Seattle Art Museum (Downtown)

This stunning evening of visual music features keyboardist Kris Bowers, winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition (and recent bandmate of Kanye West and José James), teaming with Christian Hannon, a visual artist using technology with music to shape reality. Opening is the compelling CMD (computer, music, and dance) project of Seattle saxophonist Ivan Arteaga.

The Seattle composer, trombonist, and multi-instrumentalist presents music from her album Shoebox View, a travelogue of folk melodies, fantastical soundscapes, and lyrical, powerful, yet gentle jazz. Helping her create celebratory, cinematic space are Sean Woolstenhulme (guitar), Eric Eagle (drums), Keith Lowe (bass), Ryan Burns (piano/keyboards), Alex Guy (viola), Thione Diop (percussion), Ivan Arteaga (alto saxophone), Greg Sinibaldi (baritone saxophone), and Samantha Boshnack (trumpet).

The revered alto saxophonist, among the leading jazz innovators of his generation, tributes Charlie “Bird” Parker in a quintet of today’s top New York artists. By emulating the bebop master’s dexterity and drive while retaining only fractions of his original tunes, he reconfigures Parker’s melodies and harmonies into scales and harmonies distinctly his own. This music moves fast! (Presented with support from Chamber Music America.)

The New York-based Cuban pianist advances the jazz momentum of his homeland, playing with precision, grace, and savvy, which has won him commissions from Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works. He has ideal trio mates in E.J. Strickland, a “technically brilliant and forward-thinking” (All About Jazz) drummer, and Hans Glawischnig, long a first-call New York bassist.

For 17 years, German woodwind virtuoso Gebhard Ullmann (bass clarinet, bass flute, saxes), pianist Michael Jefry Stevens, bassist Joe Fonda, and drummer Didier Ulrich have been among the finest improvising units around, interpreting original compositions with startling flair and drive. The ever-evolving Seattle sax and drum duo of Neil Welch and Chris Icasiano opens. (Conference Call is supported by the Berlin Senate Cultural Affairs Department.)

Whether on piano, psalterium (hammered dulcimer), or vibes, this dynamic, wide-ranging musician from Barcelona merges influences from jazz, flamenco, tumbao, and the Middle East in a transporting, seamless, personal style. She leads a quartet of top-flight Northwest players: bassist Evan Flory-Barnes, drummer D’Vonne Lewis, and saxophonist Hans Teuber.

Bassist Michael Bisio is a fixture in Matthew Shipp’s ground-breaking NYC group. His just-released second album with the astounding cornetist Kirk Knuffke, Row for William O., tributes clarinetist, composer, and Seattle mentor William O. (Bill) Smith. Also on the bill: a reunion of bassist Paul Rucker and saxophonist Hans Teuber, whose duo work bears witness to a communication borne of mutual respect.

One of the great Earshot festival moments saw The Westerlies and the Dave Douglas Quintet on the Cornish stage a few years ago. Inevitably, the stellar trumpeter and the vibrant quartet (Riley Mulherkar and Zubin Hensler, trumpets, and Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch, trombones) are touring together, re-imagining jazz-meets-chamber-music.

The powerfully compelling Transcendence recordings of drummer/composer Brown, such as the recent Work Songs, draw riveting jazz from the African-American experience: the Black churches, field recordings, and much else. With Chris Sholar’s screaming blues guitar and Jaleel Shaw’s blazing saxophone.

Justly famed for her four-octave range, the brilliant, stylish Daniels has collaborated with many of the greats of jazz, and graced stages around the world. Tonight, the accomplished and graceful singer presents a program of her favorite pieces in a focused, concert-hall environment.

Dawn Clement photo by Daniel Sheehan. Buy Now $22 adults, $20 Earshot members and seniors, $10 students and military To mark the 100th birthday of the iconic innovator, pianist Dawn Clement, the 2017 Earshot Festival Resident Artist, performs mostly solo, and the 16-piece Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, under the conduction of Wayne Horvitz, reassembles several of Monk’s ensemble works.

Omar Sosa photo courtesy of artist. Buy Now $30 adults, $28 Earshot members and seniors, $15 students and military Inspired by his native Camagüey, the Afro-Cuban inland bastion, Omar Sosa (piano, keys) travels the world with his virtuosic, mercurial electro-acoustic quartet: fellow Camagüeyanos Leandro Saint-Hill (saxophones, flute, vocals) and Ernesto Simpson (drums, vocals), plus Mozambique native Childo Tomas (bass, kalimba, vocals). “Ritual space and time-honored practice” (Popmatters) assure transporting intensity. Presented with support from WESTAF.

Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal photo courtesy of SRO Artists. Buy Now $30 adults, $28 Earshot members and seniors, $15 students and military The hugely satisfying duo of Malian kora master Ballake Sissoko and French cellist Vincent Segal creates a spellbinding hybrid that draws on West African traditional songs, Baroque music, and contemporary sensibilities.

Garfield High School Jazz band photo by Daniel Sheehan. Buy Now $20 adults, $18 Earshot members and seniors, $10 students and military A perennial powerhouse of Seattle jazz and ongoing source of civic pride, the Garfield jazz program, under the direction of multiaward-winning Clarence Acox, has become an educational icon and national treasure.

Matt Wilson photo by John Abbott. Buy Now $30 adults, $28 Earshot members and seniors, $15 students and military One of the most inventive and generous spirits in today’s jazz, drummer Matt Wilson’s new project is inspired by the poetry of American poet Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Wilson and colleagues have performed his compositions, rich in heart and variety, all around the US. His remarkable band is Ron Miles (cornet), Jeff Lederer (reeds, voice, harmonium), Martin Wind (bass), and special guest,…

Burnt Sugar Arkestra photo courtesy of artist. Buy Now $24 adults, $22 Earshot members and seniors, $12 students and military **JUST ADDED! Included with your ticket to We Insist: Freedom Now!** We Persist! A pre-concert conversation and Q&A with: Village Voice writer and Burnt Sugar founder, Greg Tate & poet/educator, paul r. harding Friday, November 3, 7 to 7:45pm, Seattle Art Museum In homage to Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, and Oscar Brown Jr, the Burnt Sugar Arkestra Chamber revives and reimagines the legendary 1960s canon…

Lucian Ban photo by Minodora Tibrea. Buy Now $35 adults, $33 Earshot members and seniors, $17 students and military Presented in partnership with the American Romanian Cultural Society of Seattle and the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York. Lucian Ban & Elevation: Songs from Afar with Transylvanian singer Gavril Tarmure and special guest Billy Hart (drums). Ban, the Transylvania-via-New York pianist/composer, “plays with a fluency and sensibility that recalls Vladimir Horowitz as much as McCoy Tyner” (All About Jazz). With Brad…