Annual Earshot Jazz Festival

Join us for the 36th Annual Earshot Jazz Festival!!!

Year after year, the Earshot festival celebrates Seattle's place in the world of jazz by featuring performances, premieres, and special projects by Seattle's esteemed resident artists alongside international masters.

This year's featured resident artist is SKERIK- a legendary saxophonist, arranger, and studio owner treasured for his work in the Emerald City. Also included in this year's festival is the world premiere of a festival commission from Freddy Fuego that will bend genre, rhythm and harmony to create compelling music. Special projects include workshops (to be announced soon); Garfield, Lincoln and Edmonds-Woodway High School Jazz Bands will take the stage with truly special guests; film screenings; and more. Playlists coming soon for listeners to get a glimpse into each each week of the festival.

Schedule of Events:

7:30 pm: Skerik and Ahamefule J. Oluo Ensemble

This year's Festival Resident Artist is one of Seattle's most versatile, hard-driving, and prolific jazz musicians. The saxophonist known as Skerik is a force to be reckoned with and is not afarid to draw from many musical genres and traditions and combine these disparate musical forces in a myriad of creative ways. Jazz, sludge metal, avant garde electronic, funk, RandB, and rock along with improvised music are all in Skerik's workhouse. Early in his career Skerik worked internationally in London, Paris, and the South Pacific, then headed back to the US to forge collaborations far and wide, from Seattle to New York and New Orleans and everywhere in between.

The list of musicians and ensembles that Skerik has worked with are too numerous to name but a few: Roger Waters, REM, Fred Wesley, Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, Headhunters, Wayne Horvitz 4+1 Ensemble, New York Composer's Orchestra, Ween, Pearl Jam, Garage A Trois, Stone Gossard, Bonnie Raitt, Bobby Previte's Coalition of the Willing, Critters Buggin, Ani DiFranco, True Loves, Jennifer Hartswick, McTuff, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Scott Amendola, Jeff Parker, and many more. His reach travels even further with the 200 or so records he's contributed to and his music has accompanied both film and theatre.

8:00 pm: Grace Love

Port Townsend-based with Memphis roots, vocalist Grace Love has been performing her authentic, contemporary and soulful rock jazz to today's music scene by challenging music genre boundaries. Performing both across the US and internationally since 2009, Grace Love's sound has a raw and profound perspective. Her gritty new alternative soul fusion sound can be heard on her EP Work in Protest.

With Grace Love's unique and captivating sound, she has garnered a loyal following from the likes of KEXP and NPR who have consistently supported her music. She performed with the Seattle Symphony for a Quincy Jones tribute and then was selected by Quincy himself for a festival curated performance. "She unveils a splendid RNB-Soul journey, led by her powerful and flawless vocal performances. With her relatable lyrical content and sincere interpretations, she brings the music to another level of quality." (The Further).

For this performance Grace Love (vocals), will be joined by Park Evans (guitar), Jason Parker (trumpet), Brian Bermudez (saxophone), Eileen Neff (vocals), Holly Ricciardi (vocals), Kathryn Farrell (vocals), Nate Omdal (bass) and Adrian Van Batenburg (drums).

The Royal Room is now accepting reservations for diners! Follow this link to their online dining reservation page: https://theroyalroomseattle.com/reservations/ Any questions, email reservations@theroyalroomseattle.com. Please note that advance concert tickets are required to obtain a table reservation. The Royal Room does not take reservations over the phone.

The Royal Room is all ages till 10:00pm daily, from then on it's 21+. The bar area is 21+ at all times.

Earshot Jazz COVID-19 Policy: Earshot recommends that all ticket holders be vaccinated. Policy subject to change. Full COVID policy here.

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