Tuesday, August 24, 7:30 pm
Cuong Vu Trio & Friendly Creatures
The Triple Door
216 Union Street (Downtown), Seattle

$18 general; $16 Earshot members
Tickets available through the Triple Door at 206-838-4333 or online.

Presented by Earshot Jazz and the University of Washington as part of the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition. The International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC) is an interdisciplinary conference devoted to the dissemination of new, unpublished research relating to the field of music perception and cognition. The 11th Annual ICMPC Conference will take place from August 23 – 27 at the University of Washington campus in conjuction with the UW School of Music. The conference will include a keynote by Petri Toiviainen, a Finnish professor and jazz pianist who does research on music and movement, as well as perception of rhythm and tonality.

Cuong Vu  

The Cuong Vu Trio has been referred to as “the jazz version of a rock music power trio” (Jazz Weekly.com). For this upcoming concert at the Triple Door, the group brings together trumpeter Vu with bassist Luke Bergman and drummer Ted Poor. (Past iterations of the trio have featured electric bassist Stomu Takeishi.) Vu is well-known for his formidable ability to create music that zigzags styles, mocks genre and skews conventional language in pursuit of a new and boundless sound. In this trio format, he is arguably at the height of his musical powers.

In a 2008 All About Jazz review of the CD Vu-Tet released online via ArtistShare, writer John Kelman wrote that “With the possible exception of Norway’s Nils Petter Molvaer and Arve Henriksen, there’s simply no other trumpeter on the radar today as innovative in blending extended technique and electronic processing to expand the possibilities of his instrument. Utilizing both to dramatic effect, Vu turns the opening “Intro” into a sonic tour de force that begins atmospherically but gradually intensifies, with Takeishi creating his own layers of sound and Poor playing orchestrally rather than rhythmically.”

Perhaps best-known to most music fans as a regular member of the Pat Metheny Group, Vu is also increasingly gaining accolades for his work as an educator and mentor to younger musicians here in his hometown of Seattle. In June of this year, he was one of seven University of Washington educators awarded the 2010 UW Distinguished Teaching Award, a notable accomplishment for a young professor in only his third year of teaching. Writing in the Seattle Times, journalist Hugo Kugiya referred to “The Vu Effect” to describe the impact that the trumpeter-educator has had on the program since his arrival. Kugiya wrote that Vu “has by all accounts vitalized the school’s jazz program with his fresh outlook and demanding teaching style.”

Fittingly, the duo Friendly Creatures comprised of UW alums Brennan Carter on  trumpet and effects with Jarred Katz on drums will open for the Cuong Vu Trio on the Mainstage of the Triple Door for this concert. The group originally formed in the spring of 2009. They explore free improvisation in a way that aims to be accessible without pandering. Remarkably, the band creates an ensemble-sound far larger than the duo format suggests.

-Danielle Bias

Presented by Earshot Jazz and the University of Washington as part of the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition. Tickets are $18 general/$16 Earshot Members. Purchase tickets online at www.TripleDoor.net, by phone at 206.838.4333 between 10am – 10pm, Monday thru Sunday, or in person at 216 Union Street, Monday thru Sunday, 10am – 10pm.