Originally published Monday, May 25, 2009 at 11:38 AM
Let The Seattle Times Fall Arts Guide help you make wise choices, from now til Thanksgiving. We list what's happening in theater, music, dance and books.
Comments (0)
E-mail article
Print view
Share
Festival Review | At Bellevue Jazz Fest, fine music overcomes settings
The Bellevue Jazz Festival, now in its second year, had an impressive display of music from national artists like Dianne Reeves and the Mingus Big Band, and local stars from area high schools and the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, May 22-24, 2009.
Special to The Seattle Times
Festival Review |
Audiences obliged the second Bellevue Jazz Festival, showing up in respectable and consistent numbers over Memorial Day weekend in venues large and small — making an encouraging case for the state of jazz patronage on the Eastside and in Greater Seattle.
Designed to be a big, high impact, civic ritual befitting a burgeoning metropolis, the three-day Bellevue Jazz Festival met its intentions on an important front, delivering an impressive density of jazz performances and the crowds expected of a large-scale event.
Friday's headliner Dianne Reeves, a widely celebrated singer with the celebrity heft and the hardware (four Grammy Awards) to carry a big-money jazz festival, performed with just two guitarists, Russell Malone on electric guitar, Romero Lubambo on acoustic, providing a new context to a voice that is as pure and pitch-perfect as they come.
Saturday night, the festival featured the Mingus Big Band, musician for musician one of the most spirited and technically gifted bands in the country. The event closed Sunday night with a nod to the local talent as the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, an all-star big band made up of Seattle's top musicians, performed Count Basie's Kansas City Suite to perfection.
Three sextets made up of the area's most talented high school musicians opened for the SRJO as part of the festival's jazz-education component. Other student combos played through the weekend at the Bellevue Arts Museum.
In general, the festival's top end (the national artists) and bottom end (students) were well showcased. It was the middle — the local professional musicians — who might have been underutilized; it is their fan base, after all, that serves as the backbone audience for all jazz in the region.
The festival is on a three-year mission to become a viable event. As an investment in the cultural life of Bellevue, it also has to deliver returns and cover a budget that climbs well into the five figures just to pay the artists. The concerts in the Meydenbauer Center consistently drew audiences in the range of 400 to 600 people; Seattle singer Greta Matassa's quartet filled the showroom of the Sherman Clay piano store; the late-night jam sessions at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel also drew healthy crowds who were treated to appearances by several members of the Mingus band as well as Lubambo and Malone.
If anything held back the festival, it was its physical surroundings. Downtown Bellevue, like many new cities, was built for cars and commerce, with wide streets and long blocks intimidating to pedestrians. New construction of high-rises frequently cut off sidewalks. Although a handful of venues were clustered conveniently along Bellevue Way, others (including Meydenbauer) were scattered over some 20 square blocks, too far for a comfortable walk. Essentially, the festival's interface did not measure up to the content.
Meydenbauer is not a pure performance hall, but a mixed-use facility. The theater, where most of the performances were held, is a comfortable if austere room. But the Center Hall, where Reeves and the Mingus band performed, was designed to house large conventions and banquets (like the alumni meeting of a college sorority in there on the jazz festival's final night).
The open jam sessions were similarly held in a hotel meeting room set up with tables and chairs. Musicians reported it an improvement from last year, when the sessions were held in a noisy bar.
The smaller venues were a mix of bars and restaurants, some more intimate than others. Singer Trish Hatley's shows at El Gaucho got a bit lost in the cacophony of the vast dining room. Trumpeter Thomas Marriott performed Saturday with his trio in a bar off the lobby of the Westin, a beautiful room of suitable scale with large doors that opened to a pedestrian walkway. But he had to contend with the noise coming from the lobby and the walkway used by shoppers at Bellevue Square.
Other musicians had to settle for more prosaic spaces: Pianist Bill Anschell had to bring his own electric keyboard to play the bar at the Sheraton Hotel; guitarist Dave Peterson's trio performed in the loft at the Rock Bottom Brewery & Restaurant next to the pool table and projection TV. In each case the music overcame the setting.
Hugo Kugiya: hkugiya@yahoo.com
Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company
More Music & nightlife headlines...
E-mail article
Print view
Share
![]()
NEW - 04:52 PM
Supergroup Them Crooked Vultures land at the Paramount
A wild and crazy list of best comedy albums ever
Miles of music: trumpeter's collection covers 70 CDs
NEW - 04:57 PM
Them Crooked Vultures set list, Nov. 21
Longtime sax buddies rekindle days of soulful club gigs

LA Galaxy's David Beckham
Los Angeles Galaxy's David Beckham talks about the upcoming MLS Cup final during after a team practice.
nwjobs

Post a comment

Michelle Goodman blogs about work/life balance.
How to tell your office you're gravely ill
Post a comment
nwautos

Choosing a new sedan? Weigh the impact of your choice on your wallet and on the planet.
Post a comment
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Craigslist adoption ad: A plea by young mother-to-be? A scam?
- Italian lead prosecutor argues Knox motive was hatred
- Tugboat sinks on Seattle's waterfront
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- Italian prosecutors request life sentence for UW student
- Man shot in chest on E. Union Street in Capitol Hill
- Washington state wines make annual best-of list
- Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors
- Mariners Blog | A Mariners-Tigers swap makes a whole lot of sense for both teams
- Senate vote clears hurdle
239 - Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
120 - Vikings easily beat the Seahawks
119 - Tight Senate vote launches health care over hurdle
119 - Palin excitement builds in Tri-Cities
117 - Cutting through breast-cancer confusion
89 - Prosecutor requests life in prison for Amanda Knox
88 - Game thread
70 - New York terror trials will restore faith in rule of law
53 - Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors
48
- Washington state wines make annual best-of list
- Nonprofits get creative using Twitter and Facebook to make donation easier
- It's possible to recover a life lost to hoarding
- Lynnwood is reinventing itself — again
- Great places to cross-country ski for free (or almost) in the Methow
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- Recipes: Sesame Pork Roast, Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes, Gingerbread with Lemon Sauce and more
- Banff: powder, peaks & purity
- 175 foster kids in Washington get 'forever families'





