(Bainbridge Island, Wash.) — The Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) is proud to announce the seventh annual Within/Earshot Jazz Festival dedicated to celebrating and exploring the traditions and future of jazz. A collaboration with Seattle’s Earshot Jazz, the Within/Earshot Jazz Festival features five concerts from acclaimed jazz musicians in BIMA’s Auditorium, presentations and conversations with regional jazz experts, and the return of BIMA’s smARTfilms series with four jazz-related films. Special playlists and more will be featured on BIMA's website and social media channels throughout the festival.
More information about each event can be found on BIMA’s website at biartmuseum.org/events/within-earshot-jazz-festival/. BIMA is located at 550 Winslow Way East, Bainbridge Island.
BIMA is honored to partner with Seattle’s Earshot Jazz once again, and to participate in the most prestigious jazz music festival in the Pacific Northwest. Earshot Jazz works year-round to cultivate a vibrant jazz community—taking risks, honoring artistic integrity and innovation, and connecting jazz artists to audiences through the Earshot Jazz Festival.
“There are so many shared connections between contemporary art and contemporary jazz, both art forms that continually reinvent themselves in response to the world,” said Sheila Hughes, BIMA’s Executive Director and this year’s festival producer. “It’s a thrill to bring these artists together under the same BIMA roof to hear, see, and feel what they have to say.”
The Within/Earshot Jazz Festival is a PRISM program of BIMA. PRISM is a cultural catalyst delivering intimate, curated performances, presentations, and cultural celebrations that explore the personal connection between artist and audience. The Within/Earshot Jazz Festival is made possible by Realogics Sotheby’s, Kitsap County, City of Bainbridge Island Cultural Fund, Earshot Jazz, Crosscut, KCTS 9, KNKX Radio, and arts supporter Steve Davis.
WITHIN/EARSHOT JAZZ FESTIVAL 2023 LINEUP
CONCERTS
Jenny Davis Jazz Quartet
Sunday, October 8, 7:00pm
$22 member / $25 non-member
Redefining the art of singing, award-winning vocalist, composer, and bandleader Jenny Davis has established herself as an innovative, progressive composer, gaining the attention and respect of musicians, critics, and fans throughout the US and abroad. The Jenny Davis Jazz Quartet, features Marina Albero (piano), Ted Enderle (bass), and Xavier Lecouturier (drums) along with bandleader Davis on vocals.
Naomi Moon Siegel Ensemble
Sunday, October 15, 7:00pm
$22 member / $25 non-member
The Naomi Moon Siegel Ensemble is a genre-bending, experiential adventure weaving instrumental landscapes from soaring melodies, visceral textures, creative interplay, layered rhythms, and improvisation. After receiving a Performance Plus Grant from Chamber Music America to workshop and record their music with mentorship from Allison Miller, the ensemble has become a cohesive, collaborative, intuitive unit. The ensemble features Marina Albero on piano, Ray Larsen on trumpet, Andy Coe on guitar, Kelsey Mines on bass, Christopher Icasiano on drums, and Siegel on trombone.
Folks Project
Friday, October 20, 7:00pm
$22 member / $25 non-member
The Folks Project returns to BIMA with three of Seattle's most notable jazz talents: Pianist Darrius Willrich, Drummer D'Vonne Lewis, and Bassist Evan Flory-Barnes. Together they personify the rich vein of vibrant talent that distinguishes the contemporary jazz scene of Seattle.
Return to Chick Corea: Crosara, Nikolaev, Phares, Ivester
Sunday, October 29, 7:00pm
$22 member / $25 non-member
“Return to Chick Corea” is a quartet-based music tribute to the great jazz composer, enhanced with additional original compositions created in the characteristic Spanish-infused style of Corea. The ensemble includes Francesco Crosara (piano), Alexey Nikolaev (saxophone), Bruce Phares (bass), and Mark Ivester (drums).
“Celebrating Mary Lou Willams” – An Evening of Live Performance and Film
Wednesday, November 1, 7:00pm
$10 member / $15 non-member
Ann Reynolds (pianist and composer) and Kay Ray (filmmaker) team up to bring you a program of live music and archival film footage to celebrate jazz great Mary Lou Williams. Musicians include Alex Guilbert (piano), Nelda Swiggett (piano), Heather Chriscaden (bass), Maria Wulff (drums), Ann Reynolds (piano), Kent Stevenson (piano), Terry Morgan (bass), Freddy Fuego Gonzalez (flute/trombone), and Jason Turner (tenor sax). This performance is sponsored in part by smART Ventures through Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and 4Culture.
LECTURES
Jazz with Jim is a deep dive into the beautiful American art form of Jazz. Mixing music, photos, and video clips with an infectious lecture style that betrays his passion for the subject, Jim Cauter takes guests on a musical journey that illuminates aspects of American history, jazz giants, social justice, race relations, and music as a universal language.
Jazz with Jim: Jazz Masters of the Past
Thursday, October 12, 7pm
$10 member / $12 non-member
Join Jim as he shares select composers, instrumentalists, and vocalists whose music continues to sound fresh - engaging and inspiring all people fortunate enough to experience it.
Jazz with Jim: Jazz Today
Thursday, October 26, 7pm
$10 member / $12 non-member
The quality of the composers, arrangers, and musicians contributing to the art of Jazz Today is truly astounding. Join Jim as he plays selections from and profiles the artistry of contemporary instrumentalists, vocalists, and ensembles whose music presently contributes to the evolutionary continuum of Jazz.
FILMS
As an extension of the Within/Earshot Jazz Festival, BIMA offers these five very different films with jazz at their centers. Cinema has always had a love affair with jazz; film has a unique ability to capture the compelling musical icons and innovators, their journeys, and the energy of the artists, the scene, and music itself.
Rediscovering Dave Brubeck (2001, 57min)
Tuesday, October 3, 4pm & 7pm
$10 member / $12 non-member
Initially aired on PBS, Rediscovering Dave Brubeck offers a warm retrospective of Dave Brubeck's influential and groundbreaking career as one of jazz music's most popular pianists and composers. From Brubeck's early dreams of being a cowboy to the classical music education that led him to pioneer innovative rhythms in his compositions, this film summarizes Brubeck's extraordinary career through archival footage, photographs, and home movies, while simultaneously maintaining a clear focus on Brubeck's later activities as an actively admired jazz musician. Having just turned octogenarian at the time of filming, Brubeck is revealed as a lastingly vibrant, funny, and insightful artist in a series of thoughtful interviews (many filmed at Brubeck's home with his wife and sometimes collaborator, Iola Brubeck, by his side). As this is the first feature-length documentary on Brubeck, his fans, and all fans of jazz, are hereby called to take five and settle in with this rewarding portrayal of a true living (and playing) legend of jazz music. — Karl Wachter
Cabin in the Sky (1943, 1h 38min)
Tuesday, October 10, 4pm & 7pm
$10 member / $12 non-member
When Cabin in the Sky arrived in 1943, many theaters still refused to screen films featuring black performers in central roles, making its release a considerable gamble for MGM — and one that happily paid off with an Oscar-nominated hit. While the film’s racial dynamics have aged about as well as you might expect given its vintage, it was admirably forward-thinking in some respects given the context of its time, and it offered a richly deserved spotlight to a roster of performers that included Lena Horne and Louis Armstrong. "Cabin in the Sky," crowed The New York Times, “is a bountiful entertainment.”
Keep On Keepin’ On (2014, 1h 24min)
Tuesday, October 17, 4pm & 7pm
$10 member / $12 non-member
Trumpeter Clark Terry was such an influential and prolific player that it would have been easy to put together a biopic looking at nothing but his music — and it’s very much to director Alan Hicks’ credit that his movie, 2014’s Keep On Keepin’ On, offers a much more personal overview of what made Terry so special. Instead of surveying his legacy along established narrative lines, Hicks focuses on the beautiful friendship between Terry and Justin Kauflin, a much younger pianist he took under his wing and spent countless hours mentoring. While offering ample demonstration of Terry’s professional legacy, Keepin’ also emphatically underscores what he brought to this life on a personal level, and serves as a graceful, quiet reminder of the power of a simple human connection. “One need not be a jazz aficionado to enjoy this film,” wrote David Lewis for the San Francisco Chronicle, “all that’s required is a smile.”
All Night Long (1962, 1h 31min)
Tuesday, October 24, 4pm & 7pm
$10 member / $12 non-member
All Night Long is a 1962 British neo-noir drama and an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello. Set in London’s jazz nightclub scene of the 1960s and featuring a stellar cast of Patrick McGoohan, Marti Stevens, Paul Harris, Richard Attenborough and Betsy Blair, the film was first panned by many British critics who were Shakespeare purists. TCM states that they “dismissed it as a travesty of the original because of its ‘happy’ ending.” But the film has been reconsidered not just for its cinematic quality but because it showcases such well-known jazz artists as Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck and John Dankworth. The thrilling musical numbers offer a rare look at Mingus and Brubeck in their only appearance in a dramatic film.
Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes (2018, 1h 26min)
Tuesday, October 24, 4pm & 7pm
$10 member / $12 non-member
This documentary details the history of Blue Note Records, one of the most renowned labels in jazz and, by extension, that of American music – Blue Note Records has been home to such groundbreaking artists as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Bud Powell and Art Blakey, as well as present-day luminaries like Robert Glasper, Ambrose Akinmusire and Norah Jones. Beginning with its founding in 1939 by German immigrants who fled the Nazis, and tracing its succession of great artists from Thelonious Monk to Herbie Hancock, the film also looks at the label's broader influences on contemporary hip-hop.
For more information on BIMA’s Within/Earshot Jazz Festival, go to www.biartmuseum.org.
About the Author
Bainbridge Island Museum of Art inspires curiosity, wonder, and understanding by connecting people with the contemporary art and craft of the Puget Sound region. The art museum exhibits, interprets, preserves, collects, and promotes works of proven cultural value as well as new works by emerging artists and craftspeople.
The art museum is open daily, year-round, from 10am-5pm, and admission is always free. From June 30-September 2, 2023, the museum will be open until 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays. BIMA is located in beautiful downtown Bainbridge Island, at the corner of Hwy 305 and Winslow Way, just steps away from the ferry terminal, and with easy access via public transportation or by car from the Kitsap Peninsula.
BIMA is supported through contributions by members and donors like you, with ongoing support from the National Endowment for the Arts, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Laird Norton Wealth Management, Stoel Rives LLP, BIMA PRISM Fund for Cultural Programs & Celebrations.
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