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October 18, 2024
This year’s Earshot Jazz Festival Resident Artist is one of Seattle’s most versatile, hard-driving, and prolific jazz musicians. The saxophonist known as Skerik is a force to be reckoned with and is not afarid to draw from many musical genres and traditions and combine these disparate musical forces in a myriad of creative ways. Jazz, sludge metal, avant garde electronic, funk, R&B, and rock along with improvised music are all in Skerik’s workhouse. Early in his career Skerik worked internationally in London, Paris, and the South Pacific, then headed back to the US to forge collaborations far and wide, from Seattle to New York and New Orleans and everywhere in between.
The list of musicians and ensembles that Skerik has worked with are too numerous to name but a few: Roger Waters, REM, Fred Wesley, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, Headhunters, Wayne Horvitz 4+1 Ensemble, New York Composer’s Orchestra, Ween, Pearl Jam, Garage A Trois, Stone Gossard, Bonnie Raitt, Bobby Previte’s Coalition of the Willing, Critters Buggin, Ani DiFranco, True Loves, Jennifer Hartswick, McTuff, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Scott Amendola, Jeff Parker, and many more. His reach travels even further with the 200 or so records he’s contributed to and his music has accompanied both film and theatre. One of his most recent albums is with Sound Cipher and is titled All that Syncs Must Diverge (2023). For a small sample of other music by Skerik, click here.
For the Earshot Jazz Festival, Skerik will be heading three performances. Tonight’s ensemble includes Ahamefule J. Oluo (trumpet), Josh Rawlings (keyboard), Jason Cressey (trombone), D’Vonne Lewis (drums), Phinehas M Nyang’Oro (vocals), and Marina Christopher (bass). Other Skerik concerts are scheduled for October 23rd and October 27th. Tickets sold separately.
*Earshot Jazz COVID-19 Policy: Earshot recommends that all ticket holders be vaccinated. Policy subject to change. Full COVID policy here.
Skerik photo by Lisa Hagen Glynn