Over this past weekend, I had the immeasurable pleasure of taking a road trip with the Garfield High School Jazz Band. (Well, to be more accurate, bands, as in I & II.) Our destination was the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho in Moscow. I signed on as a chaperone for the trip. By some anomaly in nature, Emmett, who plays guitar in Band I, had no issue with his goober mom coming along for the ride, even if it meant she…
About once or twice a week, I receive a notice, usually either via my Facebook page or email inbox, that some musician friend has been nominated for some kind of award in some kind of competition. These notices typically come with a friendly request that I click on a provided link and cast a vote for that person. I receive these on a fairly regular basis. If it’s a friend, then it’s no problem. I’m happy for them and I’m down. I click and vote…
A few weeks ago, I was hanging out at Tula’s, chatting it up with a jazz musician pal. We were talking about jazz venues around the area. The name of one particular club came up and he dismissed it because “they only book chick singers.” Chick singers. And he said it as if it were a bad thing. While I don’t want to jump back into the conversation about the curious relationship between jazz vocalists and musicians, I will say that I respectfully disagree with…
Over the past few weeks, I’ve observed a few disparaging remarks about singers out there on the social media playground. More specifically, these were remarks made about jazz vocalists by jazz musicians. It actually surprised me a little. While there is definitely a common sentiment that musicians look down on vocalists, I guess I’ve never entirely bought into that idea. That said, I’m more than willing to entertain the notion that I might be kidding myself. It certainly seems like something worthy of investigating here.…
UNIVERSITY DISTRICT JAZZ WALK-SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2010 One of the cool things about the Earshot Jazz Festival is the big line-up of outstanding artists and the plethora of performances to choose from. The downside is that it can be difficult to find the time to hit all the shows you want to and it can also get a little spendy. This is just one of the reasons that the University District Jazz Walk is such a great offering. This year, Earshot has teamed up with…
It is with great enthusiasm that I send a virtual high five out to Seattle jazz musicians Jason Parker and Dave Marriott for their spanking new podcast Jazz Now! Seattle. Jazz Now! Seattle is a weekly podcast that features music from local jazz artists in the Seattle community. The mission of the podcast is twofold: (1) To put the spotlight on Seattle musicians and their projects and to help publicize their performances. (2) To present the thriving Seattle jazz scene to the rest of the…
The Earshot Jazz Festival is in full swing with outstanding jazz performances taking place at clubs and concert venues across the city. The roster of artists is exquisite as usual. Although it will be impossible to hit all of the shows, I will be making noise about some of the performances that I think are worth checking out. I am all about the locals and I’m happy that Earshot is featuring many hometown artists in the festival this year.…
Every now and then, I come across a piece of writing or a musical recording that settles a little more deeply into my psyche than most. It floats dreamily along with me and ultimately inspires me to think bigger. “Tattooed By Passion: Music Inspired By the Paintings of Dale Chisman”, the new CD from Seattle jazz drummer Matt Jorgensen, is such a work. Dale Chisman was a Denver native and received his MFA from the University of Colorado. He worked in New York City for…
Hoo-rah! Tonight is the first meeting of a four week scat workshop with my much beloved teacher and jazz musician extraordinaire Greta Matassa. I signed up for this well over a month ago and am happy and excited to get started tonight. When it comes to scat singing, Greta is a nuclear missile. She’s also one of the sharpest teachers around, and there’s no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a great workshop. Scat singing mesmerizes me. Throughout the years, I…
