Earshot Jazz in Seattle cultivates a vibrant jazz community in the Puget Sound region to ensure the legacy and progression of the art form. Earshot encourages creative growth and jazz appreciation for students of all ages, and musicians and non-musicians alike by promoting jazz performance in venues throughout the region, annual concert series, and jazz education.
To cultivate jazz in the community, Earshot Jazz commissions new works by recognized artists, hosts benefit fundraising concerts for school and community jazz programs, plays a leadership role in national and regional jazz touring collaboration, and produces a variety of jazz events throughout the year.
In addition, the Earshot Jazz Magazine is a monthly news magazine celebrating more than 30 years of publication and the region’s only comprehensive calendar of local and regional jazz events, distributed free of charge.
Earshot jazz hosts the following key annual events.
Love our cheap ideas? Get our FREE email newsletters.
Choose from daily, weekly, and monthly lists:
Earshot Jazz Festival
Held every fall at venues around Seattle, the Annual Earshot Jazz Festival brings jazz greats from around the world into creative collaboration with Seattle area audiences and artists. Earshot celebrates Seattle’s place in the world of jazz with Tickets are sold separately and priced per venue, packages are available to save you money on individual performance prices.
2022 Earshot Jazz Festival
Live jazz, with real people, in the same room, is one of the best things in the world.
- When: October 8 – November 6, 2022
- Where: multiple venues
- Tickets & Passes: Individual concerts & livestream tickets: $5-$45. Festival Gold Card is $450 ($400 for Earshot Jazz members) for access to over 39 concerts and events.
- Volunteer: 2022 Earshot Jazz Festival Volunteer Sign Up – Earshot Jazz
- More info: 2022 Earshot Jazz Festival – Earshot Jazz
Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music
Duke Ellington 1946 (public domain)
Duke Ellington’s “Sacred Music” is a reverent and hip body of jazz composition written late in his career for jazz big band, vocal, and instrumental soloists, a gospel choir, and tap dancers. Ellington’s compositions for these concerts drew heavily on earlier pieces, which were then augmented to convey an intense emotion and reverence. The pieces belied Ellington’s spirituality that was derived from his roots in the Baptist Church.
Ellington stated this was the most important music he’d ever written. However, because of the scale of the music and the sheer number of artists needed to execute each work, Ellington’s sacred music concert has rarely been performed.
For over 30 years, Earshot Jazz has presented an annual concert of Ellington’s Sacred Music—now the world’s longest running presentation of Duke Ellington’s wonderful “Sacred Music”. It is both serious and swinging. It is a reverent and hip body of jazz composition, written late in his career, for jazz big band, vocal and instrumental soloists, and tap dancers.
2022 Earshot Jazz ‘Sacred Music’ concert by Duke Ellington
Returning in 2022 for an in-person concert in the Town Hall Seattle Great Hall, the concert features the 17-piece Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra (SRJO), codirected by Michael Brockman and Clarence Acox, tap dancer Alex Dugdale, and vocal soloists Dee Daniels and Jacqueline Tabor.
- When: Join us in-person or by livestream on Friday, December 30 at 7:30pm PST
- Where: Livestream or in person at Town Hall Seattle
- Tickets: $10-$50. More info: Buy: Concert of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music (2022) (force.com)
- More info: Ellington’s Sacred Music – Earshot Jazz
Note: We all love the choir component of this program, however, due to the unpredictability of the COVID virus and for the health and safety of performers, staff, and audiences, the Northwest Chamber Chorus under the direction of Mark Kloepper will not be performing this year.
Live band music photo – DepositPhotos.com
Earshot Jazz community calendar
Earshot Jazz maintains a community calendar of live music performances around the Puget Sound region, many at venues listed above. It’s a great resource to check anytime you are searching for music to soothe your soul. You’ll find someone playing somewhere almost every night of the year.
But wait, there’s more!
- Our big list of live music venues (all genres).
- Our big list of music festivals in Washington State.
- Here’s a list of 101+ always free things to do for fun.
- More free and cheap things to do every day: Greater Seattle on the Cheap event calendar.
- Still more ideas for frugal fun: Greater Seattle on the Cheap home page.
Love our cheap ideas? Get our FREE email newsletters. Choose from daily, weekly, and monthly lists. Click here to subscribe.
Upcoming music events on our calendar
Listed below are music events of all kinds, from no cover gigs to concerts and outdoor festivals in every music genre.
Friday, March 31, 2023
Sunday, April 2, 2023
Friday, April 7, 2023
Friday, April 14, 2023
Friday, April 21, 2023
Friday, April 28, 2023
Saturday, April 29, 2023
Sunday, April 30, 2023
Friday, May 5, 2023
Sunday, May 7, 2023
Friday, May 12, 2023
Friday, May 19, 2023
Friday, May 26, 2023
Multiple locations
