In this Issue
Table of Contents
– Profile –
Clarence Acox: Committed to Community
-Previews-
The 2019 Seattle Lindy Extravaganza
Masthead
July 2019
Volume 35, No. 07
Executive Director
John Gilbreath
Managing Director
Karen Caropepe
Programs Manager
Tara Peters
Marketing & Development Associate
Lucienne Aggarwal
Editors
Lucienne Aggarwal
Tara Peters
Contributing Writers
Whitney Bashaw
Paul de Barros
Marianne Gonterman
Rayna Mathis
Paul Rauch
Calendar Editors
Jane Emerson
Tara Peters
Photography
Daniel Sheehan
Layout
Tara Peters
Distribution
Karen Caropepe
Dan Dubie
Earshot Jazz volunteers
Send Calendar Information to:
Add a gig to the calendar online or send us an email.
Board of Directors
Danielle Leigh (President)
John W. Comerford (Vice President)
Jon Perrino (Secretary)
Sheila Hughes
Chris Icasiano
Maurice James
Kenneth W. Masters
Chris Nutter
Gail Pettis
Ruby Smith Love
Diane Wah
Emeritus Board Members
Clarence Acox
Taina Honkalehto
Hideo Makihara
Kenneth W. Masters
Peter Monaghan
Lola Pedrini
Paul Toliver
Cuong Vu
Founded in 1984 by Paul de Barros, Gary Bannister, and Allen Youngblood.
Earshot Jazz is published monthly by Earshot Jazz Society of Seattle.
Subscription (with membership): $35
3429 Fremont Place #309
Seattle, WA 98103
phone / (206) 547-6763
Earshot Jazz ISSN 1077-0984
Printed by Pacific Publishing Company
© 2019 Earshot Jazz Society of Seattle
Letter from the Director
Hotel on the Corner of Art and Commerce
Seattle’s population boom is classic “Good News/Bad News.” Even though the density of 737’s parked along Marginal Way is beginning to rival that of the new condominium buildings springing up around the city, there is no immediate sign of an overall slowdown in Seattle’s growth. And the apparent glut of housing units is definitely not saturating the market and driving prices down. Everything is going up, except our income.
In the middle of this, I’m still willing to express optimism about an unprecedented upside potential for Seattle’s overall cultural vibrancy. Disposable income or not, the new faces we see around the city seem to be cultural omnivores, not locked into single expressive silos, and apparently quite open to engage art on a more-than-superficial level.
This seems like it’d be good news for an art form like jazz that, perhaps more than any other music, creates its own fluid, definition-defying world. But that news is slow to arrive to the working musicians of this city. Conditions for working artists, who also have increased housing and subsistence expenses, may be getting worse instead of better. Someone once said, “You’ve got to suffer if you want to sing the blues.” Whatever. We also have to eat and raise our families.
We need to own the sensibility to support artists being exactly who they are. We have to encourage creativity in our young, and we have to honor the creatives who have brought us to the place we occupy. The more fragile the world around us appears, the more, I believe, that we have to double down on the value of beauty and culture.
To this end, I hope you’ll join us this month for the latest version of Earshot’s longest-running program series; Jazz: The Second Century. Established in 1986, and maintained as a peer-juried series to showcase Seattle artists performing original work in a concert setting, this year’s concerts happen on consecutive Thursdays in July, beginning July 11. Detailson page 8.
And join us in support of the artists, from Seattle and around the world, who continue to love and nourish Jazz: America’s greatest gift to world culture.
–John Gilbreath, Executive Director