Valerie Joyce Pony Boy's Day Out Festival Preview ... - Earshot Jazz

EARSHOT JAZZ
A Mirror and Focus for the Jazz Community
September 2006 Vol. 22, No. 9
Seattle, Washington
Valerie Joyce
Pony Boy’s Day Out
Festival Preview: Annette Peacock
Jazz Scholarships
Late-Summer Jazz Festivals
On Music: More Paul Harding
Valerie Joyce
Photo by Daniel Sheehan

Notes
Events Listings
Please send your gig listings to
jazzcalendar@earshot.org. Please format
your listings in keeping with the way they
appear in the calendar in this issue. Also
send links to your own websites, so we
can update our links page.
Art of Jazz Series
Th is month in the Art of Jazz series, held
at Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer
Park: pianist/vocalist Carolyn Graye,
September 13, at 5pm. Admission to the
events is free with museum admission by
modest suggested donation.
2 • Earshot Jazz • September 2006
Th is month’s presentation is a CD release
event for Graye’s album New Music
for the Poetry of Denise Levertov, the
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.
Radio Host Sought
Flotation Device, a weekly showcase
of local and international creative music
that airs on KBCS 91.3FM on Sunday
nights, from 10pm to midnight, seeks
a co-host. Th e applicant should have a
substantial knowledge and love of at least
one or two of the following: improvised
music, free jazz, avant-garde concert
music, and experimental radio works,
and should also be able to make a fi rm
In One Ear
Th e Pony Boy All-Star Big Band presents
fi ve performance pieces during the
next two months – with dancers.
Th e free performances promise to be
something diff erent – quite something.
Th ey feature groups of band members
wandering through public spaces, fi nding
their way to each other through “antiphonal”
– call-and-response – musical pieces.
Once they have gathered at one spot,
they – and dancers – perform American
big-band and jazz standards.
The performances, which go by the
name “Concurrently Consecutive Antiphonal
Sonic Sculpture Stationary
Traveling Big Band & Dance,” take place
on Saturday, September 9, at 1pm, in
downtown Enumclaw (1421 Cole St);
as part of Pony Boy Records 3rd Annual
Jazz Picnic on Sunday, September 10,
at 4pm, at Sandpoint Magnuson Park;
Saturday, September 16, at 11am, at
Redmond Saturday Market (7730 Leary
Way, Redmond); Friday, September 22,
at 5pm, at the Downtown Kent First
Avenue Party (1st Ave between Gowe St
Inside this issue...
Notes __________________________________2
In One Ear _____________________________ 2
Earshot Festival Update _________________ 4
Wardenburg Scholarship Recipients _____5
Valerie Joyce ___________________________6
Festival Preview: Annette Peacock ______ 9
commitment to host the program every
other week. Broadcast experience is a
plus but not required, as KBCS off ers
a basic broadcasting course. An exciting
personal collection of recordings is
also a strong plus. Applicants should
contact producer Jonathan Lawson at
jonathan@reclaimthemedia.org as soon
as possible, with view to an October
start.
Errata In last month’s issue it was
incorrectly stated that the saxophonist
Tatum Greenblatt had graduated from
Roosevelt High School; he actually
graduated from Garfi eld High School.
and Titus St); and Sunday, October 29, at
5pm, at Game Farm Wilderness Park in
Auburn (2401 Stuck River Road). More
details at www.ponyboyrecords.com.
Sonarchy, the weekly showcase of new
music and sound art recorded live in
the studios at Jack Straw Productions, is
broadcast on KEXP 90.3FM each Saturday
evening at midnight.
Th is month, jazz and improvized music
off erings begin on September 2 with the
acoustic guitar and voice of Kazutaka
Nomura of the genre-bending group,
Na. September 9, it’ll be percussionists
Bob Rees and Greg Campbell in improvisation.
September 16, Pocket Change
presents hybrid soul-jazz. September 23,
Lullabelle’s Junkshop fuses the worlds of
big beat, noise, and spiritual validation
through product identifi cation. Finally,
September 30, Tangent Trio presents
an acoustic blend of the tango tradition
fused with jazz sensibilities, with Ben
Th omas (vibes/bandoneon), Jovino Santos-Neto
(piano/melodica), Eric Likkel
(clarinets).
Preview: Pony Boy Jazz Picnic _________11
Summer/Fall Festival Guide ___________12
Preview: Anacortes Jazz Festival _______13
On Music: Puppy Love _________________15
Jazz Calendar _________________________18

E A R S H O T J A Z Z
A Mirror and Focus for the Jazz Community
Executive Director: John Gilbreath
Earshot Jazz Editor: Peter Monaghan
Contributing Writers: Andrew Bartlett,
Paul Harding, Josie Holtzman, Peter
Monaghan, Lloyd Peterson
Photography: Daniel Sheehan
Layout: Karen Caropepe
Mailing: Lola Pedrini
Program Manager: Karen Caropepe
Intern: Josie Holtzman
Calendar Information: mail to 3429
Fremont Place N #309, Seattle WA
98103; fax to (206) 547-6286; or email
jazz@earshot.org
Board of Directors: Fred Gilbert
(president), Paul Harding (vicepresident),
Lola Pedrini (treasurer), Jane
Eckels (secretary), George Heidorn, Taina
Honkalehto, Hideo Makihara, Th omas
Marriott, Richard Th urston
Earshot Jazz is published monthly by
Earshot Jazz Society of Seattle and is
available online at www.earshot.org.
Subscription (with membership): $35
3429 Fremont Place N #309
Seattle, WA 98103
T: (206) 547-6763
F: (206) 547-6286
Earshot Jazz ISSN 1077-0984
Printed by Pacifi c Publishing Company.
©2006 Earshot Jazz Society of Seattle
Earshot Jazz
Mission Statement
Earshot Jazz is a non-profi t arts
and service organization formed in
1986 to cultivate a support system
for jazz in the community and to
increase awareness of jazz. Earshot
Jazz pursues its mission through
publishing a monthly newsletter,
presenting creative music, providing
educational programs, identifying and
fi lling career needs for jazz artists,
increasing listenership, augmenting
and complementing existing services
and programs, and networking with
the national and international jazz
community.
Monthly Jazz in The L.A.B.
@ The Seattle Drum School
THE JIM KNAPP
ORCHESTRA
EVERY FIRST
MONDAY
@ 8PM
Geoff Harper Presents:
Last Mondays
every last Monday
@7:30 pm
www.lastmondays.com
206.364.8815 - 12510 15th Ave NE - www.thelabatsds.com
Saxophone, Trumpet, Trombone, Violin, Piano, Guitar, Bass, Drums
September 2006 • Earshot Jazz • 3

Earshot Jazz Festival
2006 Update
“Seattle’s most important annual jazz
event,” as Down Beat magazine calls it,
is gearing up for its 18th run. This year’s
Earshot Jazz Festival runs from October
20 to November 5, at venues around the
Seattle region.
We’ll present more than 70 events in
concert halls, clubs, and community
centers. As always, the schedule will mix
international and national stars with the
finest of Seattle’s resident jazz players.
There will also be a series of rare jazz
films, photo exhibit, panel discussions,
and education programs.
May we toot our own horn, for a moment?
Just to say that the Earshot Jazz
Festival really is – no brag, just fact – “one
of the best festivals in America.” Who said
that? We say it, and plenty of you have
said it, too. And this year, we present more
than 200 musicians who collectively will,
with us, honor the deep heritage of jazz
and celebrate the leading edges of the art
form. Many musicians will take part in
workshops, panel discussions, and master
classes in the area.
Plus: many soloists and groups from
the Pacific Northwest. For example, in
one special project, Seattle trumpeter
Wynton Marsalis Quintet
Paramount Theatre
Saturday, October 21, 8pm
Earshot is pleased to collaborate with
STG in presenting the Wynton Marsalis
Quartet at the Paramount Theatre.
Wynton Marsalis has become, for
many, the face of the legacy of jazz in
modern times. The phenomenal trumpeter,
bandleader and composer has
certainly become the most-recognized
jazz artist in the world. He has produced
33 jazz and 11 classical records and sold
more than seven million discs, including
three certified gold records.
Wynton Marsalis returns to Seattle for
an evening of down-home and sophisticated
swing.
4 • Earshot Jazz • September 2006
Jay Thomas combines forces with top
jazz artists from Japan in several concerts
around Washington State. And, in a festival
tradition, Seattle’s top high-school
jazz bands will be featured in a main-stage
concert with a nationally recognized
guest artist who will also conduct workshops
in Seattle schools.
If you’re one of those many jazz devotees
who like to delve further into the art form,
you’ll be well-served by a special project
that we’re mounting, this year. It’s called
Jazz: The Second Century, and consists of a
series of residencies, performances, panels,
lectures, and focus groups that explore
possibilities for jazz as it enters its second
century as a cultural phenomenon.
A list of many of those scheduled to
appear is on the right. We think you’ll
agree it’s a killer lineup, so we hope to see
you out at as many concerts and events as
you can make. Block out your calendar,
now!
Tickets for the Earshot Jazz Festival will
be on sale in early September through
Earshot Jazz, and at various Seattle jazz
spots. Complete concert information will
be available at www.earshotjazz.org and at
206-547-9787 in early September.
SPECIAL PROMOTION
As a special promotion, Earshot readers
can purchase their seats to the show
early, starting on July 25. Just go to the
Paramount Theatre sales site, www.
theparamount.com, 206-292-ARTS, or
the Paramount Theatre Box Office, and
enter or mention the code “Earshot.”
That will enable you to book tickets in
advance of general public sales, which
begin on September 8.
What’s on tap?
Some of the artists scheduled, so far:
Wynton Marsalis Quintet A leading
jazz light with a brand new group, at the
Paramount Theater (See sidebar)
Cyrus Chestnut Trio Elegant, bluesy
mainstream jazz, with guitar stunner Russell
Malone
Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio w/ Fred Wesley
B-3 Organ trio with former James Brown
horn man.
Wayne Horvitz’s Gravitas, featuring
Bill Frisell Seattle keyboardist with a new
chamber ensemble
Allen Toussaint New Orleans pianist has
written some of the top songs of our times
Drew Gress Group “7 Black Butterflies”
ensemble with Tim Berne and Craig Taborn
Bobby Hutcherson Quartet Legendary
jazz vibist with Geoffrey Keezer on piano
John Hollenbeck’s Claudia Quintet
Brilliant composer’s compelling quintet
Michele Rosewoman & Quintessence
Performing new Chamber Music Americacommissioned
works
Jimmy Heath w/ Seattle Repertory Jazz
Orchestra NEA Jazz Master in residence
with all-star Seattle band
Annette Peacock Individually imagined
solo piano works
Nguyen-Le Tiger’s Tail Quartet
Spectacular guitarist with stellar group
Toshiko Akiyoshi Solo piano concert by
big-band jazz legend
Matthew Shipp Still New York’s most
fascinating pianist
Matmos Modernist electro-acoustics
Ana Moura Gorgeous Portuguese fado singer
Rashied Ali Quintet Hard-driving jazz
veteran with trumpeter Jamaane Smith
Andrew Hill Quartet The legendary pianist,
a foundation of modern jazz
Lionel Loueke Trio New African jazz from
former Terence Blanchard sideman
Tribute to Stuart Dempster Seattle
musical alchemist honored in special day
Kamikaze Ground Crew Notorious creative
project reunited
Larry Coryell Jazz/Rock guitar pioneer
Manuel Valera Exciting pianist with new trio
Django Reinhardt Festival Legendary
gypsy jazz from France with Dorado Schmitt
Mavis Staples Tribute to Mahalia Jackson
and many, many more

Scholarship Recipients Step Up
For the past eighteen years Earshot has
provided scholarships for select students
to attend the prestigious Centrum Jazz
Workshop held every summer in Port
Townsend, Washington.
This year Earshot
awarded Wardenburg
Scholarship funds to
three talented young
Seattle musicians: 17year-olds
Alex Rudee
and Zach Para, both
of whom will be seniors
at Garfi eld high
school, and 19 yearold
college student
Ashley Webster.
Since the workshop
was founded more
than 25 years ago,
the week has off ered an opportunity of
intensive practice, performance and study
as the participants gather invaluable skills
and benefi t from the attentive instruction
of jazz greats such as Benny Green and
the workshop’s artistic director, John
Clayton. “Th ey give you so much information
that you can use,” says drummer
Zach Para, who returned this summer for
his second year, “I could work on it for
a whole year.” Alex ups the ante, “I have
about ten years worth of stuff to practice!”
For Alex, an alto saxophonist, this
summer is the third year he participated
in the Centrum Jazz Workshop.
When asked to describe the week’s
activities, Ashley, a jazz pianist who
returned to Port Townsend for her second
year of the workshop this summer,
comments, “Th e week is exhausting, last
week I napped between every session.”
Th is summer, however, Ashley made a
conscious eff ort to overcome the exhaustion
and attend the jam sessions and optional
workshops in between the rigorous
scheduled activities, a pursuit rewarded
by her noticeable strides throughout the
course of the fi ve days. “Th is week what
I really love is the approachableness of all
of the faculty members. I have gotten to
talk one on one with Benny Green. Th is
is a camp where we can really learn.”
Each student was up to the challenge as
they refl ected on the myriad benefi ts of
jamming and practicing not only with the
professional musicians who taught at the
camp, but also with other students who
2006 Wardenburg Scholarship Recipients: Alex Rudee, saxophone; Ashley Webster, piano; Zach Para, drums.
were sometimes two or three times their
age. “It’s not a bad thing to be the worst
person in the ensemble,” Zach wisely
states, “It is great to play with people that
are so much better than me because I’m
forced to get better. It sucks you in and
pushes you.” Alex adds “I feel blessed and
almost guilty when I talk to kids from
small towns with no jazz programs and
I get to go here where there are world
class musicians with all of these excellent
people and so many role models to
learn from.”
Zach comments on the accessibility of
Benny Green and the jazz veteran’s candidness
in speaking of his own mentors,
“He talked about how other musicians
reached out to them and gave them a
chance, asked them to continue to pass
down this tradition.” Th e Port Townsend
workshop facilitates this indispensable
jazz tradition of cross-generational interaction
that is the foundation and generative
force behind the music.
Th ese three students are also aware of
the role that they too must play in the
continuation of this tradition. Zach busies
himself with multiple jazz-related activities
during the year including his new
position as band leader for Conundrum,
a drumming combo which he likened
to “Stomp” or “Blue Man Group.” Zach
has also recently started up a small jazz
combo consisting mostly of high school
freshmen, whom he pushes to play
and practice. Alex has concentrated his
mentoring eff orts on his younger sister,
a tenor saxophone player who will be
entering the prestigious
Garfi eld High
School jazz program
in the fall. Ashley,
a member of the
award-winning vocal
jazz group, Soundsations,
travels to
other high schools
and middle schools
to play in classrooms
and talk to students
who come to her
with questions and
in search of advice.
At the conclusion of the week every
student performs with their assigned
ensemble with which they have practiced
throughout the week. Musicians of all
ages mill about the campus, instruments
in hand or slung around their neck as they
mingle and laugh or blow a few practice
notes into the breeze. To the workshop
outsider, the line between student and
teacher is indistinguishable.
Port Townsend provides a microcosm
of the quintessential jazz experience as it
brings together this diverse community
that transcends divides of age, experience,
race, and class to collectively honor and
perpetuate the tradition. As a jazz afi cionado,
adamant supporter of Seattle jazz,
and Centrum Jazz Workshop participant,
Fred Wardenburg understood this eff ect.
Th roughout his life Fred found scholarships
for over 50 Centrum Jazz Workshop
participants--fundraising and working
with teachers to identify young, innercity
jazz musicians who would benefi t
from assistance. It is with great pleasure
that Earshot designates this contribution
to the workshop as a tribute to his legacy
and life-long eff orts to democratize jazz
education opportunities. Go to www.
earshot.org for more information on the
Wardenburg Scholarship and Earshot’s
other jazz education programs.
– Josie Holtzman
September 2006 • Earshot Jazz • 5

Valerie Joyce: A Distinctive Voice
BY PETER MONAGHAN
In a world of so many slavishly conventional
jazz vocalists, the individualist, no
matter whether fully arrived or just well
on the way, cheers the soul.
Valerie Joyce possesses so wonderfully
idiosyncratic a voice that one cannot help
but stop and marvel. What is impressive
is not just the striking acoustic quality
of it, but the character she builds into
it, to create expression that can be both
disarmingly vulnerable and arrestingly
deeply hued.
And the good folks at Chesky Records,
at least, are convinced that she has come
along far enough that she warrants national
release, and attention.
New York Blue, Joyce’s disc on the influential,
New York, audiophile label, justifies
Chesky’s faith in the Seattle singer.
It is an assured, convincing album that
contains a couple of standards, a couple
of more modern songs that could well
become standards, and two originals.
Joyce delivers all the numbers with
emotional nuance – with maturity... She
manages to convey both a sense of discovering
lyrics and the resonance of songs,
as if for the first time, and a knowing,
deeply felt and considered expression of
word and music.
Her voice has great range, but settles
most often in a lush alto that she shapes
with emotional color and loft above a
submerged sadness that is part of much
fine romanticism.
Jazz writers have described her tone as
angelic, resonant, tranquil, and ethereal.
It is all that. She can convey the sentiments
of jazz songs that sound just so
standard in most renditions, and that
most often are blanched of the feelings
that compelled their writing – most
often, love dissolved or longed for, heartache,
resignation, that essential sadness.
In a coffee shop last month, Joyce modestly
explains how she arrived at all that.
“I come from a piano background,” she
says. “I’m not just paying attention to the
singers. I listen to everything else, too.”
She did not start as a jazz vocalist, nor
undergo the formal jazz-vocal training
that seems often to divert young singers
6 • Earshot Jazz • September 2006
from developing their own, individual
expression.
She recalls: “When I first got into jazz,
I was really into Dexter Gordon, Miles
Davis, piano players like Bill Evans,
Shirley Horne – the quiet singers, singers
who are subtle.”
The subtleties of her voice apparently
Valerie Joyce; photo by Daniel Sheehan
were loud and clear to David Chesky,
the head of Chesky Records. He set her
up with a fine band – Andy Ezrin as arranger
and pianist, Lawrence Feldman on
a warm and sympathetic sax, Jon Hebert
on bass, and Gene Jackson on drums.
Like everything on the Chesky label,
New York Blue was recorded live, and
pressed onto disc with no overdubbing,
and no large mixing consoles. The recording
was done over two days in a Chelsea
church, in June last year. Joyce says of it:
“I felt very comfortable. The engineers
were amazing. ”
New York Blue is Joyce’s second disc. The
first, Reverie (2002), on her own VJI Music,
was both more adventurous and less.
The accompaniment by some of the most
solid of local players – Jay Thomas, Milo
Petersen, Joshua Wolff, Paul Gabrielson,
and Phil Sparks – was solidly conventional.
Yet, the selection of material seemed
an easier fit with Joyce’s distinctive vocal
quality and sensibility. The disc included
four originals and modern renditions of
well-known standards.
In 2004, the disc prompted a radio personality
in Puerto Rico to contact Carlos
Franzetti, a well-known string arranger
who has worked with David Sanchez,
Steve Kuhn, and many others. He intro-
duced Joyce to Chesky Records. Its boss,
David Chesky, invited her to New York,
and auditioned her for a whole week.
Chesky signed her in October, 2004.
She rehearsed with Andy Ezrin for a few
days. Then, they and the band recorded
New York Blue in June, 2005, and Chesky
released it in the US, and then Italy, Germany,
Japan, and other Asian countries,
earlier this year.
In addition to material from her own
book, such as “Blue in Green” and her
own “Oasis,” Chesky asked her to record
a Jimi Hendrix tune, “Little Wing,” and
one by Tracy Chapman, “Baby Can I
Hold You.”
He also had her record the old vamp
anthem, “Fever,” an even more unlikely
choice, perhaps.
So far, Joyce says, New York Blue is doing
“just OK” in the US, but “it’s doing well
in Germany, for some reason. The company
was quite surprised, too, because

they didn’t really advertise in Germany.
A few reviews came out and that created
a little buzz.”
All this clearly surprises Joyce, too. It’s
a long way from her childhood in Yokohama,
the daughter of an American
father and Japanese mother. Her father
went to Japan 50 as a young man, seeking
business opportunities. Her mother
is a classical pianist, and as a child Joyce
studied classical piano, too. She says:
“Classical music was always in the house,
so I naturally just love the music.”
Jazz was not something that reached her
ears in Yokohama. “I did play in a stage
band in high school. It was not a jazz
band but I did play a little bit of piano
and saxophone in it. My school was such
a small, international school. It had no
jazz program of any sort. I was introduced
to jazz when I came here to the US.”
That was in 1991, when she enrolled
at the University of Puget Sound, and
majored in music business. She was
awarded a classical piano scholarship
and studied piano with Steven Moore
and Duane Hulbert. Moore had a jazz
choir and asked her to audition. “That
was the beginning of my jazz experience,”
she says.
In her junior and senior years she played
piano in the college jazz band directed by
trumpeter Syd Potter. “Syd arranged a
beautiful chart for me, of ‘Sophisticated
Lady,” but I was more a piano player,
back then.”
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But she had caught the jazz bug, and
took jazz-improv classes during the summer
at the University of Washington
with Michael Brockman. And, a friend
told her about the Port Townsend jazz
workshop.” There, renowned, then-Seattle-based
singer and vocal coach Jay
Clayton “was a very important figure for
me, personally,” says Joyce.
She was, she says, still finding her transition
to American life “exciting but difficult.”
She had come to Washington state
because that was where her father was
from, and he was keen to have her attend
college here. But “I didn’t know anything
about the US at first,” she says. “Going
to a grocery store was a big deal.”
But UPS was a difficult step up: The
music school was very competitive, and
the academic challenge was even greater;
but the main issue: “I was not Americanized.”
Even now, while she sometimes is described
as Japanese-American, in reality
she is American Japanese. Her speech at
times signals rearing in another land, as
do some subtle mannerisms – more than
anything, perhaps, it’s an issue of bearing,
demeanor, and a quiet reserve that
is not...how to put it?...typical of highly
talented jazz singers making their way.
After moving to Seattle, in 1994, Joyce
worked a day job and free-lanced as a
musician in the evenings. She sang in
various formats, most often with Seattle
drum/guitar jazz stalwart, Milo Petersen,
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leader and composer of the Jazz Disciples,
and played in Jay Thomas’s big band as a
piano player for four years. “I enjoyed big
bands, the massive sounds, but I enjoyed
the smaller settings, too,” she says.
She played in whatever settings came
her way including restaurants that are
not known for attentive audiences. “I was
19, 20, 21; it really didn’t bother me; I
was just too excited about the music. On
top of that, my perspectives are a little bit
different: I came from Japan, and I was
so excited to be able to play in the US.
I’d say to myself, ‘I’m playing gigs in the
US as a singer.’”
But, she says, “I’m older now. I really
am more careful. I’m not excited about
playing in noisy places.”
She has not, she confesses, settled the issue
of whether to live in the US or Japan.
Winning enough attention that she can
profitably spend time in both places may
prove her salvation, there. “My parents
still live there, but I’ve lived in the US
so long. I do miss Yokohama. But I love
Seattle so much, and the US. Asia is such
a different place, compared to it. I was so
focused for many years about America
being a better place, bigger... Now that
I’m older, I miss Japan.”
America has changed her, and so has
the jazz life. For example, she began her
singing career in Seattle with her family
name, as Valerie Illman, but changed
at the suggestion of vaunted jazz coach
Jerome Gray. He persuaded her, she says,
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September 2006 • Earshot Jazz • 7

that Illman, which is of Danish origin,
would not serve her well, in the jazz
marketplace. “The spelling of Illman
sounds weird for some people...” Th at
sort of thing.
So, she says, “I told him, ‘I’m not going
to change my name, but maybe I’ll go
by my middle name, Joyce.’ I’m happy
with that.”
She studied with Gray while at UPS,
coming up to Seattle on weekends. Like
so many other Seattle jazz musicians, she
counts her time with the publicity-shy
Gray extremely rewarding. “He did so
much for my career. He helped me with
many arrangements. He was so confi dent
in me that that infl uenced me. I always
felt so much better after the lessons.”
She seems at ease, now, with her quiet
reserve – self-possessed, and forthright.
Still, she expresses a common foreigner’s
insecurity: “I always feel like an outsider,
still.” In reality, her diff erent perspective
on Western culture – on the boundary,
able to look in and out, and from within
and without – seems a great strength of
her art. Listen to her sing jazz standards,
the old warhorses, and the words and
their sentiments, and their rhythms, are
refreshed and refi ned.
She sings, at times, exquisitely slowly.
On her new album, her attentive collaborators
slow and slow some more as she
feels and projects the emotions of lyrics.
It seems, listening to her, that her destiny
may be to develop an even more
2132 North Northgate Way
(206) 417-0707
www.berkshiregrillseattle.com
8 • Earshot Jazz • September 2006
personal expression, on the further outskirts
of jazz – something akin to, say, a
Cassandra Wilson.
At the suggestion, again Joyce takes the
compliment modestly. “I guess I do have
a diff erent ethos. Sometimes I struggle
with that. Sometimes I’m not out there
so much as perhaps I should be. I speak
English and I’m half-American, but I
am very infl uenced by the culture of
Japan.”
Her immediate goal is to write more
songs of my own. “I just sent some to David
Chesky that I’m hoping to record.”
And then? “It all depends on how this
record does,” Joyce says. She is under
contract for one or two more discs with
Chesky, but sales of the fi rst CD will
determine whether those get made.
It would appear that Chesky are putting
faith in her, because she appears on
two Chesky compilations – their 20th
anniversary CD, and an album of the
10 best songs David Chesky believes he
has recorded. His Valerie Joyce selection
is from New York Blue – “Fever.”
Joyce admits she was surprised to learn
Chesky wanted her to record it, at all, and
shocked when he selected it among his
best-ever tracks. But Joyce does a wonderful
job of bringing so vampy a song to
new life. She emphasizes the emotional
aspects of the lyrics over the carnal. Not
that it doesn’t have plenty of body in it,
an almost plaintive physicality in which
the band joins her, swinging gingerly.
Joyce also injects a dreamy remoteness;
so, while Peggy Lee’s created a submissive
persona, Joyce manages to create an element
of yet-to-be-won.
The Chesky company is organizing
some gigs for Joyce in New York – “More
will be revealed, as they say,” she says. But
she is not planning, for now, to move
out east. “Th ere’s so much of everything
in New York that sometimes you get
distracted, and it’s expensive.”
In addition, she says, “I love nature,
and having a water view from the roof
garden of my apartment in Belltown.
Th at’s important to me.” As a child, she
lived in a quiet, green neighborhood of
Yokohama, and spent a lot of time in
northern Morioka, in green, lake-studded
mountains similar to Washington’s.
She also clearly has a sense of fi t with
longtime collaborators here. Her most
frequent colleagues have included, for
many years, guitarist/drummer Milo
Petersen, as well as pianist Joshua Wolff ,
guitarist Paul Sawyer, and bassists Geoff
Cook and Chuck Kistler. She still plays
piano well, herself, after classical-music
training early in life. But she says she
would like to form a band with pianist,
but where she just sings.
So, with any luck, we’ll have her in
Seattle for a while more. She says: “I did
think about moving to New York when I
got signed but then I felt maybe I could
get more work done here.”
Join us for some of the
finest local jazz in Seattle
The music starts at 8pm!
And there’s never a cover!

Festival Preview
Annette Peacock,
None Other Like Her
Annette Peacock is one of those names
that resonate with past groundbreaking
and continuing possibilities.
The composer, singer, and pianist,
esteemed by her peers and devoted fan
base, is, in fact, something of a treasure
hidden in plain sight. On hand for the
beginnings of free jazz with Albert Ayler
in the late 60s, she fi rst emerged as a composer
of the “free ballad,” a lyrical, open
approach to song form she developed in
response to the macho blowing contests
associated with that scene.
Once married to bassist Gary Peacock,
and later to pianist Paul Bley, her compositions
have been prominently featured
on both men’s recordings over the years.
With Bley she was one of the fi rst artists
to employ the Moog synthesizer in a
live, improvisational setting, also using
it to electronically treat her voice. After
two albums representative of this period
(Improvisie and Dual Unity), a third,
Revenge, was released circa 1970 by the
Bley/Peacock Synthesizer Show titled,
an album of songs written and sung by
Annette, including the fi rst version of the
song “I’m Th e One.” Her fi rst solo album,
I’m the One, released in 1972 .
Several other albums document this period,
including one with the great Dutch
drummer Han Bennink.
She has always been more focused on
delivering her own inimitable perceptions
than on honing to any particular genre’s
conventions. “Jazz is really quite a broad
term which encompasses its whole evolution
during the last century,” she says.
“It’s not primarily a composer’s idiom,
but a player’s... Th ough I like some of
its characteristics and jazz and I share
an inextricable history as it progressed
acoustically from time signatures to
speeds, from sophisticated harmonic progressions
to atonality – ultimately to the
possibility of creating or altering sound
via electronic technology – I’ve never
thought myself a jazzer, but a composer
inventing environments for avant-garde
musicians to perpetuate.”
With a complex harmonic language
and a singular vocal style that is at once
alluring and enigmatic, she has examined
the intricacies of intimate relationships
and personal politics from a distinctly
feminist perspective, tracing the tangled
threads of power dynamics and eroticism
that run through our private and public
lives. As she once said: “Hey, man, my
destiny’s not to serve. I’m a woman, and
my destiny is to create...”
Back in 1983, Melody Maker noted some
of her idiosyncratic claims to fame: that
“She was given one of the fi rst synthesizers
by its inventor Robert Moog in 1968;
she appeared topless at the Townhouse in
New York; she appeared on Th e Johnny
Carson Show; she performed the fi rst
electronic improvising band; she was the
fi rst person to sing through a synthesizer
and the fi rst to electronically treat the
voice in the recording process; she was the
fi rst ‘rap’ over a rock backing; she turned
down the off er of appearing on Bowie’s
Aladdin Sane or performing with him
in concert; she invented the ‘free-form
song’; she became the fi rst holographic
actress in a show with Salvador Dali on
Broadway...”
That’s quite a spray of biographical
nuggets.
In jazz circles, Peacock is perhaps best
known for a trio of infl uential jazz-rock
albums she recorded in the 70s with a
stellar cast of supporting musicians, including
guitar aces Chris Spedding and
Mick Ronson, drummer Bill Bruford,
and a host of jazz luminaries. A heady
mix of bluesy grooves and breathy ballads,
obscure poetry and radical dialectics
that blazed a trail between Patty Waters
and Patti Smith, they attracted the attention
and admiration of the likes of David
Bowie and Brian Eno, both of whom
courted her as a potential collaborator.
But while her reputation grew among the
art rock/new wave crowd, the wider recognition
that seemed imminent remained
elusive. After several more idiosyncratic
self-released albums and the occasional
cameo on other artists’ projects, Peacock
dropped out of sight for ten years, living
quietly in rural England.
Relocating to Woodstock, NY in 1995,
she was welcomed back to her home state
and to the musical spotlight in 1997
with the ECM release Nothing Ever Was,
Anyway, a two-CD set of her compositions
performed by her new neighbor,
the brilliant improvising pianist Marilyn
Crispell.
The collaboration, Peacock says, resulted
mainly because “she was a woman
who wanted to transform her identity
and upgrade her career, and it wouldn’t
be diffi cult to help her, and she would
respect the pieces and play them as intended.”
Working with Crispell harked to
Peacock’s earliest explorations in jazz, and
also made clear that she remains up for
the new, and also that she still, as always,
values idiosyncratic expression over the
more mundane aspects of “the market,”
September 2006 • Earshot Jazz • 9

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10 • Earshot Jazz • September 2006
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such as making money. “I haven’t made
myself easy to market by inventing, or
working in, different idioms that are
indefinable, and not issuing a consistent
succession of release,” she says. “So here I
am, in a position as cult artist of disparate
genres and fragmented markets, and there
may not be a way to connect them up.
“Though I think it’s not a group consciousness
that responds to these messages
in bottles I send. Rather it’s other
individuals, who somehow manage to
discover them.”
In other words, fame and acclaim have
been secondary to having played a telling
role. She says: “Fame’s an abstract
proposition I’ve always endeavored to
avoid, though it’s probably the only way
to release one’s work to widespread acceptance,”
she says. “Confirming that
you’ve contributed to a world you respect
and cherish can be a delayed fulfillment.
More rewarding and immediate is the
experience of realizing you’ve gotten it
right, whatever it is.”
Of the course she has taken, or that has
taken her, she says: “This Kierkegaard
quote expresses it: ‘Life must be lived
forwards, but can only be understood
backwards.’
That is a choice that seems often to result
in unexpected but happy outcomes.
Peacock’s collaboration with Crispell
provoked a new turn in her career: her
own ECM release in 2000, An Acrobat’s
Heart. It is a gorgeous, introspective song
cycle showcasing her plaintive voice and
spacious piano accompanied by a string
quartet.
Then, never one to be limited by genre
boundaries, Peacock rightfully claimed
her proto-rapper status as a guest on
Coldcut’s Sound Mirrors album in 2005,
and this year released 31:31, a limitededition
CD designed specifically to be
listened to while driving.
Now that’s an underexplored category
of music.
We’re glad to have Annette Peacock
still moving ahead, and look forward to
welcoming her to Seattle.
Annette Peacock appears at the Earshot
Jazz Festival on Friday November 3, at
the Seattle Asian Art Museum; the Eric
Barber Quartet opens. For ticket and venue
information: www.earshot.jazz.

Pony Boy’s Big Day Out for Jazz
Pony Boy Jazz Picnic
September 10, noon-5pm; free
Sandpoint: Magnuson Park
Garden Amphitheater
Greg Williamson; photo by Daniel Sheehan
Drummer Greg Williamson has, as
drum major of the Seattle-based Pony
Boy Records, provided a polished, highly
professional outlet for many area jazz
musicians, and this month he once again
shares it all with fans.
It’s time for his third annual Pony Boy
Jazz Picnic, where he presents the full
range of the label’s stable during a most
pleasant afternoon of jazz on the shores
of Lake Washington.
And it’s all free, rain or shine (there’s
an indoor venue right nearby – the old
brig – but it never rains in Seattle in September,
so don’t you worry about that).
Judging by past events, a six or seven
hundred fans are likely to attend.
The event is carefully orchestrated to
minimize downtime on stage, which is a
fine idea given that some 50 musicians
will perform during the afternoon, says
Williamson, a veteran of the Glenn Miller
Orchestra, Woody Herman’s Young
Thundering Herd, and the Harry James
Orchestra who has also worked with
Rosemary Clooney, the Mills Brothers,
Anita O’Day, Ernestine Anderson, Steve
Allen, and many others.
During the picnic, most of the artists
on Pony Boy will appear, but Williamson
says he doesn’t post a schedule because
that’s not the kind of event the Picnic
is. Rather, he just announces who is
scheduled to perform, at some point
during the afternoon. This year, as always,
there’s plenty for every kind of
jazz fan.
The roster includes: Randy
Halberstadt & Carolyn Graye;
Vern Sielert Dektet; Larry Holloway
& Christopher Woitach;
Buddy Catlett & Jay Thomas;
Karen Shivers & Bill Anschell;
Floyd Standifer; Mami: Kobe
Jazz Queen; Greg Williamson
Quartet; Tenors of Madness
(death by saxophone); and
Pony Boy All-Star Big Band.
Additional special guests
performing throughout the
afternoon, including Floyd
Standifer, Bert Wilson, Hans
Brehmer, Chris Clark, Dan
O’Brien
One highlight should be the Pony Boy
Big Band, which should be big, indeed,
with players from both the Jim Cutler
and Emerald City jazz orchestras. It will
play pieces from Williamson’s well-received
composition of last year, “Conversations
and Deconstructions,” celebrating
Seattle jazz history, and also a rendition of
“Concurrently Consecutive Antiphonal
Sonic Sculpture,” a series of performance
pieces in which, for example, sets of horn
players play “In the Mood” a block away
from each other, in different keys, and
then converge as swing dancers join in.
The result, says Williamson, is “a strange,
Doppler thing. But it’s partly typical bigband
swing. It’s like Norman Rockwell
meets the Twilight Zone. It plays for half
an hour, and then disappears.”
Entertaining music seems guaranteed,
and one donor has even loaned a grand
piano for the event.
Another has donated a vintage Henry
Kloss radio, a collector’s item from the
1950’s, that will be raffled off to the musicians
who perform, since they are playing
for free and, says Williamson, “this is like
a company picnic.”
It’s a fine prize, he says. “Audiophiles go
crazy for these things.”
As for food, hot dog stands will be on
site, but Williamson is encouraging fans
to stop by some of the event’s sponsors
on the way to the picnic. You can read
all about those, and about much more,
at www.ponyboyrecords.com/files/festival/jazz_picnic.html.
For information on how to find the event:
www.cityofseattle.net/parks/magnuson/default.htm.
September 2006 • Earshot Jazz • 11

Late-Summer: Festivals Galore
Gas may be three-bucks-plus a gallon,
but don’t let your jazz elasticity of
demand tumble before a development
such as that. Jazz in the sun, or the
sunshowers, is on tap this summer, all
about the region; then, come the fall, it’ll
move indoors. (Yep, we’re talking about
Earshot’s very own annual bumper of a
jazz festival, which this year runs from
October 20 to November 5.)
But, before that time, within a day
or two’s drive from Seattle, a variety of
jazz gatherings are taking place. They’re
in urban hotspots, high-sky mountain
spots, sun-bleached seaside spots, loaf-
12 • Earshot Jazz • September 2006
ing-about valley spots... or they’re right
in the environs of Seattle itself.
So, here’s what remains of your 2006
Summer/Fall Festival Guide. Details
are accurate at time of printing – you
might want to check websites for breaking
news, ticket availability, last-minute
cancellations, and so forth. And please let
us know (editor@earshot.org) about any
other area jazz festivals we’ve missed.
Bumbershoot Arts Festival
Sept. 2-4 (Labor Day Weekend); Seattle Center
Roster: Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, etc.
(206) 281-7788; www.bumbershoot.org
Pentastic Hot Jazz Festival
Sept. 8-10; Penticton BC
Roster: trad bands
(250) 770-3494; www.pentasticjazz.com/
Sisters Jazz Festival
Sept. 15-17; Sisters OR
Roster: trad bands
(800) 549-1332; www.sistersjazzfestival.com
Pender Harbour Jazz Festival
Sept. 15-17; Pender Habour BC
Roster: various
(877) 883-2456; www.phjazz.ca
Anacortes Jazz Festival
Sep. 15-17; Curtis Wharf & downtown clubs
Roster: See preview on page 13
(360) 293-7911; www.anacortes.org/jazz_festival_2006.
cfm
Vancouver DixieFest
Sept. 30-Oct. 2; Sheraton Guildford, Surry BC
Roster: trad bands
(604) 987-6544; www.vcn.bc.ca/vdjs/
DjangoFest
Sept. 27-Oct. 1
Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, Langley WA
Roster: Patrick Saussois, John Jorgenson, Beryl Davis,
Robin Nolan, Pearl Django, Marc Atkinson, others
(360) 221-8268, (800) 638-7631; www.djangofest.com/
Glacier Jazz Stampede
Oct. 6-9; Kalispell MT
Roster: trad bands
(888) 888-2308, www.kalispellchamber.com/jazz/
Medford Jazz Jubilee
Oct. 13-15; Medford OR
Roster: trad bands
(800) 599-0039; www.medfordjazz.org
Swing ’n Dixie Jazz Jamboree
Oct. 18-22; Sun Valley ID
Roster: trad bands
(877) 478-5277; www.sunvalleyjazz.com
Earshot Jazz Festival
October 20 - November 5
Venues around Seattle WA
Roster: Jimmy Heath, Ken Vandermark, Cyrus
Chestnut, Wynton Marsalis Quintet, Matthew Shipp,
Michele Rosewoman, Kamikazi Ground Crew; see
preview on page 4
(206) 547-9787; www.earshot.org
Ballard Jazz Festival
November TBA;
Ballard clubs, Seattle WA
Roster: TBA
(206) 781-2589; www.ballardjazzfestival.com
Diggin’ Dixie at the Beach
Nov. 3-5; Ocean Shores WA
Roster: trad bands
(360) 289-4094; users.techline.com/diggindixie

Anacortes: Jazz Festival by the Sound
Friday, Sept 15 – Sunday, Sept 17
Anacortes, WA
Whether or not you’ve frittered away
your summer working, when the ethos
and climate of the Northwest dictate
that you gather your outdoor experiences
while ye may, there remains one excellent
opportunity to get out and about the
region, this month – the Anacortes Jazz
Festival, a most pleasant gathering in a
most scenic spot.
That’s the Curtis Wharf at Anacortes,
overlooking Guemes Channel, on Fidalgo
Island. For the third year, the city’s
Dena DeRose; photo by Jimmy Mack
chamber of commerce has organized a
classy jazz gathering with much local
talent and a dash of the best on the national
scene.
This year, the latter category includes
bass/vocals sensation Richard Bona and
sax legend Sonny Fortune.
Among the stars of Puget Sound jazz
who will appear, meanwhile, are Thomas
Marriott, Geoffrey Harper, and Kelley
Johnson.
The event will feature two stages, and
a heap o’ jazz from Friday evening until
Sunday afternoon. There are stage events
as well as Friday and Saturday-night “jazz
walks” that present acts in eight local
pubs, for one flat entry fee.
Also on site are booths vending fine
wines, as well as seafood and other
snacks.
Friday, September 15
Opening Gala
Port Warehouse; 6pm
Opening gala dinner and concert
featuring the Dena DeRose Trio. The
pianist/vocalist, acclaimed by fans and
critics, and awarded artist and album of
the year honors by All About Jazz and
Cadence magazines, began her career as
a gifted pianist. With her trio (New York
drummer, Matt Wilson, and Seattle bassist
Doug Miller), her repertoire ranges
from the Beatles “Imagine” to favorite
Ellington standards.
Saturday, September 16
Garfield HS Jazz Combo
Wine Garden Stage, 11:30am
A select few of the current stars of the
phenomenal Seattle high-school jazz
hotbed.
Clarence Acox Quintet with
Bernie Jacobs
Tesoro Stage, 12:30pm
The acclaimed director of the Garfield
High jazz program is an ace drummer
and bandleader, as well. He presents a
brand new quintet, featuring another
Seattle treasure, flutist/vocalist Bernie
Jacobs. Also on board are Acox’s Seattle
Repertory Jazz Orchestra co-director,
saxophonist Michael Brockman, pianist
Reuel Lubag, and ever-solid bassist, Phil
Sparks.
Dillinger’s Clambake
Wine Garden Stage, 1:45pm
The crowd-pleasing, highly danceable
“new era” little big band blends funk,
boogie-woogie, swing, and American
dance hall music, with Dean Brittain
(guitar/vocals), John Savage (keyboard/
vocals), Vince Fejeran (trombone), Jeff
Hume (trumpet), and Michael Springer
(bass/vocals).
Phil Kelly Big Band
Tesoro Stage, 2:30pm
Phil Kelly has composed and arranged
to symphony pops, film, TV, and com-
mercials for more than 40 years. He has
drummed for jazz greats Red Garland
and Terry Gibbs. His swinging, welloiled
band includes many of the region’s
best, including Jay Thomas, David and
Thomas Marriott, Bill Ramsay, Mark
Taylor, and Larry Halloway.
Trish, Hans & Phil
Wine Garden Stage, 3:45pm
Three swinging interpreters, harmonies,
and great jazz interpretations of
pop songs: Trish Hatley (vocals), Hans
Brehmer (piano), Phil Demaree (bass).
Sonny Fortune & New Stories
Tesoro Stage, 4:30pm
Soulful sax legend Sonny Fortune is
equally praised for his own Blue Note
albums as for his classic recordings with
the likes of John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie,
Charlie Parker, and Sonny Rollins.
The ace, polished, Seattle-based New
Stories Trio of pianist Marc Seales, bassist
Doug Miller, and drummer John Bishop
has been nominated for a Grammy for
their collaboration with vocalist Mark
Murphy.
Thomas Marriott’s
Willie Nelson Project
Wine Garden Stage, 5:45pm
The award-winning trumpeter reworks
the country-western great’s songbook to
provide ample room for improvisation
by his power-packed, four-piece electric
jazz group: drummer Matt Jorgensen,
bassist Geoff Harper, and keyboardist
Ryan Burns.
Dena DeRose Trio
Tesoro Stage, 6:30pm
See Opening Gala for description.
Sunday, September 17
Gospel Brunch: Debbie Cavitt
Port Warehouse, 9:30am
A popular tradition continues: the
highly popular vocalist Debbie Cavitt
joins veteran choir director Kent Stevenson
and band in contemporary gospel,
with buffet and coffee, to boot.
September 2006 • Earshot Jazz • 13

SEPTEMBER SHOWS
PIANO JAZZ AFTER SEAHAWKS
HOME GAMES. REGULAR WEEK-
DAY SHOWS ARE FREE!
MON: New Orleans Quintet
TUES: Holotrad Jazz
WED: Floyd Standifer Group
THU: Ham Carson & Friends
1-2 Jet City Fliers
3 Jay Thomas Big Band
w/Becca Duran
8-9 Paul Green & Straight Shot
10 Pete Leinonen & John Holte
Radio Rhythm Orchestra
15-16 Maurice John Vaughn
17 Everett Youth Jazz
Ensemble 3-5 pm
Island City Jazz Quintet
w/Robbie Jordan
CD Release 6-9 pm
22-23 Lil’ Bill and the Bluenotes
24 Membly James Blues
28 Matt Garrity Trio Jazz
29 Jackie Payne
30 Rent Collectors
FOR DINNER RESERVATIONS
CALL 622-2563
14 • Earshot Jazz • September 2006
Eric Madis Swing Trio
Wine Garden Stage, 11:30am
The much-traveled guitarist-vocalist
and trio perform acoustic jazz, swing, and
blues. Ace jazz/western swing guitarist
Pete Martin and equally talented bassist
Jim Fink join him.
Kelley Johnson
Tesoro Stage, 12:30pm
The winner of the 2002 International
Jazzconnect Vocal Jazz Competition,
this Cornish College and Musicworks
Northwest instructor and seasoned performer
has also been awarded Northwest
Jazz Vocalist honors in the Earshot Jazz
Golden Ear awards.
Trish Hatley Quintet
Wine Garden Stage, 1:30pm
The Anacortes-based, jazzy entertainer
is a favorite with audiences all over. With
a swinging quintet: Darin Clendenin on
piano, Larry Holloway on bass, John
Anderson on sax, and Ken French on
drums.
Darren Motamedy
Tesoro Stage, 2:15pm
Soulful smooth jazz.
Geoff Harper Group
Wine Garden Stage, 3:30pm
The winning bassist presents a stylistically
versatile Seattle-all-star lineup: Hans
Teuber (Ani DiFranco) on saxes and keys,
Steve Moore (Skerik’s Syncopated Taint
Septet) on trombone and keys, and Byron
Vannoy on drums.
Richard Bona
Tesoro Stage, 4:15pm
Arguably “the world’s best bassist,” the
Cameroon native weaves together jazz,
bossa nova, afro-beat, traditional song,
and funk, and accompanies all with his
sensual vocals in English and his native
Douala. A veteran of the bands of Joe Zawinul,
Paul Simon, Tito Puente, Herbie
Hancock, and Pat Metheny, he has three
of his own major-label releases. A huge
favorite wherever he performs.
Festival site: from I-5 take 20 to Commercial
Ave; turn right, go north to 2nd
Street, then left to Curtis Wharf on 2nd
and O Ave. Info on site, admission charges,
and local accommodations: www.anacortes.
org/jazz_festival_2006.cfm.
Jazz Walk
Friday & Saturday, 9pm-midnight unless
noted; $8 admission, per night, to
eight clubs, all within walking distance
in downtown Anacortes!
Adrift (510 Commercial): Susan Pascal
(Saturday 8-11pm), originals and
standards on vibes; Gail Pettis (Sunday,
8-11), rising vocalist Gail Pettis with
pianist Hans Brehmer.
The Brown Lantern (412 Commercial):
The Dirdy Bomb Trio (Saturday), bassist
Geoff Harper’s trio ranges from Miles
Davis to obscure TV themes; Ryan Burns
Group (Sunday), the pianist is joined by
vocalist/guitarist Katherine Moore.
El Jinete (509 Commercial): Allen
Lewis & Fidalgo Swing (Saturday) from
Anacortes play danceable gypsy jazz, with
a lineup that includes Lewis on guitar,
Philip Nakano on sax, flute, percussion,
and vocals; Oscar de La Rosa Trio (Sunday)
perform innovative Latin jazz, with
the leader/drummer, seven-string jazz
guitar from Yusuf Kilgore, and the multiinstrumentalist
Philip Nakano.
Johnny Picasso’s (1005 4th St): Mia
Vermillion-Harrison (Saturday & Sunday,
8-11pm) blends jazz, blues, and folk
on guitar and vocals.
The Majestic Inn (419 Commercial):
Korla Wygal and Deems Tsutakawa
(Saturday), versatile vocals and explosive
pianist; Bar Tabac (Sunday) performs
originals that bring togethe gypsy jazz,
wartime Paris, and Siberian romanticism.
Rockfish Grill (320 Commercial): Steve
Korn Quintet (Saturday), modern jazz;
Greta Matassa (Sunday), the star vocialist
with her star band: pianist Randy Halberstadt,
bassist Clipper Anderson, and
drummer Mark Ivester.
Sasso’s (701 Commercial): Arturo Rodriguez
(Saturday) plays salsa, jazz, pop,
rock, and even folk; Elliott Bay Swing
(Sunday), led by guitarist/vocalist Eric
Madis, merges jazz, swing, and bluesy
ballads.
Watertown Pub (314 Commercial):
Scott Lindenmuth Group (Saturday)
performs contemporary jazz standards
and originals, while the leader solos on
classical guitar; guitarist Tim Sherman’s
band (Sunday) plays jazz, West Coast
blues.

On Music
Puppy Love,
part iii
BY PAUL R. HARDING
(For parts i and
ii of Paul Harding’s
recollections
of his jazz roots,
see the March and
May 2006 issues
of Earshot Jazz at
www.earshot.org/
zine.asp.)
Banana-split candy came in a pack for
a nickel – ten yellow chewable delirious
pieces; I’d melt a few on top of the AM
radio on my desk and stretch them into
human – or, should I say, alien – fi gures.
My bedroom, a sanctuary for imagination,
and my desk, the movie stage-set.
Radio was a very important part of what
went on in the studio in my head.
Disc jockeys with their colorful melodramatic
buildups played the weekly Top
Ten “hits” of the recording industry. I
constantly listened for a favorite song to
see if it was moving up the charts towards
that highest coveted position of Number
One. Hadn’t the faintest notion that the
Origin Records available
JESSICA WILLIAMS
Billy’s Theme: A Tribute to Dr. Billy Taylor
Origin 82461
creativity about to sweep my life into
never-turning-back directions actually
had its fi rst connection to the media in
music this way.
Well, actually that isn’t quite true. Music
on television moved the puppy.
Like Nelson Riddle’s theme for “Th e
Untouchables.” Whoever did the music
for Walter Cronkite’s “Twentieth Century,”
even the whistling in the opening
of Th e Andy Griffi th Show. Th ey should
have recruited Sun Ra to do Th e Twilight
Zone. But the radio had other roles.
An antagonist for humor – my father’s
humor – was the radio. Riding in his
Ford Fairlane while he drove through
Brooklyn was like having a private box
seat at a very funny show. Th e Coasters
would be singing their hit “Yakkady Yak!”
(what were called “novelty” songs) on
the car radio. (Don’t forget “How Much
Is Th at Doggie In Th e Window?” was a
Gold Record!) Dad would mock the lyrics
with a Jerry Lewis kind of slapstick
behind the steering wheel – hysterical,
comes to mind.
My life was a donut dunked in song.
Attending rehearsals for months now, the
puppy made it into the Queensborough
Chorus, but not without a hitch. Th ere
was that long line down the middle of
the old auditorium at Newtown High.
Watched 7th through 9th graders, one
at a time, go on that huge stage accompanied
by a bespectacled, small, Negro
man at piano, several feet from the microphone
(if there was a microphone).
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Didn’t get nervous until suddenly turning
to my mother who had been scrutinizing
every voice and stage presence to inform
her that I did not know the fi rst two
stanzas of “Th e Star Spangled Banner.”
I remember a few kids had cried. Some
triumphed. A few sang a bad note or
two but didn’t quit. She, in turn, even
quicker, informed me that I “better think
of something” I knew that the piano
player knew.
I think the puppy was too green and
thinking too hard to be nervous and
asked the petite man if he knew “Take
Me Out To Th e Ballgame.” He nodded
yes and asked in what key. I said it didn’t
matter. In the middle of the stage, balled
up my fi st and let out with everything I
had. Th ey stopped me and told me when
rehearsals began.
Meanwhile Uncle Donnie’s hardbop
took me on a back trail to bebop. It was
a Dizzy Gillespie record. Dizzy, of course,
was famous, but Lord if I knew why.
Donnie let the music speak for itself.
Most importantly, he did not separate
strains of music intellectually. He let me
see through his own reverence for the
music that its artform was important.
Now I knew what alto, tenor, soprano
was. I knew what a chord was, a scale, and
had other than common love for melody.
But didn’t think about what I knew, just
followed what I heard. Once I heard Bird
I heard everything diff erently, more possible
beauty and freedom in expression,
especially the words. No, the word poet
GRETA MATASSA
Vocal/Rhythm Section
Workshops
Four weeks of 1/2-hour sessions with
one of Seattle’s top rhythm sections and
vocalists. Final concert at Tula’s, Seattle’s
premier jazz club, w/ optional recording.
Workshops every month. Cost: $250
Limited to 8 vocalists. 206-937-1262
gretamatassa.com (see Teaching page)
September 2006 • Earshot Jazz • 15

hadn’t crossed my lips or my mind. The
Beats had meant nothing to me.
Despite ignorance, I had some ideas.
Bebop and doo-wop was a married
couple to the puppy. Still a babe in the
woods, I did not know that the thing that
I was falling in love with was harmony.
Talked (or thought I did) a couple of
my singer peers in the chorus into embellishing
part of the song “The Little
Drummer Boy” which we were learning
for the upcoming Christmas concert. You
know the part where it goes “prup-a-pum
pumm”? Well, between “come they told
me” if we came in on 4 and repeated it,
we’d fall right back into time with the
chorus. Secretly practiced and got it
down to where we were one. Just knew
16 • Earshot Jazz • September 2006
it was gonna be cool. Sounded like Eddie
Kendricks (the original falsetto of The
Temptations), but three of him.
Of course my family and everybody
would have good seats up close. Miss Janke,
my music teacher from school would
be there. Finally the piano struck the
chords of the drummer boy’s story. When
they got to “a prupp-a pum-pumm” I
kept going but the other two Temptations
didn’t come with me. I couldn’t believe
it! They stayed within the arrangement
of the chorus. I was out there by myself.
So I just sang. No need to say it was my
last solo in the Queensborough Chorus.
The puppy’s last appearance. Mom cried,
but I think she liked it.
I was recognizing song in jazz. The first
Miles Davis album that let me know
something special was happening was
Porgy & Bess. I knew the songs and did
notice that Miles left out something when
he played “Porgy.” Something intentionally
left out. Becoming aware something
gravitated me towards a love story, it
was the ballad that was a kind of literature.
But was too young to understand
simplicity despite being drawn to it, like
anti-thesis, I would remain challenged by
it. Something you can’t teach. Something
like Sugar Ray Robinson ballet. Learning
to shadow box with different influences.
No pre-warning of the tightrope the
puppy would have to cross.
During this grade read Henry James’
“Portrait of A Lady” and was amazed at
what he did with a pen emotionally while
the “house parties” I eagerly attended,
brushed my hair and wore my best for,
tendered my soul at the same time in a
living way. The Marvelettes version of
“Forever” and Jay Higgins’ deadly “Sad
Girl” were personal testimonies to me,
no less valued than the books that impassioned
ideas of expression.
Focusing on asking a girl to dance in
the dark of a red bulb’s glare, bodies
sweating... Can still smell the pressed
hair and what was more one-step than a
two. Heard Brenda Holloway’s haunting
“Every Little Bit Hurts” and made my
move across the basement dance floor.
Motioned for Barbara’s hand. She nodded
ok. The puppy once saw a cat in a movie
take a lady’s hand with his left and place it
upon his chest just above his heart as they
danced. As Miss Holloway sang in precious
agony I took Barbara’s hand softly
in mine and laid it against my chest. She
immediately stopped and asked me – I
mean demanded somewhat loudly – what
the hell was I doing? Everybody laughed.
Yes, the puppy, humiliated, walked away
with his tail between his legs. But I stuck
around for a while because the fast records
produced the best dancers. I loved
to dance.
I loved to see good dancers and sing fast
songs. Singing the words along with Ronnie
Isley on “Got To Have You Back!” and
Stevie Wonder on “I Was Made To Love
Her” while doing the popular “Sing-A-
Ling” made the basement of some hard

working folks something of paradise in
the joy music provided us. Deep into the
stories of the songs as I was the singers’
pitches and screams, was experiencing
improvisation on different levels, but
didn’t know it. Oh how the puppy was
swinging realizing only the joy of it and
nothing more.
A song wasn’t this or that kind of song
to me. Melody slowly became almost
all that really mattered, especially if the
puppy dug the story. Frank Sinatra’s “All
The Way” is unbelievable until you hear
Billie Holiday tell it. Still, there’s Etta
Jones telling it with that Frank Wess
flute giving it a beautiful twist. Different
zones in a universe called music. Reading
poetry was reading music. It was easy to
like Dylan Thomas. Yeats gave me confidence.
But poetry was Hank Williams’s
“Cold, Cold Heart.” Sammy Davis Jr.’s
“Hey There!” Dinah Washington’s “This
Bitter Earth.” Emily Dickinson’s dashes
and Keats’s “urn” affected the puppy as
permanently. Was inspired to write a
novel just from watching Fred Astaire
break up the bar dancing while singing
Harold Arlen’s (my favorite songwriter)
“One For My Baby” in the movie “The
Sky’s The Limit.” And then there was the
music in my grandmother’s church.
Music in almost any church got inside
me, but gospel music was the grounds
keeper of the music most alive- most
stirring. To witness a black woman rise in
her choir robe and solo to “Steal Away” in
a contralto that makes an organ thunder
is to hear this America’s conscience sing a
truth only her truest poets live for. Sitting
in church always made the puppy want
to sing. I didn’t in the choir; my sister,
Rita, did.
The Paramount Theatre, Brooklyn.
Murray The K’s Revue showcased top
R&B groups on its stage. The Manhattans.
Martha & The Vandellas. The
Dells. The Ronettes. But I only recall one
act, and they were more spiritual than
entertaining. The Miracles came out in
white suits. (Claudette, Smokey’s wife,
no longer came out on tour.) Little did
I know I was seeing and hearing my first
live poet, his name: Smokey Robinson.
The verses to “Who’s Loving You” and
“Ooh Baby, Baby” were Shakespeare sonnets
home-cooked. I was mesmerized. It
is by no means a sleight of hand they’re
called The Miracles.
Back in out living room in Queens
listening to my mother’s records, didn’t
know I was studying other poets named
Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, and Irving
Berlin. I saw my first Jazz singer in a club
named Shirley’s on 7th avenue uptown,
Harlem. Along with my best friend, both
16, we kind of snuck in and kind of hid
to the side of the bandstand. Nobody
bothered us or said a word about two
puppies in the club. (Saw Art Blakey,
Ahmad Jamal and Freddie Hubbard by
this time.) If popular music was my cake,
Jazz was the yeast and butter making it
rise. Etta Jones was our Lady Day- and
Lady was it! Miss Jones sang at Shirley’s
this personally historical night.
Little to our knowledge, she was quite
aware of the presence of us puppies
and I think because we were discrete,
had enough sense to stay distant of the
crowded bar, at the end of her second
magical set she turned away from the
lucky microphone and looked right down
at us, straight at me and demurely asked
if there was something I’d like to hear.
Thunderstruck, I requested what was a
new favorite to me: “Easy Living.” She
sang it as if she wrote it and its story was
meant for me. Didn’t need a subway token,
I think I floated home that night.
But I’m jumping a few years ahead of
myself. Our family up and moved to
Long Island. West Hempstead, Nassau
County. New high-ranch houses for
Negroes “moving on up!” were being
constructed. New opportunity in the
escape to suburbia to manicure lawns and
pay property tax like all other ‘middleincome’
folks, I suppose. I remember the
turquoise front door Mom had customordered
and the cocoa brown shingles.
Our house was a show-house for the
realtor. It sat in sphere of a circle at the
end of the block. You could see a creek
and railroad tunnel from the big front
picture window.
At first, real lonely for boyhood friends.
Didn’t know anyone in the village we
lived in called Lakeview. For the first
time, insecure about my surroundings,
this was ironic because the exterior was
superior to any environment the puppy
continued on page 22
September 2006 • Earshot Jazz • 17

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1
C* Ev Stern Trio jam, 9:30, The Asteroid (3601
Fremont Ave N, 547-9000).
EB Richard “Wayo” Hogan (solo piano), 7
HS Pony Boy Jam, Pony Boy Records: Jazz & Sushi,
7:30
JA Oscar Peterson, 7:30
NO Jet City Fliers, call for time
TJ Marc Smason & Michael Gotz, 8
TU Jay Thomas Quartet, 8:30
1-3 OSCAR PETERSON
Book early, if you’‘re not too late already, for
this run, an annual affair that brings out all the
jazz fans. The dean of jazz pianists still stuns
and wows, more than 50 years into his career. He
brings along Ulf Wakenius (guitar), David Young
(bass), and Alvin Queen (drums). On sale since
March at 206.441.9729; cover $80.50-$95.50
for two sets, one seating per night.
1/7/8...28/29 ASTEROID
The Asteroid Café is no more; long live The
Asteroid. The new venue has not just its fine food
of yore but now has jazz, as well. Thursdays,
from 9:30pm to 1am, you can hear the Space
Girl’s Jam Session. Musicians are welcome to sit
in with a house band. On Fridays, from 9:30pm
to 12:30am, the Ev Stern Trio, with the leader
on bass, and Dan Rainard (guitar) and Reade
Whitwell (drums), leads the show. No cover. The
Asteroid is at 3601 Fremont Ave N, 547-9000.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2
C* Rik Wright Quintet, Bumbershoot, 12:30
C* PK & What Army?, Bumbershoot, Northwest
Court Stage, 6
C* PK and What Army?, Bumbershoot, NW Court
Stage, 6
C* Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Bumbershoot,
Northwest Court Stage, 8
BP Jay Roberts/Don Mock guitar duo
EB Steve Kim, (solo bass), 7
GT Chris Cogburn Trio, 8
JA Oscar Peterson, 7:30
NO Jet City Fliers, call for time
SR Gail Pettis, Randy Halberstadt, Jeff Johnson, 9
TB Frank Clayton Trio, 7
TD Brian Nova Orchestra, 8
TU Kelley Johnson Quartet, 8:30
Get your gigs listed! To submit your gig information go to www.earshot.org/data/gigsubmit.asp or e-mail us at jazzcalendar@earshot.org with details of the venue, start-time, and date. As always, the deadline for getting
your listing in print is the 15th of the previous month. The online calendar is maintained throughout the month, so if you are playing in the Seattle metro area, let us know!
AF Affairs Cafe, 2811 Bridgeport Way W,
University Place (253) 565-8604
BJ Beacon Pub, 3057 Beacon Ave S, 726-0238
BP Bake’s Place, 4135 Providence Point Dr SE,
Issaquah (425) 391-3335
C* Concerts & Special Events
CF Coffee Messiah, 1554 E Olive Way, 861-8233
CM Crossroads Shopping Center, 15600 NE Eighth
St, Bellevue, (425) 644-1111
CZ Cutter Point, 7520 27th St W, University Place,
(253) 565-4935
DC Dulces Latin Bistro, 1430 34th Ave, 322-5453
EB Egan’s Ballard Jam House, 1707 NW Market St;
(206) 789-1621
GT Gallery 1412, 1412 18th Ave Seattle
HS Hiroshi’s Restaurant, 2501 Eastlake Avenue E
Seattle (206)726-4966
IB Il Bistro, 93-A Pike St, 682-3049
18 • Earshot Jazz • September 2006
2/8/9 CHRIS COGBURN BY FOUR
Chris Cogburn, an Austin TX percussionist
of national reputation for his influence in
free improvising circles, performs with four
different groups in early September at Gallery
1412. He has appeared in the past in a host of
settings, including at workshops on creative
music making around North America. This time
around, on the 2nd, he’s with Jonathan Sielaff,
clarinet, from Portland, and Seattle pianist Gust
Burns. On the 8th: Chris Cogburn Trio with
Wally Shoup, alto sax, and Gust Burns, piano.
On the 9th: Chris Cogburn Quartet, with Gust
Burns, piano, and dancers Alia Swersky and
Margit Galanter. Music samples: www.rasbliutto.
net/artists/chriscogburn.html
2 RIK WRIGHT QUINTET
At Bumbershoot: Guitar experimentalist Rik
Wright brings experience in jazz, rock, and
improvised music to bear on his distinctive
quintet music for guitar, sax (James DeJoie),
trumpet (Tony Grasso), bass (Walter White), and
drums (Jeremy Jones). Their album, Even Odds,
released on HipSync Records late last year, won
high praise from the press. The quintet’s next
disc, After the Storm, will be out just in time
for the festival. Saturday, 12:30pm, Northwest
Court.
2 PK & WHAT ARMY?
At Bumbershoot, bassist, composer, and
bandleader Paul Kemmish performs with his PK &
What Army? He formed it in early 2001 in Seattle
as a sextet that showcased his compositions and
collaborations with some of the area’s finest
improvisers. The band is, in fact, a collective of
over 20 players, of whom up to 15 may show up
for any gig. Much of their music is structured on
gradual progression and inspired by the spiritual
yearning of the music of Sun Ra, Charles Mingus,
and John Coltrane. The Army roars and wails
in quest of transcendence while also romping
with barroom swagger. Among those who have
graced the Army have been saxophonists Jessica
Lurie, Craig Flory, Jon Ryser, Izaak Mills, Greg
Sinibaldi, and Mard Fendel, multiinstrumentalist
Amy Denio, drummer Matt Crane, vibraphonist
Ben Thomas, violinist Tom Swafford, trombonist
Chris Stover, and trumpeters Jim Knodle and
Samantha Boshnack. Saturday, 6pm; Northwest
Court
JA Jazz Alley, 2033 6th Ave, 441-9729
JB Jazzbones, 2803 6th Ave, Tacoma, (253) 396-9169
JF Johnny’s, Fife exit 137 off I-5 at Motel 6, (253)
922-6686
JU Jubilante Restaurant, 305 Burnett Ave S,
Renton (425) 226-1544
JW Julia’s of Broadway, 300 Broadway, 860-1818
KR Kirkland Performance Center, 350 Kirkland
Ave, Kirkland, (425) 893-9900
LA Latona Tavern, 6432 Latona NE, 525-2238
LN Living Green, 630 A 2nd St, Langley, 360-221-8242
LU Luigi’s Grotto, 102 Cherry, 343-9517
MT Mr. Spot’s, 5463 Leary Way, 297-2424
NE Norm’s Eatery, 460 N 36th, 547-1417
NO New Orleans Rest., 114 First Ave S, 622-2563
OU On the House, 1205 E Pike, 324-3974
OW Owl ‘n Thistle, 808 Post Ave, 621-7777
PC Plymouth Congregational Church, 1217 6th
2 JACOB FRED JAZZ ODYSSEY
The jazz headliner of the Bumbershoot festival,
in a sense. Pianist Brian Haas, bassist Reed
Mathis, and drummer Jason Smart are among
the leading voices of a group of bands that set
out to sell jazz not just with its sound and style,
but with swagger and flash. For 10 years, now,
they’ve been touring to great acclaim, playing
to audiences that jazz often neglects, at small
clubs, large halls, and outdoor festivals. In the
process they have become one of the hottest
and hippest acts in jazz, alongside the likes
of Medeski, Martin & Wood. With plenty of
improvisation around tight and tasty riffing,
that is no surprise. Saturday, 8pm; Northwest
Court.
2 BRIAN NOVA ORCHESTRA
“Nova’s command of jazz guitar technique,
combined with rock energy, his beautiful sound,
his engaging stage presence, merge perfectly
with the room creating a warm welcoming
atmosphere,” we once reported in these pages.
Here, the guitarist, who studied and toured with
both Herb Ellis and Joe Pass, presents his jazz
orchestra in the friendly surrounds of the Triple
Door (3rd & Union).
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 3
C* Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Nightlife Lounge,
Bellingham (www.jfjo.com), $10/$12 (see
Sept. 2)
C* The Threat of Beauty: Evan Flory-Barnes Jazz
Quartet, Annas Bay, Union, WA.
C* Jim Knapp Orchestra, Bumbershoot,
Northwest Court Stage, noon
C* Kelley Johnson Quartet, Bumbershoot,
Northwest Court Stage, 1:30
C* Floyd Standifer, Bumbershoot, Northwest
Court Stage, 3
C* John Bishop Group, Bumbershoot, Northwest
Court Stage, 4:30
EB Eric Vaughn Trio, 10
GT Live Nude Goats, opening party, Soma Mind
Expansion series, 8
JA Oscar Peterson, 7:30
NO Jay Thomas Big Band w/Becca Duran
TU Reggie Goings Hadley Caliman Quintet, 3
TU Fred Hutch Benefit: Annette Ross w/ eremy
Jones Xtet, 8
WU Inquest, 4
Ave, 622-4865
PM Pampas Club, 90 Wall St, 728-1140
RD Richmond Beach Deli, 632 NW Richmond
Beach Road, Shoreline, 546-0119
SA The Spar, 2121 N 30th, Tacoma, (253) 627-
8215
SR Sorrento Hotel, 900 Madison, 622-6400
SU Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave, 784-4480
SY Salty’s on Alki, 1936 Harbor Ave SW, 526-1188
TA Tempero Do Brasil, 5628 Univ. Way, 523-6229
TB Tutta Bella Pizzeria, 4918 Rainier Ave S
TD The Triple Door, 216 Union St, 838-4333
TJ Third Place Books, 6504 20th Ave NE
TU Tula’s, 2214 2nd Ave, 443-4221
WB Wasabi Bistro, 2311 2nd Ave, 441-6044
WU Wired & Unplugged Internet Coffeehouse, 717
1st St, Snohomish (360)568-2472

The French horn great, Tom Varner, appeared August 10 with his new, Seattle group in the Art of Jazz series at the Seattle
Asian Art Museum; photo: David Wight.
3/21/26/28 SOMA MIND CONTROL
The Soma Series: Communal Mind Expansion
highlights radical and diverse Seattle ensembles
of innovative musicians. The series starts with
Live Nude Goats and DJ Selecta Gro (7pm,
free). Live Nude Goats, which will present an
installation that will stay up for a month, is
a collective of current and former Seattle Art
Museum employees united to support up-andcoming
artists within the S.A.M. arts community.
To date, the Goats – 14 artists in various media
– have staged three one-night events combining
visual art, music, and festivities, as well as three
one-month exhibitions. Working in site-specific
installation, formalism, abstraction, video and
photography, their themes include beauty,
spirituality, metaphysics, human relationships,
the urban landscape, history, popular culture,
politics, and activism. At Gallery 1412 (1412
18th Ave E, @ Union), 8pm, all ages, $5-15
sliding scale.
3 THREAT IN UNION
Evan Flory-Barnes’s quartet, The Threat of
Beauty, appears : Evan Flory-Barnes, appears
at Annas Bay, in the town of Union, which
was the site of the state’s first arts colony, on
the spectacular south shore of Hood Canal,
about two hours from Seattle and Portland,
an hour from Tacoma, and 45 minutes from
Olympia. Flory-Barnes’s band has the unusual
instrumentation of bass, cello, vibes, and
drums, which gives you some idea of its output
– to which, add power. There’s post-bop, hiphop,
classical music, and more in the mix. At
Annas Bay, 7362 E State Route 106, in Union.
Info: info@annasbay.org; 360-898-5000; www.
annasbay.org/about.asp.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4
C* Jim Knapp Orchestra, 8, L.A.B. performance
space, Seattle Drum School (12510 15th Ave
NE; 364-8815).
C* Olympic Sound Collective, Bumbershoot,
Bumbrella Stage, 12:15
C* Jacqui Naylor, Bumbershoot, Northwest Court
Stage, 4:15
TU Greta Matassa Jazz Jam, 8
4 AT BUMBERSHOOT
Olympic Sound Collective (12:15, Bumbrella
stage) draws from funk, soul, and jazz; with
Delvon Dumas (keys, bass), Mike Saskor, guitar;
Charlie Workman (drums), Damien Aitken (sax),
who declare their intent as “kick-ass, funkdriven,
in-your-face groove that hits you hard
and makes you dance harder.” Jacqui Naylor
(4:15, Northwest Court), a Californian, has,
as the Seattle Times put it, “confidence and
playfulness,” and talent enough to warrant five
CD releases. She has, said the Village Voice, “a
sumptuous voice, knack for scratchiness, and an
ability to sweeten those bluesy bent notes.”
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5
DC Eric Verlinde, 6:30
JA Sara Gazarek, 7:30
MT Better World w/ Marc Smason , 7
TD Motel 5, 9
TU Jay Thomas Big Band, 8
5 MOTEL 5
The modern jazz collective Motel 5 – Chris
Credit (tenor sax), Dave Knirk (alto sax), Chris
Spencer (guitar), Matt Hopper (bass), and
Greg Rudolph (drums) – has a large repertoire
of all original music that stresses groove,
improvisation, and group interplay. Its sound
reflects the many stylistic influences of the
members, ranging from funk, to free, to soulful
balladry and rock. Motel 5 has one self-released,
self-titled album, from 2004, and will head
back to the studio this fall for their next. At
the Triple Door’s Musicquarium (216 Union St),
9pm, free.
5-6 SARA GAZAREK
The 20-something graduate of Roosevelt
High School’s jazz program continues to fare
well in the wide world of jazz vocals. During
November and December, she toured nationally
with swampy soul star Aaron Neville. After
releasing Yours, a collection of vocal standards
and original compositions encompassing her
wide array of influences from Sarah Vaughan
to Ben Folds Five, she also opened for another
soul great, Al Green. She sings at Jazz Alley with
Matt Slocum (drums), Erik Kertes (bass) and Josh
Nelson (piano).
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6
C* Eric Verlinde/Ronnie Pierce/Aria Prame,
Whiskey Bar (2000 2nd Ave), 10
DC Eric Verlinde, 6:30
JA Sara Gazarek, 7:30
TB Klaus Lendzian, 6:30pm
TD Original Superstars of Jazz Fusion, 7 & 10
TU Industrial Revelation, 8
6 TRIPLE DOOR AT THREE
Here’s an overflowing stage of jazz greatness,
indeed, to celebrate the Triple Door’s third
birthday as a welcome addition to the range
and style of Seattle jazz presenting. The Original
Superstars of Jazz Fusion are vibe legend and
acid-jazz avatar Roy Ayers, together with Earth,
Recurring Weekly Performances
MONDAYS
IB Blake Micheletto
NO New Orleans Quintet
TD Origin Records Jazz Night, 7
WB Chris Blacker Quartet
TUESDAYS
NO HoloTrad Jazz
OW Bebop & Destruction
WEDNESDAYS
NO Floyd Standifer Group, 8
PC Susan Pascal/Murl Allen
Sanders/Phil Sparks, Noon
SA Kareem Kandi Band, 8
THURSDAYS
CF Monktail Music Series, 8
CM Victory Music Open Mic, 6
JB Kareem Kandi Band, 8:30
LU Robeson Trio, 8
NO Ham Carson Quintet, 7
TA Urban Oasis, 7
WB Wayne Trane, 9
FRIDAYS
AF Kareem Kandi Band, 7
JU Urban Oasis, 9
LA LHH Trio, 5:30
LU Robeson Trio, 8
PM Floyd Standifer, 9
SY Victor Janusz & Tim Koss,
8:30
SATURDAYS
AF Kareem Kandi Band, 7
LU Robeson Trio, 8
PM Floyd Standifer, 9
SU Victor Noriega
SUNDAYS
CZ Kareem Kandi
JF Buckshot Jazz, 5:30
NE Dangerous Brain Clinic, 10
If you have a new CD that you
would like to submit for review,
please send a copy of it to the
Earshot Jazz office at:
3429 Fremont Place N #309
Seattle WA 98103
September 2006 • Earshot Jazz • 19

Wind, & Fire backing vocalist Jean Carne (who
also had a top-ten hit with Norman Connors in
“Valentine Love”); trombonist Wayne Henderson
of The Jazz Crusaders; Blue Note-recorded
flautist Bobbi Humphrey; Earth, Wind, & Fire
saxophonist Ronnie Laws; romantic vocal
magician and acoustic guitarist Jon Lucien;
and much-traveled keyboard master Lonnie
Liston Smith. Together they promise to revivify
the often unfairly maligned jazz fusion of the
1970’s, which brought jazz, r&b, Latin, and funk
into explosive alignment. At the Triple Door
(Third Ave & Union St, downtown Seattle; www.
thetripledoor.net, 838-4333) at 7pm (all ages)
and 10pm; $45 advance / $50 day of show.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
C* Eric Verlinde Trio, Spice (2301 5th Ave, #101),
6
C* Space Girl’s jam, 9:30, The Asteroid (3601
Fremont Ave N, 547-9000).
EB Rochelle House (vocals), 9
JA Oliver Mtukudzi & The Black Spirits, 7:30 and
9:30
TD Jessica Williams, 7:30
TU Neil Welch Quartet, 8
7/14/21/28 SPICY JAZZ
Every Thursday from 6pm to 9pm, Spice (2301
5th Ave #101), presents the Eric Verlinde Trio,
with with Chuck Kistler on bass and Andre
Thomas on drums.
7-8 JESSICA WILLIAMS
Perennially one of the most cherished of jazz
pianists, this virtuoso plays with huge range,
and great subtlety, wit, and tireless warmth.
She is, said Dave Brubeck, “one of the greatest
jazz pianists I have ever heard.” Agreed McCoy
Tyner: “Jessica is a beautiful player.” Critics
have been equally enthusiastic. Alun Morgan,
in Gramophone, called Williams “the most
important pianist to arrive since Bill Evans.”
Williams has, since 1976, released many awardwinners
among her 35 albums. Williams has
been a perennial visitor to the Northwest, and
on all her visits her reception is appropriately
enthusiastic. She plays the Triple Door’s fine
piano. Cover, $25.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8
HS Vern Sielert Quartet, Pony Boy Records: Jazz &
Sushi, 7:30
C* Ev Stern Trio jam, 9:30, The Asteroid (3601
Fremont Ave N, 547-9000).
EB Threat of Beauty, 10
GT Chris Cogburn Trio, 8 (see Sept. 2)
JA Oliver Mtukudzi & The Black Spirits, 7:30 and
9:30
LN Marc Smason/Gary Way/Greg Barnes & guests, 8
20 • Earshot Jazz • September 2006
NO Paul Green & Straight Shot
TD Jessica Williams, 8
TU Greta Matassa, 8:30
8 THREAT OF BEAUTY
Bassist Evan Flory-Barnes’s Threat of Beauty
has the unusual instrumentation of bass, cello,
vibes, and drums, which gives you some idea
of its output – to which, add power. There’s
post-bop, hip-hop, classical music, and more
in the mix as Threat of Beauty plays his own
compositions and soundscapes. In The Stranger,
Christopher deLaurenti wrote of the band: “The
name-checking of “Ives, Debussy, Ravel, Wayne
Shorter, Bill Evans, Björk, De La Soul” by bassist
Evan Flory-Barnes made sense. His ensemble of
cello, bass, drums, and vibraphone translates the
anthemic, rhythmic figures of hiphop to every
instrument in the group with careful attention
paid to dynamics and group polyphony. Barnes
is ambitious, so don’t be surprised to see an
expanded lineup with added violins and harps.”
At Egan’s, the new venue in Ballard.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9
C* Pony Boy All-Star Big Band (1421 Cole St,
Enumclaw), 1
C* Black Lab Trio, Maddox Bar & Grill (18411
Highway 99, Lynnwood), 7:30
BP Greta Matassa Trio
EB Frieze of Life, 10
GT Chris Cogburn Quartet (see Sept. 2 & 8), 8
JA Oliver Mtukudzi & The Black Spirits, 7:30 and
9:30
NO Paul Green & Straight Shot
TB Marco De Carvalho, 7
TD Eldar, 7 & 10
TU Marc Seales Quintet, 8:30
9 FRIEZE OF LIFE
Composed and improvised chamber jazz
from a band described in these pages thus:
“The exceptional compositional abilities of
the groups members translate into highly
varied musical territory and in turn some truly
inspired improvisations…an important new
element of Seattle new music.” The band, an
Earshot Golden Ear award winner in 2004, is
Greg Sinibaldi (composer, tenor saxophone,
bass clarinet), Mark Taylor (saxophones), Jay
Roulston (trumpets), Chris Stover (composer,
trombone), Geoff Harper (bass), and Byron
Vannoy (drums). They have an new disc, Nuclear
Frog Pond, just out.
9/10/16/22 STROLLING PONIES
The Pony Boy All-Star Big Band, with performers
from the Pony Boy record label stable, presents
five performance pieces during the next two
months – with dancers. The free performances
promise to be something different – quite
something. They feature groups of band
members wandering through public spaces,
finding their way to each other through
“antiphonal” – call-and-response – musical
pieces. Once they have gathered at one spot,
they – and dancers – perform American bigband
and jazz standards. The performances,
which go by the name “Concurrently Consecutive
Antiphonal Sonic Sculpture Stationary Traveling
Big Band & Dance,” are sponsored in part by
4Culture’s King County Performance Network.
They take place on Saturday, September 9, at
1pm, in downtown Enumclaw (1421 Cole St); as
part of Pony Boy Records 3rd Annual Jazz Picnic
on Sunday, September 10, at 4pm, at Sandpoint
Magnuson Park; Saturday, September 16, at
11am, at Redmond Saturday Market (7730 Leary
Way, Redmond); Friday, September 22, at 5pm,
at the Downtown Kent First Avenue Party (1st
Ave between Gowe St and Titus St); and Sunday,
October 29, at 5pm, at Game Farm Wilderness
Park in Auburn (2401 Stuck River Road). More
details at www.ponyboyrecords.com.
9-10 ELDAR, ON PIANO
Here’s an early 20s piano prodigy who’s
creating a stir with his hard-bop, post-bop, and
swing expertise. Billboard waxed: “Eldar has the
fastest hands in jazz, melds Russian soul (in
the ballads) with American razzle-dazzle (the
up-tempo tunes) in standards, not-so-standards
and originals. ... He seems to easily channel
Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson in his approach,
but to his credit he gets lost in the music in
his own way.” A Kansas City-based emigrant
from Kyrgyzstan, Eldar Djangirov has released
three CDs (including Eldar, on Sony Classical)
that have borne witness to the extraordinary
development that Eldar has been exhibiting
since he took to the piano at five and to jazz
at nine. Much-vaunted – he was featured on the
1999 Grammy Awards ceremony, and has taken
various top awards – he’s a dazzling stylist, with
great touch and assurance, and he sounds “like
a young Art Tatum,” according to Jazziz. Cover:
$22 adv/ $25 day of show
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
AA Jeanie Bryson/Ted Brancato Quartet, benefit
concert for Partners In Health/Doctors
Without Borders, 2
C* Pony Boy Records Jazz Picnic, Sandpoint
Magnuson Park, Seattle, noon-5 (see preview,
this issue)
JA Oliver Mtukudzi & The Black Spirits, 7:30
NO Pete Leinonen & John Holte Radio Rhythm
Orchestra
TD Eldar, 7 & 10
TU Jazz Police Big Band, 3
TU Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra, 8
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
C* Pony Boy All-Star Big Band, Redmond Saturday
Market, 11am
JA Mami, 7th Sister City Jazz Day, 7:30
RD Doug Reid, Andy Roben, Kevin Mccarthy, 7:30
TU Jazz Jam with Darin Clendenin Trio, 8
11 SISTERS
Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, the Seattle-Kobe Sister
City Association, and the KOBE Trade Information
Office present the Kobe (Japan) 2006 Vocal Jazz
Queen, Mami, for one night only. Supporting
Mami will be the Bill Anschell Trio. Admission
free.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
C* Trish, Hans and Phil, Sherman Clay Piano
Store (1000 Bellevue Way, Bellevue), 7:30
DC Eric Verlinde, 6:30
JA Karrin Allyson, 7:30
OU Marc Smason Open Jazz Workshop, 7:30
TU Emerald City Jazz Orchestra, 8
12-17 KARRIN ALLYSON
The two-time Grammy nominated vocalist
celebrates her tenth Concord release, Footprints,
which features 13 classic instrumental tracks
from the 50’s and 60’s. “As a singer, I feel very
influenced by instrumentalists and by many
classic instrumental songs, “ says Allyson. “It’s

tricky to put lyrics to the great, iconic tunes,
because you want to do them justice.”
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
BJ Better World w/ Marc Smason & Joanne Klein,
8:30
C* Eric Verlinde, Ronnie Pierce, Aria Prame,
Whiskey Bar (2000 2nd Ave), 10
DC Eric Verlinde, 6:30
JA Karrin Allyson, 7:30
TB Julie Olson, 6:30
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
C* Eric Verlinde Trio, Spice (2301 5th Ave #101), 6
C* Space Girl’s jam, 9:30, The Asteroid (3601
Fremont Ave N, 547-9000).
AA Carolyn Graye Ensemble, 5
EB Ev Stern Trio jam session, 9
JA Karrin Allyson, 7:30 & 9:30
TU Jeremy Jones Xtet, 8
14/28 EGAN’S BALLARD JAM HOUSE
A jam with the Ev Stern Trio at the promising
new jazz-friendly venue. At 1707 NW Market St;
(206) 789-1621. Also Sept. 28 and Oct. 5.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
C* Better World w/ Marc Smason, Jai Thai (235
Broadway E), 10
C* S. Lyn Goeringer, public opening and artist
reception, Jack Straw Productions (4261
Roosevelt Way NE), 7
C* Ev Stern Trio jam, 9:30, The Asteroid (3601
Fremont Ave N, 547-9000).
BP Pearl Django
EB Thomas Marriot’s Willie Nelson Project, 10
HS Buddy Catlett Trio, Pony Boy Records: Jazz &
Sushi, 7:30
JA Karrin Allyson, 7:30 & 9:30
NO Maurice john Vaughn
TU Hadley Caliman Quartet, 8:30
15 BUDDY CATLETT
The great – really great – bassist, Buddy Catlett,
is this week’s feature at Pony Boy’s Jazz & Sushi
evening at Hiroshi’s Restaurant (2501 Eastlake
Ave E; 7:30pm). His partners on the evening are
two other ace musicians, Jay Thomas (trumpet,
sax, and other horns) and Greg Williamson
(drums).
15/18 MARRIOTT’S WILLIE NELSON
At Egan’s Ballard Jam House, on the 15th, and
at the Triple Door on the 18th, Thomas Marriott
(trumpet), presents his Willie Nelson Project, with
jazzed-up covers from the country & western
icon’s songbook. With Mark Taylor (saxophone),
Ryan Burns (keyboards), Geoff Harper (bass), and
Matt Jorgensen (drums). Egan’s: Market Street
in Ballard, at 10pm. Triple Door, 216 Union St,
7pm, no cover.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
C* Nonsequitur & Decibel Festival #3
Experimental Showcase, Broadway
Performance Hall (1625 Broadway), 6:30
C* Pony Boy All-Star Big Band, Redmond Saturday
Market, 11 am
C* S. Lyn Goeringer, artist talk, Jack Straw
Productions, 11am
EB Dean Moore (solo ambient gong music), 7
EB More Zero (trombone, tenor, vibes, bass,
drums), 10
JA Karrin Allyson, 7:30 & 9:30
NO Maurice john Vaughn
TU Susan Pascal Quartet, 8:30
16 MORE THAN ZERO
More Zero, with Chris Stover (trombone), Stuart
MacDonald (tenor sax), Ben Thomas (vibes), John
Silverman (bass), and Chris Stromquist (drums),
play at At Egan’s, a fine new venue in Ballard.
16 EXPERIMENTAL SHOWCASE
Nonsequitur, an artist-run non-profit
organization presenting experimental music and
sound art, and Decibel, Seattle’s annual festival
of electronic music, present an experimental
showcase concert of contemporary minimal
and ambient music featuring visiting luminaries
Richard Chartier, a composer, sound installation
artist, and graphic designer, and Taylor Deupree,
a Brooklyn-based sound artist, graphic designer,
and photographer, along with local Dragon’s Eye
Recordings artists Yann Novak and Son of Rose.
Broadway Performance Hall (1625 Broadway),
6:30, admission $15, info: www.dbfestival.
com/2006/
16 ARTIST EXPLAINS
With a focus on both the heard sound and the
illusion of a perceived sound, S. Lyn Goeringer’s
Huldre explores the relation between movement
and subtle sound. By moving through the
installation, people interact with the ‘fixed’ work
presented over the four speakers by initiating
sounds in the wires based on their physical
movement through the space. The installation is
up until October 28, at Jack Straw Productions,
4261 Roosevelt Way NE, (206) 634-0919
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
JA Karrin Allyson, 7:30
NO Everett Youth Jazz Ensemble, 3
NO Island City Jazz Quintet w/ Robbie Jordan, CD
Release, 6
TU Jay Thomas Big Band, 3
TU Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra, 8
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
TD Thomas Marriot’s Willie Nelson Project, 7 (see
Sept. 15)
TU Jazz Jam with Kelley Johnson, 8
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
DC Eric Verlinde, 6:30
JA Guy Davis, 7:30
TU Roadside Attraction Big Band, 8
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
C* Eric Verlinde/Ronnie Pierce/Aria Prame,
Whiskey Bar (2000 2nd Ave), 10
DC Eric Verlinde, 6:30
JA Guy Davis, 7:30
TU Beth Winter Vocal Showcase, 8
20 THE MOJO OF SWOJO
The Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra (SWOJO)
appears with special guest Jill Townsend,
who has composed, arranged, and conducted
the music for the performance. Townsend is
a Vancouver based arranger/composer who
is the principal composer and conductor for
the Jill Townsend Big Band. The National Jazz
Awards (Canada) nominated the band in 2006
for best Large Jazz Ensemble. As for SWOJO, it
has appeared on European and South American
stages since forming in January 2000, and will
be the featured big band at the XVII Jazz en Lima
Jazz Festival in Peru next April. At the Triple Door
(216 Union St), all ages. Cover: advance $17.50
general admission, $13 student admission; $20
NEW RELEASE
Available September 2006
CJR-6: PORT OF SAINTS
Raymond Boni / Michael Bisio
Dominic Duval / Joe McPhee
Distributed by North Country Distributors
Cadence Building, Redwood, NY 13679-3104
Phone: 315-287-2852 Fax: 315-287-2860
Email: info@ncdsales.com
day of show) at the Triple Door box office or
206-838-4333.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
C* Eric Verlinde Trio, Spice (2301 5th Ave #101), 6
C* Space Girl’s jam, 9:30, The Asteroid (3601
Fremont Ave N, 547-9000).
EB Industrial Revelation, 9
GT Live Nude Goats Art Closing Party, featuring
Curtains for You
TD Eric Alexander & George Coleman, 7 & 10
TU Al Keith Birthday Celebration Party, 8
21 INDUSTRIAL REVELATION
At Egan’s in Ballard, at 9pm: the power-jazz
quartet, Industrial Revelation, a post-post-bop
quartet featuring trumpeter Ahamefule Oluo,
bassist Evan Flory-Barnes, drummer D’Vonne
Lewis, and the solid comping of keyboardist Josh
Rawlings. A power-packed quartet.
21 LIVE NUDE GOATS
Art Closing Party featuring Live Nude Goats
(see Sept. 3, above). They bring to a close
the Soma Series: Communal Mind Expansion
highlights radical and diverse Seattle ensembles
that feature some of the city’s most creative
artists. Gallery 1412 (1412 18th Ave E, @ Union),
8pm, all ages, $5-15 sliding scale
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22
C* Pony Boy All-Star Big Band, Downtown Kent
First Avenue Party, 5
C* Ev Stern Trio jam, 9:30, The Asteroid (3601
Fremont Ave N, 547-9000).
EB Rik Wright Quartet, 10
HS Greg Williamson Quartet, Pony Boy Records:
Jazz & Sushi, 7:30
NO Lil’ Bill and the Bluenotes
TU Milo Petersen and the Jazz Disciples, 8:30
22 GREG WILLIAMSON QUARTET
Alexey Nikolaev (sax), John Hansen (piano),
Jon Hamar (bs), and Greg Williamson (drums)
play blues and bebop at this week’s installment
of Pony Boy Records’ Jazz & Sushi series at
Hiroshi’s Restaurant (2501 Eastlake Ave E, 726-
4966), at 7:30.
22 RIK WRIGHT
At Egan’s, in Ballard,guitar experimentalist
Rik Wright brings experience in jazz, rock, and
improvised music to bear on his distinctive
quintet music for guitar, sax (James DeJoie),
bass (Walter White), and drums (Jeremy Jones).
Their album, Even Odds, released on HipSync
Records late last year, won high praise from
the press. Jazz Guitar Life, for example, said
“Wright has managed to craft a CD that focuses
on the richness of melody, composition,
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September 2006 • Earshot Jazz • 21

On Music, from page 17
had known at that point. Music came in
even closer because of the ache; then it
was connected with something that gave
reason to living. As bare in need as food
and water it seemed. Language functions
like music does but fails where song succeeds
until this something happens.
She sat in front of me in math class, 8th
grade. If heaven is softer than black velvet
than it was her face. First love notes in
class, she would tear up in my face and
tell me I was crazy. The notes said things
about how there was no doubt she was
sent to earth to be with me. It did not occur
to me that she’d dismiss them. Actually
believed she’d read them and understand
we were fated to be together. The
teacher saw I wasn’t paying attention and
would put my name in math problems
where I was always the cat losing acres of
land or money. Didn’t like Mr. Johnson,
but to be fair, I was allergic to math at
this level in formal education. A good two
years (and a whole lot of music!) later, she
granted me our first date.
Saxophone and trumpet became friends
in my young ear. Trane died and Uncle
Donnie said: so did music. He continued
to listen to music because he loved it too
much, but nothing as serious as John
Coltrane. Funny, because I was only
getting closer and closer to Trane. Still,
almost always through the kitchen door,
not the front. Didn’t really get into all
the Prestige recordings he did with Miles
22 • Earshot Jazz • September 2006
until much later. Thank God I didn’t
miss out on Dexter Gordon, but hadn’t
connected the two sounds, the influence
or school. Of Coleman Hawkins and
Lester Young I heard, but didn’t know
it. Cracked up when I realized the cat
soloing on tenor with Count on Billie
Holiday records I adored (and played
regularly) was the great Prez everybody
worshipped. Fletcher Henderson records
were funky to me.
Bought my first Jazz album – Charles
Lloyd’s Forest Flower. Heard the metaphor
of the opening petals in the power
of nature in his tenor sax. Listened to it
over and over. Mom loved Lee Morgan’s
hit “The Sidewinder” and so did I. The
man we called The Cooker became a
favorite early on. Never thinking I’d
become so familiar with those unique
artists on Bluenote recordings like this
one, more and more sophisticated Motown
arrangements and string sections of
vocal stylists like Carmen McRae, Gloria
Lynne and Johnny Hartman fed a thirsty
imagination. This, other senses, dimensions
the nocturnal doe that sat in front
of me in math class opened ears wider to
stretched a borderless ranch where lyrics
jumped gates and rhythm bucked high.
Something to rhyme with something
dramatic in the sky became a mission,
in a way... with the radio.
On the big black and white tiled floor
in the red stucco walled basement of
the cocoa-shingled house is where we
all danced. Played The Five Stairsteps’
“World of Fantasy” between James
Brown’s “Let Yourself Go” and Junior
Walker’s “Shotgun.” Partied with everybody
we went to school with. No longer
melting banana split candies on the radio,
still patiently awaiting certain songs to
come on. No more loneliness. Sat one day
with pad and pen in my new bedroom
listening to the radio. Don’t know why
what happened did.
A Smokey Robinson-penned song came
through the humble little speaker. In that
languid harmony that was as original as
it was lyrically romantic, if Soul Music
sought a charismatic Shakespearean, the
mystique of The Miracles would fit. I
didn’t know the words. Maybe that poetic
plea in “Choosey Beggar.” Don’t know
why. The melody lassoed me. Words
began to ride. Run in form, in a rhythm
on paper. Do recall my title but not The
Miracles’ song. Even the date. Don’t
know why or how it came out; was very
conscious of feeling very natural making
up my own words to the melody. I
knew one thing: whatever I’d just done
I’d be doing the rest of my life. Written,
naturally, for the one who sat in front of
me in math class.
The same one the most beautiful night
on earth was jealous of. The same one
who before I finished tenth grade, made
me (without warning) aware I was a black
man. The one the puppy first saw Miles
and Wayne with.
To be continued: “Mama’s Mission”

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instrumentation and arranging rather than the
oft-times egocentric acts of guitar production.”
The quintet’s next disc, After the Storm, is just
out, again on HipSync.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
EB Manghis Khan Quartet, 10
NO Lil’ Bill and the Bluenotes
TU Greta Matassa, 8:30
23 MANGHIS KHAN
At Egan’s in Ballard, the Manghis Khan Quartet
presents Afro-Cuban inspired rhythms courtesy
of Tony Grasso (trumpet), Viren Kamdar (cajon,
congas); Derek Learned (congas, bongos); and
Marc Miller (bass).
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
NO Membly James Blues
TU Jim Knapp Quintet, 3
TU Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra, 8
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
JA Christian Scott, 7:30
RD Doug Reid, Andy Roben, Kevin Mccarthy, 7:30
TU Jazz Jam with Darin Clendenin Trio, 8
25 CHRISTIAN SCOTT
The 22-year-old New Orleans native, who
since 16 has been playing with his uncle, alto
saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr, is accompanied
by his bandmates on his Concords Record
debut, Rewind That, by Matt Stevens, guitar;
Walter Smith III, tenor; Zaccai Curtis, Fender
Rhodes and Wurlitzer; Luques Curtis bass,
and Thomas Prodgen, drums. Scott’s credo:
“Instead of blowing cold air into the instrument,
Clifford (Brown) squeezed out warm air from his
diaphragm that created a more breathy tone. I
like it because it makes the trumpet sound like
the human voice.” At Jazz Alley, cover $15.50.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
DC Eric Verlinde, 6:30
GT Motel 5
JA Eliane Elias, 7:30
TD Allan Holdsworth, 7:30
TU Hal Sherman’s Monday Night Jazz Orchestra, 8
26 SOMA MIND CONTROL
Soma Series: Communal Mind Expansion
highlights radical and diverse Seattle ensembles
that feature some of the city’s most creative
artists. Since their inception in 2002, modern
jazz collective Motel 5 has amassed a broad
repertoire of all original music with an emphasis
on groove, improvisation, and group interplay.
Chris Credit (tenor sax), Dave Knirk (alto sax),
Chris Spencer (guitar), Matt Hopper (bass), and
J A Z Z
E A R S H O T J A Z Z
M E M B E R S H I P
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NAME
__________________________________________
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__________________________________________
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EMPLOYER, IF IT PROVIDES MATCHING GRANTS
__________________________________________
WHERE DID YOU PICK UP EARSHOT?
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Please mail to: Earshot Jazz
3429 Fremont Place N, #309
Seattle, WA 98103
Earshot Jazz is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization.
Greg Rudolph (drums) cite such influences as
funk, free jazz, soulful balladry, and rock. Gallery
1412 (1412 18th Ave E, @ Union), 8pm, all ages,
$5-15 sliding scale.
26-27 ALLAN HOLDSWORTH
Allan Holdsworth is renowned among
guitarists, and loved by countless fans. That he
hasn’t been as acclaimed as some other titans
might speak to the prominence of his technique
over his imagination, but the latter is certainly
not lacking. And, he plays his own way, with less
attention to genre and stylistic considerations
than “the industry” knows exactly what to do
with. Here’s your chance to witness a prodigious
player of almost unparalleled guitar innovation, a
fitting inductee of Guitar Player Magazine’s Hall
of Fame, and five-time winner of its readers’ poll.
At the Triple Door at 7:30pm, for two nights; $25
advance, $28 day of show.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
C* Eric Verlinde, Ronnie Pierce, Aria Prame;
Whiskey Bar, (2000 2nd Ave), 10
BJ Better World (Smason/Klein), 8:30
DC Eric Verlinde, 6:30
JA Eliane Elias, 7:30
TB Katy Bourne w/ Randy Halberstadt, 6:30
TU Greta Matassa Jazz Workshop, 8
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
C* Eric Verlinde Trio, Spice (2301 5th Ave) , 6
C* Space Girl’s jam, 9:30, The Asteroid (3601
Fremont Ave N, 547-9000).
EB Ev Stern Trio jam session, 9
GT Ego Band USA
JA Manhattan Transfer, 7:30 & 9:30
NO Matt Garrity Trio Jazz
TU Daniel Barry & Walk All Ways, 8
28 SOMA MIND CONTROL
Soma Series: Communal Mind Expansion
highlights radical and diverse Seattle ensembles
that feature some of the city’s most creative
artists. Ego Band USA is an emphatic Seattlebased
keyboard/drum duo, featuring Ty Bailie
and Jacques Willis. The duo creates profound
expressions of what live instrumental music can
be today. At Gallery 1412 (1412 18th Ave E, @
Union), 8pm, all ages, $5-15 sliding scale.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
C* Ev Stern Trio jam, 9:30, The Asteroid (3601
Fremont Ave N, 547-9000).
C* Kazue Sawai, Cornish College of the Arts, 8
EB Mark Taylor & Don Peretz, 10
JA Manhattan Transfer, 7:30 & 9:30
HS Karen Shivers Trio, Pony Boy Records: Jazz &
Sushi, 7:30
NO Jackie Payne
TU Richard Cole Quartet, 8:30
29 MARK TAYLOR & DON PERETZ
Two fine instrumentalists join forces. Seattlebased
alto saxophonist Mark Taylor was
nominated for Instrumentalist of the Year in
2003 and 2004 by Earshot Jazz; he is a key
member of both Matt Jorgensen + 451 (Best
Acousic Jazz Group 2003) and Frieze of Life
(Best Outside Jazz Group 2003). Don Peretz is
a percussionist based in New York, where he
has performed with the likes of Tony Malaby,
Drew Gress, Mulgrew Miller, Dave Binney, Dave
Kikoski, and Russell Ferrante. The duo is at
Egan’s in Ballard on the 29th; also at Tula’s
(9/30), New Orleans Rest. (114 1st Ave S) on
Oct. 1, and the Triple Door October 2.
29 KAREN SHIVERS
On Precious Love (Pony Boy Records), Karen
Shivers has a winning disc. On this gig, she has
some of the region’s finest accompanists in
pianist Reuel Lubag and bassist Chuck Kistler. In
her unrushed, poised delivery, Shivers manages
to marshall qualities of her individual voice, like
all the best jazz vocalists. At Pony Boy Records’
weekly Jazz & Sushi presentation at Hiroshi’s
Restaurant (2501 Eastlake Ave E), at 7:30.
29 KAZUE SAWAI
At Cornish College of the Arts’ Poncho Concert
Hall (710 E Roy St; admission $15 general,
$7.50 concession), the Japanese master of the
large lute, the koto, perform. See www.komuso.
com/people/Sawai_Kazue.html.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30
EB Greta Matassa & Joe Doria, 10
JW Rik Wright Trio, 7
KR John Jorgenson Quintet, 8
NO Rent Collectors
SR Gail Pettis, 9
TU Mark Taylor Quartet w/ Don Peretz, 8:30
30 JOHN JORGENSON
Earl Scruggs says of John Jorgenson: “To
say that John is a superlative guitarist is an
understatement. He is simply great.” A pioneer
of American gypsy jazz who performed with
Elton John for six years, John Jorgenson is a
dazzling guitarist, clarinetist, and vocalist.
Whether playing his own compositions or classic
standards, he and his band make music that
is equally romantic and ecstatic, played with
virtuosity and soul. Admission $33 (Seniors
$29.50, youth $15). At 8pm at Kirkland
Performance Center (350 Kirkland Ave in
Kirkland; 425-893-9900; www.kpcenter.org)
September 2006 • Earshot Jazz • 23

Time dated material
Earshot Jazz
3429 Fremont Pl., #309
Seattle, WA 98103
Change Service Requested
CLASSIFIED ADS
Seattle Drum School offers private
instruction for saxophone, trumpet,
trombone, violin, piano, guitar, bass,
drumset & hand drums. Plus jazz
ensembles, jazz recording workshops
& big band. 206-364-8815
JetCityOrange.com, a web site like
no other. Goof off at work, waste
precious bandwidth, fritter away
valuable time. From the mind of
Jerry Whiting.
Fandrich Vertical Action Steinberg
(upright grand piano) for sale. Concert
quality piano played by pros in
Our House Jazz Concert series and
on KPLU jazz cruises. Unparalleled
tone and action response. Dampp-
Chaser humidity control system.
Great for small venues or spaces.
Photos of piano can be found at
http://www.ourhousejazz.com/,
Concert Series window. Purchased
for $18,000+; a steal for $10,000.
206-634-1179 or ourhouse8@aol.
com.
Classified ads cost $10 for 25 words or less, 50 cents
per additional word. Copy and payment accepted
through the 15th of the month prior to publication
at Earshot Jazz, 3429 Fremont Pl. #309, Seattle WA
98103. Fax: 547-6286, Email: jazz@earshot.org
NON-PROFIT ORG
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT No. 14010
SEATTLE, WA
Tula’s Jazz Calendar September 2006
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