I was lucky to have a chance to attend the Starbucks "Hot Java Cool Jazz" concert at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle last Friday night.
It was a great show put on by fantastic musicians. There were many really gifted and hard working young people playing in five local high school Jazz bands and two local middle school Jazz bands.
Seattle has a long history of Jazz music. It's fascinating to me that these young people devote themselves to playing this type of non-mainstream music. Very cool.
You would not have believed a few of the solos; a trombonist with a sweet slide, piano player tickling the heck out of the ivories and a couple of great saxaphonists. Any of the musicians good enough to be in these bands are of course quite talented, but there were a few that had what I would consider true greatness. Lot's of potential and bright futures on stage that night.
Plus Starbucks was giving away some good sweet coffee drinks. It was funny to see some of the little middle school jazzcats lining up to grab a little cup of java. What the heck they deserved it and it was a Friday night. It was a dixie cup sized cup of java that tasted like hot chocolate with whipped cream and caramel on top. Tasty.
Learn a little about the The Roots of Jazz In Seattle in the book "Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle" by Paul De Barros.
Lot's of Seattle Jazz music is available for your listening pleasure. Here's just one example that happens to have the Space Needle on the cover -
One of the best saxophone players of all time was the late great Eddie Harris. If you've never listened to any jazz because you're not sure if you'll like it, try "Live at Montreaux - Swiss Movement". The end of the first song "Compared to What" is really cool when Les McCann introduces himself and Eddie Harris and then they break into "a song we just learned today...Cold Duck Time". It's great.
