(Top Row L-R) David Haney, Nathan Breedlove, Frank Kohl. (Bottom Row L-R) Ike Levin, Jamael Nance, Dan O’Brien, Bill Anschell. Photo courtesy of David Haney.
Sunday, March 2, 8pm
The Royal Room
5000 Rainier Ave S
Free
Thirteen years ago, it looked like Cadence: The Independent Journal of Creative Improvised Music was going the way of the dodo. Founder and long-time editor Bob Rusch was stepping away from his role, and the quarterly journal announced that the Oct.-Dec. 2011 issue would be Cadence’s last, seemingly dooming the publication as another victim of the great shift towards digital media.
Pianist David Haney decided to step in. Like many in the jazz world, he had a lot of love and respect for the long-running publication. He approached Cadence and offered to take it over.
“They figured I might be incompetent, but I was sincere,” said Haney. “They sold it to me for a buck.”
That trust paid off: Haney moved Cadence online and has continued publication ever since.
At The Royal Room on March 2nd, Haney will be hosting “Cadence Magazine Fest,” the last in a coast-to-coast series of fundraisers, pairing live performance and music with storytelling and the written word. It’s an expansion of his New York Jazz Stories residency at Joe’s Pub in New York City, wherein Haney retells stories acquired via years of Cadence interviews with countless jazz legends, all while backed by an improvisational combo.
Designed as an inclusive celebration of all things jazz, the Fest is an opportunity for Seattle’s jazz community to get together and share stories and music. In the spirit of that accessibility, The Royal Room has very generously agreed to waive their standard cover charge model for the night, making the event completely free to the public. It’s a move inspired by the donation-only shows of Haney’s past, to bring the music to the forefront without any barriers to entry.
The Fest represents something of a return to form for Haney beyond the pricing model: Haney himself is a former Seattle resident, with numerous long-lasting connections in the scene here. That sense of homecoming echoes across the festival’s lineup, composed of artists who represent the community Haney has built not just over the past thirteen years, but throughout the entirety of his musical career. Nathan Breedlove (the twice Grammy-nominated trumpeter, who has played with Haney previously) is bringing his current quartet, as is Frank Kohl, a guitarist that Haney met when he reviewed his album for Cadence and who now writes for the magazine himself.
Haney, who says he makes no money off of Cadence, relies on community support for the magazine’s continuation.
Cadence, he said, is “one of those things that’s crying out to be in existence. Something like this has the sympathy of a lot of people. I’ve been blown away by the number of people who support Cadence in one way or another; people that the mainstream media is overlooking.”
For those looking to support independent jazz media like Cadence, the Fest offers a great opportunity for direct contribution to this invaluable work. No bias from us here at Earshot, of course.
