Results for "Seattle"

Detroit Jazz Festival 2022: The 43rd Edition Returns to a Live Audience

by Paul Rauch
September 22, 2022

Detroit Jazz FestivalHart Plaza and Campus Martius Detroit, MI September 2-5, 2022 The main lobby of the Detroit Marriott at Renaissance Center was abuzz with greetings and joyful conversation. You could feel the ardent positivity in the room as well as you could feel the near ninety-degree heat and accompanying steady ...

Take Five with Clemens Grassmann

by AAJ Staff
June 19, 2022

Meet Clemens Grassmann Berlin-born, Brooklyn-based drummer, percussionist, composer and educator Clemens Grassmann has collaborated across the U.S. and internationally, releasing multiple recordings as a leader, including Grass Machine (self released, 2022). Recipient of the 2015 Armand Zildjian Percussion Award, Grassmann's genre-defiant aesthetic stretches across generations and unites listeners of every sonic prerogative. Grassmann's compositions ...

Seattle Jazz Fellowship Presents: Orrin Evans & the Captain Black Big Band

by Paul Rauch
June 14, 2022

The Seattle Jazz Fellowship, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded by trumpeter Thomas Marriott, was created in response to the loss of viable jazz stages showcasing the vibrant resident jazz scene in Seattle. While local jazz musicians and fans alike mourned the downfall of longtime resident haunts such as the New Orleans club and Tula's Jazz Club, Marriott ...

Carol J Levin

Carol J Levin has established a unique niche as Seattle's improvising harpist. Returning to the harp after classical training in her youth, she has been embraced by jazz and free improvisation communities for her creative voice and for extending the capabilities of the harp beyond its expected style. Carol plays frequently in duos, trios and large ensembles including CHA, Levitation, The Likes Of, Christian Pincock's Scrambler, Beth Fleenor's Blindfold Ensemble, Rain City Jazz Orchestra, and Steve Treseler's Game Symphony Workshop.  She has guested with the Jazz Connection, Starbucks Chorus (Street Requiem at Benaroya Hall), the Phinney Neighborhood Chorus, Neil Welch's Coltrane Expressions, the Seth Alexander quintet, Women's Rockin' Jazz, at improvisation concerts in the Wayward Music series, the Racer Sessions and Gallery 1412

Tom Collier

Born: June 30, 1948

In a career spanning 60+ years, Tom Collier celebrated his first public performance playing the marimba at the age of 5 in 1954 and marked the 60th anniversary of that performance with a 2014 concert at Meany Hall Studio Theater on the University of Washington campus. The concert featured several guest artists including guitarist Larry Coryell, mallet virtuoso Emil Richards, clarinetist William O. "Bill" Smith, drummer Moyes Lucas, pianist Marc Seales, and longtime musical cohort/electric bassist Dan Dean. After a six year gap between album projects, Tom released "The Color Of Wood" (Summit Records, April 2022) comprised of mostly original compositions written for and performed exclusively on the marimba

Remembering Jessica Williams: Trailblazing Pianist/Composer

by Paul Rauch
March 18, 2022

The world of jazz lost a bright star on Saturday, March 12, 2022, when iconic pianist/composer Jessica Williams passed at her home in Yakima, Washington with her devoted husband Duncan at her side. She was 73 years old. Williams was born in Baltimore, MD in 1948, and began playing piano at age 4. Classically ...

Kandace Springs Quartet / Sasha Berliner Quartet at Jazz Alley

by Paul Rauch
March 8, 2022

Kandace Springs Quartet/ Sasha Berliner Quartet Jazz Alley Seattle, WA February 27, 2022 Seattle's premier jazz showroom, Jazz Alley, celebrated its 40th anniversary in anonymity during the pandemic lockdown. John Dimitriou's 400-seater in the Belltown neighborhood grew from humble beginnings in the city's University district, where “The Alley" was hatched as ...

Dmitri Matheny

Born: December 25, 1965

Celebrated for his warm tone, soaring lyricism and masterful technique, American musician Dmitri Matheny has been lauded as “one of the most emotionally expressive improvisers of his generation” (International Review of Music).  First introduced to jazz audiences in the 1990s as the protégé of Art Farmer, Matheny has matured into “one of the jazz world's most talented horn players” (San Francisco Chronicle). Born on Christmas Day, 1965 in Nashville,Tennessee, Dmitri was raised in Georgia and Arizona. Attracted to his father’s collection of jazz and classical LP records, Dmitri began piano lessons at age 5, switched to the trumpet at age 9, and took up the flugelhorn at 18. Matheny attended the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, then the Berklee College of Music, Boston, graduating magna cum laude in 1989.  After private studies with Carmine Caruso in New York City, Matheny became the protégé of the legendary Art Farmer, a formative relationship that lasted over a decade.  Farmer, “the bebop master who defined the sound of the flugelhorn in modern jazz” (All Music Guide), was Matheny’s public champion and private mentor

Seattle Jazz Fellowship: A New Beginning For Live Resident Jazz

by Paul Rauch
February 21, 2022

The local jazz scene in Seattle has been vibrant and at times prolific over the last one hundred years. The city hosted the only fully integrated jazz club scene in the 1920's and '30s, inspiring Black musicians from the south to escape Jim Crow, and find a place to not only engage in the bustling club ...

2021: The Year in Jazz

by Ken Franckling
December 31, 2021

The jazz world continued grappling and adjusting in year two of the COVID-19 pandemic. International Jazz Day again went virtual for the most part. Singer Tony Bennett put the final stamp on his touring--and likely recording--career after his Alzheimer's disclosure. Trumpeter Irvin Mayfield was headed to federal prison. The National Endowment for the Arts welcomed four ...