The Jazz Walk is my favorite part of the Ballard Jazz
Festival (Wed–Sun April 22–26, www.ballardjazzfestival.com):
Nineteen groups pack into a dozen venues clustered around Market Street
and along Ballard Avenue. The Jazz Walk (Fri April 24, 7 pm, $25) harks
back to a half-century ago when, as Paul de Barros recounts in
Jackson Street After Hours, almost a dozen clubs presented jazz
regularly.
Make sure to check out the Hadley Caliman Quintet (Conor
Byrne Pub, 9 pm) and Hans Teuber Trio (Egan’s Ballard Jam House,
10:30 pm). Caliman unfurls sinewy bop lines that retain an intensely
funky feel. Teuber, a saxophonist and flutist, offers a singular,
intimate kind of chamber jazz. I’m overdue to hear the Seattle
Women’s Jazz Orchestra again (Leif Erikson Hall, 8:45 pm), and
don’t miss the winsome-voiced Kelley Johnson (Bad Albert’s
8–11 pm), who coltishly scampers through standards and forgotten
chestnuts with ease. Ben Thomas, Cynthia Mullis, Bill
Ramsey, and a slew of other fine musicians make the Jazz Walk
essential to any jazz lover.
If you prefer a sit-down gig, catch vibraphonist Joe Locke,
who leads a quintet that includes stellar trumpeter Thomas
Marriott and Origin Records honcho John Bishop on drums (Sat
April 25, Nordic Heritage Museum, 7:30 pm, $35–$55). Locke was a
knockout at the 2005 festival: His jaw-dropping speed makes up-tempo
pieces burn, and he ruminates with a yearning urgency on ballads, too.
Reminiscent of the Seattle “Jam for Breakfast” morning jazz concerts
of the late 1950s, the festival concludes with a Sunday Jazz Brunch
(Sun April 26, Nordic Heritage Museum, 11 am, $12) with saxophonist
Brent Jensen fronting the Bill Anschell Trio.
After the weekend, Earshot Jazz serves up two concerts in its spring
series: the Thing (Thurs April 30, Kerry Hall at Cornish
College, 8 pm, $15) and the Peter Brotzmann Trio (Tues April 28,
Kerry Hall at Cornish College, 8 pm, $15). Norwegian for “assembly,”
the Thing (pronounce it “ting”) is an all-star trio with reedman
Mats Gustafsson, Paal Nilssen-Love on drums, and bassist
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. Together, they punk up free jazz
with spazzed-out electronics and thrashy, start-stop, metal-inspired
riffs. I’m intrigued to hear Brotzmann; at a concert several years ago,
his young bandmates were reduced to near-mute accompanists as Brotzmann
wailed interminably. I hope for more interplay—and combative
jousting—with Eric Revis on bass and the ubiquitous,
no-bullshit drummer Nasheet Waits.
Fans of the avant must not miss guitar legend Fred Frith (Sat
April 25, Chapel Performance Space, 8 pm, $5–$15 sliding scale
donation), who, through an array of pedals and other devices,
transforms the guitar into an orchestra that crackles and shimmers.
Also, Bay Area clarinetist and composer Matt Ingalls visits the
UW’s DXArts program (Wed April 29, Meany Theater, 7:30 pm, $5/$10) to
perform Steve Reich’s Reed Phase, Clarinet Threads by
Dennis Smalley, and his own CrusT for clarinet and electronics.
Jonathan Harvey’s electro-acoustic classic, the haunting Mortuos
Plango, Vivos Voco, rounds out the program. 
