EyeShotJazz | Jazz Photography

Bassist Jon Hamar led a wonderful trio at the Vertigo Lounge & Grill on Friday the first day of the 2009 Bellevue Jazz Festival

Jose Gonzales Trio performed on Friday at the 2009 Bellevue Jazz Festival and delivered a  spicy blend of funk, swing, and pop. 

Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra Here are some more images form The Bellevue Jazz Festival 2009 this past weekend starting with the SRJO.

Jay Thomas on trumpet.

Hadley Caliman on saxophone.

Randy Halberstadt on piano.

About The SRJO
The Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra (SRJO) is the Northwest’s premier big band jazz ensemble. Founded in 1995, the 17-piece big band is made up of the most prominent jazz soloists and band leaders in the greater Seattle area.
The SRJO is co-directed by drummer Clarence Acox, nationally recognized director of bands at Seattle’s Garfield High School, and saxophonist/arranger Michael Brockman, long-time faculty member at the University of Washington School of Music.

The SRJO’s extensive and growing repertoire is drawn from the 100-year history of jazz, from turn-of-the-20th century ragtime to turn-of-the-21st century avant-garde. This includes works by America’s most famous jazz composers, among them Fletcher Henderson, Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan, Thad Jones, and of course, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. In addition, the SRJO’s repertoire grows each year as the ensemble adds previously unpublished works to its library.

Recovering jazz classics for performance by the ensemble is accomplished by co-director Michael Brockman, our region’s outstanding practitioner of the art of transcribing lost-to-print composition and arrangement, note for note, from vintage recordings.

The Players

The SRJO is made up of the Seattle area’s leading jazz instrumentalists, comprising an ethnically diverse group of young and veteran performers.
Trumpeter Jay Thomas has repeatedly been named best instrumentalist at Earshot’s annual Golden Ear awards and has recorded with Cedar Walton and Herb Ellis. Saxophonist Bill Ramsay is a touring veteran of the Count Basie Orchestra and the Benny Goodman bands. Saxophonist Hadley Caliman is a jazz faculty member at the Cornish College of the Arts, and a veteran of the bands of Freddie Hubbard and Earl Hines. Phil Sparks, named Earshot Musician of the Year in 1996, is the busiest bass player in Seattle. Saxophonist Mark Taylor is among the most in-demand young players in Seattle. Pianist Randy Halberstadt, another local headliner, serves on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts.

A Great History

The SRJO has brought internationally known guest soloists to join in its concerts, including trumpeters Clark Terry and Arturo Sandoval, saxophonists James Moody, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Frank Wess and Kenny Hing, trombonist Slide Hampton, and singers Marlena Shaw, Ernie Andrews and Dee Daniels. In 2001, Quincy Jones conducted the SRJO at the Seattle Opera House in a performance of works he wrote for the Basie band and his own groups. The SRJO has played tribute concerts to Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Count Basie, Stan Kenton, and Thelonious Monk.

Awards and Recognition

Named in “Best Jazz Concerts of 2006″ by the Seattle Times
Named in “Best Recordings of 2006″ by AudiophileAudition.com
Winner of 2005 Earshot Jazz Society Golden Ear Award for “NW Best Acoustic Jazz Ensemble”
Named in “Best Jazz Concerts of 2005″ by the Seattle Times
Named in “Best of 2005″ by Public Radio International�s Jazz After Hours
Winner of 1998 Earshot Jazz Society Golden Ear Award for “Concert of the Year”
Winner of 1999 and 2000 Starlight Award from the Kirkland Performance Center

Bellevue Jazz Festival Rising Stars Program

I just wanted to put up this group photo of the jazz students in the rising stars program before I put up some of them in performance. Here is a description of this great program. It was fun to watch them.

The 2009 festival also marks the launch of a program to celebrate and help develop emerging jazz students. Working with a team of noted educators, the festival will present a unique high school player invitational program called the Bellevue Jazz Festival Rising Stars.

Rising Stars offers promising students from the Seattle metropolitan region the unique opportunity to rehearse with noted area musicians in a workshop environment, and then perform in a professional setting as part of the festival.

The Bellevue Jazz Festival invited 50 high school band directors from Washington State to nominate students for Rising Stars. Nominated students applied and auditioned for the program, and a panel of Rising Stars program advisors selected players to form three six-member ensembles. The ensembles rehearsed under the direction of three professional musicians from the local area. Rehearsals were hosted and facilitated by Music Works Northwest.

The Bellevue Jazz Festival Rising Stars program will culminate at the Bellevue Jazz Festival, Sunday, May 24 at 7:00 p.m. with a live performance by the ensembles at the Theatre at Meydenbauer Center, as an opening act for the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2009 RISING STARS:
Christian Anderson, EDMONDS-WOODWAY (tenor saxophone)
Max Bates, BELLEVUE (alto saxophone)
Eddie Bond, MERCER ISLAND (guitar)
Tory Brediger, SHOREWOOD (bass)
Joe Gladow, SHOREWOOD (tenor saxophone)
Peter Graham, BELLEVUE (piano)
Thomas Guenther, KENTWOOD (alto saxophone)
Matthew Gunby, MERCER ISLAND (trombone)
Max Holmberg, ROOSEVELT (drums)
Ellie Lightfoot, GARFIELD (drums)
Eli Meisner, NEWPORT (guitar)
Mat Muntz, ROOSEVELT (bass)
Chris Picardo, MERCER ISLAND (tenor saxophone)
Ariel Pocock, NEWPORT (piano)
Colin Ramsay, MERCER ISLAND (drums)
Nick Rogstad, SAMMAMISH (trombone)
Zach Stoddard, NEWPORT (bass)
Devon Yesberger, EDMONDS-WOODWAY (piano)

Dave Peterson, on guitar, playing with his trio Sunday afternoon at the Rock Bottom Brewery & Restaurant

Just had to get one more up here before I head off in to the dawn. The Rock Bottom Brewery & Restaurant was packed. they never had seen such a crowd on a Sunday afternoon in the Bellevue eatery. Origin Records recording artist Dave Peterson‘s Trio played to a full house.

The Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra (SRJO), the Northwest’s premier big band jazz ensemble was the final main act of the 2009 Bellevue Jazz Festival at the Theatre at Meydenbauer Center Sunday night.

It was a great festival this year and I have so many more photos to process  and edit from the shows I have already posted as well as some of the other free shows over the course of the 3 day festival. I will continue to put them up here over the next week after a break for the Memorial Day holiday.

Mose Allison continued the 2009 Bellevue Jazz Festival this afternoon at the Theatre at Meydenbauer Center.

The main event of the Bellevue Jazz Festival’s  Saturday night lineup was avant-garde jazz ensemble, Mingus Big Band which celebrated the music of the composer and bassist, Charles Mingus Saturday night  at Meydenbauer Center . What a great performance and a good turnout for an amazingly great band. More photos from Friday and Saturday;s other concerts to come in the next few days. 

More form all of the Bellevue

Singular singer & pianist Patricia Barber put her distinct stamp on a collection of standards and selections from her new release The Cole Porter Mix (2008), a stunning celebration of the great Cole Porter’s songbook in the opening set of the second evening of the Bellevue Jazz Festival Saturday night at theTheatre at Meydenbauer Center

The extraordinary Panamanian pianist and composer Danilo Perez, among the most influential and dynamic musicians of our time performed Saturday as the Bellevue Jazz Festival continued into its second day.
He is a warm and generous soul and it was hard not to feel the joy his music brings to the people in attendance,