Last month Jimmie Vaughan played a lengthy raucous set at The Triple Door. I aad never seen him play and was blown away by his playing. He was commanding and soulful and I love his hair. Older brother to Stevie Ray Vaughan and first guitar teacher is still teaching people how to play the electric guitar with attitude.

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What a treat to see Bill Frisell play again in Seattle with Eyvind Kang and Rudy Royston as the Earshot Jazz Festival heads for its last 4 days.

In the Beautiful Dreamers trio, Frisell and violist Eyvind Kang join arms with drummer Rudy Royston to take a rustic, wind-blown repertoire (Blind Willie Johnson’s “Nobody’s Fault” sits alongside Little Anthony and the Imperials’ “Goin’ Out of My Head”) and infuse it with, well, dreamscapes and ethereality and percussive grit and tussle. In the studio, the band played things rather straight – minimal electronic manipulation and samples.

But the spacing and textures of Beautiful Dreamers live recalls the slightly later, at times warpy and tipsy Bill Frisell Quartet. Put simply, Frisell, a veteran if there ever was one, flourishes in a small, compact setting where he can create a spacious, three-way trio-logue that allows everyone their say, whether it’s clustery, open-ended, and stringy, or pile-driving and forward-leaning.

(Note: Bartlett’s full-length preview will appear in the November Earshot Jazz.)

Click here for the complete schedule for the rest of the upcoming shows at the 2010 Earshot Jazz Festival

Jazz Photography by Seattle photographer Daniel Sheehan creating portraits for publications and a Seattle Wedding Photographer.

Son Jack Jr., a fantastic traditional blues guitarist opened for Charlie Musselwhite at the Triple Door on Thursday night along with Michael Wilde and the Delta Hothouse rhythm section brought the sounds of the Mississippi Delta to Seattle. Here is part of what was said about his recent CD in Bluesnotes in September. “After multiple listens to Walk The Talk by Son Jack Jr. & Michael Wilde, I keep finding myself asking, “Just where in Mississippi is Seattle located?” It’s not? Then why do these guys sound like first cousins to folk like Kenny Brown or Lightnin’ Malcolm or Mississippi Morris? I swear you could picture yourself sitting on the front porch of a shotgun shack outside Senatobia cooling the heat and humidity with a nice cool glass of sweet tea while listening to this album. It just sounds that down-home authentic.
Outstanding readings of selections from the songbooks of R.L. Burnside, Charley Patton and John Lee Hooker drive the mix with believability that there has to be a mistake on where they actually live. Further driven home when you hear their original material. Ain’t no way that was written by anybody that hasn’t been brought up around cotton fields or strolling down Highways 49 and 61. These songs are modern blues classics. Great themes. Feeling down so low that you’d have to get up just to die? Their baby howls for them in the middle of the night. And you’d better listen to these guys, because they mean everything they say. They walk the talk! And it’s a serious conversation!
Instrumentation is A-1 throughout, start to finish. Michael Wilde’s chromatic workout on “Crying Time” is powerful and grasps at your heart with its intense somberness. On “Maximum Security” he can whoop things up just like Sonny Terry. Son Jack offers multiple blues guitar approaches from Delta fingerpickers, to sizzling slides, to Hill Country trance. But he can also surprise you with a track like “Requiem” on which he comes across more like Leo Kottke or John Fahey with his solo string beauty that tells you there is more behind this man than just the blues. The pair are joined nicely throughout the disc by drummer Billy Barner and bassist Mark Davies, with keyboardist Eric Roberts joining in on a pair of tunes. It adds the proper flavoring. Just the right piquant to get you snapping your fingers. This music is so tasty you might be smacking your lips trying to savor that deliciousness.
Walk The Talk is more than just a good CD. It’s exceptional. Kick back and throw the disc on your player. More than likely you won’t be sitting long. The groove here will make you move whether you plan on it or not. Son Jack Jr & Michael Wilde will make you believe that Seattle really is in Mississippi. The far Northwest corner that is. A run-out-and-buy-it record for anybody who loves Southern blues music. Top shelf material! Need I say more?”

Click here for the complete schedule for the rest of the upcoming shows at the 2010 Earshot Jazz Festival

Ralph Towner and Paolo Fresu put on a beautiful concert last Sunday night at the Triple Door as part of the Earshot Jazz Spring Series. I especially appreciated the sound of the classical guitar and the trumpet mingling together it was so sweet. Here are the rest of the pictures I wanted to share from the performance.

Best known as the lead composer, guitarist, and keyboardist of the classic jazz ensemble Oregon, Ralph Towner has led a storied four decade career in improvised music. Towner’s blend of jazz, folk, and contemporary classical music offered a compelling alternative to the jazz-rock that ruled much of the 1970s (interestingly enough, however, Towner was also a valuable contributorto some vintage Weather Report line- ups). Towner’s first unaccompanied twelve-string guitar recordings were received as an entirely new musical idiom, and if one artist came to represent that classic ECM sound – spacious, rural, European or classical in design – it was Towner. His working relationship with ECM producer Manfred Eicher led to numerous fruitful collaborations, including recordings with Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette, Jan Garbarek, and Gary Burton. Towner is a true innovator, presenting ever fresh ideas while maintaining his rich, “pianistic” approach to guitar.

As one critic has remarked, “his ability to work simultaneous lines, sustain rich harmonics and drones and even get a percussive counterpoint out of the snap of the strings and the thud of the sound-box is what makes his solo playing so rich and multi-dimensional.” A generation removed from Towner, Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu is a premiere exponent of the new Italian jazz. Indebted to Enrico Rava, Kenny Wheeler, and mid-50s Miles Davis, Fresu creates a gorgeous sound on both trumpet and flugelhorn. Fresu has long admired Towner’s work for solo guitar, and paired together the duo creates sparse music of great melodic subtlety. Though they first met some fifteen years ago, Fresu and Towner recently released their first album as a duo, Chiaroscuro (ECM), a masterful exploration of the colors and opportunities afforded by the unique instrumental pairing. The duo’s live performances are augmented by some tasty electronics, and taken altogether Towner and Fresu create a music quite unlike any other.

Jazz Photography by Seattle photographer Daniel Sheehan who covers jazz performances, and creates portrait photography for publications and corporations and a Seattle Wedding Photographer at A Beautiful Day Photography, a wedding photographer with an artistic photojournalist style. Visit his newest website EYESHOTPHOTOS.COM to see samples of all of his work as a Seattle Photographer.

Ralph Towner and Paolo Fresu performing at the Triple Door Sunday night as  the Earshot Jazz Spring Series continues.

The duo of Towner and Fresu put on a beautiful concert. The sound of the classical guitar and the trumpet mingling together so fluidly was especially compelling. I will post some more pictures of the performance by these two in the coming week.

Best known as the lead composer, guitarist, and keyboardist of the classic jazz ensemble Oregon, Ralph Towner has led a storied four decade career in improvised music. Towner’s blend of jazz, folk, and contemporary classical music offered a compelling alternative to the jazz-rock that ruled much of the 1970s (interestingly enough, however, Towner was also a valuable contributorto some vintage Weather Report line- ups). Towner’s first unaccompanied twelve-string guitar recordings were received as an entirely new musical idiom, and if one artist came to represent that classic ECM sound – spacious, rural, European or classical in design – it was Towner. His working relationship with ECM producer Manfred Eicher led to numerous fruitful collaborations, including recordings with Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette, Jan Garbarek, and Gary Burton. Towner is a true innovator, presenting ever fresh ideas while maintaining his rich, “pianistic” approach to guitar.

As one critic has remarked, “his ability to work simultaneous lines, sustain rich harmonics and drones and even get a percussive counterpoint out of the snap of the strings and the thud of the sound-box is what makes his solo playing so rich and multi-dimensional.” A generation removed from Towner, Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu is a premiere exponent of the new Italian jazz. Indebted to Enrico Rava, Kenny Wheeler, and mid-50s Miles Davis, Fresu creates a gorgeous sound on both trumpet and flugelhorn. Fresu has long admired Towner’s work for solo guitar, and paired together the duo creates sparse music of great melodic subtlety. Though they first met some fifteen years ago, Fresu and Towner recently released their first album as a duo, Chiaroscuro (ECM), a masterful exploration of the colors and opportunities afforded by the unique instrumental pairing. The duo’s live performances are augmented by some tasty electronics, and taken altogether Towner and Fresu create a music quite unlike any other.

Bill was in great form Sunday night playing with his Trio of Tony and Kenny. They looked like they were having a lot of fun playing a variety of tunes ending the set with the Lucinda Williams song “Ventura” whose beautiful chorus is:
“I wanna watch the ocean bend,
The edges of the sun,then
I wanna get swallowed up
In an ocean of love.”

I love watching Bill retune his Fender Stratocaster as he plays mid-song below.

Bill Frisell watches Russell Malone as they play during the first set at the Triple Door on Weds Feb 25th.

What a fantastic show. The interplay of the guitar voices was fabulous. It was wonderful to hear the two of them when they each played a solo but mostly when they played so well together, whether on some old classic by T. Monk or the old Monkey’s tune “Last Train to Clarksville” or a Hank Williams tune. A delightful mix to the set.
“It’s hard to find a more fruitful meditation on American music than in the compositions of guitarist Bill Frisell. Mixing rock and country with jazz and blues, he’s found what connects them: improvisation and a sense of play. Unlike other pastichists, who tend to duck passion, Mr. Frisell plays up the pleasure in the music and also takes on another often-avoided subject, tenderness.” – The New York Times.

Over the years, Frisell has contributed to the work of such collaborators as Elvis Costello, Ginger Baker, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Suzanne Vega, Loudon Wainwright III, Van Dyke Parks, Vic Chesnutt, Rickie Lee Jones, Ron Sexsmith, Marianne Faithful, John Scofield, film director Gus Van Sant, David Sanborn, David Sylvian, Petra Haden and numerous others, including Bono, Brian Eno, Jon Hassell and Daniel Lanois on the soundtrack for Wim Wenders’ film Million Dollar Hotel. This work has established Frisell as one of the most sought-after guitar voices in contemporary music. The breadth of such performing and recording situations is a testament not only to his singular guitar conception, but his musical versatility as well. This, however, is old news by now. In recent years, it is Frisell’s role as composer and band leader which has garnered him increasing notoriety.

Ever since Charlie “Bird” Parker recorded his (first) Charlie Parker With Strings sessions in 1949 and 1950, jazz artists have celebrated their romantic sides by employing lush string sections. Everyone from Chet Baker to Clifford Brown to Wes Montgomery did some of their best work in the presence of string sections, and on Heartstrings (Verve), Russell Malone puts his own spin on the jazz-with-strings tradition. Those who think that they’ve heard it all when it comes to strings projects are in for a surprise; Heartstrings, the swinging yet lyrical guitarist’s sixth album, is full of gems that jazzmen often overlook. Typically, a jazz-with-strings project will emphasize what has often been called “The Great American Songbook”—namely, well-known standards of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. But on Heartstrings, which was produced by the GRAMMY®-winning Verve Music Group Chairman Tommy LiPuma, Malone doesn’t limit himself to the George Gershwin and Cole Porter standards that jazz artists have recorded time and time again. Employing a solid rhythm section (pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts) and three different string arrangers (pianist Alan Broadbent, Brazilian great Dori Caymmi, and the famous Mandel), Malone lends his unmistakable sound to everything from an Anne Murray hit (“You Needed Me”) to a gospel favorite (“What A Friend We Have in Jesus”) to the Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne gem “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry.”

More pictures to follow tomorrow. It is getting late.

Photograph by Seattle photographer Daniel Sheehan, a photojournalist specializing in photojournalism and portrait photography for publications and corporations and a Seattle wedding photographer with an unobtrusive, story-telling approach creating award winning Seattle wedding photography and wedding photojournalism ranked among the best Seattle wedding photographers.

This was a fantastic show. The interplay of the guitar voices was fabulous. It was wonderful to hear the two of them when they each played a solo but mostly when they played so well together, whether on some old classic by  T. Monk or the old Monkey’s tune “Last Train to Clarksville” or a Hank Williams tune. A delightful mix to the set.
“It’s hard to find a more fruitful meditation on American music than in the compositions of guitarist Bill Frisell. Mixing rock and country with jazz and blues, he’s found what connects them: improvisation and a sense of play. Unlike other pastichists, who tend to duck passion, Mr. Frisell plays up the pleasure in the music and also takes on another often-avoided subject, tenderness.” – The New York Times.

Over the years, Frisell has contributed to the work of such collaborators as Elvis Costello, Ginger Baker, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Suzanne Vega, Loudon Wainwright III, Van Dyke Parks, Vic Chesnutt, Rickie Lee Jones, Ron Sexsmith, Marianne Faithful, John Scofield, film director Gus Van Sant, David Sanborn, David Sylvian, Petra Haden and numerous others, including Bono, Brian Eno, Jon Hassell and Daniel Lanois on the soundtrack for Wim Wenders’ film Million Dollar Hotel. This work has established Frisell as one of the most sought-after guitar voices in contemporary music. The breadth of such performing and recording situations is a testament not only to his singular guitar conception, but his musical versatility as well. This, however, is old news by now. In recent years, it is Frisell’s role as composer and band leader which has garnered him increasing notoriety.

Ever since Charlie “Bird” Parker recorded his (first) Charlie Parker With Strings sessions in 1949 and 1950, jazz artists have celebrated their romantic sides by employing lush string sections. Everyone from Chet Baker to Clifford Brown to Wes Montgomery did some of their best work in the presence of string sections, and on Heartstrings (Verve), Russell Malone puts his own spin on the jazz-with-strings tradition. Those who think that they’ve heard it all when it comes to strings projects are in for a surprise; Heartstrings, the swinging yet lyrical guitarist’s sixth album, is full of gems that jazzmen often overlook. Typically, a jazz-with-strings project will emphasize what has often been called “The Great American Songbook”—namely, well-known standards of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. But on Heartstrings, which was produced by the GRAMMY®-winning Verve Music Group Chairman Tommy LiPuma, Malone doesn’t limit himself to the George Gershwin and Cole Porter standards that jazz artists have recorded time and time again. Employing a solid rhythm section (pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts) and three different string arrangers (pianist Alan Broadbent, Brazilian great Dori Caymmi, and the famous Mandel), Malone lends his unmistakable sound to everything from an Anne Murray hit (“You Needed Me”) to a gospel favorite (“What A Friend We Have in Jesus”) to the Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne gem “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry.”

More pictures to follow over the next couple of days as I edit the take.

Photograph by Seattle photographer Daniel Sheehan, a photojournalist specializing in photojournalism and portrait photography for publications and corporations and a Seattle wedding photographer with an unobtrusive, story-telling approach creating award winning Seattle wedding photography and wedding photojournalism ranked among the best Seattle wedding photographers.

Eric Vloeimans Fugimundi

One of Europe’s most gifted trumpeters, the Dutchman performed Sunday night at Tula’s with his wonderful trio Fugimundi, featuring  Anton Goudsmit who was astounding on guitar and Harmen Fraanje on piano. They ranged from cutting-edge jazz to hymns all presented with virtuosity, warmth, and wit. What a really special treat, one of my favorite performances so far on the second night of the 2008 Earshot Jazz Festival.

Click here for the complete schedule for the rest of the upcoming shows at the 2008 Earshot Jazz Festival

Photograph by  photojournalist Daniel Sheehan an editorial photographer who specializes in portrait photography and photojournalism for publications and corporations. Daniel is also a Seattle wedding photographer.

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