Parker Gambino

Concert Truck  –  Ashwood Playfield, Bellevue  –  30 June 2023

https://www.theconcerttruck.org/events

This was my final Concert Truck encounter of the year, where I finally came to understand the nature of the arrangement.  The truck, which propels its self-contained functional stage and piano criss-crossing the continent, is headquartered in Baltimore.  The travelling crew consists of pianists Nick Luby and Susan Zhang (see the post of 22 June), and collaborations are arranged with music organizations of the host locations, in this case the Seattle Chamber Music Society.  No wonder that the programs all feature 4-hands piano pieces.  Nick does all of the driving.  Of the three concerts I attended this year, this one had the most accoutrements, courtesy of the nearby Belletini (upscale senior living complex); folding chairs were provided (if I’d known I wouldn’t have shlepped my own), as well as a complimentary bottle of cold water and snack bag!  The guy delivering mine, noting my off-script seating arrangement, commented that I had chosen to sit in the “orchestra section”.  Plus there was a program of the selections, which included both Debussy AND Ravel (La Valse, my favorite of the bunch).  Luby’s brief curatorial comments, indicative of his passion for both the music and its promulgation, are a nice touch.

Rachel Lee Priday

Mark Kososwer

Elias Kauhane  –  Bellevue Downtown Park  –  30 June 2023

Kauhane is an Oahu native now living in the PNW.  He presented a mix of Hawaiʻian language and hapa-haole (in English) songs, including a healthy dose of sovereignty-oriented selections composed by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole (IZ for short).  So, the real deal.  I didn’t get a close look at his uke, which seemed to have eight strings (doubles?).  A wahine danced hula for some of the tunes.

Elias Kauhane

Sketching Cascadia – Graphite Arts Center, Edmonds, WA  –  24 June 2023

Puget Sound area fixture Campanario is pretty much the founder/formalizer of the Urban Sketcher movement.  Here he made a presentation describing his journey, which included, among other endeavors, a sweet stint providing local sketches published in the Seattle Times newspaper.  He was introduced by Gallery director and arts-promoter-about-town Felix.  She also on occasion has published feature sketches in the local Edmonds newspaper.  Disclaimer: I am a minor participant in the Sketching Cascadia exhbit; nothing on the walls or in the cases in the gallery, but with 10 PNW sketches scraped from elsewhere on this site as part of the continuous slide show.

Gabriel Campanario            Tracy Felix

Tracy Felix

Gabriel Campanario

Concert Truck  –  Ballard Farmers Market  –  25 June 2023

I first became aware of the Concert Truck at BFM last year, as I caught the very tail end (un-sketchably brief) of the performance.  I was determined not to miss out this year!  But on this pride-parade day the buses were running late, and I needed to first do some ‘shroom shopping (see the Sno-Valley Mushroom post), so when I got to the truck both the duration and the sketch vantage points were sub-par.  So what!

Meeka Quan DiLorenzo

Emerson Millar

Concert Truck – Lake City Farmers Market  –  22 June 2023

The full description of this gig is the Seattle Chamber Music Society Concert Truck.  Technically, the locale of the gig was Albert Davis Park.  For the various four-hands piano works Luby and Zhang switched positions on the bench (benches?), alternating between foreground and background; it created a sketch format dilemma that was left essentially unresolved, hopefully not misleading (watch that other hand, Nick!).  The program was superlative; equally revealing were Debussy’s cello sonata, to my ears more proto-jazz than strictly classical, and Meredith Monk’s four-hand “Ellis Island” (I’m not really familiar with her extensive oeuvre).  Also some Stravinsky and Piazzolla, what’s not to love?  And then there was the improv: four notes called out from the audience, Luby, Yoshinaga, and Baltacigil took them and gave us an impromptu fun ride!

Efe Baltacigil

Mari Yoshinaga

Busking Seattle: Dysfunction Junction Bluegrass Band –  Lake City Farmers Market

22 June 2023

Dysfunction Junction is an entity centered around washtub bassist Patrick Ferris, who assembles ensembles from a fluid stable of rotating musicians according to whatever gig he pulls out of his hat.  (bonus challenge: what is easier to envision, a fluid stable or a rotating musician?) This particular one is the “Bluegrass Band”.  Harris’s instrument is no ordinary washtub; it’s a custom built tuneable three-stringer with a protruding horn (poorly captured, seen at the bottom of the sketch).  Apparently only two of its kind were constructed before the maker gave it up as an unsustainable enterprise.  All three musicians are singers, and mastery of the bluegrass genre here was casually (at least as casual as the attire) authoritative.

Patrick Ferris

Mike Fischman

Craig Eggan

Busking Seattle – Ballard Farmers Market  –  4 June 2023

I happened upon the enigmatic Marty as he was performing the final song of a set about which I know nothing.  Luck was better for a leisurely treatment of Yue Lan, whose lovely dreamy voice matched inconguously with mildly dystopian (at best) lyrics.

Marty

Yue Lan

Seattle Peace Chorus – Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church  –  3 June 2023

If I’m gonna pick an event that calls for me working the tables, it might as well be music.  The tabling was for the “Third Act” organization (“building a community of experienced Americans over the age of sixty determined to change the world for the better”), at a concert by the Seattle Peace Chorus, nearly 30 voices accompanied by 14 instrumental musicians.  The first act featured songs from a variety of sources, including Pete Seeger.  Pianist Kent Stevenson (unsketched, which I hope to remedy soon) threw down some powerful jazzy gospely chops for a few numbers; his arrangement of the gospel chestnut “Keep Your Eyes On The Prize” included additional lyrics exhorting environmental consciousness and action.  The second act featured movements from “Upon This Land”, an environmental oratorio composed by director/conductor Frederick N. West (also unsketched).

Rosemary Bell

Sherry Tuinstra

Lyon Stewart

Tom Bell

Matt Weiss

Busking Seattle: Ross Robinson – 14 May 2023  –  Ballard Farmers Market

Olympia-based Ross has got vintage down, slides a mean tube of glass.  Covers include Zawinul’s “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”.

Ross Robinson

Freddy and the Long Shots  –  Rabbit Box Theatre, Seattle  –  2 April 2023

Nepotism rears its ugly head!  Disclaimer: Freddy is married to the second cousin, once removed, of my wife.  Nonetheless, there’s nothing about this band that doesn’t say “Honky Tonk”, and well done!  OK, maybe one, I didn’t pick up that there were any Hank Williams numbers; perhaps just not on the set list for this day; they surely know enough of the chords.  More than compensated for by the cover of the “Nanker Phelge” tune, “The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man” (which was the B-side of 1965’s “Satisfaction”).  Enough quote marks yet?  Rabbit Box gets props for Junior Brown on the jukebox/mixtape between sets.

Freddy and the Long Shots