Duwamish River Festival – August 20, 2016

Posted on August 20, 2016 by parker

Duwamish River Festival  – Duwamish Waterway Park, Seattle  –  August 20, 2016

A community festival that includes performances of various cultural groups?  No brainer for me, I’m there.  Especially if there’s an environmental injustice angle, as there is here; Seattle’s South Park neighborhood adjoins the Duwamish Waterway, a Superfund site.  I sure hope I got the spelling right for the Kalpulli group – I copied from the program, but have seen a few other variants on the web.  Banda Vagos, somewhat of a family thingy, was the heavy hitter in the entertainment department.  The banda genre is a Mexican cultural melange mashup (the brass band aspect is a German/Austrian influence) with propulsive high energy, which these guys had in spades!  With nine separate portraits, of a dozen players (got ’em all!) I’m just posting the composite here.

Carlos Barajas

Rafaela Luna-Pizano

Banda Vagos

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Coyle’s Bake Shop – August 20, 2016

Posted on August 20, 2016 by parker

Coyle’s Bake Shop  –  August 20, 2016

If you peruse certain real estate listings in certain Seattle neighborhoods, proximity to a purveyor such as Coyle’s can be a selling point.  The coffee, only a stumble (that is, no crossing of street) from our situation, certainly had me sold.  The baked goods also looked awesome, but we partook little of these.  But are not the creators of these goods artists themselves, worthy of portrayal?  Here’s the answer.

Rebecca Dethlefsen

Zak Perna

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Los Buhos – August 19, 2016

Posted on August 19, 2016 by parker

Los Buhos  –  Phinney Farmers Market  –  August 19, 2016

This trio (translation = “the owls”) seemed to be a scheduled entertainment at the farmers market, so I put them a notch above the buskers.  Smason was the group leader, alternating between cajon and trombone.  The music had a charming, bilingual, ramshackle nostalgia, inviting without imposing, and was set up off to the side from the main market area, with convenient and spacious seating.

Los Buhos

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Busking Seattle – August 18, 2016

Posted on August 18, 2016 by parker

Busking Seattle  – Pike Place Market  –  August 18, 2016

My buddy Joshua, when told that I would be sketching, had given me a minimalist keep-kids-busy-at-the-restaurant-size crayon box (4 colors), which I vowed to put to use.  VanDam, a real howler, got the call for this exploration of a new medium, unleashing a startling irony.  Of all my recent sketchings, his portrait seemed to have a most direct gaze, despite its gauzy haze.   Only later did I come to realize, and confirm, that he is blind, and had been totally oblivious to my activities.  Well, except for when I sang along a bit (on “Honky Cat”).  Getting the autograph was an adventure.

Chad VanDam

Mike E. Bell

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Fly Moon Royalty – August 18, 2016

Posted on August 18, 2016 by parker

Fly Moon Royalty  –  Seattle City Hall Plaza  –  August 18, 2016

This group – half of the day’s configuration was vocalists – had an extremely full sound and quite the soulful groove.  And it was blazing hot out there!  Jackson and Boo are the nucleus, modeled a bit like Sharon Jones et al., and indeed there is a linkage.  They were accompanied and enhanced by a lockin’/poppin’ dancer.  Paint was applied frantically to the rhythm, with even a touch of raw watercolor cake impasto on the Jackson.

Adra Boo

Action Jackson

Earnie Ashwood

Lola Campbell

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Wineries (Santa Cruz) – August 5, 2016

Posted on August 5, 2016 by parker

Wineries (Santa Cruz) –  August 5, 2016

On first Fridays, as part of the city’s overall festivities (open galleries and such), some of the wineries stationed in Santa Cruz are open for tastings.  A few have live entertainment to entice.

Rick Rasay

Carol Ismail & Marc Singer

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Joshua Raoul Brody – August 2, 2016

Posted on August 2, 2016 by parker

Joshua Raoul Brody  –  Rite Spot Cafe  –  August 2, 2016

Simple concept: ditch the karaoke machine, use live musicians, restrict it to the Beatles catalog.  Now consider the execution: someone needs to know, and be able to play, all those songs.  But wait there’s more: accompany on keys, accommodate an extreme diversity of singers, making them feel comfortable, including shifting key to match the vocal range, following instructions to adjust tempo or other quirk according to preference.  And sing harmony and backup vocals (drummer Norfleet no slouch in this department either), and lead the audience in singalong.  Not so simple now, eh?  But that’s my buddy Joshua, can do all of these things and MC the whole shebang.  I chose “I Am The Walrus”, but if we go by whiskers, well, the walrus is Joshua.

Joshua Raoul Brody

Dave Norfleet

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Moises Salazar – July 31, 2016

Posted on July 31, 2016 by parker

Moises Salazar  –  Wells Park, Brewster  –   July 31, 2016

Two new instrument sketch firsts for me – the zampoña (Andean pan pipes) and the charanga – in my own home town.  It’s a reflection of the reality of the changing local demographics (not a word of the concert was in English); I finally get some music out of it.  There was a pre-recorded accompaniment rather than a full band, but not a major issue for me.

Moises Salazar

Jhon Pinos

Jose Tenezaca

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David Amram – July 30, 2016

Posted on July 30, 2016 by parker

David Amram  –  Putnam County Fair  –  July 30, 2016

Amram’s career is chock full of interesting connected dots from around the world, including as a Hollywood screen composer.  He’s Putnam-County local, a beatnik who never stopped and never stopped being hip.  I’d been wanting to capture him for a while, but plans fell victim to unfortunate scheduling numerous times, so finally!  I found out about this gig only a few hours before it was to happen, and had enough crease in my time for me to make it.  Fortuitously, the rain held off long enough to allow me to finish up, although the originals had a few smudges from the raindrop impacts. The music was mostly jazz.  Amram’s thoroughly charming and peripatetic interspersed musings from his time way back in the day show what an important cultural icon he is, with links to the likes of Charlie Parker, the beatnik scene, and Bob Dylan.

David Amram

Rene Hart

Joe Aebig

Kevin Twigg

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Myrna Hague – July 29, 2016

Posted on July 29, 2016 by parker

Myrna Hague  –  Marcus Garvey Park  –  July 29, 2016

Hague, “Jamaica’s first lady of jazz”, was the focus of this Jazzmobile gig, co-sponsored by the Jamaica Tourism Board.  The opener was Trevor “Bridges” Bridgewater (my first steel pan!) playing to prerecorded accompaniment (not my favorite arrangement).  He checked all the boxes for cliché Jamaican music, including Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain”, a song that was actually part of my own performance repertoire for a while.  His chops were there, so no major beef.  Patience Higgins led the backup combo for Hague, who was in fine form with a bunch of jazz/pop standards.  And guess which Marley song she covered here; there’s a lot of it going around.  I guess it’s now a (welcome) part of the canon.

Myrna Hague

Marco Panascia

Patience Higgins

Marcus Persiani

Desi Jones

Trevor Bridgewater

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