MusicFestNW 2008

From Willamette Week’s MusicFestNW 2008 Guide:
Trio Subtonic:
[FUNKY JAZZ] In the spirit of Medeski, Martin & Wood, Trio Subtonic’s Galen Clark, Jesse Brook and Bill Athens almost always manage to inject a healthy dose of funk into their jazz experiments. The Portland trio’s style also has a diverse range — drawing from influences as diverse as [...]

MUSIC: “The Cowboy Junkies”

From Willamette Week, 6/25/08:
[SMOOTH COUNTRY POP] Last year, the Cowboy Junkies returned to Toronto’s Holy Trinity Church to record Trinity Revisited—playing the exact set they performed 20 years earlier at said venue when recording the original, seminalTrinity Session.

MUSIC: “HOME for Duane Jarvis: Frank Black, Willy Vlautin, Billy Rancher’s Unreal Gods, NvrSayNvr, Jon Koonce and One More Mile, The Odds Reunion”

[ROCK FOR A CAUSE] HOME stands for “Help Offset Medical Expenses,” and right now Duane Jarvis needs some major help to sort out medical expenses from his recent shitty cancer diagnosis and treatment. Though he eventually left Portland for Nashville (where he recorded with fellas like Frank Black, Dwight Yoakam and John Prine), locals should remember [...]

BARS: “The Cave”

From Willamette Week, 6/11/08:
SUBTERRANEAN BLISS: With the hominess of a house show, the covert charm of a speakeasy, a menu filled with delicious-sounding cheap Persian vegetarian specialties and bric-a-brac décor recalling a ’50s beatnik cafe, The Cave (636 SW Jackson St., 274-4294) is an unpretentious blessing to Portland jazz.

MUSIC: “Goldfinger”

From Willamette Week, 4/23/08:
Six years ago, I took my little brother to see the ska-punk outfit Goldfinger in Washington, D.C. About halfway through the set, drummer Darrin Pfeiffer set down his sticks and came to the front of the stage with a proposition. One lucky fan would have the chance to hang out with Goldfinger [...]

MUSIC: “Bill Charlap and Jillian Lebeck”

From Willamette Week, 2/13/08 [Portland Jazz Festival Coverage]:
The son of a Broadway songwriter, Blue Note pianist Bill Charlap never seems to have strayed far from his affinity for the whimsy and charm of the Great American Songbook.

MUSIC: “Tim Berne”

From Willamette Week, 2/13/08 [Portland Jazz Festival Coverage]:
The “legend” goes that Syracuse native Tim Berne bought his first sax on a whim, back when he was a student at Lewis & Clark in the ’70s. Now a seasoned and prolific avant-garde saxophonist and composer, Berne draws on influences that range from Julius Hemphill to Sam [...]

MUSIC: “SF Jazz Collective”

From Willamette Week, 2/13/08 [Portland Jazz Festival Coverage]:
The Frisco-based nonprofit SF Jazz is like the Lincoln Center of the West Coast, with a stated mission to advance new forms of jazz and celebrate all the diverse places it’s already been.

MUSIC: “Anoushka Shankar”

From Willamette Week, 3/26/08:
Goddamn, Ravi Shankar’s loins are an impressive institution. While he was in his 60s, those magical things brought both Norah Jones and sitar prodigy Anoushka Shankar into the world.

MUSIC: “Ben Macy Trio”

From Willamette Week, 11/28/07:
When he’s not playing with friends like Leigh Marble, pianist Ben Macy is at the helm of his own jazz ensemble. Tonight at Tony Starlight’s, the group releases its new EP, Hurdles, a collection of five songs recorded both in Macy’s living room and the West Hills Friends Church.