Seattle’s Earshot Jazz Festival will be held at almost exactly the same time as the San Francisco Jazz Festival (Earshot runs from Oct. 25 to Nov. 4; San Francisco starts a day earlier), and Seattle will host some of the same prominent artists. Earshot has a few stellar performers of its own to present to the public, tempting jazz fans to make mad, marathon dashes up and down Interstate-5 to see as many good shows as possible.
Headliners common to the Seattle and San Francisco fests include Dave Brubeck and his quartet; Keith Jarrett, John DeJohnette and Gary Peacock, making a rare appearance in Seattle; and a tribute to iconoclast Rahsaan Roland Kirk, led by Steve Turre and featuring James Carter, Vincent Herring and others.
On the other hand, Seattle can claim all to itself a series of concerts organized to showcase the wizardry of guitarist Bill Frisell (pictured left): a duo with DeJohnette on drums, a quartet with Brazilian guitarist Vinicius Cantuaria, Greek oud player Christos Govetos, and Malian percussionist Sidiki Camara. The program also includes the premiere of new works commissioned by Earshot Jazz and Seattle’s Rakumi Arts, written by Malian guitarist Boubacar Traore and Frisell.
Earshot will also feature Chicago tenor players Von Freeman and Fred Anderson, Myra Melford’s Crush Quartet, and bassist William Parker with percussionist Hamid Drake.
For more information, call Earshot at (206) 547-9787 or visit www.earshot.org. Drive safely.
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