KNKX Studio Sessions

Pianist Lynne Arriale is a master of making her audience feel something when she plays. For more than 30 years, Arriale has explored the emotional possibilities of the piano trio.

“Emotion through sound, that’s a very, very deep subject,” she said.

Along with a busy career as an educator, Arriale has released 17 albums as bandleader. Almost all of them feature the classic line-up of piano, bass, and drums.

This was Arriale’s third KNKX studio session, and her trio played three songs from her 2024 album Being Human, exploring the emotional states that we all share.

She dedicated the lovely, urgent tune “Passion” to young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Her song “Love” is a tender ballad with hints of melancholy. “Joy” concluded the performance with a thrilling Caribbean beat that had the studio audience smiling and moving in their seats.

Arriale had arrived early to the KNKX studios to rehearse with bassist Ethan Philion and drummer Tanner Guss. She’d worked with both musicians, but they hadn’t played with each other until this studio session performance.

Both young rhythm section players fit Arriale’s music nicely while also making impressive solo statements. Philion and Guss seemed to enjoy their first musical interaction with playing beautifully both melodically and rhythmically.

For her part, Arriale found this new trio exciting, calling the experience “kind of magical when you think about it. The shape of the music can change with different energies interpreting it.”

Enjoy this energetic and emotional adventure with the Lynne Arriale trio in the KNKX studios.

Musicians:

• Lynne Arriale - piano
• Ethan Philion - bass
• Tanner Guss - drums

Songs:

1. Passion
2. Love
3. Joy

Fantastic Negrito’s life has been a series of reinventions.

In the '90s, he signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Interscope Records as the R&B singer Xavier. He then was in a near-fatal car wreck that crippled his right hand and left him in a coma for four weeks. Following his recovery, he left the music business and invested in a cannabis farm in Oakland, Calif.

After starting a family, he felt drawn back to music, but this time he would do it on his own terms. He started by busking at Bay Area train stations. It was there that he met the person who convinced him to apply for the first ever NPR Tiny Desk contest in 2015, which he won, and it was then that he chose his new persona: Fantastic Negrito.

Since then, he has released seven albums and won three Grammy awards for Best Contemporary Blues Album. His most recent release Son of a Broken Man came in 2024, and he has a live album scheduled for release in the summer of 2026.

Listen to this remarkable five-song performance from the KNKX studios and enjoy a Fantastic Negrito mini-album created on the spot and in the moment.

Musicians:

• Xavier Dphrepaulezz - vocals, piano
• Bryan Simmons - keyboards, backing vocals
• Vincent Maclauchlan - guitar
• Uriah Duffy - bass, backing vocals
• Brian Braziel - drums

Songs:

1. Beat Salad
2. Your Sex is Overrated
3. California Loner
4. Computers
5. Plastic Hamburgers

The friendly smiles on the musicians in the Milwaukee-based Affinity Trio were an indication of the “Midwest nice” atmosphere they brought to the KNKX studios. The music they brought was even nicer.

Trumpeter Eric Jacobson has been working for years with bassist Clay Schaub, and he met Nanaimo, B.C.-native, pianist Pamela York, when she moved to the area just before the pandemic. Their musical and personal connections developed quickly into close friendships and close interaction on stage.

When live music returned in late-2020, York joined Jacobson at his revived weekly gigs at the Mason Street Grill inside Milwaukee’s historic Pfister Hotel. When the club requested that his band not include a drummer, the Affinity Trio was born.

Five years later, the trio have become greater than the sum of their instruments. The lack of high-volume drums has led to a beautiful sound that allows each band member to take a greater role in support and in solos.

Closeness as people leads to improved artistry in jazz ensembles. The friendship between these three is deepened by their musical intimacy, and that musical relationship feeds the friendship.

The Affinity Trio play smart arrangements of jazz standards and bebop classics, and their original tunes show their talent as composers.

In this melody-filled session, the trio plays Jacobson’s “Onwards” and York’s “New Outlook,” the title song from their latest album, released on Seattle's Origin Records.

The trio closed their set with trumpeter Kenny Dorham’s early '60’s hit “Una Mas,” and the Latin rhythms of this jazz classic was ably carried without a percussionist.

The Affinity Trio filled the KNKX studios with joyful jazz and the magic of deep connection. Enjoy it yourself and share with your friends.

Musicians:

• Eric Jacobson - trumpet
• Pamela York - piano
• Clay Shaub - bass

Songs:

1. Onward (Eric Jacobson)
2. New Outlook (Pamela York)
3. Una Mas (Kenny Dorham)

Still just 35 years old, guitarist and singer Sunny War has an inspiring career arc that started with her busking on the streets of Los Angeles and later finding widespread fame and recognition with appearances on national television.

War first started self-releasing albums, then recorded for the small Venice, Calif. label Hen House Studios. War is now working with the longstanding Americana institution New West Records, home to Steve Earle, Drive-By Truckers and Elvis Costello.

It’s hard to pin down what style War's music is, so suffice to say her songs are moving and personal and she has a unique way of playing guitar.

She plays remarkably complex acoustic guitar patterns using only the thumb and index finger on her picking hand. Without a significant guitar teacher, she adopted this approach and has developed it to a very advanced level.

“I was copying a banjo player," War said. "The only people I saw were a banjo player and a bass player. I was just trying to do what they were doing.”

War left home at 14 years old and began busking on the streets of Venice, playing music of Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, Tracy Chapman and “whatever people would scream out to play like they were going to tip me better, that’s what I would learn," she said.

Though War doesn't play strictly blues, the influence of the blues on her music is obvious. She mentioned being drawn to the music of blues greats Skip James and Elizabeth Cotten, who each had distinctive musical voices and complex guitar techniques.

Part of War's gift seems to be juxtaposing words or concepts that don’t seem to go together, as with the titles of recent albums like last year's Armageddon in a Summer Dress and Anarchist Gospel from 2023.

“It’s just non-religious gospel. I wanted uplifting music that wasn’t excluding people. I wanted the same vibe as gospel without bringing God into it," War said.

In this exclusive performance in the KNKX studios, the music of Sunny War invites all of us into a unique celebration of the blues tradition.

Musicians:

• Sunny War - vocals, guitar
• Alan Eckert - drums, backing vocals

Songs:

1. Cry Baby
2. No One Calls Me Baby
3. Got No Ride

The organ trio McTuff has, over the past two decades, provided glorious grooves and a soulful community all around the Northwest. On a chilly January afternoon, KNKX was thrilled to welcome the heat of Joe Doria on the Hammond organ, Andy Coe playing guitar and D'Vonne Lewis behind the drums.

In the KNKX studios, McTuff displayed the diverse sound and deep communication that has long made this a critical group in the Western Washington music scene. To many, McTuff is the Seattle sound of the 21st century.

The trio found its origins at the Art Bar in downtown Seattle in the late '90s, where Doria participated in loose jam sessions with guitarist Dan Heck and drummer John Wicks. Then Doria was offered the chance to perform on Tuesdays at the Seamonster Lounge in Wallingford, and he brought in Coe and Lewis to solidify the McTuff lineup.

The reaction from fans and musicians was very positive, Doria explained, that at this “tiny little bar, people would pack in, drummers would ask to sit in, lines of horn players,” would wait to sit in with McTuff.

Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame saxophonist Skerik became a semi-regular member of the band in their early days, and he still joins the trio when he can.

McTuff is happy to keep their lineup flexible, centered around the watchful eyes and ears of Doria. In fact, this “O.G.” McTuff band is just one version of the group. Doria explained that a second McTuff version swaps in drummer Tarik Abouzied for Lewis, and yet another version matches Doria with drummer Ehssan Karimi and one of two guitar players, Dan Schwindt or Cole Schuster.

“That’s very different," Doria said. "We do ‘90s cuts, Nintendo things. It’s kinda fun."

The original lineup, though, has been collaborating for around 20 years, and it shows.

“These guys are so good,” Doria said. “You’re having fun, swingin’ and bluesin’, but then you can go to left field, rock out, and he’s right there and he’s right there. They rarely miss a beat."

Discussing the trio’s ability to nearly read each other’s minds while playing, Doria bragged on his bandmates.

"Even by a look, he’ll know — ‘comp’ or ‘burn’ or ‘take it somewhere,” Doria said.

In an example of the typical McTuff banter, Coe laughed, holding up one finger, “This for ‘get me another drink.’”

Coe added that with the unlimited improvisational possibilities of McTuff, it’s important to “keep your ears open, because anything can happen. We never know what’s going to happen."

“I might not show up!” Doria said jokingly.

The three original McTuff members are very busy musicians who play in many other groups, so making records with this band hasn’t been a priority. Doria did offer hope for new recordings this year, perhaps live recordings from the Seamonster Lounge.

During his regular gig there, Doria keeps the grooves cooking Tuesdays from 10 p.m. to the early hours of the morning. If you need to be up early Wednesdays, KNKX now has three studio session performances from McTuff on demand. This one might be their best yet.

Musicians:

• Joe Doria - Hammond organ
• Andy Coe - guitar
• D'Vonne Lewis - drums

Songs:

1. Better by the Pound (Clinton/Cook)
2. Dancing on the Ceiling (Rodgers/Hart)
3. You're Only Happy When There's Conflict (Doria)

Kate Olson is one of Seattle’s favorite reed players, and a first call musician on saxophones and flutes. Olson will be releasing her first album as a leader in the new year, and recently brought her quartet to the KNKX Seattle studios to share some of her latest compositions.

The record, entitled So It Goes, is set to release on Origin Records Jan. 16. It features all original compositions by Olson. During her studio session at KNKX, she highlighted her new band and songwriting process, while also performing two fresh songs.

So It Goes features Conner Eisenmenger, who played trombone in this performance and also plays trumpet on the new album. Olson takes full advantage of his lyrical playing, as well as the prodigious talents of bassist Tim Carey and drummer Evan Woodle. Olson has been playing gigs with this lineup for more than a year.

Olson, an affiliate artist at Tacoma's University of Puget Sound, first moved to Seattle in 2010. In conversation with KNKX, she humbly suggested that she’s “not a naturally gifted musician. I had to learn everything by trial and error," Olson said.

She also acknowledged the impact of the privaten lessons she's taken with highly regarded mentors, including pianists Geri Allen and Wayne Horvitz. Horvitz makes guest appearances on piano for three songs on So It Goes, along with bassist Geoff Harper, who guests on two.

Olson's bandmates in the KNKX studios said they appreciate her pop sensibility and how she gravitates toward beautiful melodies. Emphasizing that point, Olson recalled asking Horvitz about how to connect with an audience.

“He’s like ‘well, beauty doesn’t hurt,'" she said. "So, you write a beautiful melody, and then you write something that’s fun to play over. That’s my motivation.”

Writing music has also taken Olson to inspirational settings around Puget Sound. Most of the songs on So It Goes were written on Whidbey Island and Orcas Island and about the natural world, she said.

But, Olson found different inspiration for her new tune “Car Trouble.” It's about a time she broke down at a ferry dock on her way to a composing retreat. The song's leisurely tempo evokes the long wait for a mechanic. It also features Olson on alto flute, an instrument she’s just started playing more recently.

“I got really excited about the sound of that instrument. That timbre is definitely the thing that inspires me," she said.

Another new song, “Subtleties,” and a track from the new album, “Bumbling Thumbs Blues,” have a bebop bounce that Thelonious Monk fans will find very appealing.

The session wraps with the record's strong, gospel-tinged title track, which moves at a stately pace and blends a pop aesthetic and dynamic interaction between the band members. Carey’s thoughtful solo on six-string electric bass was a highlight of this performance.

So It Goes is Olson’s long-awaited first album as a band leader. It confirms her stellar reputation as a player, composer and leader while offering up irresistibly catchy songs for her longtime fans and the new ones she’s sure to attract.

Musicians

• Kate Olson - saxophones
• Conner Eisenmenger - trombone, trumpet
• Tim Carey - bass
• Evan Woodle - drums

Songs

1. "Subtleties"
2. "Car Trouble"
3. "Bumbling Thumbs Blues"
4. "So It Goes"

Bassist, vocalist and composer Alune Wade returned to Seattle for the Earshot Jazz Festival in October and brought his new album tracing the path of music and culture between his native Senegal and the origins of jazz in New Orleans.

Rather than tracing the roots of jazz, the album New African Orleans examines the cultural "branches" of those roots in the United States.

Wade told us that he heard the music of New Orleans in Senegalese radio shows that featured jazz legends like Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong long before he learned about the cultural importance of the city.

In 2015, Wade produced a jazz festival on Gorée island off the Senegalese coast, an historic location involved in the Atlantic slave trade. “That was my first connection with the diaspora,” Wade explained.

Inspired by the history, Wade decided that “it was time for African people, people like me, to do this project with New Orleans.”

The connections are numerous, including the stage name origins of one of New Orleans’ most famous musicians. Mac Rebbenack took his stage name Dr. John from a man from Senegal named Jean Montanet who lived in New Orleans in the 1800s. Sometimes known as "Voudoo John," he possessed, Wade said, “a lot of magic, a lot of natural power.”

Wade’s new album includes his version of Dr. John’s song “Gris Gris Gumbo Yaya,” which tells the story of Montanet. He lived near Congo Square in New Orleans where African slaves there were allowed to make music on Sundays. More than 400 years ago, that place and time marked the origins of blues, jazz and American music.

Other connections Wade mentions include drum rhythms and cuisine drawn from West Africa, and even a tenuous link to Seattle’s native rock and roll hero, Jimi Hendrix. New African Orleans includes a cover of the Hendrix classic “Voodoo Child” with Wade singing some of the lyrics in his native Wolof language.

The Alune Wade septet brought all of this history to the KNKX studios in a most joyous performance of four songs, including a funky number from a past album called “Black Booty” that had our audience cheering for more.

Wade told us that he looks forward to keeping his connections to his fans and friends in the U.S. strong and even joked that his next album “will be Senegal-Seattle!” Until then, enjoy this West African-New Orleans gumbo from the Alune Wade band.

Musicians:

• Alune Wade - bass, vocals
• Alix Goffic - drums
• Cédric Douchemann - keyboards
• Victor Ademofe - trumpet, talking drums
• Harry Ahonlonsou - tenor and soprano saxophones
• Leah Concialdi - baritone saxophone
• Matt Breuer - trombone, sousaphone

Songs:

1. Night Tripper
2. Watermelon Man
3. Boogie and Juju
4. Black Booty

It’s been a busy two years for genre-bending singer Bilal. After a decade hiatus from recording, he released two albums in 2024: Bilal: Live at Glasshaus, where he was joined by some of his long-time collaborators, pianist Robert Glasper and rapper Common; and Adjust Brightness, which features fresh and thought-provoking new material.

On the heels of his performance at the 2025 Earshot Jazz Festival, Bilal visited the KNKX studios for a dynamic and intense performance of several songs from Adjust Brightness. Utilizing a blend of jazz, funk, soul, and rock, Adjust Brightness inhabits a unique sonic niche and combines introspective lyrics, addictive instrumentation, and Bilal's voice, which bends and contorts like a yo-yo.

Bilal’s captured audiences worldwide with his stage presence, akin to that of the legendary musician James Brown, and voice that's bigger than his physical stature. Sure enough, the spell was cast on our studio audience during his session.

Bilal and his band opened with the laid-back, post-psychedelic song, "Evr Chngin Nrml." Backed by the hard pound of Joseph Grissett's bass drum, Bilal’s lyrics were like streams of consciousness as he took audiences into a world of karmic influences, love, and the loneliness that comes with life's constant evolutions.

On the next tune, "Tell Me," the band provided an effortlessly groovy underpinning for the straight-ahead R&B tune with lyrics that can be read as a Shakespeare poem. Bilal crooned as he simply asked his lover what their heart desired.

Bilal and company wrapped the session with "Quantum Universe," a rock and roll opera with hints of reggae. The song felt like the perfect soundtrack to a post-apocalyptic film, as Bilal took an honest, but hopeful look at humanity and the power of manifestation, singing the lyrics “you are what you believe.”

Soulful, sensual and tirelessly innovative, Bilal’s studio session is a must-listen.

Musicians:

• Bilal Oliver, vocals
• Conley Whitfield, Jr., bass
• Randall Runyon, guitar
• Joseph Grissett, drums

Songs:

• "Evr Chngin Nrml"
• "Tell Me"
• "Quantum Universe"

With the just-released recording of his Seattle band's first concert, Jovino Santos Neto pays homage to 30 years in the Seattle area. In a recent visit to the KNKX studios, he talked about his Northwest connections and the magic of live performance.

Growing up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Santos Neto first heard live music from bands that would "play in the gazebos on Sunday nights.”

“I would walk and hear the music, and all I saw was a little window, and I was too scared to go up there,” he said.

Santos Neto’s growing passion for music eventually brought him to his mentor, Brazilian master musician and composer Hermeto Pascoal. Pascoal helped develop a fusion of jazz and samba and rose to international fame in the early '70s for his work with Miles Davis.

“My very first gig with Hermeto, I rehearsed for a whole week,” Santos Neto said. “We didn’t play any of the songs we rehearsed.”

“What Hermeto did was to teach us to trust our intuition, because our intuition is never wrong," he said. "If you can go to the source and drink that water from where it comes up, that’s what it is."

This lesson has become the foundation of Santos Neto’s music.

Santos Neto recently retired after more than a quarter-century teaching at Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts. The bass player for this session performance, Tim Carey, also teaches at the institution.

With the newly released Mais Que Tudo: Live at Kerry Hall, 1995, Santos Neto and his fans look back at his first concert with that Seattle band, which included Hans Teuber on the saxophone, Chuck Deardorf on the bass and Mark Ivester again played percussion.

“When I listen to it, I get blown away,” Santos Neto said. “It was like you’re cooking these beans in the pressure cooker and suddenly go, ‘Pssssshhh!’ The energy of our very first chord of the very first song, it came out with such power. You know when they christen a new ship with a champagne bottle? That was us!”

Santos Neto and his band, which also includes longtime collaborator Ben Thomas on vibraphone, recently performed in front of a rapt audience at the KNKX studios, their music bursting with life and love. Ivester played the drums, 30 years after the recording. Two of Santos Neto's older compositions, “Two Friends, True Friends,” and “Feira Livre," joined the new original tune, “Na Umbigaga Da Vida,” for this exclusive session.

There will be much more Santos Neto to enjoy later this year with two more live album releases. On Halloween, Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto will open for Latin Grammy-winning flutist Nestor Torres at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute for the Earshot Jazz Festival. In the meantime, put on your dancing shoes and enjoy this KNKX studio session.

Musicians:

• Jovino Santos Neto - piano, melodica
• Ben Thomas - vibraphone
• Tim Carey - electric bass
• Mark Ivester - drums

Songs:

1. Two Friends, True Friends
2. Na Umbigada Da Vida
3. Feira Livre

For more than three decades, Larry Goldings has found a lot to say in an organ trio with guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Bill Stewart. Recently, KNKX caught the group's musical conversation during an exclusive performance at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, followed by a chat about the trio's origins and well-honed simpatico.

Goldings, who was born in Boston, was originally a piano player. For that reason, pianists were his biggest influences as a young musician.

"Before I heard [organ legend] Jimmy Smith, I heard Mel Rhyne,” Goldings said. “He wasn’t falling into the Jimmy Smith pattern at all, in terms of style and repertoire.”

Goldings was also drawn to "the kinds of trios that are really communicating with each other, where not one person is always at the center of attention," he said.

He kept those influences in mind as he put his own trio together years later. Goldings spoke humbly about his trio's first recording in 1991, saying it took him time to find his stride.

“I was very new to playing the real Hammond B-3. I kind of felt like, ‘I think I need a few more years on this instrument,'" he said. "I do remember, we felt like a band worth documenting. It was quite a thrill!”

That album, The Intimacy of the Blues, was well-received and also launched a trio that's evolved into one of the best performing today. After all, each member honed their talents through extensive touring and recording with stars like James Taylor (Goldings), Dr. Lonnie Smith (Bernstein), and James Brown (Stewart).

The trio's sound often defies expectations of the organ trio sound. Goldings, who won the Downbeat Magazine critics’ poll for Organist of the Year in 2024 and 2025, plays as an orchestrator and colors the music with his playing. Meanwhile, Bernstein takes the lead on melodies and Stewart adds in his layered, polyrhythmic drumming.

“Our range is a little wider than the perception of the traditional organ trio," Bernstein said. "We play whatever we like, and anything can be adapted."

The trio’s repertoire includes originals from all three, as well as standards and classics of different kinds. Much of their uniqueness stems from their eclectic tastes and the way each musician's unique voice is represented.

“We’ve all been writing for the group in recent years," Stewart said.

This time around, Goldings, Bernstein and Stewart offered up Burt Bacharach’s “This Guy’s in Love with You” to begin the set at Jazz Alley. From there, original tunes from the organist and guitarist showed off their dynamic range and collaboration.

“We...just find some tunes we like to play and let an arrangement just kind of come together,” Bernstein said. “I feel comfortable with these guys and know that whatever I do, it’s gonna be cool, no matter what.”

Looking ahead, the trio will record a new live album this month at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club in New York City. They’ll release it next year on the venue’s label, Smoke Sessions Records, and it will come with a vinyl pressing. Until then, enjoy this live set from the trio at Jazz Alley.

Musicians:

• Larry Goldings - organ
• Peter Bernstein - guitar
• Bill Stewart - drums

Songs:

1. "This Guy's in Love with You" (B.Bacharach)
2. "Mr. Meagles" (L.Goldings)
3. "Dissipation Blues" (P.Bernstein)