, Bad Luck is about sound art, slowly developed loops and pedals used to propel the music into new aural fields. Tight-knit original compositions meet sonic mosaics in a musical relationship cultivated by years on the bandstand. I managed to catch them last Friday night and was glad I did. A complete jazz sound  from a dynamic duo.

All photographs on this website are by Daniel Sheehan © 2010. All Rights Reserved. Please inquire for permission to use.

Drummer Byron Vannoy’s Meridian opened for Miguel Zenón on Saturday night at the Triple Door.

A local jazz fusion outfit, the band features Vannoy and several other talented artists, including Chris Symer on bass, Kacey Evans on the keyboard, Chris Spencer on guitar, and Eric Barber on saxophones. In 2008, Meridian won the Golden Ear Award for NW Recording of the Year.

Happy Apple Featuring drummer Dave King playing Ballard Tuesday night at the Tractor Tavern

Happy Apple was smoking. The house was not packed so that means that many of you really missed out on another fantastic Earshot Jazz Special Concert presentation. Although it is great to be at the Tractor when it is packed and the crowd is swinging, A smaller crowd there is much more intimate and it seems the band can relate to eveyone more closely. I know I enjoyed it a lot. The rest of the copy below is excerpted from Earshot Magazine description of the group by Danielle Bias.

Named after the popular Fisher Price toy of the 1960s, the Minneapolis-based trio Happy Apple features saxophonist (and part-time keyboardist) Michael Lewis, electric bassist Erik Fratzke and drummer Dave King, best known for his work with the genre-bending group The Bad Plus. The band recently released its seventh CD, Back on Top (Sunny Side Records) and performed selections from that release as well as an eclectic mix of original compositions and re-imaginings of familiar and not-so-familiar jazz and rock tunes.

According to King, “Happy Apple formed in 1996. We bonded over a love of Albert Ayler and ‘Too Close for Comfort,’ or anything Ted Knight did for that matter.” Many readers will be old enough to remember the television sitcom ‘Too Close for Comfort,’ which ran original episodes from 1980 to 1983 and later evolved into The Ted Knight Show.

Hearing King’s reference to this cult television classic, it is not surprising to read in a recent New York Times review references to Happy Apple’s somewhat peculiar ability to “put you in mind of old TV themes: ‘Barney Miller,’ ‘Taxi,’ ‘Hill Street Blues,’…as if the band members all grew up glued to the set but resumed listening to their Julius Hemphill records during the commercials.”

When the trio took the stage at the Tractor Tavern on May 19th, the audience was be prepared to cast off expectations of what it means for any modern-day band to fuse together jazz and rock. They also should have dismissed concerns about whether or not this task can be accomplished with sincerity to produce a favorable outcome. For there are very few bands out there, in any genre, as ferocious, engaging, entertaining, and yes, even as sincere as Happy Apple.

King writes a good chunk of the music the bands plays (besides Happy Apple and The Bad Plus, he also plays with an electronica/pop band called Halloween, Alaska). In the Twin Cities where King lives, he is a leader of a growing community of rock-influenced jazz musicians who often attract younger crowds that are not necessarily inclined towards jazz.

Bobby Previte on drums with The President, Monday, November 3, Triple Door

Following the performance of Wayne Horvitz: New York Composers Orchestra, on Monday was
Horvitz’s update of his great early ensemble, The President (just in time for Barack Obama). Formed in 1985 with an original line-up of Bobby Previte, Kevin Cosgrove, Joe Gallant, Dave Sewelson, and Wayne Horvitz, the President performed frequently on New York’s downtown rock scene, and soon settled on a line-up which also featured Elliott Sharp, Bill Frisell, Dave Hofstra, and Doug Wieselman.

Click here for the complete schedule for the rest of the upcoming shows at the 2008 Earshot Jazz Festival

Photograph by Seattle photographer Daniel Sheehan, a photojournalist specializing in portrait photography, jazz photography, and photojournalism for publications and corporations and a Seattle wedding photographer with an unobtrusive, story-telling approach creating award winning Seattle wedding photography.

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