Join us for the 36th Annual Earshot Jazz Festival!!!
Year after year, the Earshot festival celebrates Seattle's place in the world of jazz by featuring performances, premieres, and special projects by Seattle's esteemed resident artists alongside international masters.
This year's featured resident artist is SKERIK- a legendary saxophonist, arranger, and studio owner treasured for his work in the Emerald City. Also included in this year's festival is the world premiere of a festival commission from Freddy Fuego that will bend genre, rhythm and harmony to create compelling music. Special projects include workshops (to be announced soon); Garfield, Lincoln and Edmonds-Woodway High School Jazz Bands will take the stage with truly special guests; film screenings; and more. Playlists coming soon for listeners to get a glimpse into each each week of the festival.
Schedule of Events:
7:30 pm: Ryan Keberle Catharsis w/ Edmonds-Woodway High School Jazz Band
Ryan Keberle, Jazz Times's 2020 Trombonist of the Year leads a band that the Los Angeles Times hailed as a "potent blend of cinematic sweep and lush, ear-grabbing melodies" for its thrilling merger of jazz, chamber music, South American folk and indie rock. The band, which includes guitarist/vocalist Camila Meza, Mike Rodriguez (trumpet), Ike Sturm (bass), and Jimmy Macbride (drums), will workshop with the Edmonds-Woodway Jazz Band (directed by Jake Bergevin), in the afternoon and then present an evening concert. The evening concert will be open to the public.
The Ryan Keberle and Catharsis performance is supported through a Chamber Music America Presenter Consortium for Jazz grant, a component of the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project funded by the Doris Duke Foundation.
7:30 pm: What's Going On Festival: Conduction, Improvisation, and the Culture of Structure (5)
Jazz in Silhouette
The classic 1959 swing album of Sun Ra and his Arkestra. Featuring Sun Ra alum Vincent Chancey.
Hip Hop and its Elders
Connecting the dots between the samples and structures of hip-hop and jazz in the post-Coltrane era. Thaddeus Turner, Darrius Willrich and special guests Brandon Ross, Vincent Chancey and Sara Schoenbeck.
Conduction, Improvisation, and the Culture of Structure
Celebrating the legacies of Lawrence "Butch" Morris, Sun Ra, and Julius Hemphill.
9:00 pm: Khu.eex'
Preston Singletary (bass), Sondra Segundo (vocals) Captain Raab (guitar), Arias Hoyle (vocals) and other members of the Tlingit, Haida, and Blackfoot tribes, convenes Khu.eex', Tlingit for "potlatch." Inspired by the music of his Alaskan forebears (which the revered glass artist Singletary memorialized in a 2022-23 exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian, "Raven and the Box of Daylight," which toured nationally). Singletary and his jazz-funk collaborators create "songs that soar with a profound spirituality and exudes celebratory vibrations" (Dave Segal, The Stranger).
Khu.eex' is an Indigenous band full of creative members, including storytellers, activists and artists, that bring this collective energy to the stage as one powerful unit. Their focus is raising awareness of social issues, stemming from the Native American struggle, issues that affect all people. Khu.eex' are bringing a much-needed Indigenous perspective while keeping their tribal culture and endangered ancient languages alive through music, storytelling and art. Their latest album released this year, is Siyáadlan.
