Week 3, Event Previews

Nduduzo Makhathini photo courtesy of Nicola Adriani Music

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 7:30PM 

TOWN HALL SEATTLE, Forum 

Flat Earth Society Orchestra

Welcomed by KBCS. Presented in partnership with Town Hall Seattle.
$12-35. Tickets

BY ROB MOURA

For those with a taste for adventure, there’s perhaps no more compelling jazz group working out of Belgium than the Flat Earth Society Orchestra, the long-running jazz ensemble led by multi-instrumentalist Peter Vermeersch. Hailed globally for their exploratory take on traditional Northwest European brass band, the group is currently celebrating their 25th anniversary via a world tour, and they’ll be stopping at Seattle’s Town Hall on Tuesday, October 29, to bring their controlled chaos as part of the Earshot Jazz Festival.

Before Vermeersch founded Flat Earth Society Orchestra in 1997, he’d already made a mark on Belgium’s musical legacy. As a musician, he’d made a name for himself writing avant-garde compositions for theater and dance: first in Union, then in Maximalist!, both with Thierry De Mey. After finding himself frustrated with the constraints of writing soundtracks, he formed X-Legged Sally, a prog rock act with brash brass additions that made inroads in America at New York’s Knitting Factory. In the interim, he, along with ex-FES member (and arguable Frank Zappa analogue) Pierre Vervloesem, co-produced dEUS’ explosive 1994 debut Worst Case Scenario, a record that helped kick off Belgium’s relentlessly creative ’90s indie music scene. 

Vermeersch designed Flat Earth Society Orchestra, its name an encapsulation of his irreverent outlook, as a recalibration of X-Legged Sally’s bold take on prog. This time, it’s brass band music in the crosshairs. The throughline between everything the collective has released across the years, from their 2000 debut LP Bonk to their 2024 record The One, is the thrill of spontaneity, their songs shifting on a dime between carefully constructed melodic measures and seemingly anarchic atonalities.  

Anything goes for this band, whose lineup has also shifted frequently over its existence. At the Town Hall, expect to see a firing squad of 15 formidable talents – Gert-Jan Dreessen, drums; Peter Vandenberghe, piano & keyboards; Kristof Roseeuw, double bass; Maarten Flamand, guitar; Wim Segers, vibraphone; Bart Maris, trumpet; Jon Birdsong, trumpet; Peter Delannoye, trombone; Marc Meeuwissen, trombone; Berlinde Deman, tuba; Peter Vermeersch, (bass) clarinet & electronics; Martí Melià, (bass) clarinet; Bruno Vansina, baritone sax & flute; Sylvain Debaisieux, alto sax; and Michel Mast, tenor sax– giving you the ride of your life.

 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 7:30PM 

 THE ROYAL ROOM 

Jessica Ackerley Trio/ Syrinx Effect 

Welcomed by KNKX.

$12-30. Tickets

BY M.V. SMITH

Over the past decade, Alberta-born, Honolulu-based guitarist Jessica Ackerley has developed a unique voice on their instrument, invoking the metal-tinged splatter of Last Exit’s Sonny Sharrock and Peter Brötzmann with saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi on duo album Extremities, or performing gently reflective acoustic improvisations with multi-reedist Daniel Carter on Friendship: Lucid Shared Dreams and Time Travel.

On their latest release, All Of the Colours Are Singing, alongside double bassist Walter Stinson and drummer Aaron Edgcomb (also their backing band for their Earshot Festival performance) Ackerley develops an expansive take on the jazz trio, creating shimmering soundscapes on “Introduction,” combining bluesy lope with antic clatter on “Forward motion is never a straight line,” and, on the title track, juxtaposing a delicate, chiming loop with Stinson’s rich arco and Edgcomb’s almost-IDM skitter. 

Joining the Ackerley trio for tonight’s performance is frequent Earshot Festival participant Syrinx Effect, the electroacoustic duo project of veteran Seattle improvisors Kate Olson (soprano saxophone) and Naomi Moon Siegel (trombone). Since meeting at Seattle free-improv home base, The Racer Sessions, a decade and a half ago, Olson and Siegel have honed an unclassifiable sound all their own, exploring the blend of their instruments’ distinctive high and low timbres with the aid of effects pedals and other electronic treatments.

 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 8PM 

 Cornish Playhouse, Alhadeff Studio Theater  

Bill Anschell Standards Trio

$12-30. Tickets

BY PAUL RAUCH

The jazz piano trio tradition is a collective breaking down of the music to the base components of harmony, melody, and rhythm. This has been true throughout the history of the music and all of its innovations and stylistic assertions. Bebop was defined in a sense by the trio work of pianist Bud Powell, and fed the fury of the groundbreaking trios of Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans, and Keith Jarrett.

In Seattle, that tradition is best exemplified by pianist Bill Anschell’s foray into the jazz standard canon with bassist Jeff Johnson and D’Vonne Lewis. Yes, there have been others, including the Dave Peck Trio and New Stories with Seattle jazz piano icon, Marc Seales. But the Bill Anschell Standards Trio has tenure and current aspirations built on the original premise, but existing in a constant state of modernism that is measured incrementally not in months or years, but moment to moment within a given performance. The group mind they have developed around tunes that are both current and traditional is rarified air indeed. The individual components are uniquely suited to each other, each bringing a part of “self” that easily folds into the “we” narrative.

The trio’s art is aptly personified on their 2018 Origin Records release, Shifting Standards. Expertly capturing their live sound in the studio, Reed Ruddy’s stunning recording captures the artists in a moment that can never be captured again, knowing the next time around the trio would very well stake out new ground within the alleged confines of the same compositions.

Anschell’s fertile imagination has influenced his entire career as a composer and pianist and guides his hand as a bandleader as well. In choosing a partnership with bassist Johnson, he taps a resource that is clearly defined as the perfect foil. His elegant vibrato, chordal genius, and inventive use of harmonics has set him apart as a vital component of the Jessica Williams Trio, and the groundbreaking rubato trio of Hal Galper. Drummer D’Vonne Lewis is a master of read and react behind the drum kit, never overplaying, but unafraid to create a veritable explosion of percussive sound when the occasion arises.

 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 8PM 

 Benaroya Hall, Nordstrom Recital Hall 

The Vijay Iyer Trio feat. Linda May Han Oh and Jeremy Dutton

Sponsored by Seed IP. Welcomed by KNKX.
$43-88. Tickets

BY AKSHAJ TUREBYLU

The recent powerhouse collaborations between Vijay Iyer and Linda May Han Oh include the recent release of Compassion (2024) on ECM with drummer Tyshawn Sorey. The album is an evolution from Iyer’s earlier work with this trio in Uneasy (2021). While retaining the political and spiritual emphases of the latter — from passages on Flint, Michigan to now reflections on Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Emmett Till — the new work finds the space for joy, even abundant joy, in renditions of Stevie Wonder, among other rejuvenating tracks.

Iyer’s internally complex and emotionally dramatic work has become iconic. He is undoubtedly one of the brightest stars of contemporary jazz. Oh has made a name for herself as an intricate, intuitive, and fluid bass improvisationalist. Together, they form foil upon foil, each deftly pushing their instrument outside its native range with ease in a battle of articulation and melodic complexity that is both utterly satisfying and certainly demanding of listening. Providing the motor is Jeremy Dutton, the Houston-born percussionist whose performances pulsate with a subtle power.

All in, this trio’s performance is bound to revel in improvisational agonistic gymnastics, grounded in the cool grace and confidence that each performer brings to the table. 

Which is to say: You Ignore This One At Your Peril.

 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 7:30PM 

 THE ROYAL ROOM 

What’s Going On Festival: Conduction, Improvisation, and the Culture of Structure 

Jazz in Silhouette 

Hip-Hop and its Elders

Presented by the South Hudson Music Project. Co-produced with Earshot Jazz, Nonsequitur, and Seattle Modern Orchestra. Major funding from the Live Music Society.

$20-25. Tickets

BY M.V. SMITH

Born Herman Blount in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1914, the composer, pianist and bandleader Sun Ra preferred to claim that he was actually from Saturn, over the years developing his own astrally-tinged variation on ancient Egyptian cosmology. Dressed in colorful robes and performing pieces with titles like “Space Is the Place,” “Tapestry from an Asteroid,” and “Plutonian Nights,” Sun Ra and his ensemble the Arkestra were early exponents of Afrofuturism, a loosely-defined aesthetic that imagines a positive future for historically oppressed Black Americans through the lens of science fiction, informed by African spirituality and iconography. Acknowledged or not, Sun Ra’s influence can be felt in George Clinton’s mothership and elaborate P-Funk universe, Janelle Monáe’s android persona, or simply Herbie Hancock piloting a spaceship on the cover of Thrust. 

Musically, the Arkestra’s embrace of full-group free improvisation and exotic modes put them at the bleeding edge of jazz after moving from Chicago to New York in 1961; 1959’s Jazz In Silhouette captures the band in transition: informed by hard bop, but you can tell which way the wind is blowing. Tonight’s tribute to Jazz in Silhouette features French horn player Vincent Chancey, an Arkestra mainstay since the 1970s.

As a founder of Shabazz Palaces, Seattle’s Ishmael Butler has developed his variation on Afrofuturism, but in an earlier musical life, his group Digable Planets were at the forefront of the early-90s blend of jazz and hip-hop alongside A Tribe Called Quest; while Digable Planets’ top-twenty pop hit “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” sampled Art Blakey and shouted out Miles Davis, Tribe did them one better, hiring legendary bassist Ron Carter as an accompanist on classic album, The Low End Theory. In the years since, the jazz/hip-hop connection has deepened, with the grimy, off-kilter rhythms of producer J Dilla inspiring fully hybridized performers like jazz drummer and producer Makaya McCraven, whose album Deciphering the Message goes full circle, blending his Dilla-influenced boom bap beats with samples from the Blue Note vaults. Tonight’s exploration of the threads connecting jazz and hip-hop features Digable Planets touring guitarist Thaddeus Turner and keyboardist Darrius Willrich, alongside Chancey, bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck, and Harriet Tubman guitarist Brandon Ross.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 7:30PM 

Edmonds-Woodway High School LITTLE THEATER 

Ryan Keberle Catharsis w/ Edmonds-Woodway High School Jazz Band

Sponsored by Hampton Inn & Suites. Welcomed by KBCS. Supported through a Chamber Music America Presenter Consortium for Jazz grant in collaboration with The 222 and Redwood Jazz Alliance. A component of the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, Presenter Consortium for Jazz is funded by the Doris Duke Foundation.

$12-20. Tickets

BY NADYA BARGHOUTY

The Edmonds-Woodway High School (EWHS) music department is extremely decorated. A GRAMMY Signature School for outstanding commitment to music education, EWHS prides itself on its three concert bands, three jazz bands, and a combined marching/pep band of over 150 musicians. A good high school band program gives young musicians their start. It takes community support, a dedicated band director, and exciting opportunities to keep students engaged and propel their learning. 

Under the direction of Jake Bergevin, the Edmonds-Woodway High School Jazz Ensemble I will be hosting the first half of the concert featuring music from world-renowned trombonist Ryan Keberle. Students in the jazz ensemble will also have the rare opportunity to attend a masterclass hosted by Keberle after school (not open to the public). The concert’s second half will be a performance from Keberle and his project, Catharsis. 

EWHS is thrilled to participate in the Earshot Jazz Festival this year, and the students are excited to show the breadth and talent of each other and their jazz program. The ensemble is a five-time finalist at the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival in New York City and a multi-Sweepstakes Award winner at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.

 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 9PM 

Clock-Out Lounge (21+) 

Khu.éex’

Sponsored by HomeStreet Bank.

$12-30. Tickets

BY DEVON LÉGER

Seattle’s long been a hotbed of Afrofuturism, notably with Shabazz Palaces and the Black Constellation in the early 2010s. But the roots of this blend of sci-fi, space age, African-rooted, Black improvisational music goes all the way back to Parliament/Funkadelic and to the pioneering keyboard player in that band, Bernie Worrell. Worrell ended his days in 2016 at his home in Everson, Washington, but not before forming up one new vision of the future: Indigenous-led Seattle jazz-funk band Khú.eex’. Worrell (who had Cherokee ancestry) and visionary Northwest Tlingit artist Preston Singletary, along with fellow Tlingit storyteller Gene Tagaban, formed this band back in 2013, and they’ve been going strong even after Worrell’s passing. Now joined by Tlingit rapper Air Jazz (Arias Hoyle)  and with Alaska Haida singer Sondra Segundo as lead vocalist, the band has been incorporating Segundo’s Haida language and song roots to their sci-fi take on urban Native culture. “I began composing songs in Haida,” Segundo says, “using my hand drum, to help preserve our language and because it just makes me happy. I was raised hearing our language spoken fluent… and my elders taught me many songs. When Khu.éex’ recruited me (about 5 years ago) and asked me to sing in Haida, I jumped at the opportunity! It’s a wonderful experience being in a band that creates and shares songs in indigenous languages.” Khu.éex’ is a powerful fusion of Northwest Coast Native culture, a reflection of the wild, spaced-out visuals and sounds originally conceived by Northwest Natives millennia ago, but updated for the neon streets of the Emerald City today.

 SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2:30PM 

CORNISH RAISBECK Auditorium 

Ryan Keberle Catharsis

Sponsored by Hampton Inn & Suites. Welcomed by KBCS. Supported through a Chamber Music America Presenter Consortium for Jazz grant in collaboration with The 222 and Redwood Jazz Alliance. A component of the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, Presenter Consortium for Jazz is funded by the Doris Duke Foundation.

$12-35. Tickets

BY NADYA BARGHOUTY

The New York Times referred to Ryan Keberle as a musician of “vision and composure,” and he has been hailed as a #1 trombonist across multiple publications. Catharsis debuted in 2012, with Spokane-raised Keberle leading the band for over a decade. The group has accomplished a lot in their 13 years of performing – they even have their own NPR Tiny Desk performance. Keberle is joined by Camila Meza (guitar/voice), Mike Rodriguez (trumpet), Ike Sturm (bass), and Jimmy Macbride (drums).

The cohort is releasing their sixth studio album, Music is Connection on October 18. After years of international tours across North America, Europe, and Asia, as well as small and large musical performances – music has been Catharsis’ main vessel for connection – which Keberle describes as inspiration for the album. On their new album, each artist challenges the norm and experiences their own personal catharsis. While simultaneously focusing on their roots and new horizons, Music is Connection takes this project to a whole new level. 

Keberle recounts, “It [Music] has brought us together with listeners around the world – from Tokyo to Arcata, from Manhattan, Kansas to New York City, from Cologne to Cork. It has also allowed us to share with many others the belief that we hold dear: that through aural and physical connections, music can deepen one’s ability to hear more detail, more clearly, not just to music but to each other, and potentially deepen one’s ability to feel and empathize, making the world a more empathetic place.” 

Since Keberle and Catharsis have been baring their souls and sharing their talent for so long, attendees can look forward to sounds that strike deeper – only to be created when true bonds are formed. Not to mention, members of Catharsis are truly world-class musicians. Members have been a part of numerous celebrated jazz and Latin ensembles led by greats like Gary Burton, Julian Lage, Chief Adjuah, and Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

 

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 4PM 

THE ROYAL ROOM 

What’s Going On Festival: Conduction, Improvisation, and the Culture of Structure 

Conduction for the people! (Workshop) RSVP Here

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 6:30PM & 8:30PM 

CORNISH RAISBECK Auditorium 

Nduduzo Makhathini Trio

Sponsored by Seed IP.

$12-35 Tickets
Livestream option available.

BY NATHAN BLUFORD

South African pianist and vocalist Nduduzo Makhathini is a distinguished ambassador of his native country’s rich musical heritage. Raised in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, he has blazed international trails in the past fifteen years by illuminating the bonds between traditional South African music, jazz, and spirituality.

As a child, Makhathini’s musical consciousness was shaped by immersion in the Zulu culture’s rituals and ceremonies. Equally critical to his early development was the Zionist Church, where Christian theology was combined with ancestral African religious beliefs and set to a meditative soundtrack of drums, chants, and prophecies. 

As a young man, Makhathini pursued a formal musical education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. After a revelatory encounter with John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, his newfound interest in the jazz idiom became a guiding light. His influences would range from South African masters like Bheki Mseleku, who served as his mentor, and Zim Ngqawana to American legends like McCoy Tyner and Randy Weston. 

Today, Makhathini has evolved into a dynamic musical presence both at home and abroad. He heads the music department at the University of Fort Hare, a prestigious public university in South Africa’s Eastern Cape that counts Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu among its alumni. As a traveling musician, he has performed at ESSENCE Festival in New Orleans and alongside Wynton Marsalis at Lincoln Center.

Makhathini’s latest album, uNomkhubulwane, is a three-movement suite named for a Zulu goddess of nature, light and fertility. While this record is his third for American jazz institution Blue Note Records, a prolific streak of recent recordings makes it his eleventh cumulative release in just ten years. 

Like most of Makhathini’s work, uNomkhubulwane takes a stylistically and rhythmically diverse approach to its exploration of spiritual themes. Settling on a more stripped down approach than his previous Blue Note releases, Makhathini recorded the entire album with a simple trio, producing a nimble sound that gracefully navigates the leader’s multifaceted prayers and contemplations. Tonight, Makhathini performs with Zwelakhe-Duma Bell Le Pere on bass and Kabelo Boy Mokhatla on drums.

 SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 7:30PM 

 THE ROYAL ROOM 

What’s Going On Festival: Conduction, Improvisation, and the Culture of Structure 

The World of Conduction: A Tribute to the Legacy of Butch Morris

Electric Circus/Space Is the Place

Presented by the South Hudson Music Project. Co-produced with Earshot Jazz, Nonsequitur, and Seattle Modern Orchestra. Major funding from the Live Music Society.

$25-30. Tickets

BY PAUL RAUCH

This, the sixth installment of “What’s Going On,” is a virtual lovefest directed at the “Conduction” method of structural improvisation invented by Butch Morris and employed expertly in current times by Seattle’s Wayne Horvitz. The evening is divided into three parts, articulating Morris’ vision and the music of Sun Ra.

The first set is “The World of Conduction: A Tribute to the Legacy of Butch Morris.” Featuring Horvitz’ Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, the band is led in Morris’ trademark methodology by Horvitz, Stephanie Richards, and Brandon Ross. A free public workshop titled, “Conduction for the people!” precedes the first set at 4pm and gives the attendants a hands-on opportunity to experience the principles of conduction and approaches to new improvisation. 

In a second set, Horvitz leads Electric Circus in a performance of the music from the 1974 Afrofuturist film, Space Is the Place, featuring the music of Sun Ra and his Arkestra. The music is anthemic in Ra’s complicated legacy, fusing science fiction and ancient myth with free jazz music that would have a large impact on the periphery of the progressive rock movement of the early 70s.  Horvitz will no doubt assemble a formidable roster to facilitate this unique opportunity to experience this transcendent music live.

Ra recorded over a hundred albums in his career, but this soundtrack was the most influential in his flamboyant, colorful career. The music was once described in Rolling Stone Magazine as “the missing link between Duke Ellington and Public Enemy.” Listeners can draw their own conclusions.

 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 7:30PM 

 THE ROYAL ROOM 

What’s Going On Festival: Conduction, Improvisation, and the Culture of Structure 

Manual de Ritmo y Percusión con Señas

Dust to Dust, the Songs of Butch Morris

Presented by the South Hudson Music Project. Co-produced with Earshot Jazz, Nonsequitur, and Seattle Modern Orchestra. Major funding from the Live Music Society.

$20-25. Tickets

BY PAUL RAUCH

This final installment of “What’s Going On,” is another in what amounts to a tribute series to Butch Morris, whose “Conduction” concept created a direct line from the conductor’s podium to structural improvisation within a piece written for a large ensemble. Over the course of two sets, pianist/composer Wayne Horvitz applies Conduction to an all-percussion ensemble, and features a set of music written by Morris himself, inspired by his 1991 recording, Dust to Dust.

Applying Morris’ revolutionary theory of Conduction to percussion, Horvitz directs a piece written by Santiago Vasquez. Born in Argentina, Vasquez moved with his family to Spain at a young age and mastered many different percussion instruments and musical forms he encountered along the way. He created the language for conducting rhythmic improvisation in groups known as “Rhythm with Signs” or “Percussion with Signs” that bears many similarities with the Conduction methodology of Morris. His system was first used by his band La Bomba de Tiempo and remains extensively used by musicians and educators worldwide.

In performing Morris’ music, Horvitz completes the circle and meaning of his “What’s Going On” series. Listeners will hear many different modern and traditional elements to the music, with the Conduction method of improvisation hugely influencing the musical outcome by impacting the music and the interpretive abilities of the musicians in any given moment. This is where one may find a tie that binds between this music and jazz – Horvitz has found the perfect space to express his vision of modern music.

 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2:30PM & 7:30PM PST 

CORNISH RAISBECK Auditorium 

Marina Albero feat. Yusa/ Roosevelt High School Jazz Band

Sponsored by BECU.

$12-35. Tickets
Livestream option available.

BY NATHAN BLUFORD

Earshot Jazz Festival regulars will recognize pianist Marina Albero as the festival’s Resident Artist from 2021. The release of Albero’s new album, A Nomad of Sound, is perfectly timed for the artist herself, who just celebrated 10 dynamic years in Seattle after emigrating from her native Spain with her two children in 2014. With her younger child off to college as of last year, the album represents a joyous expression of newfound independence.

A Nomad of Sound was recorded at the end of Albero’s self-designed musical residency in New Orleans, which took place earlier this year. Over the course of this adventure, Albero indulged in some much-needed downtime, developed new compositions, and made new musical friends. 

The resulting album features a dazzling array of musicians performing jazz, Latin American music, and New Orleans-style brass numbers. In addition to recruiting a number of local musicians for her sessions, Albero had the honor of recording on the late master Ellis Marsalis’s piano. 

One of Albero’s new friends will join her on stage for the release. Meet Yusa, a Cuban singer and multi-instrumentalist who has achieved international recognition for her talents on the tres Cubano, guitar, and bass. After crossing paths amidst NOLA’s bustling live music scene, Albero and Yusa developed a natural bond that led to her performing on the album. “She became like family – she would check in on me daily,” Albero recalls.

One of Cuba’s brightest musical stars of the 21st century, Yusa has performed with Brazilian superstar Lenine, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and Interactivo, a popular Cuban band she co-founded. The release show will feature a selection of Yusa’s music in addition to material from the album.

Albero’s daughter Serena will also be traveling from her current home in Barcelona to join her mother on stage. Serena wrote and performed most of the vocal parts featured on A Nomad of Sound, rounding out the album’s core creative team. The live band will be completed by Seattle favorites Jackson Cotugno (saxophone), Kelsey Mines (bass), and Chris Icasiano (drums).

The award-winning Roosevelt High School Jazz Band, directed by Hannah Mowry, will open the concert both performances. Tickets sold separately to each concert.