Bassist, thinker, architect, and inaugural Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame inductee Chuck Metcalf succumbed to cancer in January. He was 81. The Legacy Quartet with Clarence Acox celebrates the bassist in a tribute performance, on the stage that Metcalf designed and put in place, at the New Orleans Creole Restaurant on Wednesday evening, March 14.
The young, gigging Metcalf mingled and played with many on the growing Seattle scene, as chronicled in Jackson Street After Hours – The Roots of Jazz in Washington by Paul de Barros. By the 1960s, Metcalf was an active jazz bassist and scene builder, holding memorable sessions at his home, mentoring young players on the scene, and organizing events with the Seattle Jazz Society. Living for stretches in San Fransisco, Seattle and New York, his outstanding musicianship and enthusiasm were welcome in jazz communities across the nation. Tours in the 1980s with Dexter Gordon and Ernestine Anderson are late-career highlights. His two 1990’s recordings Elsie Street and Help Is Coming are landmarks in Seattle jazz history. Metcalf moved to Santa Fe in 2010, and, in 2011, retired from public performance.
Metcalf’s incredible influence on the Seattle jazz ecology is recorded on the Seattle Jazz Scene website through many email tributes and recollections by members of the jazz community. This from Jim Wilke: “Chuck Metcalf was the catalyst on the jazz scene when I arrived here in the early 60s. … Without Chuck’s energy and ideas, we would have had far fewer opportunities to hear and play jazz in that time … and by extension, [in] the Seattle jazz scene today.” Read more at www.seattlejazzscene.com.
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Seattle-Kobe Sister City Female Jazz Vocalist Applications Due February 5
The Seattle-Kobe Sister City Association (SKSCA) will send one high school-aged and one adult female jazz vocalist from the greater Seattle area to Kobe, Japan, in May 2012 to be a guest singer at the 13th annual Kobe Jazz Vocal Queen Contest. Every fall for the last twelve years, the winner of the Kobe Jazz Vocal Queen Contest – held in Kobe – has flown to Seattle to make her U.S. debut at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley. Seven years ago, SKSCA began holding a jazz vocalist audition as the reciprocal component of this exchange.
The deadline to apply for first-round auditions in Seattle is February 5. Finalists will be selected by early March and will be invited to give a live audition at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley on March 19. Family, friends and community members are encouraged to come and support the finalists. The suggested donation will be $5 for students and $10 for adults, with proceeds supporting this and future Seattle-Kobe jazz auditions. The two winners will be guest vocalists at the Kobe Jazz Vocal Queen Contest held on May 6, at Kobe Asahi Hall in Seattle’s sister city, Kobe, Japan. More info is available at www.sksca.org.
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4Culture Grants Available for Individual and Group Arts Projects
4Culture’s Group Arts Projects (GAP) program provides emerging and established groups in King County with critical project support for art experiences in all disciplines. Award amounts ranged between $1,000 and $8,000 in 2011. Grant applications are due on March 7.
Similarly, the Individual Artist Projects program provides critically needed funds to artists of all disciplines who reside in King County to create and present their work. Eligible projects may be at any stage of development, including initial planning, development and final production. In 2011, 4Culture awarded amounts that ranged between $1,000 and $8,000. Individual Artists Projects grant applications are due on March 14.
For complete details on both grants, visit www.4culture.org or call 206-296-7580.
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Artist Trust Fellowship Applications Due February 26
Applications are now available for the 2012 Artist Trust Fellowship. This program recognizes practicing professional artists of exceptional talent and demonstrated ability in all disciplines. Fellowships acknowledge an artist’s creative excellence and accomplishment, professional achievement and continuing dedication to their artistic discipline. Sixteen fellowships will be granted in 2012 to generative artists in sixteen different categories, in the amount of $7,500. Artist Trust is also offering a free webinar on February 16 about applying for the fellowship. Complete details are available at www.artisttrust.org or by contacting Miguel Guillén, Artist Trust Program Manager, at miguel@artisttrust.org or 206-467-8734, ext. 11.
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Seafair Weekend Seeks Musicians
Seattle’s popular Seafair event, featuring exciting sites with boats and planes, also places a strong emphasis on musicians and entertainers. The application process is now open for those interested in performing at Seafair Weekend on the Main Stage! Seafair Weekend will take place Friday, August 3-Sunday, August 5, at Genesee Park on Lake Washington. The due date is May 15. For more info, visit the Seafair website at www.seafair.com or contact Andrew Scott at andrew@seafair.com or 206-728-0123, ext. 118.
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Bake’s Place to Relocate to Downtown Bellevue
Bake’s Place relocates to downtown Bellevue this spring, where the club plans to present live music six nights a week from an array of genres, including jazz, R&B, and Latin, blues and more. “We simply want to present more music. There is such a wealth of outstanding musicians of every genre,” Bake’s Place proprietor Craig Baker says. Bake’s Place began twelve years ago in a bed and breakfast that Baker operated out of his home in Redmond. The business moved to Issaquah in the summer of 2004. The new Bellevue location will include a full-service bar, a dining room with both floor and mezzanine seating. February events are still at the location in the Providence Point community. For more information about Bake’s Place, visit www.bakesbellevue.com.
