EyeShotJazz | Jazz Photography

Saturday and Friday night at Tula’s I saw the George Colligan Trio, part of the Earshot Jazz festival.
Portland keyboardist George Colligan holds down Seattle’s favorite jazz hang on the Hammond B-3. Currently on the faculty at Portland State University, Colligan was born in New Jersey and raised in the Baltimore area. Colligan studied classical trumpet at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, eventually moving to New York and playing with Cassandra Wilson, Don Byron, Jack DeJohnette and Ravi Coltrane. In New York, Colligan joined the faculty at Juilliard. He left to teach at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, before landing on PSU’s faculty in 2011. There, he leads small ensembles and big bands with longtime professor Charles Gray. Best known as a pianist and composer, Colligan has more than 70 credits as a sideman. Colligan also writes a blog called Jazz Truth  (jazztruth.blogspot.com).

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

Friday night at the Royal Room Earshot Jazz presented the Steve Lehman Trio in a wonderful set of music.
Lehman’s standing at the jazz vanguard is affirmed – here with bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Damion Reid. Described as “one of the transforming figures of early 21st century jazz” by The Guardian, alto saxophonist, composer, performer, educator and scholar Steve Lehman works across a broad spectrum of jazz-based musical idioms. His Travail, Transformation & Flow (Pi) was chosen as the #1 Jazz Album of 2009 by the New York Times. Lehman has performed and recorded nationally and internationally with his own ensembles and with Anthony Braxton, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran and Meshell Ndegeocello. Lehman received a master’s in composition (2002) from Wesleyan University, where he studied under Anthony Braxton while concurrently working with Jackie McLean at the Hartt School of Music. He received a doctorate with distinction in music composition from Columbia University (2012).

Friday evening, Lehman performsedwith his trio, whose most recent recording, Dialect Fluorescent (Pi, 2012), was called one of the Top 10 recordings of 2012 by over thirty publications, including Spin, the Denver Post and the Village Voice.

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

Following Steve Lehman’s trio, on Friday night at the Royal Room, Earshot Jazz Festival 2013 presented an exciting new ensemble premiered all new repertoire. Cellist Peggy Lee is a fixture on the fertile music scene in Vancouver, BC. She is, for example, a first-call band member for visitors to the city’s famed annual jazz festival, including trumpeter Dave Douglas, guitarist Nels Cline and Seattle-based keyboardist Wayne Horvitz. Raised in Toronto and trained in classical music at the University of Toronto, Lee is a dynamic match for tenor saxophonist Skerik and improvised music innovator Horvitz.

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

The Roosevelt High School Jazz Band performed at Benaroya Hall on Friday night to a packed house. Great show.
Fresh from its third-place victory at the prestigious Essentially Ellington competition at Lincoln Center, New York, the Roosevelt High School Jazz Band remains a titan of big band excellence. Praised far and wide for their strong ensemble playing, the band performs under the direction of Scott Brown, an accomplished jazz artist and a dedicated teacher, now in his 30th year leading bands at Roosevelt. Brown (trombone) performs with the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra and is the recipient of the 2007 KCTS Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Education.
Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

 On Thursday at Poncho Concert Hall at Cornish College, Dafnis Prieto Si o Si was presented as the Eashot Jazz Festival continues.  The Cuban percussion titan has raised the bar for jazz drumming with his breathtaking skill, precision and imagination, earning him a 2011 MacArthur Foundation “genius” award. A two-time Grammy nominee, Prieto articulates his vision as a bandleader, drummer and composer with his Si o Si Quartet, including Peter Apfelbaum (saxophone/melodica/caxixi), Robert Rodriguez (piano) and Johannes Weidenmueller (bass).

Since arriving to New York in 1999, Prieto has worked in bands led by Henry Threadgill, Steve Coleman, Eddie Palmieri, Chico and Arturo O’Farrill, Claudia Acuña, and Andrew Hill. Prieto is the founder of the independent record company Dafnison Music. As a composer, he has created music for dance, film, chamber ensembles, and, most notably, for his own bands, ranging from duets to his groups featured in his five acclaimed recordings as a leader.

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

The Earshot Jazz Festival continued on Weds night at the Triple Door.  Brad Mehldau, one of the greatest of modern jazz pianists, debuted a piano-less duo, extending his range to Fender Rhodes and a battery of synthesizers, with Mark Guiliana, one of the most exciting young drummers on the scene. The result was a trance-laden, free and majestic live performance in which Mehldau displayed a pension for calmly improvising in a way no other modern pianist can. Guiliana’s jungle-beat precision and unbreakable groove touched upon modern drum ‘n’ bass, nodding back to the unbound dance-funk spirit of the early 70s. A completely free-form performance with no set compositions, the sound was two of the world’s most refreshing instrumentalists deftly humanizing live, improvised electronic dance music.
Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

Sunday night at Cornish,  Earshot Jazz Festival presented Chris Speed, Dave King & Chris Tordini Trio / Bad Luck.
Seasoned innovators Chris Speed (sax and clarinet), Dave King (drums, The Bad Plus) and Chris Tordini (bass, Jean-Michel Pilc Trio) joined forces for a set of formidable improvising.

Brooklynite Chris Speed grew up in the Seattle area. He studied at the New England Conservatory, then moved to New York to work with Tim Berne’s Bloodcount. In the nineties, Speed and ilk formed pioneering bands – Alas No Axis, Claudia Quintet; his own, Human Feel, yeah NO, and, now, Endangered Blood. DownBeat magazine named Speed the Rising Star Clarinetist for 2004, 2005 and 2006. In April 2006, he launched Skirl Records.

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

Sunday night at Cornish,  Earshot Jazz Festival presented  The “hard-edged and audacious” (NY Jazz Record) duo of drummer Chris Icasiano and saxophonist Neil Welch opened, performing all original compositions, with live loops and pedals, opening for Chris Speed, Dave King & Chris Tordini Trio / Bad Luck.

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

Dave Douglas Quintet  performed Saturday night at Poncho Hall in a fantastic set. At the end the Westerlies joined them for a couple of numbers.

Time Travel (2013) and Be Still (2012) show prolific NYC trumpeter, composer and educator Dave Douglas’ new ensemble – Jon Irabagon (tenor saxophone), Bobby Avey (piano), Linda Oh (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums) – to be transporting, lyrical and hard-swinging. Douglas’ unique contributions to improvised music have garnered distinguished recognition, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Aaron Copland Award and two Grammy nominations. Since 2005, Douglas has operated record label Greenleaf Music. Douglas has held several posts as an educator, notably, as Artistic Director the Banff Centre in Canada (2002-2012). He is a co-founder and director of the Festival of New Trumpet Music. In 2013, he begins his second year as International Jazz Artist in Residence at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

Here is a link to the Earshot Jazz Festival website  schedule for the rest of the Festival.

Earshot Jazz Festival 2013 presented The Westerlies opening for Dave Douglas on Saturday night at Poncho Concert Hall at Cornish College. Later they returned and played a few numbers with Dave and his group.