Miseung Kang, winner of SWOJO’s composition contest, photo courtesy of artist.
SWOJO Composition Contest Winner
Miseung Kang won the Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra’s fourth annual jazz composition contest for her piece “The Whale.” Lauren McKinley earned an Honorable Mention for her composition “Smoking Monkeys.” The compositions will be premiered and recorded live by SWOJO, featuring special guest trombonist Jenny Kellogg, at the Shorewood Performing Arts Center on October 15.
KPLU Announces New Call Letters
88.5 KPLU has announced its new call letters: KNKX.
Friends of 88.5, the group behind the successful Save KPLU campaign, which raised over $7 million to purchase the station, recently held a renaming contest, asking supporters to submit new call letters. Choosing from about 2,000 submissions, a panel of 88.5 listeners and staff, Friends of 88.5 board members, and even a local marketing firm, selected KNKX, which stands for “Connects.”
Joey Cohn, 88.5’s general manager, said that the call letters reflect the connection between the station and community. “We want to grow that connection and ingrain ourselves even more into the community,” he said.
The new call letters go into effect once Friends of 88.5 assumes ownership of the station, tentatively scheduled for August 30.
Cornish College Names Chair of Music Department
Cornish College of the Arts recently announced clarinetist and composer James Falzone as the Chair of Music, effective September 1.
Selected by the college’s faculty and administration following an international search, Falzone is an award-winning composer whose work has been commissioned by chamber ensembles, dance companies, choirs, and symphony orchestras around the world. He has performed throughout North America and Europe as a soloist and with his own ensembles, has released critically acclaimed recordings, and is a respected educator, lecturer, and researcher.
Steve Griggs’ Panama Hotel Jazz Series Ends
Seattle saxophonist/composer Steve Griggs’ award-winning series Panama Hotel Jazz has come to an end. Saturday, August 13, was the final performance of the series, under the Japanese Confinement Sites Grant from the National Parks service. Each month, Griggs, along with Jay Thomas, Milo Petersen, Susan Pascal, and Phil Sparks, performed music and stories inspired by the Seattle Japanese American experience during WWII.
Jazz Radio
88.5 KNKX (formerly KPLU) hosts Saturday Jazz Matinee, Jazz Sunday Side Up, Ken Wiley’s the Art of Jazz, and Jazz Northwest, in addition to its weekday NPR and late-night and prime-time jazz programs.
Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest, Sundays, 2pm, features the artists and events of the regional jazz scene. Jazz NW September schedule: September 4, JD Allen & Sean Jones at Jazz Port Townsend; September 18, the Oliver Groenewald NewNet at the Art of Jazz. For JazzNW podcasts of archived programs, see jazznw.org.
90.3 KEXP, late-night Sundays, features Jazz Theater with John Gilbreath, 1am, and Sonarchy, midnight, a live-performance broadcast from the Jack Straw Productions studio, produced by Doug Haire. Full schedule information is available at kexp.org and jackstraw.org.
Sonarchy’s September schedule: September 4, John Butcher, Torsten Muller & Dylan van der Schyff, a spectacular hour of free improvisation, recorded in 2008; September 11, Swindler, a funk, jazz, and groove fusion band of Mike Saskor (guitar), Willow Goodine (keys), Rob Cochran (bass), and Chris Martin (drums); September 18, Martin Bland’s Randomized Controlled Trials, original recordings edited, processed, and put onto CD-Rs, then performed by six CD players in shuffle mode; September 25, Stuart McLeod and Braintrust, music for guitar orchestra featuring four guitars, two basses, and McLeod on drums, brainwave sensors, and compositions.
91.3 KBCS, late Sundays and prime-time Mondays, features Floatation Device with John Seman and Jonathan Lawson; Straight, No Chaser with David Utevsky; Giant Steps with John Pai. The Caravan with John Gilbreath is back on Mondays at 7pm. A rotation of programmers Gordon Todd, John Midgley, and Megan Sullivan host “The Sound of Modern Jazz,” Tuesday mornings at 1am. More about jazz on KBCS at kbcs.fm.
94.9 KUOW, Saturdays, 7pm, features Amanda Wilde’s the Swing Years and Beyond, popular music from the 1920s to the 1950s. More at kuow.org/swing_years.php.
Hollow Earth Radio, hollowearthradio.org, Fridays at 6pm, biweekly, Black Roots Radio, hosted by Jordan Leonard, promotes jazz as a dynamic genre rooted in the Black American experience.
Hollow Earth Radio is Seattle’s freeform online radio station that supports the local music communities in the greater Pacific Northwest and tries to create an open, encouraging stage for underrepresented voices. More at facebook.com/blackrootsradiojl and hollowearthradio.org.
In One Ear News
Email news about Seattle-area jazz artists, for In One Ear, to editor@earshot.org.
