Jazz Articles about Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra

Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra: Meeting of the Waters

by Jack Bowers
April 24, 2007

The Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra, now seven years old, has produced its second superlative album of contemporary jazz, a cosmopolitan enterprise showcasing impressive compositions and arrangements by musical director Daniel Barry; Englishwoman Hazel Leach, co-leader of the European-based United Women's Orchestra; and Jill Townsend, one of Canada's most talented writers in the big-band genre.

As on its previous recording, Dreamcatcher (OA2, 2004), SWOJO leaves no doubt that it can play with anyone, readily mastering charts that would test even the ...

Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra: Dreamcatcher

by Jack Bowers
November 22, 2004

Here's more conclusive evidence, if any were needed, that jazz is no longer solely a man's game. The Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra joins the burgeoning ranks of all-female big bands that include DIVA, Maiden Voyage, Germany's United Women's Orchestra, Japan's Blue Aeronauts and ensembles led by Chrissy Lee and Kit McClure with an auspicious debut album that proves there's much more than redwoods, rain and remarkably handsome scenery in the Pacific Northwest.

In the interest of full disclosure, it should ...

Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra: Dreamcatcher

by Dan McClenaghan
October 18, 2004

According to the Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra web site ,

The Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra was formed to nurture the musical, educational and artistic growth of individual musicians, to encourage women to become involved in jazz performance/composition as a career or avocation, and to foster community interest in and appreciation of jazz as an art form.

It's a mission statement, I suppose, a little wordy, with admirable intentions; and if Dreamcatcher, the group's recent set of concert performances, ...