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The Charles Lloyd New Quartet with Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers, & Eric Harland playing at Town Hall.

All Photographs on this website Daniel Sheehan © 2009. All Rights Reserved. Please inquire for permission before using.

It was a beautiful new group Charles Lloyd brought to town earlier this month. I have been meaning to post some more photos form this performance before the holidays. Here they are. If you missed the show it was a wonderful performance. Charles is one of my all time favorite musicians. And so is Jason Moran. I was happy to get the chance to hear Eric Harland and Reuben Rogers play as well.

These cats were very intense and yet the music was very spiritual.

“Since the 1960s, tenor saxophonist and flautist Charles Lloyd’s life has alternated between periods of musical and personal exploration. After spending a decade or so working as a sideman in different blues and jazz groups, Lloyd hit a goldmine of critical acclaim and popular support in with his quartet’s groundbreaking performance at the 1966 Monterey Jazz Festival (no small feat in a period when jazz’s audiences were largely moving in new directions). This particular group was notable not just for Lloyd’s debut as a fresh and exciting leader, but also because two of its members, Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette, were themselves only a few years away from exploding as widely innovative and influential jazz musicians….

Lloyd’s New Quartet is fortified with relatively young but well-established jazz musicians who are fully capable of sharing Lloyd’s pursuits. A leader in his own right, Jason Moran (piano) brings the group a unique, mature second lead voice. He’s one of those pianists who sometimes convince you that you’re listening to 80 years of jazz piano history rolled into one set of fingers. His heavy left hand will dabble in vintage 1920s stride playing right before flowing through a sequence that breaks into advanced Andrew Hill territory, while his frank, direct solos often develop in unpredictable turns that take full advantage his repertoire’s diverse influences.

On stage, when Lloyd himself isn’t soloing, he doesn’t just stand there; he frequently can’t resist dancing to the pulsing, breathing rhythms provided by his fellow musicians. Reuben Rogers (bass) and Eric Harland (drums/percussion) form a reliable, gregarious backbone that’s perfect for bringing the exotic structures in Lloyd’s compositions to life. Whether the tune is funky, swinging, Latin, or has no definable rhythm at all, the team decorates it with outbursts that always feel natural and appropriate….”     – Nathan Bluford from the Earshot Jazz program guide. Jazz Photography by editorial photographer and photojournalist Daniel Sheehan who covers jazz performances, and  creates portrait photography for publications and corporations. He is also a Seattle Wedding Photographer at A Beautiful Day Photography,  a wedding photographer with an artistic  photojournalist style.

Jovino Santos Neto at Tula’s performing in the Earshot Jazz Festival lineup on Monday night with his quintet. Lots of fun watching him play with Harvey Wainapel on saxophone and Chuck Deardorff on bass.

The master pianist, flutist, composer, and arranger, beloved for his musical playfulness and stunning technique, is one of the top Brazilian musicians working today. Now based in Seattle, Jovino Santos Neto has throughout his career been closely affiliated with Brazilian master Hermeto Pascoal, working as an integral part of Pascoal’s group from 1977-1992. Santos Neto relocated to the United States in 1993 and studied conducting at the Cornish College of the Arts, where he continues to teach piano, composition, and jazz ensemble. He is a three-time Latin Grammy Award nominee, for Best Latin Jazz Album in 2004, 2006, and 2009. The Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto here features guest saxophonist Harvey Wainapel. Wainapel concentrates equally on soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones. His heavy involvement with the music of Brazil (for which he also plays clarinet) is reflected in his acclaimed releases as a leader.

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Eldar Djangirov at Tula’s Monday night He and his Trio is appearing there again tomorrow Tuesday Oct 27th.

The Earshot Jazz Festival presented the dazzling pyrotechnics and musical maturity of the Kyrgyz post-bop piano prodigy Eldar Djangirov which have awed the jazz world. His trio with Armando Gola (bass) and Ludwig Afonso (drums) is touring in support of a new CD,Virtue.

After being discovered at the age of nine, Eldar and his family moved to the United States, and just two years later he was a featured performer on Marian McPartland’s radio program, Piano Jazz. Since then he has recorded six albums, signed with a major label, and earned a Grammy nomination for his 2007 album, Reimagination. Along the way he has worked with many of the biggest names in contemporary jazz, including John Patitucci, Michael Brecker, Roy Hargrove, and Chris Botti.

Now 22, Eldar continues to impress both audiences and critics with his mature playing and forward-looking compositions.

Trio M throughly entertained them in a playful good way  at the Seattle Asian Art Museum on Tuesday night, as the Earshot Jazz Festival continues. Trio M is a collective of Mark Dresser (bass), Matt Wilson (drums), and Myra Melford (piano). Thanks to thrilling and unpredictable interplay, says Wilson, “the results are spiritually rewarding and remarkably fun to witness.” They were presented in association with Cornish College of the Arts.

Back in 1993, Myra Melford related a story to critic Kevin Whitehead, where she remembered living as a child in a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Illinois. She remembered “weird stuff on the ceiling” and tons of light. “I used to walk around with a mirror in my hand and pretend I was walking on the ceiling,” she recalled. And that’s what will leap out first as Melford plays piano. Your world can be reversed, up becomes down. Clustered chords become long-fingered, steady vibrations. Likewise, an elongated harmonic line can almost explode as you hold it close. She can tussle, tumble, and thunder without ever seeming to leave a melody aside. Her avant-garde outness is a lyrical construct, something that opens the eyes when in reality it’s aimed at the ears. That’s Melford’s muse, the making of space in time, the creation of a landscape out of musical motion. Continue to read at Earshot Festival Guide

Allen Toussaint was back at the Triple Door Sunday with his quartet and they were all in the comfortable New Orleans style rhythms and blues. It is amazing how many great songs he has put out over the years and how comfortable his feet must be in those open sandle shoes.

Composer, producer, pianist, singer, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Allen Toussaint is a living legend. His work in the 1960s and 1970s helped define the sound of R&B, soul, and funk as we hear it today. Penning such songs as “Working in the Coal Mine,” performed by Lee Dorsey, “Ruler of My Heart,” by Irma Thomas, and “Mother-in-Law,” by Ernie K-Doe, Toussaint’s contributions to modern music extend far beyond what is commonly acknowledged. Combined with the easygoing charm and style of his home city of New Orleans, Toussaint has established himself as a true joy of song and culture.
Continue to read at Earshot Festival Guide

Travis Shook made his comeback to the Seattle jazz scene at Tula’s Jazz Club last Wednesday night, playing in town for the first time in about five years. His performance with the Travis Shook Trio was greeted warmly by a full house. The Seattle Times ran an article by Hugo Kugiya detailing his career’s ups and downs. “The jazz pianist Travis Shook, a curiosity to some who remember his name, a cautionary tale for others, lives in rural, upstate New York, far from the city and the place he first greeted fame. People don’t recognize him much these days, and for a long time he preferred it that way.

“I’m 40 and I feel a lot more comfortable with myself now,” said Shook, a fixture on the Seattle jazz scene in the early 1990s and once considered one of the greatest jazz musicians of his generation. “That’s all that matters to me. Musically, I’m a much better player than I was. But the main thing is that I’m comfortable with myself. That was my biggest hurdle.”

For most, that would seem a small accomplishment, but for Shook, who experienced meteoric success and sudden failure, who was addicted to alcohol and drugs, who was virtually unemployable for a number of years, this is not an insignificant step.

“Comeback,” is the word he settled on.”
Read the rest at The Seattle Times

it was a delight to see and hear Essiet Essiet perform on the bass behind Shook.

Matt Jorgensen was great at drums throughout the set.

Jay Thomas made an appearance as well during the first set.

Travis looked pleased at the applause at the end of his first set.
Photographs by Seattle Photographer Daniel Sheehan specializing in photojournalism, portraits and photography for publications and corporations, and photojournalistic Seattle wedding photography.

Travis Shook at the piano at Tula’s, Weds September 9th.

Photographing Danilo Perez in concert at ast weekend’s 2009 Bellevue Jazz Festival was a lot of fun. He was so unpredictable as he moved around a lot as he played the piano and sometime like here he played on the side of the piano. His music was serious but he made the performance feel fun. This just about wraps up my coverage of the 2009 Bellevue Jazz Festival. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

The Bill Anschell Tiro who appeared last weekend at the 2009 Bellevue Jazz Festival performed at the Bellevue Grill to a packed house.

Here is another shot of Patricia Barber from last weekend’s 2009 Bellevue Jazz Festival.