John Gilbreath photo by Bill Uznay
SEATTLE’S JAZZ FESTIVAL / OCTOBER 12 – NOVEMBER 4
Welcome to the 2012 Earshot Jazz Festival
Welcome, and thanks for flying Earshot Jazz. As you settle in to this year’s program, be sure to stow your preconceptions about what jazz should be, and open your overhead bin to more than 50 exciting expressions of what has got to be the world’s most dynamic and vibrant art form. This is jazz in the present tense, in a global sense, without a fence. Fasten your seatbelts! Here we go again!
Each year, the Earshot Jazz Festival brings some of the world’s great artists into creative contact with our incredible Seattle artists and audiences in a monstrous series of main-stage concerts, club dates, educational opportunities and jazz films. This festival offers a chance for Seattle audiences to catch up with old friends and meet new ones, and put themselves in the path of some of the great creativity of our day. It is an opportunity for us all to redefine our perceptions and possibilities for music, and to slip into the jet stream of jazz.
The overall quality of life we’ve come to expect here in this remarkable city includes an absolutely vibrant cultural community that stretches easily across the spectrum, from the traditional to the alternative, in every aspect of artistic expression. Within our world-renowned music scene exists a valued jazz sensibility that continues to draw international attention.
In the context of that vibrancy, Earshot Jazz produces one of the most distinctive jazz festivals in the country. For 24 years, Earshot Jazz festivals have enriched this community with one-of-a-kind concerts by some of the world’s most important artists and have presented Seattle’s amazing jazz musicians in a world-class festival setting. In all, more than 250 artists will participate in 50-some events over 23 days, in 14 venues around the city.
Earshot Jazz programs are respected for celebrating the continuum of jazz in Seattle. Last year, the Jazz Journalists Association recognized us as Jazz Heroes at their New York awards. The year before that, Earshot Jazz was honored with the national ASCAP/CMA Award for Adventurous Programming, while five years ago we received the Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award in recognition of our enduring contributions to our home community.
The Earshot Jazz Festival is the biggest undertaking of the Earshot Jazz organization, but it is far from our only activity. We present nearly 100 concerts and events throughout the year, and collaborate on outside concert initiatives, like the Art of Jazz at the Seattle Art Museum and the Bellevue Jazz Festival. We also publish the monthly Earshot Jazz newsletter, work to provide educational opportunities and advancements to the field, and present the Golden Ear Awards program each year to recognize the achievements of Seattle’s jazz artists.
This festival relies on creative collaborations with individuals and organizations. We are very grateful to the kind people at Benaroya Hall, the Chapel Performance Space, Seattle Art Museum, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, the Triple Door, Tula’s Jazz Club and the Royal Room for their enthusiastic welcome of the Earshot Jazz Festival and for their commitment to jazz overall. We are pleased to be back at the Northwest Film Forum for some rare jazz films. Thanks again to regular collaborators like the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, Nonsequitur and especially Cornish College of the Arts.
Special thanks to our major funders, including the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Boeing Company, and a huge thanks to George Heidorn for his support. Thanks to participating radio stations KPLU, KBCS, and to the many interns and volunteers who help us each year.
And, as always, thanks to you, the high-flying, concert-going audience. May we never reach our final destination! Enjoy! Give us your feedback. Let’s keep jazz alive and thriving in Seattle!
Welcome to the 2012 Earshot Jazz Festival!
– John Gilbreath, Executive Director
