Jazz: The Second Century brings the progression of jazz into creative motion on the concert stage, presenting Seattle artists selected by a peer panel, performing original work in a concert setting. The series is a continuation of the very first programming initiative of the Earshot Jazz organization, and embodies one of our core values. It offers a current, subtle, perhaps refreshing, un-sentimental look at our city’s engagement with this diffuse, vibrant art form.

Piano and drum duo Dialectical Imagination integrate the creative spirit of free-improvisation with the emotional expressionism of chamber music, which they call “ecstatic music.” After playing together in a number of other groups, Eli Wallace (piano) and Rob Pumpelly (drums) formed a tight musical partnership that explores the full spectrum of expression. Nothing is off limits to these two, from cathartic swells to iconoclastic breaks to resplendent waves. Their ecstatic expressionism does not fit squarely into a musical box, but rather embraces and celebrates the great paradoxes inherent to all art forms.

Jeremy’s Pyramid Scheme, composed by woodwinds performer Jeremy Shaskus is, in his words, “another pebble dropped in the stream of what is classified as music.” Featuring two-time Grammy nominee Nathan Breedlove (trumpet), Joel Bean (organ), and improvising artist Will Lone (drums), Jeremy’s Pyramid Scheme is comprised of established Seattle musicians who can seriously play. While the project shows deference to the music, it also injects it with humor, igniting a sense of playfulness á la John Cage. The group embraces all musical influences, drawing heavily from the American Improvised Genre.

Watch video of the sets by Dialectical Imagination and Jeremy’s Pyramid Scheme, thanks to elhotrod32.

Project Metamorphosis is the creative vehicle for Seattle-based guitarist Daniel McManus. Each performance is unique, incorporating improvisation and collaborations with other musicians or visual artists. This performance will feature San Francisco guitarist Sameer Matta. Both guitarists will be performing compositions for extended range guitar in alternating, interweaving sets.

Sameer’s solo guitar set explores various themes and styles, while always focusing on melody and movement. The set involves frequent use of percussive elements, finger picking and jazzy chords, leading to an overall progressive sound.

Daniel’s performance features meditative reflections on solo guitar, developing narrative themes through the use of loops and structured improvisation. Described as “a series of guitar explorations that form a cosmic emotionalism not quite ambient music and not quite progressive rock,” the music flows between minimalist drone to richly layered melodies.

Jazz: The Second Century brings the progression of jazz into creative motion on the concert stage, presenting Seattle artists selected by a peer panel, performing original work in a concert setting. The series is a continuation of the very first programming initiative of the Earshot Jazz organization, and embodies one of our core values. It offers a current, subtle, perhaps refreshing, un-sentimental look at our city’s engagement with this diffuse, vibrant art form.

New Series One takes their name from a reference on Charles Mingus’ record, Mingus Presents Mingus. The trio – Simon Henneman (guitar), Troy Schefelbein (acoustic bass), Mike Gebhart (hand drums & percussion) – plays in an uninterrupted flow, comfortably moving between melodies, rhythms, and chord changes. The result harkens to the roots of jazz as a very intimate folk music. Henneman sees New Series One as a space for each performer to interact on a shared platform, to interact and listen deeply, finding new places to explore. In an ever-expanding world with multiplying distractions, the group’s search for commonplace and closeness offers a refreshing antidote.

Trombonist and composer Christian Pincock describes his Scrambler project as a “musical mash” that combines large quantities of jazz, several cups of classical music, a tablespoon of folk and a dash of sound effects, whisked together with Soundpainting, a conducted improvisation sign language created by performance artist Walter Thompson. In his Scrambler project, Pincock calls upon some of Seattle’s most innovative improvisers using physical gestures to communicate to them in real time to create a unique feedback loop. Each performance becomes an experiment for the performers and the spectators, who are invited to reconsider traditional roles and hierarchies between the conductor, musician, and audience relationships. The ensemble tonight is Christian Pincock (soundpainting) with Heather Bentley (viola), Greg Campbell (French horn and percussion), Haley Freedlund (trombone), Ryan Kotler (bass), Carol Levin (harp), Kelsey Mines (bass), Remy Morritt (drums), Evan Smith (saxophones), Geoff Traeger (electronics), Evan Woodle (drums), and Jacob Zimmerman (woodwinds).

Watch video of sets by New Series One and Scrambler, thanks to elhotrod32.

The Gratitude Trio, comprised of pianist Dawn Clement, bassist Chuck Deardorf, and drummer Matt Wilson formed in the summer of 2017 and were featured on the Earshot Jazz Festival concert series in Bainbridge Island last Fall. In this special concert, they will be presenting music from Clement’s latest release Tandem, Wilson’s Honey and Salt, and Deardorf’s upcoming CD release. You can hear them live on KNKX on Tuesday, July 16th in support of their Chapel performance.

In the 17th year of this piano composition in perpetual progress, the pitch palette has begun to become rich (at least compared to those 12 or 13 years when only A’s appeared): This year’s Chapel performance, might include A’s, E’s, C#’s, G’s or B’s. As always, Gradus is played with an ear to the quiet and sometimes not-so-quiet sounds of the environment (on most summer evening performances past we have played with the windows open, and hope this will be possible once again). Though the selection of pitches used is precise and severe, the actual playing is entirely improvised, responding attentively to the inward and outward requirements of the moment.

Cecil Taylor, who always seemed like he gave such minute attention to each sound he made, has always been a primary inspiration for this project. Following his recent passing, this year’s performance is gratefully dedicated to his memory.

Read the nice write-up at Second Inversion.

Jazz: The Second Century brings the progression of jazz into creative motion on the concert stage, presenting Seattle artists selected by a peer panel, performing original work in a concert setting. The series is a continuation of the very first programming initiative of the Earshot Jazz organization, and embodies one of our core values. It offers a current, subtle, perhaps refreshing, un-sentimental look at our city’s engagement with this diffuse, vibrant art form.

Solo guitarist Matthew Anderson, aka Cathedral of Trees, draws upon the work of Brazilian jazz master Egberto Gismonti and other post-1960s New World composers. Armed with a 10-string classical guitar, Anderson explores the intersections between jazz, classical, and world music with spontaneity and dynamism. A native to the Northwest, Anderson is a graduate from the Classical Guitar Performance Program at Cornish College of the Arts and an educator with an emphasis on Baroque and Latin American styles.

Composer and bandleader Ronan Delisle (guitar) is interested in disrupting the tired, tried-and-true jazz formula of opening head, improvisation, and return to theme. His compositions employ traditional jazz elements in new ways, as he re-examines the roles of instruments, actively re-working how themes and languages are presented. The music calls on the individual talents of the young, up-and-coming band members, including Abbey Blackwell (bass), 2017 2nd Century participant Thomas Campbell (drums), the 2015 Golden Ear Emerging Artist of the Year, Raymond Larsen (trumpet), and Daniel Salka (piano). The group has nurtured a rapport that allows the music to flow freely, painting between reference points with wide swathes of rhythmic and melodic colors.

Guitarist Dennis Rea continues the tradition of Tanabata* concerts that fall on his birthday of 7/7, alongside drummers Alan Cook and Don Berman, woodwind player Dick Valentine, and electronicist Jan Koekepan in various configurations. Expect original pieces, interpretations of Central Asian traditional music, and expansive improvisations, all within the warm sonic embrace of the Chapel.

* the annual Japanese/Chinese ‘star festival’ marking the once-yearly meeting of Orihime and Hikoboshi in the heavens

(photo by Danette Davis)

CARL is a baritone sax/bass duo from Houston (Danny Kamins and Andrew Durham) merging free jazz doom metal, and noise/drone. CARL finds itself in a space between the discomfort, anxiety, and bile of noise music and the abstraction and artistic intentions of improvisational music. This recording is hard to access and not easy to classify. Speaking for ourselves, it is our intention to obscure the feeling of human intent and even human presence. This is a direct reaction to the alienation and post-modern angst Houston produces, feelings that are specially heavy looking out at the fantastic architecture of the city’s many refineries. To steal a line from Roberto Bolano, the city is more like a cemetery than a city, not a cemetery in 2001 or 2016, but a cemetery in the year 2666, a forgotten cemetery under the eyelid of a corpse or an unborn child, bathed in the dispassionate fluids of an eye that tried so hard to forget one particular thing that it ended up forgetting everything else.

Scrambler is a large improvising ensemble conducted by Christian Pincock using the Sound Painting vocabulary of Walter Thompson.

Macaw is the Beefheartian guitar/drums duo of Jeb Polstein and Tom Scully.

Neil Welch plays solo improvisations for saxophone and electronics.

Jazz: The Second Century brings the progression of jazz into creative motion on the concert stage, presenting Seattle artists selected by a peer panel, performing original work in a concert setting. The series is a continuation of the very first programming initiative of the Earshot Jazz organization, and embodies one of our core values. It offers a current, subtle, perhaps refreshing, un-sentimental look at our city’s engagement with this diffuse, vibrant art form.

Seattle native Chris McCarthy (piano) has compiled a rock-solid trio for his project Sonder, featuring Greg Feingold (bass), and Thomas Campbell (drums). While the musicians are no strangers to the Seattle jazz scene, the Sonder project stretches their talents into new territory as they re-imagine rock and pop songs from an expanded Great American Songbook. Sonder, which debuted in Seattle last December, performs covers of songs from the 21st century that they assert “are malleable enough to be effective vehicles for improvisation,” from indie-rock band Deerhoof to punk band Birthing Hips. Their aim is to expand the jazz art form’s reach to a broader audience while breaking down the limiting barriers of the genre, both real and perceived.

Saxophonist Kate Olson came to Seattle in 2010 and has since made a name for herself in the improvised music scene. She is a regular collaborator with Syrinx Effect, Seattle Rock Orchestra, the Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, and Electric Circus, among others. For the 2018 2nd Century Series, Olson presents her group, KO Electric. Joining her for this project is Tarik Abouzied, who is most well-known as a drummer, working with McTuff and his own project, Happy Orchestra. For KO Electric, he switches it up by appearing on electric bass, delivering funky grooves that are sure to stoke smiles. Fellow Royal Room Collective collaborator Ryan Burns joins on keyboards, while Ruby Dunphy of Thunderpussy brings her energetic and powerful drumming to the mix.

Watch video of sets by KO Electric and Sonder, thanks to elhotrod32.

Anna Friz is a sound and media artist who specializes in multichannel radio transmission systems for installation, performance, and broadcast. Since 1998, she has created and presented new audio art and radiophonic works internationally in which radio is often the source, subject, and medium of the work. She also composes atmospheric sound works and sonic installations for theater, dance, film, and solo performance that reflect upon public media culture, political landscapes and infrastructure, time perception, the intimacy of signal space, and speculative fictions. Friz is Assistant Professor in the Film and Digital Media Department of the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Her performance tonight explores the expressive environment of low fidelity signal and physical landscapes, from interference-prone terrestrial radio beacons to sonic distillations of field recordings using radiophonic instruments and transmitters, accompanied by cottage-built electronics, voice, and monochrome photo montage from recent fieldwork in northeastern Iceland and northern Chile.

Afroditi Psarra is a multidisciplinary artist working in the intersection of electronic textiles and physical computing with sound art. Her research focuses on the merge of science fiction ideas with poetic representations and performative practices, traditional crafting methodologies with engineering and electronics, the art and science interaction with a critical discourse in the creation of artifacts.

Psarra’s Lilytronica is a project inspired by folk tradition, pop culture and DIY electronics, utilizing hand-made electronic embroidery in the context of experimental sound performance. The work is based on live improvisation through the use of three embroidered synthesizers with LilyPad Arduino micro controllers, sensors and actuators embedded into fabric.

Presented by Nonsequitur.