Jazz: The Second Century Series

Seeking submissions, now through May 31, 2020! Earshot Jazz seeks submissions from Seattle-area individual artists and ensembles for the 2020 Jazz: The Second Century series. The series brings the progression of jazz into creative motion. Projects that question and expand the conventions of the jazz form are welcome.

Seattle-area individual artists or groups are eligible to apply. Submissions must include a recorded sample of a project that can be performed in a concert or livestream setting—depending on current public health recommendations—and a written statement between 250–350 words.

Individual artists or ensembles are selected by a blind-jury process. Second Century artists and ensembles perform during July 2020, and are paid a competitive fee for the performance.

Please send submissions electronically to 2ndcentury@earshot.org or by mail to Earshot Jazz, 3429 Fremont Place N, #309, Seattle, WA 98103 by May 31, 2020.

This series – presenting Seattle artists, selected by a peer panel, performing original work in a concert setting – is a continuation of the very first programming initiative of the Earshot Jazz organization, and embodies one of our core values. Earshot’s first concert series, New Jazz/New City, was mounted in the New City Theater, now the Richard Hugo House, on Capitol Hill in 1986. The series has continued each year since: as New Jazz/New City, the Earshot Spring Series, Voice and Vision, and now Jazz: The Second Century.

From the core of this series – a question about the expansion of conventions of jazz – one might expect a tendency to grandiose re-invention. Instead, the series is a current, subtle, perhaps refreshing, un-sentimental look at our Emerald City’s engagement with this diffuse, vibrant art form.

Thanks again to our panelists, who helped curate these concerts, and to audience members who support them.