Scrape is a string orchestra with harp and guitar that functions somewhat like a jazz group. There are solo and ensemble improvisations and the compositions are unique to this group. There is no conductor and rehearsals involve a lot of discussion and exchange of ideas.

Scrape began as a conversation between violinist Eyvind Kang and myself. When it was time to activate the concept, Eyvind introduced me to Brianna Atwell who provided valuable assistance in assembling the players. A few years have passed and here we are.

We have a recording available on Origin called Approaching Vyones.

Lea Bertucci is a Brooklyn-based composer and performer whose work describes relationships between acoustic phenomena and biological resonance. In addition to her instrumental practice, (alto saxophone and bass clarinet), her work often incorporates multi-channel speaker arrays, electroacoustic feedback, extended instrumental technique and tape collage. Deeply experimental, her work is unafraid to subvert musical expectation. For this performance she will be playing alto saxophone and tapes, using a mixture of material from her recent album Metal Aether as well as new work inspired by a residency in the extreme acoustic environment of Silo City, a series of cast concrete grain elevators in Buffalo, NY.

Chloe Alexandra Thompson is a Cree, Canadian artist and curator, living and working in Portland, Oregon. Using Pure Data, Arduino, hardware and voice, Thompson creates unique sonic experiences and expressions through the spatialization of isolated frequencies. Thompson’s work has been shown at Unity Gain: High Density Loudspeaker Array, Corridor (Seattle), Littman and White Galleries, Compliance Division, Bronco Gallery, and Variform Gallery. She has also presented in collaborations for Converge45, Disjecta, Out of Sight (Seattle), PICA T:BA:17, SIX for Subharmonic: A Music and Sonic Arts Symposium (PICA), and Nationale.

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.