People & Places Marc Seales

• 1 Rue Cler 09:52
• 2 Palladium 08:31
• 3 Prelude 05:01
• 4 For You My Dear 04:47
• 5 The Muddy Chicago Blues 08:53
• 6 The Gingi 07:37
• 7 Ascending Truth 08:12
• 8 Home Light 09:29
• Total Runtime 01:02:22

Info zu People & Places

His expansive, deeply lyrical and blues-drenched approach to modern jazz has made Seattle pianist Marc Seales a favorite sideman of touring luminaries for decades. In particular, long associations with Mark Murphy, Larry Coryell and Ernie Watts turned into albums, tours and lasting friendships. Seales returns the invite on People & Places by making a trip to saxophonist Ernie Watts' home turf in Los Angeles, teaming with him and Watts' longtime bandmate, bassist Bruce Lett, and taking advantage of the locale to reconnect with drummer Moyes Lucas, Jr., who goes back with Seales to the early '80s in Seattle. While pulling together a collection of originals that span the last 30 years, along with a take on Wayne Shorter's "Palladium," the album's through line slowly became apparent—it's all about the people & places, and the collaborations found & nurtured through the years. Though retired after an inspired 38-year career at the University of Washington, Seales continues on that fruitful path.

"...astonishingly vivid electronic colorations balanced within acoustic performances... Perhaps the strongest facet of Marc Seales' playing is that he's always "in the moment." (All About Jazz)

"Nice and easy soul jazz in world view of Grover Washington Jr is laid out by Marc Seales, playing piano and keyboards and featuring the warm tenor sax of Ernie Watts alongside Bruce Lett/b and Moyes Lucas, Jr/dr. Seales goes does as easy as 25 year old Scottish Whiskey as he plays the keyboards on the dreamy “Rue Cler” and veers around Let on the stylish “Ascending Truth”. He gives a nice piano workout on the rich aria of “Prelude” and is cool and calm with Watts on “The Muddy Chicago Blues” and assured as he locks arms with the tenor titan on the R&B -ish “Palladium”. Seales is working the room on this one." (George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly)

Ernie Watts, tenor saxophone
Marc Seales, piano, keyboards
Bruce Lett, double bass
Moyes Lucas Jr., drums

Recorded by Paul Tavenner at Big City Recording, Granada Hills, CA
Recorded by August 5-6, 2022 & February 10, 2023
Mixed by Steve Rodby, Seattle, WA
Mastered by Rich Breen at Rich Breen Mastering, Los Angeles, CA
Produced by Marc Seales & Steve Rodby

Marc Seales
A noted pianist, composer and leading figure in the Northwest jazz scene, Marc Seales has shared stages with many of the great players of the last two decades. He has played with nearly every visiting jazz celebrity from Joe Henderson and Art Pepper to Benny Carter, Mark Murphy, and Bobby Hutcherson. With the late Don Lanphere he performed in such places as London, England; Kobe, Japan; The Hague in the Netherlands; and the North Sea Jazz Festival.

The musicians he admires most are Herbie Hancock, Charlie Parker, John Lewis, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Wynton Kelly, though he is quick to acknowledge that he owes the basically be-bop/post be-bop sound of his playing to his mentors, Don Lanphere and Floyd Standifer.

Critics have praised Seales variously for his "meaty piano solos," and "blues inflected, Hancock-inspired modernism." Winner of numerous Earshot awards (Instrumentalist of the Year in 1999 and Acoustic Jazz Group in 2000 and 2001; Jazz Hall of Fame, 2009), Seales is today promoting jazz awareness and molding young talents as a Professor of Music at the University of Washington, where he is a professor in the Jazz Studies Program. He teaches an array of courses, including History of Jazz, Jazz Piano, and Beginning and Advanced Improvisation, as well as leading various workshops and ensembles.

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet