Douglas Detrick

Love Letters: A Violin Recital by Casey Bozell - Marylhurst University
2017-10-08 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Marylhurst University, 17600 Pacific Highway, Marylhurst, OR, 97036, United States
The wonderful violinist Casey Bozell asked me to write a piece for her recital. “Love Letters” is the theme, with every piece inspired by another violin piece. Instead of writing my own love letter to another violin, I interviewed Casey about a piece that had been important to her, and she told a beautiful story about her experience with the Tchaikovsky violin concerto, and then I edited and scored the interview for solo violin. I can’t wait to hear what she does with it!

PJCE 10th Anniversary Celebration - Fremont Theatre
2017-10-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Fremont Theater, 2393 NE Fremont St, Portland, OR, 97212, United States
Portland’s only non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to Oregon artists celebrates its tenth anniversary season in a fundraiser and “story-concert” event at the Fremont Theatre.
The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble is turning ten! Since our first concert in January of 2008, the PJCE has been proving that Oregon jazz artists can make world-class music when the opportunity. On October 20th at the Fremont Theatre, we celebrate this important milestone by telling our story—how artists can build a network of support that allows them to reach new heights of creativity, and connects them to the most important conversations of our time.

From Maxville to Vanport: Community Input Event - Wallowa County
2017-11-04 19:00 - 20:30 | Josephy Center for the Arts, 403 Main St, Joseph, OR, 97846, United States
The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble (PJCE) is creating a new piece of community-guided music, “From Maxville to Vanport,” incorporating the stories of two unique towns in Oregon’s history: Maxville and Vanport. The project will culminate in a concert-length composition for the PJCE to be performed May 26 and 27, 2018, as part of the Vanport Festival (May 25–28). Maxville and Vanport both had significant multicultural populations at a time when Oregon was particularly unfriendly to non-white residents, and their histories deserve to be heard and better understood by all Oregonians.

Little One @ Muddy Rudder with Caleb Paul
2017-11-17 20:00 - 22:00 | Muddy Rudder, 8105 SE 7th Ave, Portland, OR, 97202, United States

Little One @ Turn Turn Turn with Paper Gates and Portland Kora Project
2017-11-20 20:00 - 22:00 | Turn Turn Turn, 8 NE Killingsworth St., Portland, 97211, United States

Detrick/Gamble/Hannafin and Duval/Haning/St. James/DuRoche @ Turn Turn Turn
2017-12-10 20:00 - 22:00 | Turn Turn Turn, 8 NE Killingsworth St., Portland, 97211, United States
From the organizer: Join us for the latest installment of our monthly improvised music series at Turn! Turn! Turn! This one is a doozy, featuring a veritable “who’s who” of the Portland improv scene.
Doug Detrick-trumpet
Mike Gamble-guitar
Matt Hannafin-percussion
PLUS
Dan Duval-guitar
Doug Haning-keyboards
Andre St. James-bass
Tim DuRoche-drums
These are some tasty ensembles, don’t miss out ok?
8pm
$5-$10 cover
21+

CMG Ad-Hoc Improv Night | Outset Series @ Turn Turn Turn
2017-12-20 20:00 | Turn Turn Turn, 8 NE Killingsworth St., Portland, 97211, United States
I’ll be joining a group of improvisers curated by the Creative Music Guild.
From the CMG: Portland musicians participate in a night of music improvisation featuring ad hoc groups created just for the night.
Featuring:
Andy Rayborn
Grant Pierce
Lee Elderton
Tim DuRoche
Doug Detrick
Alissa DuRubeis
Reed Wallsmith
Joe Cuningham
Derek Monypenny
Matt Carlson
Rich Halley
John Savage
TJ Thompson
Noah Bernstein
John Niekrasz
and more….

PJCE with Edna Vazquez @ Old Church, PDX Jazz Festival
2018-02-15 19:30 - 21:00 | The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave, , Portland, OR, 97201, United States

PJCE with Edna Vazquez @ Columbia Center for the Arts
2018-02-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Columbia Center for the Arts, 215 Cascade Ave, Hood River, OR, 97031, United States

PJCE "From Maxville to Vanport" @ Eastern Oregon University
2018-03-02 08:00 - 17:00 | Eastern Oregon University, One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR, 97850, United States
A live performance of the The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s (PJCE) “From Maxville to Vanport” featuring poetry by Renee Mitchell, music by Ezra Weiss, and video by Laura Lo Forti.
This piece of community-guided music incorporates the stories of two unique towns in Oregon’s history, Maxville and Vanport, in songs for Marilyn Keller with our 12-member jazz ensemble. Maxville and Vanport both had significant multicultural populations at a time when Oregon was particularly unfriendly to non-white residents, and their histories deserve to be heard and better understood by all Oregonians.
The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz chamber orchestra which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community. The PJCE has received support from the OCF’s 2015 Creative Heights and Small Arts programs, the Regional Arts and Culture Council, and the Oregon Arts Commission. Now in its tenth year, the PJCE has commissioned more than 50 composers, and produced more than 30 concerts of original works.

Little One and Anna Fritz @ The Firkin
2018-03-04 20:00 - 22:00 | Firkin Tavern, 1937 SE 11th Ave, Portland, OR, 97214, United States
A double bill show with the wonderful Anna Fritz!
Cello-wielding folksinger Anna Fritz plays songs that crack you open and heal you. She creates a musical alchemy of cello and voice, strumming the cello like a guitar and playing beautiful melodies with the bow as she sings. Her songs boldly dig into themes of colonization, climate change, racial justice, gender, spirituality, and connection to the natural world. Like the great folksingers of previous generations, Anna is a catalyst for people to sing together. Her songs are infectious and easy to learn, imbued with a sense of timelessness as if they’ve been sung for generations. Her disarming, gentle nature and powerful presence gets unlikely crowds of people singing together from town halls to night clubs.
Listeners will find plenty of rockstar cred in this folksinger’s past. Anna Fritz is a sought after cellist with a 15 year tenure spanning the world of classical music and Portland, Oregon’s indie rock scene. She toured nationally with Portland Cello Project for seven years and can be heard on albums from My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses, The Decemberists, case/lang/veirs, and the most recent release from First Aid Kit. As a solo artist, Anna has independently released three albums and performed for audiences in more than 50 venues in seven states.
http://annafritz.com/

Creative Music Guild Round Robin Improv Night
2018-04-04 20:00 | Turn Turn Turn, 8 NE Killingsworth St., Portland, 97211, United States
I’ll be improvising on the trumpet with a bunch of other musicians, round robin style!

PJCE "From Maxille to Vanport" @ Eastern Oregon University
2018-04-12 19:30 | Eastern Oregon University, One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR, 97850, United States
(PORTLAND, OR)—Supported by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s (PJCE’s) concert of original songs and film shorts inspired by the stories of the multicultural populations of Maxville and Vanport, Oregon debuts in April 12–14, 2018 in La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, Oregon and May 26, 2018 at Portland, Oregon’s Vanport Mosaic Festival. This collection of songs and short films produced by composer Ezra Weiss with writer and speaker S. Renee Mitchell providing lyrics and vocalist Marilyn Keller performing with the PJCE accompanied by shorts by filmmaker Kalimah Abioto to celebrate the shared history of African-American Oregonians, focusing on two towns that represent distinctive viewpoints of the state’s under-discussed Black history. Tickets to PCJE’s concerts are on sale now and are available online at pjce.org.
It isn’t widely known, but among the homesteaders, loggers, ranchers, and other hardy folks who were Oregon’s early settlers, African-Americans played vital roles. Songs like “Oregon Sounds Like Freedom” weigh the relative freedom of living Oregon against the hardship of staying in the Jim Crow South. MAXVILLE TO VANPORT may leave listeners wondering if the dangerous work falling logs in the woods of Wallowa County was worth the pain of leaving one’s birth community.
The project invites the audience to ponder these questions through joyful music composed by Portland jazz composer and pianist Ezra Weiss. Writer, speaker, and self-styled creative revolutionist S. Renee Mitchell has written lyrics featuring legendary jazz vocalist Marilyn Keller. The songs will be interspersed with two short films by Kalimah Abioto focused on the work that women did in Maxville, and a young boy playing in an imagined Vanport who encounters rushing waters that foreshadow the flood that destroyed the city in 1948.
PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick serves as artistic director for the project which employs a five-member creative team aiming to speak with the communities that are connected to these stories, not for them. The team drew heavily on records and research of Gwendolyn Trice, Executive Director of Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, whose father worked at Maxville.
MAXVILLE TO VANPORT’s public events are:

April 12, 7:30 pm, Groth Hall, Eastern Oregon University, One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR 97850 – Concert, Free admission, no ticket required.
April 13, 7 pm, OK Theatre, 208 W Main St, Enterprise, OR 97828 – $20 general, $15 senior & veteran, $10 students, Tickets available online.
April 14, 5 pm social hour, 6 pm dinner, 7 pm concert, Grand Ballroom, Baker Heritage Museum, 2480 Grove St, Baker City, OR 97814 – $50 includes concert and dinner, tickets available online, or by calling 541-523-5369.
May 26, 7 pm, Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211 – Concert, $35 preferred GA, $25 general, $20 senior & veteran, $5 Arts For All tickets available at the door day of show only. Tickets available online or by calling 503-764-4131.

Other events not open to the public include:

April 12, 1 pm, OK Theatre, Enterprise, OR | Concert for Wallowa County students
April 13, 1–2 pm, Josephy Center, Joseph, OR | Improvised performances for art students

The year-long project that began with community discussion events in Portland and Joseph in the fall culminates in a performance tour to La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, as well as a studio album, a short documentary film and a performance in Portland in conjunction with the Vanport Mosaic. The project was generously funded by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program and was sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society. Project partners include Vanport Mosaic, Josephy Center for the Arts, Crossroads Carnegie Center for the Arts, Eastern Oregon University, and the OK Theatre.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
Lyricist: S. Renee Mitchell is an award-winning writer and published author, multimedia artist, social justice advocate, and teacher/facilitator. Mitchell’s more than 25 years of journalism experience has groomed her exceptional communication, analytical and grant-writing skills, yet, Renee is also a community-grounded visionary. She is the 2015 Yolanda D. King Drum Major Award winner in recognition of dedicated community service; was the librettist of “Sherman: A Jazz Opera;” has published a novel, children’s story, and several small-press zines; and teaches writing to children as the leader of the Saturday Academy Social Justice Camp as well as many other Portland institutions.
Composer: Ezra Weiss has recorded seven albums as a bandleader, most recently “Before You Know It,” recorded live Portland, and composed songs and book for Northwest Children’s Theatre’s “Alice in Wonderland.” He has led his own bands at major venues throughout the U.S., including several week-long engagements at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club. He has won the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award three times and has been listed in DownBeat Critics Polls in the Rising Star Arranger category. He currently teaches at Portland State University and holds a Bachelors in Jazz Composition from the Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters in Jazz Piano from Queens College.
Vocalist: Marilyn Keller is a singer who performs a diverse range of jazz, gospel, and musical theatre throughout Oregon and abroad and was voted into Oregon Jazz Society’s Hall of Fame 2016. She joined Black Swan Classic Jazz Band in 1997 and has toured throughout Europe and the US. She has also remained active in a wide variety of other performance ensembles and styles: The Don Latarski Group, Darrell Grant’s The Territory, Thara Memory, Tall Jazz, Disciples in Song, and the Augustana Jazz Quartet among many others.
Filmmaker: A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Kalimah Abioto began playing the drums at age three, writing in elementary school, and makings films in high school centered around dreams, sexuality, and the nexus between Black people, humans, freedom, and the natural-spirit worlds. She received her BA in film and video from Hollins University and is a co-creator, along with her four sisters of The People Could Fly Project, a multimedia project documenting the dreams and stories of people in the African Diaspora. Abioto has worked with different artists and groups including Afropop Worldwide, Holy Mojo, The Black Portlanders, Spirit Law Center, Diamond Law, and others that value life force. She was a 2017 Artist in Residence at Open Signal.
Historian: Gwendolyn Trice founded Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, a non-profit cultural heritage center in Wallowa County, Oregon and currently serves as its Executive Director. She also provided support and information for OPB’s 2009 video Logger’s Daughter. Currently, she serves on the Oregon Commission on Black Affairs and is part of a Leadership cohort for the Center for Diversity and Environment.
ABOUT PJCE
The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz ensemble which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and beyond. It is our mission to operate a large musical ensemble, to commission and perform original works by members of the ensemble and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and elsewhere, to act as a forum for the development and presentation of works for large ensemble by established and emerging jazz composers, and to engage and enrich community awareness and appreciation of contemporary music.
PJCE’s guiding principles are to:

Enrich the first uniquely American art form.
Cultivate the development of new music.
Encourage and promote established and emerging living composers.
Provide a forum for experimentation without commercial concern.
Disseminate contemporary American music through publicity, recordings, newsletters and affordable concerts in varied venues to promote jazz appreciation both locally and nationally.
Collaborate with artists, other nonprofits, and creative organizations in multiple disciplines.
Foster relationships with educational institutions.

###

PJCE "From Maxille to Vanport" @ OK Theater
2018-04-13 08:00 - 17:00 | OR
From Maxville to Vanport: A Celebration of Oregon’s Black History
World-premiere performances of songs and two short films for Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble with vocalist Marilyn Keller, and workshops across the state.
(PORTLAND, OR)—Supported by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s (PJCE’s) concert of original songs and film shorts inspired by the stories of the multicultural populations of Maxville and Vanport, Oregon debuts in April 12–14, 2018 in La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, Oregon and May 26, 2018 at Portland, Oregon’s Vanport Mosaic Festival. This collection of songs and short films produced by composer Ezra Weiss with writer and speaker S. Renee Mitchell providing lyrics and vocalist Marilyn Keller performing with the PJCE accompanied by shorts by filmmaker Kalimah Abioto to celebrate the shared history of African-American Oregonians, focusing on two towns that represent distinctive viewpoints of the state’s under-discussed Black history. Tickets to PCJE’s concerts are on sale now and are available online at pjce.org.
It isn’t widely known, but among the homesteaders, loggers, ranchers, and other hardy folks who were Oregon’s early settlers, African-Americans played vital roles. Songs like “Oregon Sounds Like Freedom” weigh the relative freedom of living Oregon against the hardship of staying in the Jim Crow South. MAXVILLE TO VANPORT may leave listeners wondering if the dangerous work falling logs in the woods of Wallowa County was worth the pain of leaving one’s birth community.
The project invites the audience to ponder these questions through joyful music composed by Portland jazz composer and pianist Ezra Weiss. Writer, speaker, and self-styled creative revolutionist S. Renee Mitchell has written lyrics featuring legendary jazz vocalist Marilyn Keller. The songs will be interspersed with two short films by Kalimah Abioto focused on the work that women did in Maxville, and a young boy playing in an imagined Vanport who encounters rushing waters that foreshadow the flood that destroyed the city in 1948.
PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick serves as artistic director for the project which employs a five-member creative team aiming to speak with the communities that are connected to these stories, not for them. The team drew heavily on records and research of Gwendolyn Trice, Executive Director of Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, whose father worked at Maxville.
MAXVILLE TO VANPORT’s public events are:

April 12, 7:30 pm, Groth Hall, Eastern Oregon University, One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR 97850 – Concert, Free admission, no ticket required.
April 13, 7 pm, OK Theatre, 208 W Main St, Enterprise, OR 97828 – $20 general, $15 senior & veteran, $10 students, Tickets available online.
April 14, 5 pm social hour, 6 pm dinner, 7 pm concert, Grand Ballroom, Baker Heritage Museum, 2480 Grove St, Baker City, OR 97814 – $50 includes concert and dinner, tickets available online, or by calling 541-523-5369.
May 26, 7 pm, Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211 – Concert, $35 preferred GA, $25 general, $20 senior & veteran, $5 Arts For All tickets available at the door day of show only. Tickets available online or by calling 503-764-4131.

Other events not open to the public include:

April 12, 1 pm, OK Theatre, Enterprise, OR | Concert for Wallowa County students
April 13, 1–2 pm, Josephy Center, Joseph, OR | Improvised performances for art students

The year-long project that began with community discussion events in Portland and Joseph in the fall culminates in a performance tour to La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, as well as a studio album, a short documentary film and a performance in Portland in conjunction with the Vanport Mosaic. The project was generously funded by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program and was sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society. Project partners include Vanport Mosaic, Josephy Center for the Arts, Crossroads Carnegie Center for the Arts, Eastern Oregon University, and the OK Theatre.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
Lyricist: S. Renee Mitchell is an award-winning writer and published author, multimedia artist, social justice advocate, and teacher/facilitator. Mitchell’s more than 25 years of journalism experience has groomed her exceptional communication, analytical and grant-writing skills, yet, Renee is also a community-grounded visionary. She is the 2015 Yolanda D. King Drum Major Award winner in recognition of dedicated community service; was the librettist of “Sherman: A Jazz Opera;” has published a novel, children’s story, and several small-press zines; and teaches writing to children as the leader of the Saturday Academy Social Justice Camp as well as many other Portland institutions.
Composer: Ezra Weiss has recorded seven albums as a bandleader, most recently “Before You Know It,” recorded live Portland, and composed songs and book for Northwest Children’s Theatre’s “Alice in Wonderland.” He has led his own bands at major venues throughout the U.S., including several week-long engagements at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club. He has won the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award three times and has been listed in DownBeat Critics Polls in the Rising Star Arranger category. He currently teaches at Portland State University and holds a Bachelors in Jazz Composition from the Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters in Jazz Piano from Queens College.
Vocalist: Marilyn Keller is a singer who performs a diverse range of jazz, gospel, and musical theatre throughout Oregon and abroad and was voted into Oregon Jazz Society’s Hall of Fame 2016. She joined Black Swan Classic Jazz Band in 1997 and has toured throughout Europe and the US. She has also remained active in a wide variety of other performance ensembles and styles: The Don Latarski Group, Darrell Grant’s The Territory, Thara Memory, Tall Jazz, Disciples in Song, and the Augustana Jazz Quartet among many others.
Filmmaker: A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Kalimah Abioto began playing the drums at age three, writing in elementary school, and makings films in high school centered around dreams, sexuality, and the nexus between Black people, humans, freedom, and the natural-spirit worlds. She received her BA in film and video from Hollins University and is a co-creator, along with her four sisters of The People Could Fly Project, a multimedia project documenting the dreams and stories of people in the African Diaspora. Abioto has worked with different artists and groups including Afropop Worldwide, Holy Mojo, The Black Portlanders, Spirit Law Center, Diamond Law, and others that value life force. She was a 2017 Artist in Residence at Open Signal.
Historian: Gwendolyn Trice founded Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, a non-profit cultural heritage center in Wallowa County, Oregon and currently serves as its Executive Director. She also provided support and information for OPB’s 2009 video Logger’s Daughter. Currently, she serves on the Oregon Commission on Black Affairs and is part of a Leadership cohort for the Center for Diversity and Environment.
ABOUT PJCE
The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz ensemble which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and beyond. It is our mission to operate a large musical ensemble, to commission and perform original works by members of the ensemble and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and elsewhere, to act as a forum for the development and presentation of works for large ensemble by established and emerging jazz composers, and to engage and enrich community awareness and appreciation of contemporary music.
PJCE’s guiding principles are to:

Enrich the first uniquely American art form.
Cultivate the development of new music.
Encourage and promote established and emerging living composers.
Provide a forum for experimentation without commercial concern.
Disseminate contemporary American music through publicity, recordings, newsletters and affordable concerts in varied venues to promote jazz appreciation both locally and nationally.
Collaborate with artists, other nonprofits, and creative organizations in multiple disciplines.
Foster relationships with educational institutions.

###

For updates: Date TBA, Roosevelt High School, Portland, OR | Concert for students

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3/1/2018
Attn: Portland, Wallowa, Union and Baker Counties arts and entertainment
Douglas Detrick, Executive Director
Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble
503-347-1416 – douglas@pjce.org

From Maxville to Vanport: An inclusive celebration of Oregon’s Black history
Performances and workshops across the state of new songs for 12-member jazz ensemble with vocalist Marilyn Keller, and two short films.
Portland, Oregon: Supported by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s concert of original songs and video inspired by the stories of the multicultural populations of Maxville and Vanport debuts in April and May 2018. This collection of songs and short films celebrates the shared history of Oregonians from the African-American perspective, focusing on two towns that represent important elements of the black experience in this state.
It isn’t widely known, but among the homesteaders, loggers, ranchers and other hardy folks who were Oregon’s early settlers, African-Americans played vital roles. Songs like “Oregon Sounds Like Freedom” weighs the relative freedom of living Oregon against the hardship of staying in the Jim Crow South. But was the dangerous work falling logs in the woods of Wallowa County worth the pain of leaving the community you were born in?
The project invites the audience to ponder these questions through joyful music composed by Ezra Weiss with lyrics by S. Renee Mitchell, featuring vocalist Marilyn Keller. Two short films by Kalimah Abioto with live music from the ensemble focus on the work that women did in Maxville, and a young boy playing in an imagined Vanport who encounters rushing waters that foreshadow the flood that destroyed the city in 1948. PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick is Artistic Director.
The public events in the project are as follows:

4/12/18, 7:30 pm, Eastern Oregon University – Concert in Groth Hall. Free admission. One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR 97850-2807.
4/13/18, 7 pm, OK Theater, Enterprise, OR – Concert, $20 general, $15 senior and veteran, $10 students. 208 W Main St, Enterprise, OR 97828
4/14/18, 5 pm social hour, 6 pm dinner, 7 pm concert, Baker Heritage Museum, Grand Ballroom – $50, includes dinner. 2480 Grove St, Baker City, OR 97814.
5/26/18, 7 pm, Alberta Rose Theater, Portland, OR – Concert. $20 general, $15 senior and veteran, $10 students. 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211.

Other events not open to the public include:

4/12/18, 1 pm, OK Theatre, Enterprise, OR – Concert for Wallowa County students
4/13/18, 1-2 pm, Josephy Center, Joseph, OR – Improvised performances for art students.
4/14/18, 2 pm, Baker Heritage Museum, Baker City, OR – Workshop with Baker City High School students

This year-long project, that began with community discussion events in Portland and Joseph in the fall and culminates in a performance tour to La Grande, Enterprise and Baker City, a studio album, a short documentary film and two performances in Portland in conjunction with the Vanport Mosaic. It employs a five-member creative team in a collaborative process that hopes to speak with the communities that are connected to these stories, not for them.
The project was generously funded by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, and was sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society. Project partners include Vanport Mosaic, Josephy Center for the Arts, Crossroads Carnegie Center for the Arts, Eastern Oregon University, and the OK Theatre.
The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz ensemble which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and beyond. It is our mission to operate a large musical ensemble, to commission and perform original works by members of the ensemble and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and elsewhere, to act as a forum for the development and presentation of works for large ensemble by established and emerging jazz composers, and to engage and enrich community awareness and appreciation of contemporary music.

###

PJCE "From Maxille to Vanport" @ Baker Heritage Museum
2018-04-14 18:00 | Baker Heritage Museum
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3/7/2018
Attn: Union and Baker counties, Portland, and Wallowa, arts and entertainment
PJCE CONTACT:
Douglas Detrick, Executive Director, douglas@pjce.org; 503-347-1416
PRESS CONTACT:
Kim Gumbel, Vesperine Works, kim@vespertineworks.com, 713-854-6162

From Maxville to Vanport: A Celebration of Oregon’s Black History
World-premiere performances of songs and two short films for Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble with vocalist Marilyn Keller, and workshops across the state.
(PORTLAND, OR)—Supported by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s (PJCE’s) concert of original songs and film shorts inspired by the stories of the multicultural populations of Maxville and Vanport, Oregon debuts in April 12–14, 2018 in La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, Oregon and May 26, 2018 at Portland, Oregon’s Vanport Mosaic Festival. This collection of songs and short films produced by composer Ezra Weiss with writer and speaker S. Renee Mitchell providing lyrics and vocalist Marilyn Keller performing with the PJCE accompanied by shorts by filmmaker Kalimah Abioto to celebrate the shared history of African-American Oregonians, focusing on two towns that represent distinctive viewpoints of the state’s under-discussed Black history. Tickets to PCJE’s concerts are on sale now and are available online at pjce.org.
It isn’t widely known, but among the homesteaders, loggers, ranchers, and other hardy folks who were Oregon’s early settlers, African-Americans played vital roles. Songs like “Oregon Sounds Like Freedom” weigh the relative freedom of living Oregon against the hardship of staying in the Jim Crow South. MAXVILLE TO VANPORT may leave listeners wondering if the dangerous work falling logs in the woods of Wallowa County was worth the pain of leaving one’s birth community.
The project invites the audience to ponder these questions through joyful music composed by Portland jazz composer and pianist Ezra Weiss. Writer, speaker, and self-styled creative revolutionist S. Renee Mitchell has written lyrics featuring legendary jazz vocalist Marilyn Keller. The songs will be interspersed with two short films by Kalimah Abioto focused on the work that women did in Maxville, and a young boy playing in an imagined Vanport who encounters rushing waters that foreshadow the flood that destroyed the city in 1948.
PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick serves as artistic director for the project which employs a five-member creative team aiming to speak with the communities that are connected to these stories, not for them. The team drew heavily on records and research of Gwendolyn Trice, Executive Director of Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, whose father worked at Maxville.
MAXVILLE TO VANPORT’s public events are:

April 12, 7:30 pm, Groth Hall, Eastern Oregon University, One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR 97850 – Concert, Free admission, no ticket required.
April 13, 7 pm, OK Theatre, 208 W Main St, Enterprise, OR 97828 – $20 general, $15 senior & veteran, $10 students, Tickets available online.
April 14, 5 pm social hour, 6 pm dinner, 7 pm concert, Grand Ballroom, Baker Heritage Museum, 2480 Grove St, Baker City, OR 97814 – $50 includes concert and dinner, tickets available online, or by calling 541-523-5369.
May 26, 7 pm, Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211 – Concert, $35 preferred GA, $25 general, $20 senior & veteran, $5 Arts For All tickets available at the door day of show only. Tickets available online or by calling 503-764-4131.

Other events not open to the public include:

April 12, 1 pm, OK Theatre, Enterprise, OR | Concert for Wallowa County students
April 13, 1–2 pm, Josephy Center, Joseph, OR | Improvised performances for art students

The year-long project that began with community discussion events in Portland and Joseph in the fall culminates in a performance tour to La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, as well as a studio album, a short documentary film and a performance in Portland in conjunction with the Vanport Mosaic. The project was generously funded by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program and was sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society. Project partners include Vanport Mosaic, Josephy Center for the Arts, Crossroads Carnegie Center for the Arts, Eastern Oregon University, and the OK Theatre.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
Lyricist: S. Renee Mitchell is an award-winning writer and published author, multimedia artist, social justice advocate, and teacher/facilitator. Mitchell’s more than 25 years of journalism experience has groomed her exceptional communication, analytical and grant-writing skills, yet, Renee is also a community-grounded visionary. She is the 2015 Yolanda D. King Drum Major Award winner in recognition of dedicated community service; was the librettist of “Sherman: A Jazz Opera;” has published a novel, children’s story, and several small-press zines; and teaches writing to children as the leader of the Saturday Academy Social Justice Camp as well as many other Portland institutions.
Composer: Ezra Weiss has recorded seven albums as a bandleader, most recently “Before You Know It,” recorded live Portland, and composed songs and book for Northwest Children’s Theatre’s “Alice in Wonderland.” He has led his own bands at major venues throughout the U.S., including several week-long engagements at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club. He has won the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award three times and has been listed in DownBeat Critics Polls in the Rising Star Arranger category. He currently teaches at Portland State University and holds a Bachelors in Jazz Composition from the Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters in Jazz Piano from Queens College.
Vocalist: Marilyn Keller is a singer who performs a diverse range of jazz, gospel, and musical theatre throughout Oregon and abroad and was voted into Oregon Jazz Society’s Hall of Fame 2016. She joined Black Swan Classic Jazz Band in 1997 and has toured throughout Europe and the US. She has also remained active in a wide variety of other performance ensembles and styles: The Don Latarski Group, Darrell Grant’s The Territory, Thara Memory, Tall Jazz, Disciples in Song, and the Augustana Jazz Quartet among many others.
Filmmaker: A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Kalimah Abioto began playing the drums at age three, writing in elementary school, and makings films in high school centered around dreams, sexuality, and the nexus between Black people, humans, freedom, and the natural-spirit worlds. She received her BA in film and video from Hollins University and is a co-creator, along with her four sisters of The People Could Fly Project, a multimedia project documenting the dreams and stories of people in the African Diaspora. Abioto has worked with different artists and groups including Afropop Worldwide, Holy Mojo, The Black Portlanders, Spirit Law Center, Diamond Law, and others that value life force. She was a 2017 Artist in Residence at Open Signal.
Historian: Gwendolyn Trice founded Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, a non-profit cultural heritage center in Wallowa County, Oregon and currently serves as its Executive Director. She also provided support and information for OPB’s 2009 video Logger’s Daughter. Currently, she serves on the Oregon Commission on Black Affairs and is part of a Leadership cohort for the Center for Diversity and Environment.
ABOUT PJCE
The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz ensemble which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and beyond. It is our mission to operate a large musical ensemble, to commission and perform original works by members of the ensemble and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and elsewhere, to act as a forum for the development and presentation of works for large ensemble by established and emerging jazz composers, and to engage and enrich community awareness and appreciation of contemporary music.
PJCE’s guiding principles are to:

Enrich the first uniquely American art form.
Cultivate the development of new music.
Encourage and promote established and emerging living composers.
Provide a forum for experimentation without commercial concern.
Disseminate contemporary American music through publicity, recordings, newsletters and affordable concerts in varied venues to promote jazz appreciation both locally and nationally.
Collaborate with artists, other nonprofits, and creative organizations in multiple disciplines.
Foster relationships with educational institutions.

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For updates: Date TBA, Roosevelt High School, Portland, OR | Concert for students

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3/1/2018
Attn: Portland, Wallowa, Union and Baker Counties arts and entertainment
Douglas Detrick, Executive Director
Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble
503-347-1416 – douglas@pjce.org

From Maxville to Vanport: An inclusive celebration of Oregon’s Black history
Performances and workshops across the state of new songs for 12-member jazz ensemble with vocalist Marilyn Keller, and two short films.
Portland, Oregon: Supported by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s concert of original songs and video inspired by the stories of the multicultural populations of Maxville and Vanport debuts in April and May 2018. This collection of songs and short films celebrates the shared history of Oregonians from the African-American perspective, focusing on two towns that represent important elements of the black experience in this state.
It isn’t widely known, but among the homesteaders, loggers, ranchers and other hardy folks who were Oregon’s early settlers, African-Americans played vital roles. Songs like “Oregon Sounds Like Freedom” weighs the relative freedom of living Oregon against the hardship of staying in the Jim Crow South. But was the dangerous work falling logs in the woods of Wallowa County worth the pain of leaving the community you were born in?
The project invites the audience to ponder these questions through joyful music composed by Ezra Weiss with lyrics by S. Renee Mitchell, featuring vocalist Marilyn Keller. Two short films by Kalimah Abioto with live music from the ensemble focus on the work that women did in Maxville, and a young boy playing in an imagined Vanport who encounters rushing waters that foreshadow the flood that destroyed the city in 1948. PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick is Artistic Director.
The public events in the project are as follows:

4/12/18, 7:30 pm, Eastern Oregon University – Concert in Groth Hall. Free admission. One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR 97850-2807.
4/13/18, 7 pm, OK Theater, Enterprise, OR – Concert, $20 general, $15 senior and veteran, $10 students. 208 W Main St, Enterprise, OR 97828
4/14/18, 5 pm social hour, 6 pm dinner, 7 pm concert, Baker Heritage Museum, Grand Ballroom – $50, includes dinner. 2480 Grove St, Baker City, OR 97814.
5/26/18, 7 pm, Alberta Rose Theater, Portland, OR – Concert. $20 general, $15 senior and veteran, $10 students. 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211.

Other events not open to the public include:

4/12/18, 1 pm, OK Theatre, Enterprise, OR – Concert for Wallowa County students
4/13/18, 1-2 pm, Josephy Center, Joseph, OR – Improvised performances for art students.
4/14/18, 2 pm, Baker Heritage Museum, Baker City, OR – Workshop with Baker City High School students

This year-long project, that began with community discussion events in Portland and Joseph in the fall and culminates in a performance tour to La Grande, Enterprise and Baker City, a studio album, a short documentary film and two performances in Portland in conjunction with the Vanport Mosaic. It employs a five-member creative team in a collaborative process that hopes to speak with the communities that are connected to these stories, not for them.
The project was generously funded by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, and was sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society. Project partners include Vanport Mosaic, Josephy Center for the Arts, Crossroads Carnegie Center for the Arts, Eastern Oregon University, and the OK Theatre.
The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz ensemble which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and beyond. It is our mission to operate a large musical ensemble, to commission and perform original works by members of the ensemble and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and elsewhere, to act as a forum for the development and presentation of works for large ensemble by established and emerging jazz composers, and to engage and enrich community awareness and appreciation of contemporary music.

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PJCE "From Maxille to Vanport" @ Alberta Rose Theater
2018-05-26 08:00 - 17:00 | Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE ALBERTA STREET , Portland, OR, 97211, United States
From Maxville to Vanport: A Celebration of Oregon’s Black History
World-premiere performances of songs and two short films for Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble with vocalist Marilyn Keller, and workshops across the state.
(PORTLAND, OR)—Supported by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s (PJCE’s) concert of original songs and film shorts inspired by the stories of the multicultural populations of Maxville and Vanport, Oregon debuts in April 12–14, 2018 in La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, Oregon and May 26, 2018 at Portland, Oregon’s Vanport Mosaic Festival. This collection of songs and short films produced by composer Ezra Weiss with writer and speaker S. Renee Mitchell providing lyrics and vocalist Marilyn Keller performing with the PJCE accompanied by shorts by filmmaker Kalimah Abioto to celebrate the shared history of African-American Oregonians, focusing on two towns that represent distinctive viewpoints of the state’s under-discussed Black history. Tickets to PCJE’s concerts are on sale now and are available online at pjce.org.
It isn’t widely known, but among the homesteaders, loggers, ranchers, and other hardy folks who were Oregon’s early settlers, African-Americans played vital roles. Songs like “Oregon Sounds Like Freedom” weigh the relative freedom of living Oregon against the hardship of staying in the Jim Crow South. MAXVILLE TO VANPORT may leave listeners wondering if the dangerous work falling logs in the woods of Wallowa County was worth the pain of leaving one’s birth community.
The project invites the audience to ponder these questions through joyful music composed by Portland jazz composer and pianist Ezra Weiss. Writer, speaker, and self-styled creative revolutionist S. Renee Mitchell has written lyrics featuring legendary jazz vocalist Marilyn Keller. The songs will be interspersed with two short films by Kalimah Abioto focused on the work that women did in Maxville, and a young boy playing in an imagined Vanport who encounters rushing waters that foreshadow the flood that destroyed the city in 1948.
PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick serves as artistic director for the project which employs a five-member creative team aiming to speak with the communities that are connected to these stories, not for them. The team drew heavily on records and research of Gwendolyn Trice, Executive Director of Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, whose father worked at Maxville.
MAXVILLE TO VANPORT’s public events are:

April 12, 7:30 pm, Groth Hall, Eastern Oregon University, One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR 97850 – Concert, Free admission, no ticket required.
April 13, 7 pm, OK Theatre, 208 W Main St, Enterprise, OR 97828 – $20 general, $15 senior & veteran, $10 students, Tickets available online.
April 14, 5 pm social hour, 6 pm dinner, 7 pm concert, Grand Ballroom, Baker Heritage Museum, 2480 Grove St, Baker City, OR 97814 – $50 includes concert and dinner, tickets available online, or by calling 541-523-5369.
May 26, 7 pm, Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211 – Concert, $35 preferred GA, $25 general, $20 senior & veteran, $5 Arts For All tickets available at the door day of show only. Tickets available online or by calling 503-764-4131.

Other events not open to the public include:

April 12, 1 pm, OK Theatre, Enterprise, OR | Concert for Wallowa County students
April 13, 1–2 pm, Josephy Center, Joseph, OR | Improvised performances for art students

The year-long project that began with community discussion events in Portland and Joseph in the fall culminates in a performance tour to La Grande, Enterprise, and Baker City, as well as a studio album, a short documentary film and a performance in Portland in conjunction with the Vanport Mosaic. The project was generously funded by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program and was sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society. Project partners include Vanport Mosaic, Josephy Center for the Arts, Crossroads Carnegie Center for the Arts, Eastern Oregon University, and the OK Theatre.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
Lyricist: S. Renee Mitchell is an award-winning writer and published author, multimedia artist, social justice advocate, and teacher/facilitator. Mitchell’s more than 25 years of journalism experience has groomed her exceptional communication, analytical and grant-writing skills, yet, Renee is also a community-grounded visionary. She is the 2015 Yolanda D. King Drum Major Award winner in recognition of dedicated community service; was the librettist of “Sherman: A Jazz Opera;” has published a novel, children’s story, and several small-press zines; and teaches writing to children as the leader of the Saturday Academy Social Justice Camp as well as many other Portland institutions.
Composer: Ezra Weiss has recorded seven albums as a bandleader, most recently “Before You Know It,” recorded live Portland, and composed songs and book for Northwest Children’s Theatre’s “Alice in Wonderland.” He has led his own bands at major venues throughout the U.S., including several week-long engagements at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club. He has won the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award three times and has been listed in DownBeat Critics Polls in the Rising Star Arranger category. He currently teaches at Portland State University and holds a Bachelors in Jazz Composition from the Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters in Jazz Piano from Queens College.
Vocalist: Marilyn Keller is a singer who performs a diverse range of jazz, gospel, and musical theatre throughout Oregon and abroad and was voted into Oregon Jazz Society’s Hall of Fame 2016. She joined Black Swan Classic Jazz Band in 1997 and has toured throughout Europe and the US. She has also remained active in a wide variety of other performance ensembles and styles: The Don Latarski Group, Darrell Grant’s The Territory, Thara Memory, Tall Jazz, Disciples in Song, and the Augustana Jazz Quartet among many others.
Filmmaker: A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Kalimah Abioto began playing the drums at age three, writing in elementary school, and makings films in high school centered around dreams, sexuality, and the nexus between Black people, humans, freedom, and the natural-spirit worlds. She received her BA in film and video from Hollins University and is a co-creator, along with her four sisters of The People Could Fly Project, a multimedia project documenting the dreams and stories of people in the African Diaspora. Abioto has worked with different artists and groups including Afropop Worldwide, Holy Mojo, The Black Portlanders, Spirit Law Center, Diamond Law, and others that value life force. She was a 2017 Artist in Residence at Open Signal.
Historian: Gwendolyn Trice founded Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, a non-profit cultural heritage center in Wallowa County, Oregon and currently serves as its Executive Director. She also provided support and information for OPB’s 2009 video Logger’s Daughter. Currently, she serves on the Oregon Commission on Black Affairs and is part of a Leadership cohort for the Center for Diversity and Environment.
ABOUT PJCE
The Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz ensemble which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and beyond. It is our mission to operate a large musical ensemble, to commission and perform original works by members of the ensemble and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and elsewhere, to act as a forum for the development and presentation of works for large ensemble by established and emerging jazz composers, and to engage and enrich community awareness and appreciation of contemporary music.
PJCE’s guiding principles are to:

Enrich the first uniquely American art form.
Cultivate the development of new music.
Encourage and promote established and emerging living composers.
Provide a forum for experimentation without commercial concern.
Disseminate contemporary American music through publicity, recordings, newsletters and affordable concerts in varied venues to promote jazz appreciation both locally and nationally.
Collaborate with artists, other nonprofits, and creative organizations in multiple disciplines.
Foster relationships with educational institutions.

###

Little One with Noah Kite @ Alberta St. Pub
2018-05-30 21:00 - 23:00 | Alberta Street Pub, 1036 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR, 97211, United States
Double bill with Noah Kite‘s chamber pop group.

Banjo and song with Michelle Alany @ Vino Veritas
2018-07-27 19:00 - 22:00 | Vino Veritas, 7835 SE Stark St, Portland, OR, 97215, United States
Singer songwriter, banjoist and trumpeter Douglas Detrick teams up with singer songwriter and violinist Michelle Alany for an intimate and dynamic set at Vino Veritas Music Fridays. These multi-talented artists will perform their own songs as a duo, as well as traditional songs from the American roots and sephardic traditions, using their backgrounds in jazz and classical music as a foundation from which to depart.

Douglas Detrick is a composer, songwriter, trumpet player, podcast producer and arts leader whose work in these diverse areas is distinguished by its quiet thoughtfulness and its embrace of good ideas from unconventional sources. He was awarded a 2017 Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship, and has performed throughout the United States with his chamber-jazz quintet Douglas Detrick’s AnyWhen Ensemble, including the Stone, the Phillips Collection and many other venues and universities. He currently leads the chamber-folk quartet Little One, and is the the Executive and Artistic Director of the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. https://douglasdetrick.com/

A passionate violinist and vocalist, Michelle Alany has delighted and wowed audiences worldwide. Specializing in a global acoustic sound that features lush strings, soulful vocals and rhythmic groove, Michelle delivers soulful interpretations of traditional and original Sephardic (Judeo-Spanish), Balkan and Israeli songs infused with her tasty Austin-blues stylings. She is at home delivering haunting Mediterranean melodies, trading shredder blues licks or gently crafting a sensuous country solo on the fly, bringing her joyous abandon and enthusiasm to any world of music. http://www.michellealany.com/

Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble @ Roaring Rapids
2018-08-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Roaring Rapids, Springfield, Oregon
In a new suite, renowned composer James Miley honors Oregon’s diverse waterways, from the mighty Columbia to the serenity of Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge.
James Miley, recipient of the IAJE/Gil Evans Fellowship in Jazz Composition, is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, where he directs the Willamette Jazz Collective and teaches improvisation, composition, jazz history, music technology, and music theory. A versatile composer and pianist comfortable in both the jazz and classical idioms, he has written music for a variety of chamber and choral ensembles in addition to his work for jazz orchestra.

Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble @ Montavilla Jazz Festival
2018-08-18 17:30 - 18:30 | Portland Metro Arts, 9003 SE Stark St, Portland, OR, 97216, United States
In a new suite, renowned composer James Miley honors Oregon’s diverse waterways, from the mighty Columbia to the serenity of Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge.
James Miley, recipient of the IAJE/Gil Evans Fellowship in Jazz Composition, is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, where he directs the Willamette Jazz Collective and teaches improvisation, composition, jazz history, music technology, and music theory. A versatile composer and pianist comfortable in both the jazz and classical idioms, he has written music for a variety of chamber and choral ensembles in addition to his work for jazz orchestra.
General Admission availabile ONLY at Door: $15
Presale Drop-Down Options:
Limited Reserved Seating: $25
VIP Stageside Seating: $50

Tale in the Telling @ No Fun Bar
2018-10-07 19:00 | No Fun Bar, 1709 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR, 97214, United States
Playing banjo and trumpet, and singing with Mike Gamble on guitar and Christopher Johnedis on drums.

Night of the Living Dead with PJCE
2018-10-25 19:30 - 20:30 | Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St, Portland
Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble (PJCE), in partnership with Holocene’s Fin Cu Cinema series, presents the iconic 1968 film “Night of the Living Dead” with a new live score composed by Amenta Abioto, Sage Fisher (aka Dolphin Midwives), and Maxx Katz for the city’s most adventurous jazz ensemble. On Thursday, October 25th at 8:30 pm the band will be on stage while the film is projected—with the original audio muted and English subtitles—on multiple screens around the Holocene’s two-levels, with each composer scoring one-third of the film. Doors open at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $25 reserved seated, $15 GA Day of show, $10 Advanced or Students and available at pjce.org/zombies and at the door. This event is 21+ only, and costumes are strongly encouraged. This program is partially funded by the Regional Arts and Culture Council’s Project Grant program and is co-presented by the Creative Music Guild.
Thursday October 25th, 2018 –
Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St, Portland, OR 97214
7:30 pm doors open, 8:30 pm music begins
$25 reserved seated, $15 GA Day of show, $10 Advanced or Students. 21+ only.
Tickets available at pjce.org/zombies and at the door.
Costumes encouraged.

Little One with Noah Kite @ Strum
2018-11-30 19:00 - 21:30 | Strum, 1415 SE Stark St #C, Portland, OR, 97214, United States
Double with Noah Kite and band at Strum!
Strum Guitars -one of the few if not only places in Portland where tasty brews and beautiful guitars may treat yours senses as your fucking face loses its once gelatinous consistency like some raiders of the lost ark-esque claymation malfunction to sweltering, soulful, and moving live bands- will be hosting Noah Kite and Little One from 6:30 to 9. It’s free. It’s all ages. It’s orchestral indie folk and its better arranged than any marriage.
Little One combines Americana, jazz, and chamber music with original songs that aren’t afraid to share closely-held truths. The recording features songs dedicated to members of bandleader Douglas Detrick’s family with Detrick on clawhammer banjo, voice, and trumpet, William Seiji Marsh (Edna Vazquez, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies) on guitar, Amanda Lawrence (Arco PDX) on viola, and Andy Rayborn (Kulululu) on bass clarinet—the group can access a unique palette of sounds.
Noah Kite shapes pop, jazz, and classical influences to accent folk’s lyrical poignancy. This chambered folk-rock uses its roots in a childhood of Ravel, Sade, Van Morrison, Enya, and Steely Dan to make melodic and poetic sense of experiences teaching, traveling, and touring abroad. While these dynamically orchestrated dramas find an expansively symphonic home on the eponymous record, in live settings arrangements are distilled to their essential workings; Kite’s guitar and voice are laced by the haunting oboe of Laura Gershman, the eclectic percussion of Alan Cook, and the impassioned alto sax of Jessica Paul to deliver each tune its own life.

Tale in the Telling @ OSU Music a la Carte Series
2019-01-18 12:00 - 13:00 | Oregon State University
Performing with Mike Gamble on guitar and Ryan Biesack on drums.

Tale in the Telling @ Bombs Away with Noah Kite
2019-01-18 20:00 | Bombs Away Cafe, 2527 NW Monroe Ave, Corvallis, OR, 97330, United States

Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble @ OSU
2019-02-28 19:30 - 21:30 | Memorial Union Ballroom, 2501 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR, 97331, United States
PJCE performs “From Maxville to Vanport” in the Memorial Union Ballroom at Oregon State University. Reserve your free ticket here.
PORTLAND JAZZ COMPOSERS ENSEMBLE IN RESIDENCE AT OSU
The OSU Jazz Ensemble, directed by Ryan Biesack, performs at 7:30 pm, PJCE follows at 8:30, concluding around 9:30 pm. The performance concludes a day of workshops with OSU students led by vocalist Marilyn Keller, composer Ezra Weiss, and PJCE Executive Director and trumpeter Douglas Detrick.
The 12-piece Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble performs original songs and short films inspired by two towns that reveal distinctive viewpoints of the state’s under-represented Black history. Looking honestly at the prejudice these people faced, the joyful program celebrates their resilience, courage, and important contributions to Oregon through jazz, R&B, and blues.
The music, composed by Weiss with lyrics by poet S. Renee Mitchell, is performed by the PJCE with vocalist Marilyn Keller. The project also includes two film shorts by filmmaker Kalimah Abioto scored by Weiss that will be projected with the ensemble performing the score. http://pjce.org/maxville-to-vanport/
From Maxville to Vanport was funded by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program and was sponsored by Vanport Mosaic and Oregon Historical Society.

Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble @ Mission Theater
2019-03-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Mission Theater, 1624 NW GLISAN ST, Portland, OR, 97209, United States
THE ENCORE CD RELEASE PERFORMANCE OF PJCE’S “FROM MAXVILLE TO VANPORT” PROJECT FEATURING VOCALIST MARILYN KELLER!
The 12-piece Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble performs original songs and short films inspired by two towns that reveal distinctive viewpoints of the state’s under-represented Black history. Looking honestly at the prejudice these people faced, the joyful program celebrates their resilience, courage, and important contributions to Oregon through jazz, R&B, and blues. The music, composed by Weiss with lyrics by poet S. Renee Mitchell, is performed by the PJCE with vocalist Marilyn Keller. The project also includes two film shorts by filmmaker Kalimah Abioto scored by Weiss that will be projected with the ensemble performing the score. http://pjce.org/maxville-to-vanport/

From Maxville to Vanport was funded by the Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights program and was sponsored by Vanport Mosaic and Oregon Historical Society.

About the Artists:

Marilyn Keller is a singer who performs a diverse range of jazz, gospel, and musical theatre throughout Oregon and abroad and was voted into Oregon Jazz Society’s Hall of Fame 2016. She joined Black Swan Classic Jazz Band in 1997, and she has is active in a variety of ensembles and styles, singing with the Don Latarski Group, Darrell Grant’s The Territory, Thara Memory, Tall Jazz, Disciples in Song, and the Augustana Jazz Quartet among many others.
Ezra Weiss has recorded seven albums as a bandleader, most recently “Before You Know It,” recorded live in Portland and has written three musicals for Northwest Children’s Theater. He has led his own bands at major venues throughout the US including several week-long engagements at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club. He won the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award three times and was listed in 2012 and 2013 DownBeat Critics Polls as a Rising Star Arranger. He currently teaches at Portland State University and holds a Bachelors in Jazz Composition from the Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters in Jazz Piano from Queens College.
S. Renee Mitchell is an award-winning writer, multimedia artist, social justice advocate, and educator. Mitchell’s more than 25 years of journalism experience has groomed her exceptional communication, analytical and grant-writing skills, yet, she is also a community-grounded visionary. She is the 2015 Yolanda D. King Drum Major Award winner in recognition of dedicated community service; was the librettist of “Sherman: A Jazz Opera;” has published a novel, children’s story, and several small-press zines; and teaches writing to children as the leader of the Saturday Academy Social Justice Camp as well as many other Portland, Oregon institutions.
A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Kalimah Abioto makes films centered around dreams, sexuality, and the nexus between Black people, humans, freedom, and the natural-spirit worlds. She received her BA in Film and Video from Hollins University and is a co-creator, along with her four sisters, of The People Could Fly Project, a multimedia project documenting the dreams and stories of people in the African Diaspora. Abioto has worked with Afropop Worldwide, Holy Mojo, The Black Portlanders, Spirit Law Center, Diamond Law, and other groups.

Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz ensemble which commissions and performs original works by its members and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and beyond. It is our mission to operate a large musical ensemble, to commission and perform original works by members of the ensemble and by other jazz composers in the Portland music community and elsewhere, to act as a forum for the development and presentation of works for large ensemble by established and emerging jazz composers, and to engage and enrich community awareness and appreciation of contemporary music.

Little One House Show
2019-03-08 20:00 | OR
Little One plays an house show at Barra Brown’s place. Contact me for the address, and plan to bring some food to share!

Little One @ Willamette University
2019-03-15 19:30 - 21:30 | Willamette University, 900 State Street, Salem, OR, 97301, United States
Performing a few new songs as well as songs from our EP “Little One.” The Willamette Jazz Collective Opens!
Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center
900 State Street
Salem OR 97301

"The Bear in the Room" with Joe Kye @ The Field Conference, New Expressive Works
2019-04-06 13:00 - 13:30 | New Expressive Works, 810 SE Belmont, Portland, OR, 97214, United States
1-1:30 pm: Douglas Detrick & Joe Kye will perform The Bear In the Room, an interactive musical story based on an Indian-born Data Scientist Ratnanjali Adhar’s encounters with Alaskan wildlife, with Detrick on banjo/trumpet/voice/electronics and Kye on violin/voice/electronics.
