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Books by WSU alumni and friends
Music
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Acoustic Jazz Quartet: Organic
Acoustic Jazz Quartet
The mood of Organic seems to be one of constant, relaxed play back and forth between old-school style bop and broader, more abstract and splashy sounds. By laying down a firm, almost square ground, each of the soloists is given room in which to play, stepping into the spaces between the beats and making room for the individual musical lines to take root and blossom.
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Art of the Groove
Brent Jensen '89
Northwest alto saxophonist Brent Jensen explores the hardbop heyday of the mid-60's with Art of the Groove. Featuring flugelhornist/composer Rob Walker and the Grammy-nominated New Stories trio, Groove explores a set of seven Walker and Jensen originals and the standards "It Could Happen to You" and "You Go To My Head," all influenced and inspired by the bands of Miles Davis.
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Destinations Unknown
Chris Guenther '04
Broken hearts, barrooms, rodeos, and crying in your beer—the new CD, Destinations Unknown, from Chris Guenther ’04 has all the ingredients of a traditional country from the heart of country music, Nashville. Chris separates himself from his crooner colleagues, though, with minimal instrumentation and a vocal delivery that harks back to the early days of country music.
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Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers since Beethoven's Time
Nicolas Slonimsky, Foreword by Peter Schickele
Recommended by Erich Lear, music specialist and dean, College of Liberal Arts. The author quotes music reviews written by critics who lived at the same time as the composers and performers. You can enter the book at any point, and it provides a lighter insight into all that "serious" music.
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Louisiana--A Pianists Journey
Kenneth Boulton 84, piano
In this two-CD set Kenneth Boulton '84 performs an engaging variety of solo classical compositions for piano inspired by the culture of Louisiana and New Orleans. The diversity of the compositions offers a rich, yet largely unexplored, body of piano music written between 1847 and 1949. Included are Louisiana Suite, Op. 97 by Walter Niemann; Louisiana Nights, Valse Creole, by Roy Spaulding Stoughton; New Orleans Miniatures by John Parsons Beach; Mississippi Suite by Ferde Grofé; La Savane, Ballade Creole, Op. 3 by Louis Moreau Gottschalk; Creole Sketches, Op. 15 by Cedric Wilmont Lemont; Sweet Louisiana by Albert W. Ketelbey; and Louisiana Story by Virgil Thomson. Louisiana - A Pianist's Journey is packaged as a 32-page, hard-cover, illustrated book with two compact discs. The book also contains an extended essay on Louisiana history and complete biographical information about the composers.
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Stay Cool
Brent Jensen '89
In Stay Cool, alto saxophonist Brent Jensen '89 teams with Los Angeles-based tenor player David Sills, bassist Zac Matthews '92, and drummer Dean Koba. They planned Stay Cool as an homage to the work of Lennie Tristano, but the scope evolved into an examination of cool from early Lester Young on through the cool/West Coast sounds of Tristano, Konitz, Lanny Morgan, and Gerry Mulligan. If listeners ever thought of cool as dated music, Stay Cool informs them otherwise; in many ways, this brand of cool is the music of the next minute.
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The Sound of a Dry Martini: Remembering Paul Desmond
Brent Jensen '89
Idaho-based saxophonist Brent Jensen '89 teams with members of Los Angeles’s Acoustic Jazz Quartet in a collection of 10 tunes closely associated with the ever-lyrical and inventive alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. Says jazz writer Doug Ramsey in his liner notes, “He knows what Desmond was made of. In this homage, Jensen succeeds, uncannily, in marshaling many of Desmond's essential qualities.” A student of Lee Konitz, Jensen, “…a saxophonist of impressive range, comfortable in idioms from mainstream to free,” early on discovered his affinity for the under-appreciated melodicism and singing quality of Desmond’s alto voice. “If Brent Jensen's tribute calls attention to Desmond's importance as one of the great individualists among jazz soloists, it is good for Brent, good for listeners and good for music. And it could do wonders for the dry martini industry.”
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The Wakefields: Falling Down Blue
Jason Kardong '95 et al
Readers of Washington State Magazine will be familiar with Jason Kardong '95 as a reviewer (Spring '05, Summer '06). In Falling Down Blue, they can hear him as a songwriter, singer, and instrumentalist. This debut CD from The Wakefields features, horns, tympani, Hammond organ, pedal steel, percussion and accordion, all wrapped into a nice package of West Coast Americana music that would never be found in Nashville.
Falling Down Blue contains 12 original songs and was recorded and produced by Seattle engineer Martin Feveyear who has worked with many great bands including The Presidents of the United States, The Minus 5, and members of GNR. The Wakfields are Jason Kardong, vocals, guitars, pedal steel; Eric Himes, bass, backup vocals; Lynn Sepeda, drums, percussion, tympani, backup vocals; and Arne Chatterton, Hammond organ, piano, backup vocals. Click here to listen to selections from Falling Down Blue.
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The Way I Feel Tonight
Jennifer Lynn '03
The fastest rising country artist in the Pacific Northwest lays down 11 new original songs along with one of the most unique interpretations of a Hank Williams classic.
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Trios
Brent Jensen '89
Brent Jensen ('89 M.A.) takes a cue from his old mentor Lee Konitz and explores the intimate world of the trio. Here he combines with two rhythm sections of long-time collaborators: guitarist Jamie Findlay and bassist Zac Matthews '92 of the Los Angeles-based Acoustic Jazz Quartet, and bassist Doug Miller and drummer John Bishop from Seattle's New Stories. From the intimate interplay of "Beautiful Love" to the raucous second-line groove of "Bemsha Swing", Trios presents 7 reinterpreted standards by “…a saxophonist of impressive range, from mainstream to free.” (Doug Ramsey, JazzTimes).
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When the circus leaves town
Brooke Ludwick '97
Seattle-raised Brooke Ludwick '97 spent time as a creative director and artist in the advertising field before recently returning to her first love, songwriting and performing. With her talents and understanding of the music business, she has created some well-crafted, thoughtful, and very listenable tunes. This album fits snugly into the genre of the contemporary country sound, blending familiar lyrical motifs with the Nashville/soft rock mix that currently predominates in this market.
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Where the Fins Meet the Frets
Ray Troll '81 and the Ratfish Wranglers
If life imitates art, then for Ray Troll, so does music. More specifically, his music imitates his art. The debut CD from Ray Troll and the Ratfish Wranglers titled Where The Fins Meet The Frets contains 16 original songs that one could say leap directly from Ray’s artwork, which is playful, humorous, and dripping with double entendre. Popping bass lines, dancing fiddle, slow guitar and crying organ saturate the CD. Ray himself plays acoustic guitar and sings lead on many of the songs. Where The Fins Meet The Frets finds itself landing somewhere in the musical area of country, new wave rock, and down home folk.
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Wiggle Like a Fish
Tory Christensen '01
From the artist: "The making of the 'Wiggle Like a Fish' CD really started over 30 years ago as I sat at the feet of my dad while he sang songs and played the very guitar that was used on this CD. His music always made me smile. There are few greater things in this world than the feeling you get while smiling with a child. I hope these songs will bring as many smiles to you and your family as they have to me and mine."
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