Podcasts about portland jazz composers ensemble

Ryan Meagher is in the Artichoke Café with me today. He is a very busy man. Besides his career as guitarist and composer, he is also the Artistic Director of the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble where he also runs their PJCE label. He also programs the Montavilla Jazz Festival, does a lot of teaching and I will run out of intro time if I continued to list what else he does. He's here to talk about his latest project, a combination of his music and Tina Granzo's art called AftEarth. It was written and recorded during the Covid lockdown. It's one of the most unusual, compelling documents of that time. And something you should hear. Let's talk with Ryan Meagher.

From the Artichoke Music Café….next week bassist Dennis Caiazza will be here, the following week, writer Larry Colton and the week after that, KMHD's Matt Fleeger, my boss over there. Today, however one of my favorite people, saxophonist, teacher and bee person Mieke Bruggeman. She is one of the founding members of the Quadraphonnes, playing baritone sax in that wonderful saxophone quartet. Also, she is the Education Coordinator for and plays in the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. And she teaches in multiple schools and/or organizations. And then there are the bees. You heard me. She is queen of all the queen and other bees in her yard. That's a first for Coffeeshop Conversations. Let's meet Mieke Bruggeman.

It's a beautiful day in the coffeeshop, otherwise known as The Artichoke Music Café. Next week, you know her as one of the great radio voices but do you know Marcia Hocker as a singer? She'll be here. Sitting across from me today is trombonist/composer/teacher Adriana Wagner. What I'm wondering is how to I not ask her what it's like to be a female trombonist without asking her what it's like to be a female trombonist, a question I am as sick of asking as I am guessing she is of answering. We'll see how that goes. She has a bunch of exciting gigs upcoming, mostly Jazz which is her first love. One is right here in this room on Sunday March 12 at Artichoke as part of the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble's Young Jazz Composers Alumni Concert. Meet Adriana Wagner.

Just a few more weeks until we're back in the Artichoke Music Café. The podcast which goes up on August 19 with Reggie Houston, fresh from New Orleans will mark our return home to Artichoke. The 19th also marks the start of the three day Montavilla Jazz Festival, and as we always do, joining me electronically to talk about the full lineup is one of its curators, specifically Program Director, guitarist/composer Ryan Meagher. Ryan and I are also big baseball fans but we'll save that until I shut off the recorder. Montavilla exists on its own but is greatly influenced in subjects and aims of the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. Therefore, here's the non-baseball part of my conversation with Ryan Meagher.

For the first time since December, I am back at Artichoke Music in their Café. I had surgery in January…which worked and I did a few months in Skype prison. I have a new and different surgery in about a month and we'll go back to Skype then until I heal, but for the next few weeks, it's GREAT to be back and talking to people in person across a table, coffee in hand. Today I am very happy to have Meg with me. You know her as Meg Samples on KMHD and also as drummer and new Executive Director of Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble under the name of Meg Morrow. She took the PJCE gig not long ago and is busy making her mark. We'll find out what that might be and ask her if she knows any drummer jokes. Meet…well, Meg.

Multi-instrumentalist Jay Thomas was named a Seattle Jazz Hero recently by the national Jazz Journalists Association, and will be featured on today’s episode with a pair of pieces drawn from Jay's recent album "High Crimes and Misdemeanors." The Jazz Journalists Association is a national organization that names a list of those who are "activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz" every year. This year's list named 27 individuals in 23 U.S. cities, who in many cases have careers that extend far beyond their local region. Congratulations also to Portland drummer Ron Steen who was named a Portland Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association. Also featured on this week's show are selections by Jacqueline Tabor, Thomas Marriott, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, and Hadley Caliman and Pete Christlieb among others. Jazz Northwest is recorded and produced by host Jim Wilke and airs Sundays at 2 p.m. Listeners may also subscribe to the podcast at KNKX, NPR, Apple ,

Well, hi there. We recorded this episode before we all got told to stay home. So it’ll be the last one until the time we can sit in the Artichoke Music Café again. Until then, as we did last week, we’ll make do with Skype and phone. Today I’m with composer/pianist Jasnam Daya Singh who has a new album on the PJCE label…that’s Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. It’s called Ekta: The Unity Project. Sound like something we need right now? At the end of our conversation we’ll play a track, “Acceptance.” We’re not going to stop making Coffeeshop Conversations at Artichoke Music while we can’t really be at Artichoke Music

This content is for Members only. Come and join us by subscribing here In the meantime, here’s some more details about the show: It’s a warm welcome then to the man himself: Dr. Brad Stone - the JazzWeek Programmer of the Year 2017, who's here every Thursday to present The Creative Source - a two hour show, highlighting jazz-fusion and progressive jazz flavours from back then, the here and now, plus occasional forays into the future. Please feel free to get in touch with Brad with any comments or suggestions you might have; he’ll be more than happy to hear from you: brad@soulandjazz.com or follow him via Facebook or Twitter. Enjoy! The Creative Source 12th March 2020 Artist - Track - Album - Year Wild Card    L'Empire des Anges    Beast from the East    2019 Pigeons Playing Ping Pong    Overrun    Presto    2020 Randy Napoleon & Bill Heid    The Lost Tune    Brothers: The Music of Gregg Hill    2019 John Stein    Taste of Honey    Watershed    2020 Idle Hands    Silver Bullet    Solid Moments    2020 Lolly Allen    Lolly's Folly    Coming Home    2019 Julien Hucq    X    Light Blue    2019 Carl Saunders    Redordame    Jazz Trumpet    2020 Never Weather    Morbique    Blissonance    2019 Gerald Beckett    Club Raven    Mood    2020 Jenny Davis & The Yeoman Warders Project    Yeoman Warders    Rearranged    2019 Charles Pillow Ensemble    Abschied, Ray    Chamber Jazz    2020 Mike Bond    Time Well Spent    The Honorable Ones    2020 Brian Melvin/Matt Renzi/Mart Soo    Third Time    Shapes    2020 Jan Harbeck Quartet    Poutin'    The Sound of Rhythm    2019 Kirk Knuffke    The Mob, the Crowd, the Mass    Brightness Live in Amsterdam    2019 Kenny Barron/Dave Holland Trio feat. Jonathan Blake    Without Deception    Without Deception    2020 Senri Oe    The Look    Hmmm    2019 Marina Albero    Agua: To Be Continued    A Life Soundtrack    2019 Jasnam Daya Singh & The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble    II. Acceptance    Ekta: The Unity Project    2020 The post The Creative Source (#CreativeSource) – 12th March 2020 appeared first on SoulandJazz.com | Stereo, not stereotypical ®.

Montavilla Jazz Festival 2019 was a few months ago, but hearing the voices of these artists brings back vivid memories of all the music we heard that weekend. Like we’ve come to expect, the music was incredibly diverse and the atmosphere was warm and inviting. You’ll hear why that is as you listen to the artists talking about their work and about the festival itself. Before 2019 comes to a close, please make a donation to Montavilla Jazz Festival and to Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble to keep this music community strong!

On this inaugural episode of World of Noise, DJ Bob Ham speaks with members of the organization bringing the music of the Indian subcontinent to Portland, and members of two jazz ensembles about their collaborative concert.

A performance by the Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble tells the story of Maxville and Vanport, two African American communities in Oregon during the 20th century. “From Maxville to Vanport” was written based on interviews with the communities’ residents and their descendants. Writer and educator S. Renee Mitchell wrote the lyrics for “From Maxville to Vanport,” and Pearl Alice Marsh is the daughter of a Maxville logger. They join us.

The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble gives two world premiere performances of James Miley’s newest work “Watershed Suite.” This six-movement piece is inspired by distinctive bodies of water in the Oregon landscape, from the Tamolitch Pool to Oaks Bottom, capturing the spirit of each through music. James Miley joins PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick for a conversation about the piece taped at Sellwood Riverside Park, on the banks of the Willamette River. Learn more at pjce.org/watershed. Episode Transcript [Doug] Welcome to Beyond Category. I’m Douglas Detrick. The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble gives two world premiere performances of James Miley’s newest work “Watershed Suite.” This six-movement piece is inspired by distinctive bodies of water in the Oregon landscape, from the Tamolitch Pool to Oaks Bottom, capturing the spirit of each through music. Head to pjce.org/watershed to learn more about this new piece and the performances in August, 2018. And stay tuned for the release of Trio Untold, with James Miley on piano and keyboards, Mike Nord guitar and electronics, and Ryan Biesack on drums. It’s the thirty-third release on PJCE Records, and it drops this September. Here’s the episode. [ambient tape: “I hear water”] ? [James] This is James Miley, I’m a composer/pianist. [Doug] Meeting near a waterway seemed appropriate. We are down along the Willamette River, this is Sellwood Riverfront Park. We’re looking at the Sellwood Bridge, listening to waves from a really noisy boat that just went by a little while ago. I’m doing two projects with PJCE this summer. First is a trio recording that’s going to be out in September with Mike Nord and Ryan Biesack, and that’s called Trio Untold. It’s all freely improvised music in the moment. And the second is a new piece for the ensemble and that’s called the Watershed Suite. Each section is inspired by a waterway here in Oregon. And I’m using watershed, the term, fairly loosely. I settled on it mostly because of the connection to the idea of a drainage basin, a large area that a river gives identity to. And, the concept of shedding, as musicians. [Doug] This is a bit of a musician’s joke. If you hear a musician say they need to “shed” a particular piece of music, that means they need to practice it. Shed is short for woodshed, which is where a musician would go, as the story goes, to practice away from an audience. [James] I wanted to write a piece about the Tamolitch Pool, the Blue Pool, down near Eugene up off the McKenzie River. Which is an extraordinary place. If you haven’t gone, you need to check it out. It’s a spot where the river goes under ground then bubbles up in this intensely deep blue color that doesn’t seem real at all. I wasn’t prepared when I saw it. I thought “oh it’ll be some water, and it’s blue, and it will be pretty” but it’s really really wild. It’s, I don’t know, thiry-ish feet deep, and you can see all the way down to the bottom, just a really deep, kind of intelligent kind of blue. I had all these sketches, all these ideas, and I just couldn’t come up with the thing that was working for me to elicit some sense of that place and how it makes me feel. In the process of doing this, we were editing the trio disc and all of this improvise music that we just kind of made up in the moment, and there’s a piece on there that  really speaks to this place. So I went back into that and used that material to write a new large ensemble piece. Static is not the right word. It feels very serene. All the way through it feels like it’s got this flat sheen, there’s a feeling that you’re looking at something very deep but it never burbles to the surface. Which made me think of that pool, where you stand and you look at it and if you jumped in you wouldn’t be able to swim to the bottom of it. It looks closer than it is, but nothing is quite what it seems. The water is the connecting point but each one has a specific kind of sensibility to it. What I’ve always loved about Oaks Bottom is that you can get lost in there in a way after this crazy day in a big city. You can find yourself on a path in the middle of these wetlands, staring at a great blue heron, and then realize I’m sitting in the middle of this amazing place and I’m ten minutes from home. So, it’s the most urban of the settings, yet it has these qualities that it can transport you to a different place. [Doug] Finding inspiration in bodies of water is fitting for James Miley’s music. He crafts melodies with an amazing rhythmic lightness. The music dynamic and dazzling on the surface, but there’s always movement and depth underpinning it. He holds a doctorate in music from the University of Oregon, and currently is Assistant Professor of Music at Willamette University in Salem. He was born in California, but his studies and creative pursuits have taken him to Nevada, Virginia, Michigan, Arizona, Texas and abroad to Hong Kong and Kathmandu. He’s a master of composing for jazz ensemble, and that comes from a huge range of experience, including professional jazz bands, classical ensembles, and years spent teaching jazz in colleges and high schools all over the country. So it means something when he says about Portland and the Montavilla Jazz Festival that... [James] There’s more talent here per capita than any other place that I’ve lived. Even in Los Angeles, there are amazing musicians but there’s also ten million people and you drive two and a half hours between gigs. I think an opportunity to showcase what we have here and connect with the community on a grass roots level is fantastic. [Doug] If you’re in Eugene, come hear the ensemble play “Watershed Suite” at Roaring Rapids on Thursday, August 16th at 7 pm, free admission! If you’re in Portland, we play Saturday, August 18th at 5:30 at the Montavilla Jazz Festival. Go to pjce.org/watershed to get reserved or VIP stageside tickets. General Admission tickets are available at the door only, but your reserved seating ticket gets you General Admission access to see the whole festival. Learn more about rest of the festival lineup at montavillajazzfest.com. Have you heard the ensemble play a few times? Have you listened to some recordings on PJCE Records? Maybe you’re a subscriber to this podcast? If you enjoy this music and media, and you want to see us make more of it in the future, I encourage you to become a PJCE Sustainer. You can make a tax-deductible donation of as little as $60/year, or $5 per month, and get access to discounts on concert tickets and PJCE Records releases, and invitations to Sustainers-only events. We’re offering a $10 discount for Montavilla Jazz Festival reserved seating tickets, and you’ll be invited to a special reception with James Miley in September, available only to PJCE Sustainers. You’re going to have a million questions running through your mind after you hear his incredible music. Come to the reception and you can ask him all of them. Head on over to pjce.org/sustain to become a PJCE Sustainer and we’ll send you all the details. This has been Beyond Category, I’m Douglas Detrick, Executive Director and Podcaster-in-Chief of the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. Thanks for listening.

Back at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan in the world famous Cupping Room after a week in the OMN booth at the Waterfront Blues Festival. I’ve got composer/guitarist Ryan Meagher in here with me, continuing something that I find fascinating, that’s when we bring in the curator of one of Portland’s music festivals and have them talk about the performers they’ve booked into the festival. The Montavilla Jazz Festival returns this year on Saturday and Sunday August 18 and 19. It’s the most adventurous of all the festivals. Ryan will also be performing. We’ll hear at tune from his latest album Evil Twin at the end of our conversation. The festival is, if not a part of, at least very closely aligned with the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble organization which is very active in bringing a special kind of Jazz to us on a regular basis. Ryan’s been in the coffeshop before, and he’s always welcome.

The 31st release on PJCE Records is “Escape Route,” by Other Barry, a bionic power trio led by George Colligan on keyboards, with Micah Hummel on drums and Enzo Irace on guitar. Transcript: [Doug] PJCE Records artists Other Barry, a trio led by George Colligan, play at 2:50 pm, Saturday August 18th at the 2018 Montavilla Jazz Festival in Northeast Portland. Tickets available at montavillajazzfest.com, and you buy or stream the album at pjce.bandcamp.com. Here’s the episode. Welcome to Beyond Category, I’m Douglas Detrick. The 31st release on PJCE Records is “Escape Route,” by Other Barry, a bionic power trio led by George Colligan on keyboards, with Micah Hummel on drums and Enzo Irace on guitar. The music is adrenaline-drenched, electronica-infused, jazz music that doesn’t mind being a bit complicated, even nerdy in its complexity. Picture Superman in beast mode, alternating between a dapper Clark Kent sipping a latte while he scrolls through his Instagram feed, and maybe that gives you an idea. [Music: Thing 3] The energy of the album starts at ten, and goes to eleven more than a few times, but not without entering some ethereal, fragile spaces. [Music: Pad] [George Colligan] I’m George Colligan and I played keyboards on the record. [Micah Hummel] I’m Micah Hummel and I played drums. [Doug] George Colligan, the veteran of this trio by at least a few decades, picked two of his students who share an interest in this aesthetic approach, and who were ready for a challenge. There’s a long tradition of a more experienced bandleader hiring young players. The iconic drummer Art Blakey came to mind for George. [George] Art Blakey always wanted quality musicians, but at a certain point he went for young musicians, just like Betty Carter would go for young musicians. There’s different reasons for that...you can pay them less. But also to have the mentor/mentee relationship. [Doug] That kind of relationship was important to Micah Hummel. [Micah] George is basically why I moved here. Musically he’s just very inspiring, and open minded, willing to let me contribute to the conversation on the band stand. [Doug] There are different reasons for an established older musician to work with younger players. It could include real opportunities for the youngsters to give input, or it could just be about having someone to obey commands. Allowing for an equal exchange of ideas was critical to the formation of this band and this album. [Music Thing 5] [George] I want it to be open to interpretation. I don’t like to overthink it or overexplain it. And this ties into the teaching part of it. I would say that I’m teaching by giving an opportunity to these young musicians to find the interpretation by themselves, you know what I mean, rather than by saying this is exactly what you should do. [George] Here’s the thing generally about this project, is that there is a set component, but I always like to find that balance between written and spontaneity. Even though some of it is more quote unquote groove based, there’s still that spirit of interaction. [Micah] One of my favorite drummers is Lewis Cole from Knower, and obviously Mark Guiliana and Nate Wood. What I love about them is that they can emulate machines in such a natural way. And I love that, but it can also be very restricting. I feel like this project and this group allows me to do the best of both worlds. Almost exactly like George was saying about pre-planning and spontaneity. I can have an idea of what I want to do, but there’s a lot of flexibility and I don’t have to be tied down. [Doug] The last tune on the album, Revenge, is a rhythmic tour de force. Micah thought it showed the precision they achieved as a group. He thought... [Micah] ...it would fall apart if everybody wasn’t on the same page and if there wasn’t that precise element about it. [Doug] The last tune on the album, Revenge, is a rhythmic tour de force. Micah thought it showed the precision they achieved as a group. He thought... [Micah] ...it would fall apart if everybody wasn’t on the same page and if there wasn’t that precise element about it. [Doug] Finding musicians who can perform well in that environment can be a challenge no matter how experienced they are. George Colligan had more to say about Micah Hummel and Enzo Irace. Both young players have great technique, but there’s more to it than that. [George] It’s about how to play with some maturity, how to develop a sense of taste, how to not play sometimes, when to leave stuff out. And I think Enzo has a lot of that instinctually. When I watch him play I get the same feeling as I do from older guys, they have a thoughtfulness about what they play, it’s not just a million notes. [Music: Intro to Thing 5] [George] I think Micah really brought this balance that we were talking about before. A project like this won’t work if it’s all about precision, and it also won’t work it it’s totally organic, so there has to be that balance. Micah has his own grooves. I’m hearing other drummers in town imitate them, so that’s a good sign for Micah, that he’s already become a local icon for certain types of grooves. There was a young guy at PSU and I was like ‘that’s some Micah Hummel stuff you’re playing.’ [Doug] The mentorship between George and Micah has been fruitful, but it almost didn’t happen. [George] When somebody really good auditions, you remember that. He had a really great audition and we were like ‘we need to get this guy here.’ It was a finance issue and he didn’t end up coming. Then a few years went by and ran into this trumpet player named Noah Simpson, at the Reno Jazz Festival, and Noah was like “I’m from Arizona,” and I said “there was this drummer who auditioned for us a few years ago. What was his name?” and Noah said “Micah Hummel?” and I said “yeah, what happened to him?” And he said “he’s just chillin’, he didn’t end up going to college.” And I was like “get him on the phone.” [Doug] The record comes out July 20th, 2018. Buy or stream the music at pjce.bandcamp.com. And you can hear this superhuman band play live at the Montavilla Jazz Festival, 2:50 pm, Saturday August 18th. Tickets are available at Montavillajazzfest.com where you can by a full-festival GA pass. You can buy a reserved seat for each set, which comes with festival pass. This festival is a gem of the Portland arts scene, and it’s the best opportunity for a Portland jazz fan to hear what Portland artists do when they have complete artistic freedom. It’s a special experience, and I want you all to be there. The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble performs at 5:30. We’ll be playing Watershed Suite, a new multi-movement piece by the acclaimed composer James Miley. Finally, if you love what we do at PJCE and you want to get even closer, become a PJCE Sustainer. You’ll get a discount code for reserved seats at Montavilla Jazz Festival for our set, free tickets and discounts for other PJCE concerts, and exclusive invitations to hang with PJCE artists and more. Become a Sustainer at pjce.org.

“Nothin’ but white people and sheep,” is how one Maxville logger described the tiny town of Maxville, Oregon. Oregon's racist history is well-known, but we rarely hear from the people of color who thrived in spite of it. FROM MAXVILLE TO VANPORT celebrates the blue-collar African American experience in 20th century Oregon with new jazz, blues, R&B with a twelve piece band and two short films. Lyricist S. Renee Mitchell, filmmaker Kalimah Abioto, composer Ezra Weiss, and vocalist Marilyn Keller illuminate unheard stories of Oregon’s black history through a live performance with the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. This episode, first in a series about the most ambitious project ever undertaken by the PJCE, shares some if the community input we received at events in Portland and Joseph, Oregon. More information at http://pjce.org/maxville-to-vanport/.

The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s Grasshoppers Young Composers Program is now in its third year with six new students. Hear new music by these young artists March 25th, 2018 at The 1905 from 7 to 8 pm. An open composer’s jam session follows, and there’s no cover charge. Grasshoppers 2018 was sponsored by Vino Veritas wine bar in the Montavilla neighborhood, and the Lynne Detrick Memorial Fund.

I met Douglas Detrick years ago when we were both studying trumpet performance at Lawrence University.  These days Douglas is still playing trumpet (and the banjo!!!) and he’s the executive director of the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. In this episode he shares his wealth of experience promoting jazz concerts, selling tickets, raising money for a non-profit and telling engaging stories that get people from all walks of life to care about what he’s up to musically.   http://mandymarksteiner.com/  

Andrew Oliver, co-founder of the PJCE, lives in London now, but back in 2008 he and a group of ambitious graduates of Portland State University staged the first concert in the group's history. Oliver didn't know what he was getting himself into, but we're glad he did.   [Andrew] I was stupid enough to make a 501(c)3 without having any idea of what I was getting into… [Doug] Welcome to Beyond Category, from the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. I’m Douglas Detrick. This season, we’re celebrating a big milestone: the PJCE is turning ten. Our first concert, in January of 2008, was a grand experiment. Co-founders Andrew Oliver and Gus Slayton wanted to produce a concert of new music for their own large jazz ensemble. They were passionate about the project, but they had no idea if anyone else would care. Fortunately for all of us, it turned people did care, a lot of them. The energy from that night powered the organization through its tenuous early days, and it’s still feeding us today. [music] Before the organization incorporated as a 501c3, the PJCE was just a group of friends, mostly recent graduates and members of the big band at Portland State University. They ended the school year with a disappointment that pushed them to take action. I talked with Andrew Oliver, co-founder of the PJCE, from Portland while he recorded his answers in London. [Andrew] It had to do with this big band festival in Notre Dame. We didn’t get marked that highly, because we didn’t play like a traditional big band. It was interactive big band playing...improvising, the rhythm section was really active, and the judges were like “well that was very traditional, the rhythm section didn’t support the horns very well” and blah blah blah. And Charley was kind of offended because that was his total aesthetic and he’d been working us all year to achieve that sound. [Doug] He’s talking about Charley Gray, the director of the PSU big band. [Andrew] There was a bit of momentum after that. We got back, and it was me and gus, and Kevin Van Geem and Kyle Williams, and we said we have this stuff to play, so why don’t we get together at the Union sometime, since that was the only big room we had access to, and play this stuff, you know. So, that happened on Canada Day… I remember it was on Canada Day because that’s the password of all the… [Doug] I’m going to jump in here and confirm that yes, all of the passwords for the organization’s online accounts were canadaday with some number after it—canadaday1, canadaday2008 with a capital C… And yes, we’ve changed all of our passwords since then. [Andrew] So, first of July, ok. That happened in July, the next month after graduation. [Douglas] The idea turned into a rehearsal. [Andrew] We just played the tunes for fun, and that was basically it. We didn’t have any other ideas. But by the autumn we had that idea that we’d do this concert. So I think we had very many rehearsals, and then I got excited as usual, and I thought “let’s do this concert!” [Andrew] The first concert was my band and the PJCE. We had a mix of pieces, by Gus, and me, and Eric Allen, and stuff that we had written for the PSU big band that we repurposed. And then we had some other pieces. Matt Wiers wrote a piece, and John Nastos wrote a piece. [Andrew] KMHD was very loose in those days. So you could just go in and talk. I think it was Lynn’s show, and we didn’t have any time restrictions so we just kind of went and hung out for the whole show. We were just chatting about it for an hour, between all the songs. It was unbelievable. So many people came! People came from the Oregon Coast because they heard us on there, I remember. There was some sort of incredible momentum. We had no expectations, but the place was totally packed. It just seemed at the time that all of these people showed up out of the woodwork. Whether or not the music lived up to it at the time I have no idea. I don’t think the concert was very good, it certainly wasn’t very well rehearsed. It was just all vibe, basically. [Douglas (on tape)] Tell me about the vibe. What was it like to be there, when you think back about it now? [Andrew] It was one of the first things I did in Portland where there seemed to be interest because of the idea. When I think back about why I was so excited about it, I think that was why. The idea behind it was what drove it, was what drove the interest and was why there was such a good atmosphere in the room. [Douglas (on tape)] How do you think things changed over your tenure? How did you make a transition from something that was pretty informal to something that was a little bit more organized, more of a thing. [Andrew] I guess what happened, inevitably, was that once the high of that wore off, slowly—we did a few more concerts after that, another couple of concerts at the store and at the Old Church—it was getting a bit crazy because more people were getting involved, and more people were wanting to write more complicated music, myself included. And the we still didn’t really have any money. I think as all those things began to come together, it got to a point where the balance got off. The music was too hard to perform well based on the amount of time people were willing to rehearse without getting paid. [Andrew] It seemed easy in my mind. I didn’t realize how much of a monster it was going to be. Here’s an opportunity for us to get some more money, and that will allow us more time to rehearse and commission better music, or rehearse the music we had, or play in better venues. [Andrew] The reason for having a large group became a challenge. At first we didn’t have to have a reason for having a large group. We just wanted to do it, so we did. And there was no reason. The reason that we wanted to have a large group changed over time. At the time when we started and even when we became a non-profit, I mean it seems naive, but I didn’t think about why we had a large group other than that we wanted to have a large group. But later on when we were trying to do more conceptual projects, I thought, damn, I wish we just had a quartet, or we could have just a quartet. [Douglas (on tape)] Have you thought of an answer to that question now? About why it was that you guys did that, and why it was worth doing. [Andrew] Well, I think we were just young and excited. When we started to write for large group, no of us had done it before. I mean it was really excited from a compositional standpoint, to be able to have all those voices and textures at your disposal. I still think the original reason was valid. To have a large group for the sake of writing for a large group because you enjoy is great, it’s as good as doing any thing else. It was an innocent decision. Later on this stuff came as a result of having a large group because you need more money to pay more people and this kind of thing. The decision to have a large group was just an artistic decision, which was good. [Douglas (on tape)] I love the naivete… [Andrew] Oh man, it would never have happened if it weren’t for that. I would never do something like this now. I would never start something like this now. At all. [Douglas (on tape)] And I wouldn’t have either. The fact that it was already there, and there was already a 501c3 and there was already a board. Even though there was tons of work to do, to try to make it into what I would want it to be if I was going to do it. If you hadn’t started it, I wouldn’t have done it, and it wouldn’t be here now. [Andrew] Yeah, but that’s why it’s’ good. We needed both me and you. I was stupid enough to randomly start a 501c3 without any idea of what I was getting into. But I never had the vision to make it work beyond just starting it. [music] [Doug] A few important ingredients came together when the PJCE began—some good luck, some support from the community, and a whole lot of youthful exuberance. The organization has changed a lot, but we’ve stayed true to mission that was established that night—new jazz music that is innovative, collaborative, and community-oriented. [music] Today with the PJCE, fundraising matters, ticket sales matter, budgeting and strategic planning matter. But, we still have the same twinkle in our eyes and flutter in our hearts that Andrew and his collaborators had. Those feelings guide us now just as much as they did in 2008. This episode is going live just before the end of 2017. But no matter when you’re listening, you can take the next step from being a podcast subscriber to being a PJCE Sustainer. Yes, you too can be one of the wonderful people that support us with contributions as little as $5 a month. Do it now at pjce.org/sustain. I’m Douglas Detrick, Executive Director and podcaster-in-chief at the Portland Jazz Composers Emsemble and you’ve been listening to Beyond Category. Music in this episode was composed by Andrew Oliver, from his PJCE Records album “Northwest Continuum” which you can purchase at pjce.bandcamp.com. Thanks for listening.

Thanks for joining us again at World Cup Coffee and Tea, NW 18th & Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Joining me today is Douglas Detrick, the Executive Director of Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble which I have been covering since before it was a real organization about ten years ago, and before there was an OMN. Since he became Executive Director he along with Ryan Meagher and Mieke Bruggeman-Smith have made PJCE into a real cultural force in Oregon. They’ve got a large amount of concerts and events coming this fall and we’re going to get the inside scoop on them. Douglas is also a trumpeter, composer and arranger. How does he have time for all this and his two little kids? Let’s meet him.

Jasnam Daya Singh, a pianist and composer originally from Brazil, has composed a new piece for the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble called “Ektah: The Unity Project.” When Jasnam begins a new piece of music, he begins not with a melody in mind, but with a word. This helps to give the piece a purpose, and help him focus his attention on that purpose. In this case, the word was "unity." We had a conversation about the new piece, and about how inspiration, respect, and gratitude combine with hard work in the process of writing music. The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble performs Jasnam Daya Singh’s “Ektah: The Unity Project” with the composer on piano 7 pm, August 16th at Roaring Rapids in Eugene, OR, and 4:20 pm August 19th at the Montavilla Jazz Festival in Portland, OR. All the details are available at our website: pjce.org.

The 4th annual Montavilla Jazz Festival is August 19th and 20th, 2017. Get all the information at montavillajazzfest.com. This year’s festival features headliner Essiet Essiet with Sylvia Cuenca, the Rich Halley Five with Vinny Golia, the Blue Cranes, the David Friesen Quartet, and us, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble playing new music by Jasnam Daya Singh. I had my headphones and my microphone out at last year’s festival, talking to pretty much everyone: artists, volunteers, listeners, and sponsors. These are some of my favorite interviews from last year, to get you excited for what’s coming up this year. Don’t miss this festival, it’s the jazz event of the summer.

January 22, 2016 In the coffeeshop with me today is guitarist, composer…and a lot more…Ryan Meagher. The coffeeshop, as usual is World Cup Coffee and Tea at Northwest 18th and Glisan in Portland. Ryan has just gotten back from New York and I’ll be asking about what he did there. He’s working on a new album, he’s one of the leaders of the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble as well as its label PJCE Records, he’s one of the founders of the Montavilla Jazz Festival and he recently was named Editor of the Jazz Society of Oregon’s JazzScene Magazine. Although, over the years, our conversations always turn to baseball (he’s a Giants fan), I’m going to try to keep this one on music. I don’t think I’ll be completely successful but I’ll try. He’s been in Portland just a few years, but he has truly made his mark since he arrived and it’s safe to say he’s a major player these days.

Episode Three of Beyond Category, the podcast of the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. A close family friend of Barra's was rushed to the hospital the night before the band went into the studio to record this album, and this event had an impact on the music.

PDX Eye and Ear Control is an occasional interview podcast brought to you by the Creative Music Guild, a non-profit organization that promotes and supports creative, experimental music in Portland, OR. Hosted by Ben Kates and Brandon Conway, PDX Eye and Ear Control features mostly local musicians mostly discussing their work. In this episode we speak with trumpeter, composer and executive director of the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. Check out the CMG at www.creativemusicguild.org. Support the CMG, an all-volunteer non-profit organization that promotes and supports creative, improvised and experimental music in Portland, Oregon by going to our website and making a donation. Logo by Evan Lindorff-Ellery: https://lindorffellery.wordpress.com/