CultureMob takes a snapshot of the local Seattle Jazz scene.

by Cedric Ross

A few months ago, I went to Tutta Bella in Columbia City. On my way there I passed by the Hendrix Electric Lounge (the bar next to the Columbia City Theater) and looked into the window to see a quartet playing some jazz music. There was a small audience closely listening. They looked enthusiastic too! It almost made me want to go inside to see what was happening, but I was hungry. When I arrived to Tutta Bella, I saw that they too had live jazz going on. Then it dawned on me that I’ve noticed several live jazz shows through the windows of Hendrix Electric Lounge or Tutta Bella, but have never really paid attention. In fact, I’ve seen more jazz music in the city as of late than I have in a very long time. That got me thinking about the local jazz scene in Seattle. Are we seeing more venues supporting local artists these days? Are there more local artists playing out? I could recall seeing other venues showcasing jazz with their dinner audience. Is this live jazz with dinner thing taking off or am I just trippin’ (aka seeing the world through my little narrow point of view)?

What am I asking here? I guess I should first define my theory in a way that I could easily articulate. Okay, try this; I think that jazz music is on the rise in Seattle. Not just any jazz, mind you. I’m talking about homegrown local jazz. So potent, it should be illegal. There is more live jazz music being played in restaurants and venues than I’ve personally seen in the past 10 or so years. That’s my theory. But what’s a theory if you can’t attempt to prove it right? And for that matter, what’s proof if you don’t have any credibility? So I decided to stimulate my curiosity by talking to a few experts on the subject to get their opinion. What I found out was not what I expected.

“First of all, thank you for noticing!” Says Gary Bannister (the Booking manager at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley and an unofficial jazz historian). I arrived at Jazz Alley early in the afternoon. Gary was outside opening the doors for jazz artist Chris Botti and his band. Chris Botti (Trumpeter, Composer and sometimes singer) was in town for a multi night gig. Gary seemed excited to see them. He had just picked up the band from the airport and was letting them into the venue to set up and sound check. We talked while Gary was driving the bus back to where his van was. It was cool of him to let me tag along. It turns out that Gary was a founding member of Earshot Jazz (1984). In Gary’s opinion, Jazz has come full circle in Seattle.

Gary tends to agree that there’s a growing interest in live jazz in Seattle. He’s optimistic but believes that the majority of patrons going out to hear jazz music for the first time get less exposed to the diversity of the genre. Which is something that he works hard to remedy night in and night out as a booking manager. He sees a change in the casual music listener. There are more people willing to get out and experience live jazz. Gary thinks music has become more of a social activity. People have also become less intimidated by the venues that support it. There will always be those that prefer to patronize the smoke filled rooms or dives of course, but the majority of listeners prefer a more inviting atmosphere.

Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, Tula’s Jazz Club, Bakes Places, New City Theater have supported jazz music over the years. As I mentioned previously, Tutta Bella in Columbia City, the Hendrix Electric Lounge, The Triple Door, Serafina, La Spiga, and Wasabi Bistro are but a few of the newer local Seattle spots that also support jazz music.

Seattle based composer and improviser artist Christopher DeLaurenti voices skepticism with the notion that there’s a resurgence of the local Jazz scene. Christopher, who covers classical, jazz, and experimental music in a weekly column for The Stranger speaks about the jazz scene from a different perspective. “The local jazz scene activity is healthy and vibrant”. Claims Christopher. He accepts that more people are becoming aware of jazz music but to him, it’s hard to gauge if there’s a significant increase in the interest. Furthermore, there appears to be no increase in venues. He doesn’t see a lot of focus on the artist at restaurants that support live music. You know that saying about the difference between hearing and listening right? My mom used to always tell me I never listen. She’d go on to say other things but I can’t remember what she would say…but I digress!

Christopher and I had a great conversation about all the artists we know that have often complained about the music listener. Do local artists stand more of a chance of being ignored? What are their chances of actually being heard? Will the music they play have any effect on someone’s life? His father who was also a musician, used to play at the local restaurants. He once told Christopher about a time when he played in a noisy restaurant, not too many people were there to listen to the music. It was more background than anything else. Then, during the playing of one tune, a patron stopped whatever he was doing and got interested. Christopher’s father noticed that this one patron got involved. I’m retelling this story in my own words but you get my meaning. One tune had made the difference.

Gary Bannister has similar ideas regarding the relationship between the listener and the artist. He gives a lot of credit to the late Al Hood, Piano player and composer. Alastair “Al” Hood recorded one of the first Experimental Jazz albums in Seattle (Not Quite Right – released 1978). He died on April 25, 2003 at the age of 67. It was Al that hipped Gary to the likes of Cecil Taylor, Andrew Hill, and so many other great artists. He instilled in Gary a love of music that Gary seems to instill in others. Myself included. I mean, I just talked to the man for about an hour but I walked away with a tremendous respect for his experience and sense of history. “Those great artists who contributed to history are often undervalued. “Younger people get little doses of their history”. There are some very good magazines and blogs about jazz. The magazines tend to highlight current events but many of them will feature an artist and expose readers to the rich legacy jazz music has to offer.

Christopher shares that there are a number of really cool magazines out there he likes. NW Jazz Profile, Earshot Jazz and All About Jazz Seattle are great resources. Earshot Jazz is the oldest and most in-depth of the three. There are also a few excellent blogs that seem to capture the scene pretty well. It’s not like there’s a lack of musicians to write about. At times it seems like musicians are coming out of the woodwork. Christopher DeLaurenti recalled a conversation he had with Doug Haire (Artist, composer). They talked about a theory known as the Six Month Rule. Every six months seems to bring up new crops of artists out of nowhere. Or a defunct band re-formed…again, these are my words in the retelling of the story. Doug Haire is also the producer of the local Seattle radio show Sonarchy, which is recorded at Jack Straw Productions. You can hear Sonarchy every Saturday from midnight to 1am on KEXP 90.3 FM in Seattle.

Throughout my conversation with Gary and Christopher, I started to appreciate their depth of experience, and their commitment to inspire the next generation of artists and enthusiasts out there. In fact, I soon realized that the most notable thing they had in common was their belief in the artists, enthusiast and the venues that support them. I’m looking forward to talking to Gary and Christopher more in the future!

At the end of the day, I don’t know if I definitively can say that the local jazz scene is on the rise. What I do know is that there are plenty of opportunities for you to get out and decide for yourself.

My thanks again go out to Gary Bannister (Booking Manager for Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley | www.jazzalley.com) and to Christopher DeLaurenti. (www.thestranger.com, www.delaurenti.net).

Go to Culturemob.com to find out about Jazz artists, events and venues in the Seattle area.

..and Seattle slays Bassnectar! Neumos on Capitol Hill last Friday night was the straight atomic bomb action, the dirtiest, stickiest, sweatiest show I’ve seen there since Edit and OOah slammed down back in December. The Seattle music phreaks were out and pumped from the early evening despite the cold ticket line that wrapped way around the corner of Pike, and the energy just grew and grew from there to detonation level: minds blown.

Local homeboy Nordic Soul started the show followed by abstract technoist Lusine who really warmed up the crowd with his minimal beats, to say the least. His throbbing set was the perfect opener and had everyone already bumping up and down on the dance floor. The non-profit Seattle art crew Artifakt provided the live painting, and artist Roman produced a visual display throughout the show, an awesome addition to the creative energy in the room. The painter was clearly boiling over with talent; however the crowd was not at all into the finished rendition of the Seattle skyline. We are not shopping tourists at the Fremont market; we are Seattle and we see the real deal every day. A more abstract piece would have been better appreciated by the most abstract crowd.

By the time Lorin (Bassnectar) stepped up to the decks at midnight the room was already sweaty, and from the first beat he dropped the audience went berserk: yelling, jumping, dancing like maniacs, and taking off clothes. From the front of the floor all the way to the back Neumo’s was packed, even the balcony was shaking with movers, and the positive energy just popped off the walls all night. People weren’t bobbing heads and tapping feet; they were going wild. The club was oversold of course, sweat was flying everywhere and Bassnectar gave the whompiest, sickest beats ever for almost two hours. His original mixes and wide-minded take on electronica strike hard the hearts of music lovers who too often get stuck with deejay mimics and uninspired repeat beats. Bassnectar’s thick thick bass, tempo changes and kaleidoscopic combination of music from reggae to rock created a wicked insane vibe on the dance floor, and the crowd of hard core fans tore Neumo’s down. The show even extended way outside where the unlucky fools who couldn’t get tickets were getting down anyway in the middle of the street, Capitol Hill cops be damned.

Bassnectar was obviously as blown away by the experience as we were, dancing and sweating so much during his set that he had to use a bath towel to mop off himself and his equipment. He even stopped the beats a couple of times to tell Seattle how much we rock. Maybe he is used to the San Francisco fans who are just a little bit spoiled by all the kicking electronic music in that city (oh look, another Glitch Mob show, mmm). San Fran may have a giant freaking scene compared to Seattle, but the energy and passion at Neumos on Friday night matched any crazy party on the West Coast. Everyone in the room needed a bath towel that night, I needed two, and no one left the show without a smile and a soul rejuvenated by the music and dance experience that is Bassnectar.

It is always so inspiring to be a part of the energy exchange between an explosive deejay and a psyched crowd; the positive vibe flow bounces back and forth from the artist to the audience until it reaches a ridiculous level. Your brain melts, your body turns to jello, and your soul flies off into outer space. This is why we dance, this is why we love music, this why we crawl the streets of Seattle in search of electric artists who give it. And Bassnectar gave it.

At the raging afterparties everyone was so stoked about the show that they were almost at a loss for words. By Saturday there were already MySpace comments about having Bassnectar’s babies, and more than one person was seriously considering hopping a flight to Hawaii to catch his next show. Seattle was massacred, slaughtered on the dance floor, killed with the beats, and brought back to life by the music. If you missed the show though, wipe away your tears. Lorin was so stoked by the Seattle response that he will no doubt be back to our town; only next time we’re burnin’ down the Showbox. I will be there on the dance floor, and next time I will bring a towel.

Yessir, the insurance cards arrived in the mail over the weekend. Full medical, dental and vision coverage for the whole company. Some would call this a luxury. I disagree. We cut corners elsewhere. Thanks to Pierard for making it happen.

Plus, the insurance actuaries think our company profile means we’re lower cost than the average. Do they know us? Half our guys ride bikes (motorized and not) into the office. Doesn’t matter. Try to stay in one piece, fellas. But whatever happens, we’ve got you covered!

I recently got some grief for not mentioning that we’re hiring a Content Editor. (Well, yeah, that’s a good point…)

Here it is. We’re moving quickly on it, and getting close to a final decision. If you’re a late-inning entrant, better move quick!

CultureMob.com is your personalized guide for discovering great local events — music, movies, theater, and more. We provide personalized recommendations and are adding more rich content every day.

We’re looking for someone to take the lead on aggregating the best third party content (reviews, images, video etc.), writing original reviews and previews, leading our blog strategy and leading portions of our SEO outreach efforts.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

• Ability to rapidly produce great content with real personality. Seattle’s got personality. So do you.
• Knowledge about and enthusiasm for local events of all types. If you’re idea of a happenin’ time is to sit on the La-Z-boy while watching bad TV, this probably isn’t right for you.
• Extroverted. You need to be willing and enthusiastic about contacting tons of people, all the time.
• Web-saavy. You’re more of a blogosphere/myspace/facebook/twitter/whatever2.0 junky than you should probably admit to.
• Highly Organized. Self-motivated. Seriously, do you think I want to babysit someone? No. You understand the goals. You make it happen.

CultureMob is a startup that is backed by some of Seattle’s leading angel investors. We have fun, but we’re also serious about building a great company. If you’re not interested in going the extra mile, please don’t bother applying. (Just being candid, it benefits us all.)

If this sounds good to you. Please drop us a note. We’ll be even more impressed if you go to culturemob.com and put some comments in the system!

Find great events in Seattle at CultureMob.com!

Thanks to Marcello Calbucci at Sampa for maintaining the Seattle Startup Index. This is a great resource. In January, Marcello noted that CultureMob was one of the “big movers,” moving up 51 positions during the month. Thanks for the mention!

We’re thrilled to have Cedric on board. Ced’s background at Amazon during the early days means he has experience with rapid growth, and all that goes with it. His experience as a musician and forming his own record label means he understands first-hand the challenges facing artists and performers.

We’ve talked about CultureMob being “the artist’s friend” and “the place artists go to find great events.” There’s a couple reasons for this. If we build to this standard, we’ll deliver an outstanding service for everyone. Also, while we focus on helping people find great events, the other side of the equation is that event performers and promoters are looking for growing and enthusiastic audiences. To look at only one side of the equation is to miss the entirety of the challenge.

Ced will be working with artists, enthusiast, promoters, venue owners and others, to make sure we understand their needs and can help them fill their events with enthusiasts.

If you’re on the performer/promoter side of the equation, and are interested to learn more about what we’ve got in store, feel free to shoot him a note! cedric at culturemob dot com.

Welcome aboard, Ced!

With the Pacific Northwest Ballet performing its version of “Romeo and Juliet” 1/31/08 through 2/10/08, it seems appropriate to come up with the CultureMob top versions of Romeo and Juliet, regardless of medium.

See a video preview of the local version here.

Best Anime Romeo and Juliet: Ash & May

I can’t believe the song Romeo & Juliet by S.O.A.P. isn’t on some version of Dance Dance Revolution. Even better would be if had this Ash & May Romeo and Juliet anime to go along with it. See it on Youtube here.

Best Final Fantasy Romeo and Juliet

Set to the Finnish europop Movetron’s “Romeo ja Julia,” this amazing fan-created Final Fantasy version tells the entire story in a crisp 4 minutes and 43 seconds. Amazing! View it here.

Best 19th century painting of Romeo and Juliet: Ford Maddox Brown

As many as one-fifth of all literary paintings done between 1760 and 1900 were of Shakespeare’s plays. Emory University’s Harry Rusche has cataloged many of them for his class called “Shakespeare Illustrated.” This one by Ford Maddox Brown depicts the famous scene on the balcony

Best Romeo and Juliet Movie: The Franco Zeffirelli version (1968)

With all due respect to the stunning acting abilities of Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet (cough, cough), the 1968 version directed by Franco Zeffirelli is the gold standard of movie versions. Starring Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, both young teens at the time, Zeffirelli cast this well and brings the right intensity to the story, while staying true to Shakespeare’s vision.

See this great blog post about the “where are they now?” story of Hussey and Whiting.

Best Falsetto Sock Puppet Romeo and Juliet: Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre

The four parts of this video are all on YouTube here. Not much you can do with sock puppets, but he gets all he can from these characters.

Best Ballet Romeo and Juliet: Angel Corella and Alessandra Ferri

I’ll bet you thought I’d go with Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn in 1966 at the Royal Ballet or perhaps Nureyev at the Ballet de l’Opera National de Paris. If you want to go really old school there is always Maya Plisetskaya. But I had to go with Alessandra Ferri and her performance with Angel Corella. How many ballet superstars have their own MySpace page?

Although not complete, here’s a useful timeline of ballet productions of Romeo and Juliet. And another even more incredible YouTube find is the original Juliet, Galiana Ulanova.

Best Romeo and Juliet Song: Dire Straits

The cover by the Killers is pretty good, and there are a bunch of soundtrack songs to choose from, but the overwhelming winner is the original Romeo and Juliet by the Dire Straits.

Best Electronic Book Version of Romeo and Juliet: Google Book

I’m partial to this 1913 version that comes complete with notes and is free to download from Google Books.

Best Romeo and Juliet Musical Adaptation: West Side Story

Duh! I like this comparison between West Side Story and the real play.

Best Stage Production of Romeo and Juliet: 1935 Old Vic

After Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet has probably been performed more than any other Shakespeare play. So it would be difficult to come up with the ultimate production. But the 1935 Old Vic production with John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft has long been considered to be one of the greatest.

Big Collection of Romeo and Juliet Videos

Here’s a collection of the videos mentioned above as well as several more:

This past week you might have noticed some new features on the site that have the staff here going ga-ga. We want to point them out to the folks out on the Intertubes to see who will go more ga-ga:

• You now get the top recommendation for your favorite categories and music/movie genres based off of their popularity on our site. Make sure to set these in your account profile. Let’s say you’re a fan of “bluegrass” music, but you don’t have a lot of “bluegrass” in your iTunes collection (or even if you don’t use iTunes); this will give you a way to follow popular “bluegrass” shows and get notified through…
• …our new streamlined e-mail. We’ve cleaned up the layout and added community content so you can see what events people are talking about and reviewing. We’ve also made it easy to keep track of your saved events.
• We’ve seen that people are using the date filters to refine their results. We’ve now made it much more powerful by adding the ability to filter by a specific date or a date range. If you’ve got a friend coming to town next month for a week, this is a great way to find great events for that week.
• AND MY FAVORITE: You can now subscribe your calendar and feed-reader to recommendations, saved events, custom searches, artists, and venues. I’ve subscribed to my recommendations in my calendar and now get calendar alerts synced with my computer and my phone to let me know when events I want to see are coming up. I’ve also got a feed for very specific events by browsing “Music” and applying a facet for “Hip-Hop” and “Funk”; then saving the feed. Or if you want to follow all of the events at your favorite venue in your RSS reader or your Outlook or iCal calendar, just click on the icon.

We hope that you get a chance to try out these features and let us know what you think…