Ben Gibbard's New Side Project

In Just Jazzin', Gibbard plays lead xylophone. Here, he waxes poetic about the unstoppable force that is smooth jazz, which should elevate him to the top of Greg Nickels' list to play the mayor's recoronation party in '09. And methinks I smell a headliner for Reverbfest '08's Jazz Stage, with SW house band Scatamaran opening.

Topics: Jazz

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Stanley Dance: Coining The Term

You learn something new every day. I was having a discussion with web editor Chris Kornelis about artwork reproduction on vinyl-to-compact disc reissues. I handed him my copy of Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins, which had reprinted liner notes to such microscopic size they were nearly unreadable (and I have 20/20 vision, so you know they were bad if I had trouble making out the words).
When Kornelis tried reading them, he noticed they were written by jazz critic Stanley Dance. Kornelis, having the appetite for knowledge he does, did a quick search for "Stanley Dance" only to learn that Dance is the critic cited for coining the term "mainstream" to describe a musical genre.
Plenty of hyphen-weilding modern-day music writers try doing this everyday. But "post-core", "punk-grass" and "shit-rock", are child's play compared to "mainstream".

Topics: Jazz

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Jazz in Idaho? It's true!

What: Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival
Where: Moscow, Idaho
Why: Because even Idaho needs jazz
Who: Last night featured a headlining performance by Dr. John

As the self-proclaimed coolest person in Moscow it's hard for me to admit this. Yesterday I wasn't even in the top five of cool people in this Idaho college town. Dr. John, the Night Tripper himself, was here. As cool as I am (as cool as I think I am), I am nowhere near as cool as Dr. John. Sorry, folks, just not happening.

I'm not as cool as his band, either, so there is three more spots that I fall.

I'm not as cool as Georgia-born trombone player Wycliffe Gordon, so that dropped me out of the top five.

But anyway...

For four days every February, the University of Idaho hosts the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival. This might seem weird, especially if you've ever been to North Idaho, one of the whitest places in the country. Besides nightly concerts featuring jazz icons (Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald have played here in the past), students from middle, junior, and senior high schools are invited to participate in adjudicated workshops and clinics. While the UI student body bitches about their parking spaces being taken and how a gaggle of middle school kids jammed the lunch line, there is constant music going on.

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Topics: Jazz and Letters from Moscow

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Thursday Nights: Hangin' @ the Lo-Fi

Yes, the Lo-Fi is the embodiment of the very cool loft parties that you suspect are happening all the time but will probably never get invited to. Like discovering what scene your older sister is really into, you’ll probably enjoy the casual, but impeccably dressed, party vibe.

The Hang features a jazzy hip hop/jam influenced groove that keeps people continuously bobbing heads or moving hips, while the decorum and well-mixed crowd will scintillate albeit in an occasionally very packed front bar (the larger back room bar wasn’t open last Thursday).

The house band are musically akin to a herd of cats; very cool cats who will oscillate regularly between tight knit grooves and more fluid instrumentation parsed all the while with DJ scratches and even ambient backtracks and are well worth the $3 cover. Though many of the musical components change weekly Evan Flory-Barnes is a weekly fixture on upright bass. Think the Rebirth of Slick basslines slung over busy kick drums and you’ll have perfect backdrop for some vodka cranberry juice sipping conversation (though Pabst remain $2 for the economical lounge-goer). The vibe remains open to dance a little if you’re feelin’ the rhythm.

The band, the people, and the more than reasonable bar make the Hang the low-key late night choice for those who want to feel cool like that on a Thursday.

Topics: Aesthetic and Jazz

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Smooth Sailing

After Friday’s all-night Of Montreal dance party and Saturday’s cocktail party, where I successfully completed the dreaded wine, beer and liquor trifecta, I was in no way prepared for a solo mission to a Sunday Valentine’s Day boat ride — especially one involving smooth jazz. For six hours.

After choking down a quarter of an English muffin and two Advil for breakfast, I caught the bus downtown to pier 56, where the Argosy Cruises depart. This one was the ninth annual KWJZ Smooth Jazz Valentines cruise, featuring the soothing sounds of Deems Tsutakawa on keyboards and the saucy Korla Wygal on vocals, as well as a lunch stop at Kiana Lodge near Bainbridge Island.

In line waiting to board the ship, I noticed the style preference leaned toward Kangol caps and sweater vests (this look was favored mainly by Caucasians among the ship’s rather diverse cruising population). While smooth jazz is generally regarded as a genre that caters to middle-aged yuppies, there were at least ten couples under the age of 25, though I’d later find out that two of those were attending with parents.

Once aboard, having passed a large cluster of Starbucks cups in a neat pile next to the gangplank, I immediately gravitated toward the bar. The drink of choice for this crowd was the Bloody Mary, with chardonnay as the runner-up. Drink in hand, I proceeded to the second deck, where I got my first taste of the day’s music, a silky-smooth tenor sax and classical guitar combo. I felt like I was waiting in the reception area of a floating dentist’s office. A sea of whitecaps and a light rain did not bode well for my hungover self.

Downstairs, Deems — who resembles Mr. Miyagi in a Kangol — and his crew eased into their set. I counted three songs in the first hour and a half, though there could have been at least 12 — it was hard to say. About halfway through the second hour, when the band broke for a little banter, Deems said, “We’re going to do something kind of mellow here.” More mellow? Starting again, I heard what seemed to me to be the same bass line and drum rhythm, followed by an eerily familiar minor scale on guitar, and then the piano came back. I ordered another Bloody Mary.

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Topics: Jazz

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Super Smooth New Year Beckons

What do smooth jazz superstars Chris Botti, Spyro Gyra and Boney James have in common? Two things: (1) they were all name-checked in the spoofariffic "Greg Nickels' Quiet Storm" and (2) all will be gracing Seattle with their smoothness this coming February and March. Scoo-how-zee-bow-zum-bozey-shoop-bap-boom!

Topics: Jazz

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