Emblazoned with a commanding “NOMINATE,” a Day-Glo yellow
postcard shot through my mail slot recently. The postcard exhorts
readers to nominate artists “making a difference in Seattle’s
communities through arts and culture” for a Mayor’s Arts Award.
Most of the winners since 2003 are well-known, mainstream art
makers and institutions: Sub Pop Records, Seattle Children’s
Theatre, Gerard Schwarz, Seattle Art Museum, the Folklife Festival, and
so on.
As a remedy, my own wish list leans toward those championing
experimental, avant, and other wayward musics: The Nonsequitur
Foundation, which revived the Good Shepherd Center’s chapel as the
premier performance space for experimental music in Seattle; Davey
Schmitt, who for a over a decade has variously served as a radio
show host, label co-owner, and co-honcho of the HARSH series; Doug
Haire and Jack Straw Productions, whose weekly Sonarchy program at midnight on KEXP remains one of the last bastions of the
avant on local radio; and other essential entities like the beloved
Gallery 1412, Seattle Improvised Music, On the
Boards, and the Washington Composers Forum.
Let’s not forget longtime performers who enrich the scene such as
Amy Denio, Seattle Chamber Players, Stuart Dempster, Climax Golden
Twins, Wally Shoup, Bill Horist, Sun City Girls, and Tom Baker. Add
hidden though crucial folks like Eric Lanzillotta, Dennis Rea, and Eric
Banks, and the list grows long; many are missing.
The Mayor’s Arts Awards fills a vital role, yet Seattle still
needs a visionary to step forward and buy an old building, renovate
it, and, acting as an arts commissar, award free space and a guaranteed
annual income of $35,000 for a decade to a handpicked collection of
provocative artists. Such brave, radical patronage would deserve an
award, too.
The deadline to nominate an individual or organization for the
Mayor’s Arts Award is Monday, April 7. Download the nomination form at
www.seattle.gov/arts.
Thurs 3/6
TUDOR CHOIR
Music by Palestrina on live, looped repeat: The Tudors sing five
pieces three times amid the bustling ambience of the First Thursday art
walk. Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave, 654-3100,
6—8 pm, free.
Fri 3/7
HOLLOW EARTH RADIO
A benefit for Hollow Earth, curators Amber Morgan and Garrett Kelly
team up with Olie Eshleman and Jason Kopec to mix field recordings and
found sounds live. Windows Art Gallery, 4131 Woodland Park Ave N, 6
pm, donation requested.
SEATTLE PRO MUSICA
Karen Thomas leads this very fine vocal ensemble in a tribute to J.
S. Bach. Along with a clutch of Bach motets—the essential “Jesu,
meine Freude,” “Fürchte dich nicht,” and my favorite, “Komm, Jesu
komm”—SPM traverses “Drei Psalmleider nach J. S. Bach” by Peter
Cornelius (1824—1874), Knut Nystedt’s “Immortal Bach,” and more.
Also Sat Mar 8 at 8 pm. St. James Cathedral, 804 Ninth Ave,
781-2766, 8:15 pm, $12—$22.
AMY RUBIN
The pianist, composer, and music writer proffers an evening of
tangos by Astor Piazzolla and new compositions. Sound/video artist Hugo
Solis, a winning presence at the Seattle Latin American Music Festival
last year, joins Rubin’s ensemble in the premiere of “The Hidden Life
of Flowers.” Fourth floor Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd
Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, 8 pm, $5—$15 sliding scale
donation.
Sat 3/8
SEATTLE REPERTORY JAZZ ORCHESTRA
In jazz, the best suites act as a sequence of snapshots, a stepwise
accumulation of impressions similar to the pictorial tone poems of
Richard Strauss; Duke Ellington, who favored the term “tone parallel”
instead of “tone poem” penned a pile of suites; other jazz composers
did too, notably Benny Carter, whose Kansas City Suite was
made famous by Count Basie. Here, the SRJO revives the Kansas City
Suite, a musical portrait in 10 snappy movements. Also Sun Mar 9
at the Kirkland Performance Center at 3 pm. Recital Hall at
Benaroya, 200 University St, 523-6159, 7:30 pm, $15—$36.
KELLEY JOHNSON QUARTET
Back from a State Department—sponsored tour of Central America
and the Caribbean, this elfin-voiced singer and her quartet perform
standards and overlooked tunes. A vocal delight, Johnson coltishly
scampers through the most treacherous, word-clogged lyrics with ease.
Anyone who covers the Ellington throwaway ditty, “Tulip or Turnip” and
suavely sells “Do I get the booby prize/Or will I be the hero?/Am I
heading for blue skies/Or is my ceiling zero?” is tops in my book.
Tula’s, 2214 Second Ave, 443-4221, 8:30 pm, $15.
Sun 3/9
ONYX CHAMBER PLAYERS
Sure, Brahms’s four symphonies are mighty, great, titanic, etc. But
to truly hear the German master’s ear for texture and counterpoint, you
must delve into his chamber music, which sparkles with an energy
sometimes absent from the symphonies. For this early evening concert,
the OCP tackle the Horn Trio in E-flat, op. 40 with hornist
Rodger Burnett and, for good measure, the Piano Quartet in C
Minor with guest violist Thane Lewis. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth
Ave, 652-4255, 5 pm, $10—$18.
