Tagged: Jim Wilke

Seattle’s biggest jazz event of the year begins this weekend. The wide-ranging Earshot Jazz Festival runs over three weeks and includes over 50 concerts by international and regional musicians who perform in many combinations and locations.

High on any list of all-time classic jazz albums is the 1949-50 Miles Davis album "Birth of The Cool" which grew out of an informal composers/ arrangers workshop with Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan and John Lewis among others.  That album continues to be influential among jazz musicians today, one of them being trombonist Andy Clausen who has studied these recordings and arrangements extensively.  Last summer, he organized a concert of this music which was presented by Earshot Jazz at The Chapel performance space in Seattle. 

With the audience on three sides of the musicians, this performance was truly "up close and personal".  Three world-class musicians, Tamir Hendelman, Martin Wind and Matt Wilson provided an evening of spontaneous musical magic for a capacity audience in a cozy  Port Townsend club, The Upstage.  Recorded during this year's Jazz Port Townsend, the trio plays two standards, a Jobim tune and an original by each member of the group.  Each of the three musicians has toured and recorded widely, but this performance was unique, as Tamir Hendelman tells the audience after the first tune of the set.  

On the next Jazz Northwest from 88.5 KPLU, The Dena DeRose Trio plays a concert recorded at Jazz Port Townsend in July.  With Martin Wind on bass and Matt Wilson on drums, Dena DeRose sings from the piano, swinging hard on up tempo tunes, and deliciously slow on the ballads with fresh takes on some familiar songs. 

On Jazz Northwest from 88.5 KPLU, the Benny Green Trio with special guest Gary Smulyan on baritone saxophone is heard in concert at Centrum’s Jazz Port Townsend.  The concert was recorded in McCurdy Pavilion at Fort Worden on July 28, and consists of original music by Benny Green.