Naomi Moon Siegel 

Live at Earshot 
Slow & Steady Records 

Former Seattleite, Missoula-based trombonist extraordinaire, Naomi Moon Siegel, returns with her first album since her 2016 debut, Shoebox View. Recorded live at PONCHO Concert Hall at Cornish College as part of Earshot Jazz’ annual festival, Live at Earshot brilliantly captures Siegel’s signature tone and poignantly prudent compositions. Featuring a roster of Seattle greats—Wayne Horvitz (piano), Geoff Harper (bass), Eric Eagle (drums), and Sean Woolstenhulme (guitar), plus special guest Thione Diop (percussion)—Live at Earshot is an electrically atmospheric effort that brims with adventure and insightful musical instinct. 

Those who have heard Siegel’s indie-inflected debut will note familiar compositions, such as the bluesy “Ukelady,” as well as a familiar rhythm section—save for the addition of Harper. The trio’s craft in swing makes an elegant switch between odd meter and triplet fours on the opener “Fullness of Time,” and along with with Eagle’s “Way Out West” stick-work, reflects Siegel’s poppy but mature eclecticism. 

Woolstenhulme gives accent to the trio’s post-bop cool with his angular and chorus-laden rock style, matching complex barbs of ebbing dissonance with Horvitz on the elegiac pledge “Fortifying Love,” and playing off Eagle’s delicate brushwork on the ambitious landscape “Punta Uva.” 

Diop, a Senegalese percussionist based in Seattle, brings his mastery of West African percussion to two tracks, “Jeannine’s Joy,” and “Jaam Rek,” and injects the group’s drifting clouds of sound with novel percussive timbres. On “Jaam Rek,” co-written with Diop, the drummer’s warping melodies lend an unpredictable excitement to the otherwise laid-back groove. 

The virtues of Siegel’s compositions emerge exceptionally well in the album’s live setting. The picturesque “Foghorn” recalls Charles Mingus’ “A Foggy Day,” with an anxious spidering of melodies, courtesy of Harper and Horvitz, breaking down into atonal flurries and a tattle-tale waltz. Compositions like “Electric Flower,” and “Mancha Sanchaba,” give an out-of-doors quality, elegant in their spare textures and looking-glass harmonies. 

Siegel shines on the album’s closer, “Fortifying Love,” which contains some of the wildest playing on the record. She plays into an electronic fuzz-effect, building her phrases into a crescendo of passionate exhortations which suggests a feeling of pride in the loud applause that follows. 

–Ian Gwin 

Naomi Moon Siegel performs at the Seattle Art Museum on April 11 as part of the Art of Jazz series.