Abe Beeson

2 weeks ago | knkx.org | Abe Beeson

Tenor sax players with the Eckstein Middle School jazz band, barely teenaged Isaac Plummer and Oren Sternberg have already spent many years listening to jazz. You can listen to an hour of their favorite jazz songs as April’s KNKX School of Jazz guest DJs.Plummer, a 13-year-old, was born into a jazz home. His father Bren Plummer is a professional bassist and composer in jazz and classical fields, and a song from Plummer’s 2018 KNKX Studio Session found its way onto Isaac and Oren’s playlist.

3 weeks ago | knkx.org | Abe Beeson

With his soulful new album Everyday, modern jazz trumpeter Takuya Kuroda fulfills promises he made on his visit to the KNKX studios last year. That studio session included saxophonist Craig Hill, who brought a new dynamic to Kuroda’s songs, which featured trombonist Corey King on previous albums. In that session interview, Kuroda promised KNKX fans that Hill would have a greater role in his band moving forward. Everyday shows that his promise has been fulfilled.

4 weeks ago | knkx.org | Abe Beeson

Seattle JazzED continued their partnership with the KNKX with an exciting studio session of jazz classics performed by the nonprofit organization's Femme Ellington Project. Founded in 2010, Seattle JazzED gives jazz education opportunities to students who would otherwise not have access. Many JazzED students have worked with the KNKX School of Jazz in recent years, including three past KNKX guest DJ's who are now working at JazzED.

1 month ago | knkx.org | Abe Beeson

Seattle's iconic trumpeter, Thomas Marriott recently celebrated a new album Screen Time with his East Coast friends at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley. The quartet also visited the KNKX studios to play music "from screens large and small." For the new album, Marriott selected seven pieces from television and film, as well as a pair of originals. He's accompanied by Orrin Evans, Robert Hurst III and Mark Whitfield Jr. at the piano, bass and drums on the recording and in the KNKX studios.

2 months ago | knkx.org | Abe Beeson

On a cold, rainy winter night in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood, music lovers of all stripes literally lined up at the Seamonster Lounge to hear the popular new instrumental band in town, Mega Cat. The music of Mega Cat isn’t easy to describe. In a conversation with KNKX, the band’s founding trio members offered up phrases like “punk jazz, cinematic, interstellar, progressive, funky” and more. Mega Cat’s origins date to the recent pandemic isolation.