Jazz Articles about Kate Olson

About Kate Olson

Radio & Podcasts

Quincy Jones, Dan West, BLCK Madonna & Kate Olson

by Joe Dimino
March 29, 2026

We launch into the 951st episode of Neon Jazz with a fresh surge of energy, led by Seattle saxophonist Kate Olson and music from her 2026 release So It Goes. From there, we rewind to a true giant--Quincy Jones--spinning early cuts from his 1965 gem Quincy Plays for Pussycats, setting a timeless tone right out of the gate. The journey rolls forward with a dynamic mix of voices and visions, featuring Dan West, Flying High with Champian Fulton, Mike Clark ...

Album Review

Kate Olson: So It Goes

Read "So It Goes" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 9, 2026

There are times when an album slips completely off the rails so abruptly and forcefully that it tarnishes what has come before it as well as what is to follow. Such is the case with Seatte-based saxophonist and composer Kate Olson's album, So It Goes, which is humming briskly along, free from perplexity or discord, until she and her companions decide to perform Alice Coltrane's enigmatic “Translinear Light." By the time those seven minutes-plus have passed, whatever positive impressions the ...

Album Review

Cassio Vianna Jazz Orchestra: Vida

by Jack Bowers
January 2, 2025

As you can't always describe a book by its cover, neither can you invariably pinpoint with accuracy a jazz ensemble's locale by its name alone. The Cassio Vianna Jazz Orchestra, to choose a random example, is not from Italy--nor from anywhere else in Europe. Although born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Cassio Vianna has lived in the United States since 2009 and is, in fact, a music educator and director of Jazz Studies at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, ...

Album Review

Neil Welch: The Ink Around It

Read "The Ink Around It" reviewed by Ian Gwin

by Ian Gwin
November 17, 2021

Music is ephemeral by nature. The conical airflow of a saxophone could be nothing more than “airy charm"—as the magician Prospero in The Tempest might have it—but this fails to substantiate its power. Though the rousing craft of Seattle composer and saxophonist Neil Welc does. In his acclaimed duo Bad Luck with drummer Chris Icasiano, he's “plucked up / the pine and cedar" through a wildly generative approach to the tenor. Combining profound humility with a tectonic techique, Welch approaches ...

Extended Analysis

Wayne Horvitz/The Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble: At The Reception, Wayne Horvitz: 55: Music And Dance In Concrete

by John Ephland
December 3, 2014

Wayne Horvitz is a musical universe unto himself. Has been for well over 35 years. And it's not just his stick-to-it-ive-ness that continues to make his music so damn engaging, a contrariness redefined. Consider these two recent releases as prime examples. The composer/bandleader/keyboardist (who turns 60 in 2015) has a musical history that just might grab you by the throat, if not coax you into some kind of mesmerizing trance. 55: Music And Dance In Concrete and At The Reception ...

Album Review

Wayne Horvitz/The Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble: At The Reception

Read "At The Reception" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
November 3, 2014

Wayne Horvitz already has lovely. It's a tool he wields with ease in his music, be it in his Gravitas Quartet of piano/trumpet/cello/bassoon, his Sweeter Than The Day acoustic quartet or the electric Zony Mash. He even brought lovely to John Zorn's shocking Naked City bands of the 1990s. Horvitz has the ability to distill music, be it classical, jazz, film, or free, down to the essence of melody and harmony.He applies that lovely to his little big ...