WHAT: Jazzin' with the Classics for Christmas
WHEN: Friday, December 29, 2023 at 2:00 PM
WHERE: Trinity Lutheran Church at 18341 State Route 525 in Freeland
MORE INFO: (360) 331-5191 (Trinity) or see www.candlelightnw.org
ADMISSION: free will offering to help cover expenses for adults; 18 & under free
Music at Trinity presents the 9th annual Jazzin' with the Classics for Christmas at Faith Lutheran Church, featuring vocalist Gail Pettis, jazz pianist, flutist and clarinetist Martin Lund, classical flutist Jeffrey Cohan and bassist Paul Gabrielson in a unique and joyous celebration of music for the holidays that bridges the jazz/classical divide on Friday, December 29, 2023 at 2:00 PM at Trinity Lutheran Church at SR 525 and Woodard Road in Freeland on Whidbey Island. A holiday ice cream social will follow the concert.
Admission will be by free will offering to help cover expenses, and those 18 and under are free. Please call (360) 331-5191 or see www.candlelightnw.org for more information.
In this program, the four renowned jazz and classical artists and friends meld their musical perspectives in an unusual collaboration and unique celebration of the Yuletide season that is guaranteed to generate an abundance of Christmas cheer. Pettis, Lund, Cohan and Gabrielson will team up to bridge contemporary improvisational jazz and the "art music" of baroque and renaissance times. Instrumental musicians have "jazzed up" melodies familiar to them in the style of their day for centuries, and this team's virtuoso improvisations on Yuletide favorites, and their renditions of classical standards will bring together the best of jazz and classical worlds in a new program for 2023.
About the Artists
GAIL PETTIS
Named ” 2010 Northwest Vocalist of the Year,” by Earshot Jazz Society, (also 2007), Gail’s rich, warm vocals and understated phrasing have been described as “deliciously soulful” by Cadence Magazine. A native of Henderson, Kentucky, Gail grew up in Gary, Indiana.
Grandfather Arthur Pettis was a blues singer and guitarist who recorded for Victor Records in Memphis in 1928 and for Brunswick in Chicago in 1930 and grandmother Ninevah played piano around Chicago. Having completed an orthodontic residency program at Harvard University, after which she taught and practiced orthodontics full-time for the next 15 years, Gail moved to Seattle WA in 1996 by way of Memphis, TN, discovered jazz and sold her orthodontic practice ten years later.
As artist-in-residence at the Amersfoort Jazz Festival in the Netherlands in 2006, she was featured artist with the New Manhattan Big Band, also Eddie Conard and the Dutch Jazz Cats on the mainstage and smaller combs in venues in Amersfoort and Harderwijk. Included on this tour was a stop in Kobe, Japan to perform as a guest artist at KAVC Hall as First Place winner of the Seattle-Kobe Female Jazz Vocalist Audition. She has also performed at the Gene Harris Jazz Festival in Boise, Idaho, Jazz at the River Festival in Eagle, ID. Most recently, Gail completed Russian tours in the spring of 2015, performing in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Ufa, Ivanova and Perm and returning in the summer for a tour anchored by the White Nights Jazz Festival.
Gail’s debut CD, "May I Come In?" (Origin/OA2 Records, 2007), was given a warm reception by XM Satellite Radio and Music Choice Television as well as by stations across the United States and in Germany and Portugal. This recording was nominated for Earshot’s Golden Ear award.
“2007 Northwest Recording of the Year”. The eagerly awaited sophmore recording, "Here in the Moment", was released in January 2010 on Origin/OA2 Records. Gail’s refreshing readings of standard songs on this project have been embraced by listeners, resulting in a 14 week stay (peaking at #5) on the JazzWeek National Airplay Chart, ending up as the most played new female vocal CD on American jazz radio in that year.
Gail has also contributed vocals to Grammy-nominated CD “Colabs”, has song credits in major motion pictures and her voiceover and jingle work can currently be heard on radio and television.
Earshot jazz describes Gail as going “…from strength to strength, performing a winning, crowd-involving style of vocal jazz”.
MARTIN LUND
Martin Lund, an extremely diverse musician, has played with some of the great blues artists of our time and worked in the studios of LA as a composer, arranger and musician with artists like Mel Torme to Isacc Hayes. His eclectic background has allowed him to move freely through any style of music from classical to rock and from jazz to Broadway. He is equally adept at clarinet, saxophone, flute and piano.
Martin is a well-known performer and teacher who produces one of Orcas Island's most popular summer music events, the Orcas Island Jazz Festival bringing in top talent from around the northwest and beyond.
Martin graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in both music and music education.
PAUL GABRIELSON
Jazz bassist and educator Paul Gabrielson has been playing professionally for over 30 years. Recently relocating back to Seattle from New York City, Paul brings with him a performance roster of some of the finest jazz musicians on the scene today, having performed with Jeff Watts, Jeff Herschfield, Mark Ferber, Benny Green, Bob Florence, Bill Mays, Geoff Keezer, Larry Fuller, Arturo O’Farrill, Ron Affif, Paul Bollenbach, Corey Christianson, Randy Johnston, Don Mock,Ingrid Jensen, Duane Eubanks, Terrell Stafford, Jon Gordon, Mingus Big Band, Diane Shure, Jay Clayton, Mark Murphy and many more. Paul has taught at Pacific Lutheran University, Central Washington University and City College of New York and has given numerous clinics and recitals nationwide. Paul is also the festival founder and director of the annual Pinehurst Jazz Festival in Pinehurst, NC.
JEFFREY COHAN
Flutist Jeffrey Cohan has performed as soloist in 25 countries, both on modern and early transverse flutes from the Renaissance through the present. The winner of many important competitions and awards, he has performed throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, and worldwide for the USIA Arts America Program. Many works have been written for and premiered by him, including five new flute concerti since 2000. He is artistic director of the Capitol Hill Chamber Music Festival in Washington, DC, the Black Hawk Chamber Music Festival in the Midwest and the Salish Sea Early Music Festival in the Pacific Northwest. He can "play many superstar flutists one might name under the table" according to the New York Times and is “The Flute Master” (headline) according to the Boston Globe.
