February 2012, Vol. 28, No. 2
Jason Parker and David Marriott Jr.’s weekly audio preview of the local jazz calendar
Since debuting in October 2010, the Jazz Now! Seattle podcast has been dedicated to shining a spotlight on the amazing jazz music and musicians of the Emerald City. A weekly show, Jazz Now! Seattle is hosted by Jason Parker and David Marriott Jr., both very active Seattle jazz musicians. They use their insider knowledge of Seattle’s jazz scene to bring listeners an informed perspective. Thus far, they have produced 69 episodes that have been downloaded more than 25,000 times.
Parker is a jazz trumpeter and 25-year radio veteran. He leads his own group, The Jason Parker Quartet, and also plays in many other bands around Seattle, including Water Babies and the Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble. He just released a new CD with the Jason Parker Quartet, Five Leaves Left: A Tribute To Nick Drake, which is a remake of the iconic British singer-songwriter’s debut album. He’s joined by quartet members Josh Rawlings on piano, Evan Flory-Barnes on bass and D’Vonne Lewis on drums.
Marriott Jr. is a jazz trombonist, composer, arranger, educator and blogger, as well as a two-time Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Award recipient. He is active in a number of Seattle jazz groups, including the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, and his own groups Septology and the Marriott Quintet. He also, incidentally, created Seattle’s original jazz podcast, Seattle Jazz Scene.
Earshot Jazz editor Danielle Bias caught up with Parker to get the low down on why our readers should all be downloading the popular podcast each week.
Bias: So how did you and David come up with the idea to do the podcast? Was there a particular event or issue that spurred it on?
Parker: I’ve been involved in radio in one aspect or another for the better part of 25 years and have always loved the on-air aspect of the job. I had been thinking about doing some kind of podcasting for a year or two. I kicked around a few ideas, and finally decided that I wanted to do something to spotlight all the great live jazz that happens in this city.
As a jazz musician myself, I was always kind of dumbfounded to learn how little most folks know about what a great scene we have here. There is quite literally some great jazz show happening every night of the week, 52 weeks every year. So I came up with the name and the concept, but didn’t really know how to execute it.
One day in the summer of 2010, Dave Marriott and I got together for coffee and a rap session, and I mentioned the idea to him. His eyes lit up! Dave had a podcast a few years ago and had also been thinking about starting back up with a similar mission. He told me what a huge amount of work it was for one person to produce and suggested that we team up. And so Jazz Now! Seattle was born.
Bias: The podcast has become a great way to learn about new music from local musicians, and you feature a lot of music on the show. What goes into selecting the tunes featured?
Parker: I think what makes the podcast cool is that the playlist is completely dictated by who is playing that coming week. We try really hard to make sure that we’re covering the breadth and depth of the scene and not leaving out any corner of the jazz world. We play bebop, big band, free jazz, funky stuff, veterans, younger cats, students ... anything we can get our hands on!
Dave and I have our favorites and opinions, of course, but because of the nature of the show, those don’t really come into play. Our only considerations are the weekly schedule and making sure that the music is of a certain sound quality. As much as we’d love to play people’s demos and home recordings, we decided early on that we wanted the show to sound professional, and that means setting a certain standard for sound quality. This is one reason that we started our “Live From London Bridge Studio” series – to help bands get good quality records so that we can plug their gigs.
One thing I will say about Dave and my backgrounds – we come from different parts of the Seattle jazz scene. Of course there is overlap, but we run in slightly different circles and play with different people. This gives us a breadth of knowledge of the scene and the players that is a great benefit to the show. The show is stronger because we’re both involved, and we bring our different knowledge to bear on the selections we choose and the information we can provide.
Bias: Where do you record the show? What’s the setup (equipment, software) that you use to produce the show?
Parker: The show is recorded mostly at Dave’s house. He has a couple of good mics, an XLR to firewire converter, and Vegas recording software. The show is recorded and edited in Vegas, then the MP3 is uploaded to the web, where we use Wordpress for our blog and the Podpress plugin to stream the shows.
Bias: Are most of your listeners in the Seattle area, or do you have lots of listeners outside of Seattle?
Parker: A good chunk of our listeners are in Seattle, but we have fans all over the world. We have recently heard from folks in Virginia, the Netherlands, Texas, Canada, Boston, Italy, England and San Francisco. There’s even a jazz musician in Portland who has contacted us about putting together Jazz Now! Portland. We’re excited about the possibility of franchising the idea all over the country and the world!
Bias: Has the podcast changed much since you started producing it in October 2010? If so, in what way(s)?
I think we’ve stayed pretty close to our mission since day one, to spotlight the great live music happening each week in the Seattle jazz scene. We’ve developed different special features, like our “Live From London Bridge Studio” series, and special episodes that have showcased different things, from festival lineups to new releases to our Christmas special and all-request episode.
Bias: Do your fellow musicians give you love or grief about the podcast? How has it been received in general by musicians?
Parker: We’ve gotten nothing but love from the musicians. Well, except for Geoff Harper, who has his own podcast and has vowed to crush us. We’re thankful that we’ve been well-received, and that the musicians have been spreading the word through their own emails, Facebook and Twitter posts, at gigs and the like. That’s the way we’ll grow the audience for the show, and thereby help get more people out to gigs and to buy these wonderful musicians’ CDs.
Bias: Is there anything else you would like to say or want Earshot readers to know about the Jazz Now! Seattle podcast?
Parker: We welcome any and all comments, suggestions and requests. This is truly a labor of love for Dave and me, and we want more and more people to be aware of just how great we have it here in Seattle as far as jazz music goes. We also have some big plans for 2012, including more “Live From London Bridge Studio” sessions, video casts, live tapings from venues and perhaps even some live shows presented by Jazz Now! Seattle.
Bias: What’s the best way for artists to submit their music to the podcast?
Parker: The best way for artists to contact us is through the “Submit Music” link on our website at JazzNow
Seattle.com. Seattle jazz artists of all kinds are encouraged to send us their CDs or MP3s for consideration. We listen to everything that comes in.
One thing that we ask of the musicians reading this is please get us your music! We want to feature your shows and your CDs on the podcast, but can only do so if you get them to us.
For more information about Jason Parker, visit www.oneworkingmusician.com. Learn more about David Marriott Jr. at www.redraspus.com. You can find the Jazz Now! Seattle podcast at www.JazzNowSeattle.com. New episodes are posted each Thursday.
