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John Hansen

John Hansen is regarded as one of the most in-demand jazz pianists in the Northwest. A studied and musical ensemble player with a strong melodic vocabulary, John has always been recognizable for a unique personal voice.

His performance history includes such venues as NYC's Birdland, The Jazz Standard, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, DC's John F. Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts, Seattle's Jazz Alley and Tula's, and international festivals and tours in France, Japan, Korea, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Russia and Central America. During his career, John Hansen has performed and recorded with many of the Northwest's premiere, award-winning bands including: the Jay Thomas Quartet, Jim Knapp Orchestra, Kelley Johnson, and The Bill Ramsay-Milt Kleeb Band with Pete Christlieb. He has been invited to perform with The Seattle Symphony, Rick Margitza, Randy Brecker, Ingrid Jensen, Ernestine Anderson, The Woody Herman Orchestra, Bud Shank, Bobby Shew, David 'Fathead' Newman, and more.

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25
Album Review

Jim Knapp Orchestra: It's Not Business, It's Personal

Read "It's Not Business, It's Personal" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The Jim Knapp Orchestra's CD It's Not Business, It's Personal, recorded in February 2009, was set to be released on November 19, 2021—six days after Knapp died at age eighty-two in Kirkland, Washington. Apart from his role as bandleader, Knapp was a trumpeter, composer, arranger and longtime faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Described by Grammy-winning composer/pianist Jim McNeely as “a brilliant musician, great teacher and a humble, sweet [and] generous man," Knapp was widely recognized ...

17
Album Review

Jared Hall: Seen on the Scene

Read "Seen on the Scene" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Seen on the Scene, Seattle-based trumpeter Jared Hall's second album as a leader, has a lot going for it: tight-knit group unity and tasteful dynamics; bright, technically polished solos by all hands; and engaging tunes by Hall and the late bop master, Tadd Dameron. As a bonus, the acclaimed alto saxophonist Vincent Herring is “on the scene" to share the front line with Hall, elevating the session whenever he assumes the spotlight. Hall's sound is crisp and ...

11
Album Review

Jared Hall: Seen on the Scene

Read "Seen on the Scene" reviewed by Paul Rauch


In many ways the title Seen on the Scene encapsulates trumpeter Jared Hall's story leading up to the studio session in 2018 which resulted in this, his sophomore release. The native of Spokane, Washington, arrived in Seattle in 2015 after completing studies with mercurial trumpet ace Brian Lynch and, almost immediately, scored a residency at Tula's, the city's legendary jazz spot. Sporting new compositions and a new recording on Lynch's Hollistic MusicWorks label, Hall went about establishing himself on the ...

3
Album Review

Jared Hall: Seen on the Scene

Read "Seen on the Scene" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


With Seen On the Scene, his Origin Records debut, trumpeter Jared Hall offers up the sort of fresh bebop/post bop sounds found on the Blue Note Records label in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Horace Silver and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers seem to serve as touchstones, as does pianist / composer Tad Dameron, too. Hall's quintet—the familiar trumpet and sax and rhythm section line-up—takes on a pair of Dameron's classics: “Mating Call," and two versions of “If ...

3
Album Review

Jay Thomas Quartet: Upside

Read "Upside" reviewed by Paul Rauch


Seattle-based musician Jay Thomas may be considered the oddest of ducks in the jazz universe. By that, I am referring to his fierce musicality expressed both on trumpet and saxophone, as well as most members of the brass and woodwind families. Inspired early in his career by the like minded veteran Ira Sullivan, Thomas in a single night will drift from trumpet to tenor, from flugelhorn to alto, and then double back on flute and soprano. He may as well ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Seen on the Scene

Origin Records
2021

buy

It's Not Business,...

Origin Records
2021

buy

Seen on The Scene

Origin Records
2021

buy

Upside

McVouty Records
2020

buy

Gray Skies

From: It's Not Business, It's Personal
By John Hansen

Seen on the Scene

From: Seen on the Scene
By John Hansen

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