Earshot’s annual festival embraces a broad and brave notion of
jazz—from the straight-ahead sound that accompanies almost
everyone’s notion of film-noir cool to scabrous, shrieking clusters of
notes.
Opening night features Jerry Gonzales and the Fort Apache
Band (Sat Oct 18, Triple Door, 9:30 pm, $24). Gonzales brings
Afro-Cuban smarts and rhythms to the music of Thelonious Monk; I
love his weirdly angular cover of the theme to I Love Lucy,
too.
I’m also looking forward to the blazing double bill of the Billy
Bang Quartet and the Paul Rucker Quartet (Sun Oct 19, Langston
Hughes Performing Arts Center, 8:30 pm, $15). Bang, a singular
violinist, makes his instrument squeal and shiver. He’s like a
long-lost blues guitarist or a theremin virtuoso conducting a
séance. Cellist and installation artist Paul Rucker debuts a new group, which I hope will be as mighty as his seismic Large
Ensemble.
I confess to getting sucked in by the chittering electric piano that
opens Hyper (Challenge), the latest disc by Dutch trumpeter
Eric Vloeimans (Sun Oct 19, Tula’s, 8:30 pm, $15); I thought I
was listening to a vintage Return to Forever LP. Vloeimans refashions
the ’70s and ’80s fusion vibe—Miles Davis is an audible
influence—with lushly sustained keyboards and anthemic lead
lines, all of which are often redeemed by the sudden appearance of
meaty solo sections.
There’s another double bill that’s essential for fans of the avant:
Marilyn Crispell (Wed Oct 22, Chapel Performance Space, 7:30 pm,
$20) performs solo, then in a trio with percussionist Paul
Lytton and trumpeter Nate Wooley. A pianist who collaborated
with Anthony Braxton for over a decade, Crispell’s recent music
live and on disc—I recommend her new album, Vignettes (ECM)—ranges from Webern-like squiggles to lyrical, unadorned
hymns. Her thoughtful keyboard touch will sound lovely in the chapel.
Lytton and Wooley open the show with a duo set; trumpet and percussion
is an unlikely combination, but both Wooley and Lytton, a longtime
compadre of legendary saxophonist Evan Parker, find so many new
sounds in their instruments that it might prove difficult to tell who
is doing what. Expect whispers, rumbles, and other fleeting tones
dappled with silence.
The Earshot Jazz
Festival runs Sat Oct 18–Sun Nov 9,
see www.earshot.org for a
complete schedule and venue locations, $12–$350.
Fri 10/17
McTUFF
Kicking off a West Coast tour, Hammond organist Joe Doria and
saxophonist Skerik front this fabulous and faithful reincarnation of
the grits ‘n’ soul organ groups of the 1960s. Lo-Fi, 429B Eastlake
Ave E, 254-2824, 9 pm, $7.
HANSON AND KONG
Pianists Paul Hanson and Joanne Kong commemorate a pair of
centennials with the pealing crystalline chords of Visions de
l’Amen for two pianos by Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) and
pieces by Elliott Carter (1908– ), including “90+” and Night
Fantasies. Sherman-Clay Piano & Organ, 1624 Fourth Ave, 8
pm, $5–$15.
Sat 10/18
ELEKTRA
Not the defunct corporate parent of the seminal Nonesuch label, this
Elektra is Richard Strauss’s sizzling retelling of the tragedy
by Sophocles. Anticipating the early 20th century avant-garde (i.e.,
Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Bartók), Strauss wreathed this opera
with wiry dissonances and glittering, over-the-top orchestration that
out-Mahlers Mahler and outdoes just about everybody else, too. Through
Sat Nov 1; see www.seattleopera.org for details.
Sung in German with supertitles in English. McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer
St, 389-7676, 7:30 pm, $25–$172.
Mon 10/20
GARTH KNOX
My nominee for sleeper gig of the week. Seven years ago this
violist, beloved for his stint with the Arditti Quartet, stunned a
gathering of Seattle viola students with Salvatore Sciarrino’s
masterpiece for solo viola, Three Brilliant Nocturnes. Awestruck
by Sciarrino’s sorcery of near-silent bow strokes and gossamer
harmonics, students crowded the stage afterward for a look at the sheet
music. I can’t tell you what shocked me more—that a piece
composed in 1974 enthralled so many young musicians or that their viola
teachers were too out of touch to tell them about Sciarrino in the
first place. Anyway, Knox returns to Seattle on a mini-tour to tout his
stately new disc, D’Amore (ECM), which highlights works for the
little-known viola d’amore, a rustic, woodier-sounding cousin of the
viola. Knox reprises the Three Brilliant Nocturnes and also
performs the “Prologue” for viola and virtual resonators by the late
French spectralist Gérard Grisey as well as UW composer Richard
Karpen’s Solo/Tutti for amplified viola and real-time computer
processing. The second half of the concert presents Iannis Xenakis’s
La Legende d’Eer, an electroacoustic classic infested with
gritty rasps and other squirming textures. Not to be missed. Meany
Hall, UW Campus, 543-4880, 7:30 pm, $5/$10.
Tues 10/21
TIERNEY SUTTON
Free of the histrionic, swoop-to-any-note vocals so prevalent in
jazz today, the sultry Sutton sings terrifically, sassing and swinging
on an as-needed basis through well-chosen standards. Also Wed Oct 22.
Jazz Alley, 2033 Sixth Ave, 441-9729, 7:30 pm, $23.50.
EMERSON STRING QUARTET
Sure, I’ve got a stack of ESQ discs—all of which I like very
much—yet to my ears Meany Theater is too big for a string-quartet
gig. Or am I merely addicted to the close-up sonic details like the
scrape of the bow or the blooming boom of an emphatic pizzicato heard in acoustically intimate halls and on recordings? Although the
hermetic Six Bagatelles by the master miniaturist of the 20th
century, Anton Webern, will aurally evaporate, Schubert’s String
Quartet No. 14, aka “Death and the Maiden,” should shine.
Prokofiev’s first string quartet and Ravel’s proto-neoclassical
String Quartet in F round out the program. Preconcert talk at
7:10 pm. Meany Hall, UW Campus, 543-4880, 8 pm,
$20–$34.
FUTURE COLLECTIVE
This new (to me, at any rate) collective presents an evening of new
and new-ish music, including live electronic performances by Jeff
Bryant and Ryan Jobes along with premieres of music by Jarrad Powell,
Hanna Benn, and Elijah Clark. McLeod Residence, 2009 Second Ave,
441-3314, 10 pm, free.
