EyeShotJazz | Jazz Photography

Danilo Pérez, Wayne Shorter,  John Patitucci and Brian Blade.

Sunday night the 2015 Earshot Jazz Festival presented one of the best performances of the year at Benaroya Hall, the Wayne Shorter Quartet.

One of the most influential saxophonists and composers in the pantheon of modern music, let alone jazz, Wayne Shorter has an outstanding record of professional achievement in his historic career as a musician. Regarded as a pioneer since his emergence in the 1950s, his trajectory has restlessly embodied continual exploration and unencumbered momentum. A generation of musicians and fans see and hear him as a humble master who created a timeless vocabulary – as vital as it is unbound.

His long-running quartet features pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade. Reviews of the group’s live performances are exercises in superlative overload. Calling it “the most skillful, mutually attuned and fearlessly adventurous small jazz group on the planet,” The Guardian said that the quartet “celebrates humanity’s hope for harmony.”

Shorter won in three categories of the 2014 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards, taking honors for Musician of the Year; Record of the Year for his quartet’s searing Blue Note release, Without A Net; and the Wayne Shorter Quartet was named top Midsize Ensemble of the Year.

If the prolific composer had never written a single tune, his signature sound and choice of notes, sense of economy and unparalleled expression on both tenor and soprano saxes would have earmarked him for greatness. Combine the writing prowess with the fragmented, probing solos and the enigmatic Buddhist philosopher presence and you have the makings of a jazz immortal.

The 2014 Earshot Jazz Festival presented Battle Trance in concert on Nov 1. A  special sound I really liked.

What happens when you wake up one morning with the unshakable feeling that you need to start a tenor saxophone quartet with three people you barely know? If you’re Travis Laplante you don’t question the impulse, you just follow the muse. And follow it he did, as the ensemble, Battle Trance, was formed that very evening.

Described as music that not only transcends genres, but also time and space, the group’s 2014 debut recording, Palace of Wind (available on New Amsterdam Records), inhabits the cracks between contemporary classical music, avant-garde jazz, black metal, ambient, and world music. In terms of tradition, it draws on the whirling soundscapes of Evan Parker and is meant to dissolve the separation between listener and sound. Circular breathing, multiphonics, blisteringly fast lines, and unorthodox articulation meld to create hypnotic waves of sound that place the cerebral nature of composition and the visceral act of performance in a purely spiritual sonic space – one that has been described by The New York Times as “a floating tapestry of fascinating textures made up of tiny musical motifs…that throbs with tension between stillness and agitation, density and light.”

With comparisons to figures such as Anthony Braxton and Albert Ayler, Travis Laplante’s music aspires to the sublime and otherworldly. In addition to this newly created ensemble, he also plays in the trio Little Women with bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Ches Smith, and is highly regarded as an innovator on his instrument. He is joined in Battle Trance by three other leading tenor saxophonists: Matthew Nelson, Jeremy Viner, and Patrick Breiner.

Kate Olson brought her sextet to EMP during the 2014 Earshot Jazz Festival on October 29th and her sound was great.

Since moving to Seattle in 2010, improvising saxophonist and woodwind teacher Kate Olson is fast becoming a mainstay on the local jazz and improvised music circuit. She can be heard performing with her own projects Syrinx Effect, KO SOLO, and the KO Ensemble, and as a collaborator with the Seattle Rock Orchestra, the Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, the Seattle Jazz Composer’s Ensemble and multiple other groups. In addition to Olson, the sextet comprises Sam Boshnack on trumpet, Chris Credit on tenor sax, Geoff Harper on bass, Tim Kennedy on keyboards, and Eric Eagle on drums.

After Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet opened at the Seattle Art Museum in the 2014 Earshot Jazz Summer Concert Series, Darius Jones played a set with Tarbaby.

Alto saxophonist Darius Jones has a deep-soulful sound that can pur, bark, soothe, and savage. The Brooklyn-based hornman is emerging as a one of the most talented and exciting leaders in an increasingly packed field. As a leader and composer, he displays savvy, intuitive skills that are equally moving and thrilling. Fittingly, then, he teams here with Tarbaby, an “expandable, organic situation” that Ben Ratliff explained in the New York Times: They are “loud and authoritative and elastic within composed boundaries,” and listening to them “you feel they’re in a continuous tradition — you can hear the learning in their hands — and yet they’re all over the place.” They’re that good. No wonder, when they boast as core members the Grammy Award-winning bassist and composer Eric Revis, on keyboards Aruán Ortiz, and on drums, one of their most riveting current exponents, Nasheet Waits.

Also last night at the Royal Room Earshot Jazz Festival presented  the Steve Treseler Group with Ingrid Jensen.Seattle tenor saxophonist Steve
 Treseler celebrates the release of Center Song, with renowned guest trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, pianist Dawn
 Clement, guitarist Chris Spencer,
 drummer Steve
 Korn. The group explores new material by Treseler, a piece by Jensen, a Lee 
Konitz tune, a Sunny Day Real Estate
 adaptation and some short improvisations.

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.

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.

Naomi Siegel (trombone, pedals, field recordings) & Kate Olson (saxophone, effects)
Syrinx Effect an experimental platform for trombonist Naomi Siegel and saxophonist Kate Olson,  played contemporary, improvised music with electronics at the Chapel Performing Space in the opening performance of the Jazz The Second Century, the latest edition of Earshot’s juried series. It was a beautiful set of interesting music.  Olson mixed jazz licks and space on soprano sax above a layer of laptop effects, Buddha Machine loops, and snaps, pops and analog electronic sounds from a Cracklebox. Siegel explored the range and booms of trombone and lays down a background of looped brass thwarted by guitar pedals, plus field recordings from her travels.

The duo’s recent release Gnarly & Sweet shows their approach to improvised sonic journeys, tending to cinematic soundscapes set on droning rhythmic motifs. The two trade responsibilities in driving the shape and form of the pieces, each, at times, soloing minimally and sweetly or bombastically.

Roscoe Mitchell performed last weekend at a concert put on by Table and Chairs at Benaroya Hall. Table & Chairs, a New Music record label located in Seattle, brought the legendary saxophonist and composer ROSCOE MITCHELL to Benaroya Hall, where he was featured in a concert dedicated entirely to his landmark composition, “Nonaah” [no-NAY-uh]. The performance  featured a rare, extended solo saxophone performance by the composer himself, as well as several different arrangements of “Nonaah” spanning the length of Mitchell’s career. Starting off the musical performances was a Cello Quartet version of Nonaah featuring David Balatero, Natalie Hall, Brad Hawkins and Lauren McShane, conducted by Marcin Pączkowski. Then Roscoe Mitchell played his solo version of Nonaah, followed by an Alto Saxophone Quartet of Jacob Zimmerman, Ivan Arteaga, Andrew Swanson, and Neil Welch. Bad Luck, Neil Welch, tenor saxophone and Christopher Icasiano, drumset then played their version,  Nonaah Reimagined.

The concert finished with the large group ensemble Lawson doing a version.

I had the pleasure to hear Roscoe Mitchell perform again last weekend at a concert put on by Table and Chairs at Benaroya Hall. Table & Chairs, a New Music record label located in Seattle, brought the legendary saxophonist and composer ROSCOE MITCHELL to Benaroya Hall, where he was featured in a concert dedicated entirely to his landmark composition, “Nonaah” [no-NAY-uh]. The performance  featured a rare, extended solo saxophone performance by the composer himself, as well as several different arrangements of “Nonaah” spanning the length of Mitchell’s career.

More pictures from this will  be posted another day.