Four young veterans of Seattle’s busy jazz scene will be featured in Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest broadcast on Sunday afternoon. Wilke recorded the new group headed by saxophonist Mark Taylor and pianist Dawn Clement at the recent Earshot Jazz Festival. Their quartet includes drummer Byron Vannoy and bassist Phil Sparks, a mainstay of the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra.
(Photos: Daniel Sheehan)
The co-leaders are also composers, creating new music and adapting previous compositions for this group. All four musicians are prominent as leaders, soloists and sidemen in Seattle and beyond, and they were joined in this performance by guest trumpet player Russ Johnson, who’s active on the Chicago jazz scene. On this program drawn from two sets at Tula’s jazz club, the music includes original compositions by Taylor and Clement, as well as music by Lee Konitz and the standard “My Ideal”. Jazz Northwest is heard Sunday afternoons at 2 PM PST on 88.5 KPLU and streaming at kplu.org.