Racer Session #445 | George Garzone | October 21, 2018

Racerheads!

This Sunday we have the extreme honor and privilege of hosting the legendary saxophonist George Garzone along with drummer Jerry Steinhilber and percussionist King Dahl! Garzone, an incredibly prolific improviser and educator currently teaching at the Berklee College of Music, is regarded as one of the all-time great masters of his instrument. Steinhilber, a former student of Garzone’s and a current resident of Bellingham, has had an outstanding career as a percussion teacher and performer as well, having worked with Pete Christlieb, Eric Marienthal, and the Clayton Brothers, among others.

Read on below to check out what George and Jerry have written for this very special session, and swing by Cafe Racer this Sunday at 8pm to catch their set followed by an open jam session!

“Dig Nietzsche-
’Compared to music, language is a very vulgar way of communicating.’

Indeed, vibrant communication through spontaneous, improvised music is the heart and soul of world-renown tenor saxophonist George Garzone as he reunites with long-time collaborator, Jerry Steinhilber on drums.

Life, like improvised music, is a mystical journey that charts its own course, and ends on its own terms. The highest highs and the lowest lows are a part of everyone’s life experience, and those experiences are always expressed in beautiful and unexpected ways whenever Garzone begins to play. Deep love and tragic loss are recent events in Garzone’s personal life, and his music always reflects what’s happening now in the moment.”

“Garzone tours the world virtually non-stop. And of course, he is one-third of the world’s longest continuously-running avant-garde jazz trio, The Fringe, from Boston. As an educator, his students are more like disciples, each touched profoundly by the master’s approach to musical communication. Having him share his virtuosity with the free-jazz community in Seattle is a very special treat. This performance will be made even more noteworthy with the addition of the propulsive drumming of Steinhilber, a recent northwestern transplant who’s decades-long trail of gigs, students, and music/life experiences has wound through Boston, the southwest, Chicago, and Nashville.

For the listener, the soundscapes that the duo will create at Cafe Racer in real time, augmented with the sprinkling of additional percussive explorations by musician, King Dahl, will resonate within each one of us in our own unique way.”