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Jim Knapp Orchestra: It's Not Business, It's Personal
by Jack Bowers
The Jim Knapp Orchestra's CD It's Not Business, It's Personal, recorded in February 2009, was set to be released on November 19, 2021—six days after Knapp died at age eighty-two in Kirkland, Washington. Apart from his role as bandleader, Knapp was a trumpeter, composer, arranger and longtime faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Described by Grammy-winning composer/pianist Jim McNeely as “a brilliant musician, great teacher and a humble, sweet [and] generous man," Knapp was widely recognized ...
read moreJared Hall: Seen on the Scene
by Jack Bowers
Seen on the Scene, Seattle-based trumpeter Jared Hall's second album as a leader, has a lot going for it: tight-knit group unity and tasteful dynamics; bright, technically polished solos by all hands; and engaging tunes by Hall and the late bop master, Tadd Dameron. As a bonus, the acclaimed alto saxophonist Vincent Herring is “on the scene" to share the front line with Hall, elevating the session whenever he assumes the spotlight. Hall's sound is crisp and ...
read moreJared Hall: Seen on the Scene
by Paul Rauch
In many ways the title Seen on the Scene encapsulates trumpeter Jared Hall's story leading up to the studio session in 2018 which resulted in this, his sophomore release. The native of Spokane, Washington, arrived in Seattle in 2015 after completing studies with mercurial trumpet ace Brian Lynch and, almost immediately, scored a residency at Tula's, the city's legendary jazz spot. Sporting new compositions and a new recording on Lynch's Hollistic MusicWorks label, Hall went about establishing himself on the ...
read moreJared Hall: Seen on the Scene
by Dan McClenaghan
With Seen On the Scene, his Origin Records debut, trumpeter Jared Hall offers up the sort of fresh bebop/post bop sounds found on the Blue Note Records label in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Horace Silver and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers seem to serve as touchstones, as does pianist / composer Tad Dameron, too. Hall's quintet—the familiar trumpet and sax and rhythm section line-up—takes on a pair of Dameron's classics: “Mating Call," and two versions of “If ...
read moreJay Thomas Quartet: Upside
by Paul Rauch
Seattle-based musician Jay Thomas may be considered the oddest of ducks in the jazz universe. By that, I am referring to his fierce musicality expressed both on trumpet and saxophone, as well as most members of the brass and woodwind families. Inspired early in his career by the like minded veteran Ira Sullivan, Thomas in a single night will drift from trumpet to tenor, from flugelhorn to alto, and then double back on flute and soprano. He may as well ...
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