1. The annual Golden Ear Awards for outstanding achievement in Seattle Jazz will be presented on March 13 at The Royal Room. There are five nominees in each of eight.
2. The Jazz Journalists Association announces the 2017 Jazz Heroes: 26 individuals in 20 locales around the U.S. who have contributed to the furtherance of jazz in ways.
3. Plot outline, cast information, and user comments.

The 1. 0 Best Jazz Albums of 2. So Far)Singer Diana Krall’s 1. Turn Up the Quiet, is one of our early favorites for the year’s best jazz records. Marc Mccartney. From the coolest member of the Rolling Stones to a punk icon trying on his Sinatra fedora to a former bartender who mixes sounds through her trumpet as potent as a dirty martini, jazz music during this first half of 2.

But as our mid- year Top 1. Miles Davis once called “neighborhood music” so beautiful and meaningful with each passing day: its ability to exist as an all- inclusive entity regardless of who you are or the steps you’ve traveled doesn’t just make jazz’s possibilities infinite—this is what makes jazz timeless. If you have the aptitude to make a joyful noise in a way that helps transport us from the stresses of everyday life, regardless of whether you were schooled at Julliard or in the vinyl section of your favorite record shop, greatness awaits once the right jumble of notes comes together. That’s fate. That’s jazz.

By TED GIOIA Oxford University Press. Read the Review. The Prehistory of Jazz The Africanization of American Music. An elderly black man sits astride a large. The Jazz Cruise has presented the very best straight-ahead jazz in the world since 2001. With nearly 100 jazz musicians on the ship, 2018 is no exception.

And if our Top 1. Diana Krall, Turn Up the Quiet (Verve)There isn’t a name more synonymous with the elegance of jazz than Tommy Li. Puma, whose work as a record producer and executive has earned him an unprecedented 3. Grammy nominations and five statues throughout the course of his 5. His passing in March at the age of 8. One of his greatest accomplishments was nurturing the career of Diana Krall, helming the majority of the singer’s recorded output. So it’s only fitting that his final production credit belongs to Krall’s 1.

Turn Up The Quiet is a stunning collection of interpretations of selections from the Great American Songbook by Krall, performed alongside a trio of ensembles featuring longtime sidemen from throughout her career, including guitarists Russell Malone and Marc Ribot, bassists Christian Mc. Bride and Tony Garnier and drummers Karriem Riggins and Jeff Hamilton.

Li. Puma’s gorgeous production injects the singer’s breathy renditions of such staples as “Night and Day,” “Blue Skies” and “Like Someone In Love” with a vibrancy that helps keep these songs vital even today. This album is a fitting tribute to the genius of a man who has been called the most trusted ears in music as much as it is the enduring pulchritude of jazz music’s most beloved ingénue. Matthew Stevens, Preverbal (Ropeadope)Were you a fan of the electric guitar that punctuated Esperanza Spalding’s acclaimed 2. LP Emily’s D+Evolution? You can thank her guitarist, Toronto’s own Matthew Stevens for those meaty Vernon Reid- inspired inflections. On his great second album as bandleader, the guitar player doubles down on the amplification in a way that envisions Sonny Sharrock’s Ask The Ages remixed by Tortoise. If the presence of serious electric rock guitar is something you miss in your jazz music, this is the album that surely has the late Larry Coryell applauding it from the heavens above.

Jimmy Greene, Flowers: Beautiful Life, Volume 2 (Mack Avenue)Tenor sax great Jimmy Greene continues to be a beacon of strength as he channels his grief of losing a child to gun violence into some of the most vibrant, lyrical jazz coming out of America today. Flowers: Beautiful Life, Volume 2 is a gorgeous testament to the vibrancy of his late daughter, 6- year- old Ana Márquez- Greene, which relishes in the playful energy of childhood with the assistance of not one but two phenomenal groups. One, Jimmy Greene’s Love In Action, is a crew featuring Renee Rosnes on both grand piano and Fender Rhodes, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts with the help of percussionist Rogerio Boccato and, on three of the six tracks featuring this ensemble, guitarist Mike Moreno. The other is Greene’s quartet comprised of keyboardist Kevin Hays, bassist Ben Williams and drummer Otis Brown III.

Both bands do a such an incredible job helping this loving and devoted father provide the kind of music that inspired his daughter to dance, keeping the vibrancy of her beautiful, young spirit alive and well in the hereafter. Linda May Han Oh, Walk Against The Wind (Biophilia)Mimes may be unfortunately relegated to comedic punchline or city- park nuisance. Yet when the age- old art form is done by a true master like the late French actor Marcel Marceau like the time he performed his famed “Walking Against The Wind” sketch, it’s literal poetry in motion. On her gorgeous new album on Biophilia Records, bassist Linda May Han Oh finds inspiration in the graceful frustration of Marceau’s performance art masterpiece, utilizing it as a metaphor for her own journey as one of the most respected bassists in modern jazz today. With the assistance of a mind- blowing quartet rounded out by Kneebody’s Ben Wendel on saxophone, guitarist Matthew Stevens and drummer Justin Brown alongside further enhancement from guest spots by innovative keyboardist Fabian Almazan and traditional Korean multi- instrumentalist Minji Park, the bassist delivers an 1. Ralph Towner, My Foolish Heart (ECM)For 4. Oregon guitarist Ralph Towner has recorded almost exclusively for ECM as a solo artist.

In February, the Chehalis, Wash., native released one of his finest LPs for the label with My Foolish Heart, a collection of soothing original compositions for solo classical and 1. Bill Evans title track, a tune that, according to Towner, inspired him to make music.

It’s a perfect album to have playing in the background while enjoying dinner with your beloved. At 7. 7 years young, Towner is a national treasure, and there is no better time to hear the pure romance of his genius on guitar than soothing your mind to this gorgeous collection. Dayna Stephens, Gratitude (Contagious Music)Brooklyn- born, Bay Area- bred saxophonist Dayna Stephens named his eighth LP Gratitude because that’s the exact sentiment he felt being able to return to recording new music following a battle against Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis, or FSG, a hardening of the blood vessels in the kidneys that can lead to renal failure. With the help of an amazing quintet rounded out by pianist Brad Mehldau, guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Eric Harland, the dreadlocked reedist strikes a resonant balance between feelings of hope and uncertainly through a beguiling, spiritual set of compositions written by such friends and heroes as Aaron Parks, Rebecca Martin, Billy Strayhorn and Pat Metheny among others. These are instrumental tunes meant to sing along to, and the joy that emanates through Stephens’ performances on both baritone and tenor sax indeed beams with the gratitude of a man whose earned a new lease on life.

Charlie Watts, Charlie Watts Meets The Danish Radio Big Band (Impulse!)Perhaps the best kept secret within the universe of the Rolling Stones is the jazz career of Charlie Watts. If you’re the type of person who holds both Duke Ellington’s Blues in Orbit and Beggars Banquet in equal regard, chances are you’ve already dove into the intrepid drummer’s modest but masterful cache of titles for both big- band and small- ensemble work, highlighted by such must- own recordings as his 1.

Charlie Parker tribute From One Charlie and 2. LP Watts at Scott’s. This new jazz recording from Watts, culled from a 2. Watch Zeitgeist IMDB here. Copenhagen, Denmark, with the Danish Radio Big Band for the country’s national radio broadcast, is one of the great surprises of 2.

Co- piloted by Watts with his childhood friend Dave Green on bass, the powerful orchestra gives brassy, classy overhauls to such certified Stones classics as “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Paint It Black” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” while also paying homage to one of the 7. Elvin Suite” a two- part homage to the late John Coltrane sideman Elvin Jones co- written with Blondie Chaplin and Jim Keltner originally for 2. Charlie Watts Jim Keltner Project LP. If you’ve yet to discover the jazzworks of the best drummer in rock ‘n’ roll, Charlie Watts Meets The Danish Radio Big Band is a great place to start your education.