By KNKX Public Radio
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The podcast currently has 242 episodes available.
BrandonLee Cierley made his debut eight years ago in the KNKX studios for a School of Jazz studio session as a college student. Now a driving force in Portland, Oregon’s music community, Cierley returned to the studios with a new band and the same passion for jazz.
The saxophonist from Tacoma relocated south during the Covid pandemic at the urging of his South Sound friend, Machado Mijiga. A multi-instrumentalist, Mijiga had made the move south himself, and has become Cierley’s musical “right-hand man.”
Cierley’s quartet included Puget Sound area musicians Anand Landon on guitar and Moe Weissner playing bass. The whole band did great work interpreting the saxophonist’s original songs.
Two brand new compositions and a song from Cierley’s recent album Camaraderie share Cierley’s sonic style — smooth-toned, soulful melodies with a hint of hip-hop swagger.
Cierley is planning a video-game themed EP with Mijiga soon and also broke more news to our studio session audience. He’s working on an album of dedications. “I haven’t told anybody this – you’re getting the first scoop!”
One of those dedications, “Naia’s Lullaby,” was written for a friend's new baby. Introducing it got him choked up, catching the bandleader and our audience by surprise. “I’ll just play it for you,” Cierley said quietly as he began the beautiful ballad.
Since our first introduction to “college kid” BrandonLee Cierley, he’s grown into a great person and a wonderful musician, and he’s becoming the jazz ambassador of I-5.
“Me and Machado are trying to bridge this gap,” he explained. “Seattle, Tacoma and Oregon – we’re so close! Why not… make a community out of it. We’re all just trying to make music and get it together.”
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When asked if they’d looked to great albums of the past to inspire their vocals-piano duets tour, Kurt Elling and Joey Calderazzo answered quickly and definitively: “No.”
This KNKX Studio Session was a meeting of two great improvising minds. Their music is the result of pure collaboration, bringing more than 60 years of combined jazz experience together with no expectations.
The Chicago-native Elling has been at the top of the jazz vocal world from his earliest records, a modern musician with a mastery of standards and daring vocalese.
A New Yorker, Calderazzo is best known for playing with saxophone icons Michael Brecker and Branford Marsalis. His several albums as a band leader have made him one of the most respected pianists in jazz, though not as well-known as Elling.
The connection between the two marks a bright moment in both of their impressive careers. These talented improvisors pushed and challenged each other through three great jazz standards in their performance at KNKX's Seattle studios.
Starting with “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” Elling and Calderazzo kept the melody close while finding numerous opportunities to embellish and rearrange the Nat Cole classic.
Billy Strayhorn’s beautiful ballad “Day Dream” received a similar treatment. Elling joked the 1939 composition was a “more modern” song, but the hip factor hit a crescendo with their set closer.
Calderazzo and Elling played Thelonious Monk’s bebop favorite “Straight, No Chaser” with dramatic flair, leaving out or moving notes of the familiar but angular melody nearly into abstraction.
It was a thrilling sight for the audience as Elling leaned over the piano mere inches from Calderazzo’s smiling face. The pair shared their joyful, intimate performance with a grateful audience in the KNKX studios. Now it’s your turn.
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While in Seattle for shows at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, legendary trombonist Fred Wesley brought his New JB's band to the KNKX studios for an exciting studio session that showed Wesley is more than just a James Brown sideman.
Wesley spoke with Grooveyard host Stephanie Anne Johnson about his incredible history playing with Brown and his sideman, saxophonist Maceo Parker. He also talked about his time with the Count Basie Orchestra and the diversity of music he plays with his new band.
Introducing themselves as the "New JBs, phase four," Wesley's band launched into the JB's 70s classic "Damn Right, I Am Somebody" with trumpeter Gary Winters and saxophonist Brandon Wright sharing the front line.
Guitarist Reggie Ward locked in with rhythm section mates Coleman Woodson III on keys, Dwayne Dolphin at the bass and Bruce Cox drumming to set up the funky backdrop for the busy horn players. The band was celebrating their latest album, From the Blues and Back.
Describing his love of the blues, Wesley added his own vocals to the R&B classic "Trick Bag," with call-and-response from Woodson. They wrapped up with "For the Elders," a song Wesley dedicated to the great jazz musicians who cleared the path for the musicians who followed.
Wesley noted that the Jazz Crusaders are one of his favorite groups and an inspiration for his current ensemble. The Crusaders' classic trombone-saxophone combination was a clever connecting point for the pulsing, dynamic post-bop groove of this final song.
In his 81st year, Fred Wesley said he may have lost a step or two, but his band brings the rich legacy of his career through funk, blues and jazz to a new audience. Enjoy this exclusive performance and the charming personality and music of Fred Wesley and the New JBs.
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The ever-modest but equally dedicated saxophonist Kareem Kandi brought together an incredible group of musicians, including renowned artists, drummer Ali Jackson, George Colligan on piano and Greg Feingold on bass.
The exclusive session culminated the quartets' weeks-long tour of the Pacific Northwest. Jackson, who once lived in Washington, returns for a few weeks each year to play and teach.
During the interview, Kandi, Jackson, and Colligan shared their views on the music and the preeminent importance of community while creating and learning.
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Kareem Kandi - saxophone
Ali Jackson - drums
George Colligan - piano
Greg Feingold - bass
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1. Shufflonzo (Jackson)
2. For Kenny (Jackson)
3. 2K Blues (Jackson)
Bill Anschell is one of the Northwest’s most beloved jazz pianists, though his new album Improbable Solutions was created with computer technology. The two sides of his music converged in the KNKX studios with Anschell’s acoustic piano leading a quartet though his new compositions.
His love of progressive rock and emerging electronic music as a college student eventually led Anschell to pursue the jazz idiom, but he never gave up on the digital world. The extra time allowed by pandemic closures gave him a path to complete his years-long creative dream.
“Finally! This was all headed toward combining electronics with acoustic instruments and real people,” Anschell told KNKX.
After releasing the album, Anschell had to work out what songs he could play live. Of the nine songs on Improbable Solutions, he performs five of them.
“A couple of the tunes really are more like progressive rock," Anschell explained. "We’re not really the band for that.”
The band in the KNKX studios included drummer Brad Boal and two musicians who appear on the new record: bassist Chris Symer and guitarist Brian Monroney.
“It’s been interesting to try to replicate those (electronic sounds)," Anschell said. "We’re really lucky to have Brian… he kind of replaces my synthesizers by being the ‘textures guy.’”
This quartet was up to the challenge. “Ambulator” begins the session with acoustic piano and electric guitar pushing and pulling through catchy melody and harmony lines, while Symer and Boal provide the important rhythmic support.
The live version of “Gentle Persuasion,” often played on KNKX, glided along at a calm tempo before a dramatic piano solo launched Monroney into his own feature with smartly chosen guitar effects.
Anschell’s quartet completed their set with a song from his 2006 album More to the Ear than Meets the Eye, the complex and funky “Faster Than the Speed of Mildew,” with driving contributions from all four musicians.
Dig into the world of Bill Anschell and his music, ably performed by his great quartet in the KNKX studios. Lighter on the synthetic sounds than his new album, this performance was still forward thinking and thoroughly modern.
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The Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra kicks off their 30th season this August with a KNKX Studio Session and two nights at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley.
Over the course of 30 years as the Northwest's premiere large ensemble jazz band, the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra has helped keep the big band music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and more alive and vital.
They've also created a strong collection of original music, some of which they shared in a quintet setting at the KNKX studios. Leading the group was SRJO's artistic director, co-founder and saxophonist Michael Brockman.
Brockman talked about the band's origins playing the Sacred Music of Duke Ellington in 1989. The band saw a demand for performing great big band music live in concert and the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, which Brockman co-founded with now-retired drummer Clarence Acox, was born.
This special performance at KNKX also included SRJO favorites Dan Marcus on trombone, Randy Halberstadt at the piano, Phil Sparks on bass and D'Vonne Lewis drumming, whose composition "Hope" was the beautiful waltz in the middle of this exclusive session.
Brockman's soprano sax was featured on his tune "Malcolmesque," a spirited and complex piece cleverly arranged and performed by the quintet. The song's inspiration came from Brockman and Marcus playing in the orchestra for a recent Malcolm X opera.
Brockman told the KNKX studio audience, "you just heard the world premiere of that piece, just completed about three days ago!"
They closed with "Acox Ramble," their recently written tribute to SRJO's co-founder. Although rarely played in a quintet setting, the driving hardbop melody — reminiscent of Clarence Acox-led bands in Seattle's vibrant jazz scene of the 1980s and 1990s — sounded just right with heir apparent Lewis' note-perfect drum solo and undeniable groove.
Noting the experience of Lewis and bassist Sparks, Brockman explained that "it's hard to find room for a younger player to come in." However, the addition of musicians like Sidney Hauser, Alex Dugdale and Kate Olson show that the SRJO is a group with a past worth celebrating, and with an exciting future ahead.
The 2024-2025 season will see the 17-piece band perform a Ray Charles tribute, Ellington's "Far East Suite" featuring vocalist Jacqueline Tabor, and conclude with two June concerts featuring special guest saxophonist Branford Marsalis. "He's my hero," Brockman enthused.
SRJO's outreach in their Jazz Scholars program and Jazz4Kids concerts further demonstrate a community of musicians dedicated to keeping the tradition alive while passing it on to the next generation. Play on!
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Editor's note: Abe Beeson is a member of SRJO's board of directors.
Pianist and composer Francesco Crosara led a quartet of top-tier Northwest musicians in the KNKX studios, celebrating a new album with the Italian native’s new Northwest friends.
Crosara was raised in Rome, Italy, by a mother whose broadcasting connections and love of jazz brought legends like Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea, Duke Ellington and more who inspired the budding musician.
“I had the pleasure to basically see and interact with these giants at the kitchen table,” Crosara said.
His musical talent was further developed at USC in Los Angeles, and he later moved on to the Midwest and Hawaii before landing in Poulsbo, Washington, in 2017.
Crosara joined the Music Discovery Center, a non-profit in Bremerton focused on music education and support in the Western Puget Sound. He was excited to help underserved music lovers of the Kitsap Peninsula and to have opportunities to play with young music students, saying, “I’m not hoity-toity.”
The new album Circular Motion collects 40 years of Crosara’s compositions, from new songs like the jazz fusion of “One Day Honey, One Day Onions” to songs that he’s updated.
“I certainly was not happy with the way that 21-year-old Francesco wrote a samba. It was a little immature,” he said.
Over his life as a composer, Crosara has written music influenced by his many travels. Circular Motion visits Argentina with “Julia’s Tango” and Japan with “Kurama,” as well as the Middle Eastern sound of “Maktoub” and a Spanish tinge of “Preludio Flamenco.”
Circular Motion also circles through three different sets of the Puget Sound area’s best bass players and drummers.
The elder statesmen Clipper Anderson and Mark Ivester form what Crosara said is his “acoustic group,” while the popular Farko Dosumov and D’Vonne Lewis make up his “fusion trio.”
Finally, Crosara’s “world trio” features Osama Afifi and Xavier LeCouturier, the youngest of the groups.
In this exclusive performance in the KNKX studios, Crosara was joined by Dosumov, Lewis, and saxophonist Alexey Nikolaev. Crosara even lamented, half-joking, “Had I met him (before he recorded Circular Motion), I would have said, let’s do a quartet!”
Extended versions of three great tunes from Crosara’s new album show that his music is constantly changing, always connected to the moment he shares with his fellow musicians and audience.
Look for Crosara’s terrific trio album and the talented pianist in a variety of musical settings around Western Washington – including the hungry jazz fans away from the city lights.
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New York-based, British Columbia-born, trumpeter and singer Bria Skonberg celebrates her new album What It Means in a KNKX studio session. She was in town for shows at Dimitrou's Jazz Alley.
In the years since Skonberg’s aptly titled 2020 album Nothing Never Happens, she has weathered the tumultuous pandemic times and, like many of us, witnessed a social justice movement, emerging political divisions and new global conflicts. She described these years as “disorienting,” and in the realm of her music, she was “trying to find a way forward and a way back at the same time.”
The search for a way forward led her back to New Orleans, a city full of sounds that was central to developing her passion for music when she was younger. Skonberg grew up in Chilliwack, BC, where her parents set her up to explore the wide world of music at a young age.
“I'm a product of really great parents who encouraged both me and my siblings to play instruments...” said Skonberg.
In seventh grade, she started playing trumpet. Skonberg said her dad played the instrument back in high school, so they already owned one.
Skonberg said her passion for jazz grew thanks, in part, to a long-running festival in her hometown dedicated to the early stylings of jazz, including the music of Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and Sydney Bechet.
Now Skonberg is returning to those roots and the sounds of New Orleans on her recently released album What It Means. She recorded in the Crescent City and connected with a living jazz legend, drummer Herlin Riley.
“He's a wonderful, absolutely magical human being. And when you listen to it, as I do, I go, ‘how is he playing all those things at the same time?’" Skonberg said.
Since her last record, Skonberg has also become a mother. She described motherhood as a lot of fun and full of learning: “It's a lot. It's more than you could ever experience. And just like the amount of growth, the learning curve is obviously incredibly steep.”
With motherhood, she took a step back from playing the trumpet. Skonberg said she took almost three months off and credits revered trumpeter John Faddis with helping her regain her chops.
“We often are told that we cannot take more than two days off the horn or we'll never play again..." She said, “I think I play smarter, stronger than I have before.”
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Kiki Valera y su Son Cubano stopped by the KNKX Studios last week to give us a preview of their new album Vacilón Santiaguero.
Originally from Santiago, Cuba, Valera primarily plays locally here in Seattle. He’s been a bandleader for as long as he can remember, starting by taking over his family’s band when he was a teenager.
During this studio session, Valera told the audience how he found his way to Seattle and explained why this style of music is still significant today.
"It's a matter of tradition," Valera said, "always trying to preserve the roots, the essence. I decided to give it more freshness, a more modern touch."
Vacilón Santiaguero is not only a celebration of the music from his hometown, but Valera also puts his own stamp on the tradition of “Son” to make it his own and keep the music alive.
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The band Ghost Note was formed almost by accident. Snarky Puppy drummer Robert “Sput” Searight and percussionist Nate Werth attracted attention with their live solos. They both half-jokingly promised fans that they were recording as a side project.
Regarding the pair’s first recordings as Ghost Note, “Nate kind of manifested it,” Searight said in an interview following the band’s recent KNKX studio session.
Achieving success early, the pandemic slowed Ghost Note’s efforts until the release of their new fourth album Mustard N’ Onions.
Ghost Note’s funk was extra tight in the KNKX studios as the band – featuring the saxophones of Jelani Brooks and Jonathan Mones, guitarist Peter Knudsen, keyboardist Dominique Xavier Taplin, bassist J-Mack and full-throated vocalist Mackenzie – bounced through three songs from the new album.
The signature sound of Ghost Note comes from the propulsive beats of the Searight-Werth rhythm section. “We’re a group of guys,” said Searight, “who love funk, love Prince and James Brown, and we’re all frustrated jazz musicians as well.”
James Brown is name-checked in Ghost Note’s new song “JB’s Out!” and group vocals brought extra energy to “Slim Goodie.” Dialing in the complex melody of “Bad Knees” by the album’s bassist, MonoNeon, Searight sang the hook before counting off a third crowd-moving blast of fun.
You’re sure to be smiling along listening to this joyful, funky session performance from Ghost Note. They're no joke!
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