Jazz in The Georgian, November 2 and 3, 2012

This past weekend at Jazz in The Georgian, we had two very fine pianists featured: John Hansen and Ryan Burns.


John Hansen kicked off the weekend this past Friday night.  He is a great bop pianist in the tradition of Barry Harris, Bud Powell, Tommy Flanagan, and Mulgrew Miller.  John's playing is heavily rooted in a hard sense of swing.  Hard bop.  Hard swing.  His phrasing and lines are always imbued with a distinct hard swinging feel that is always in the pocket of the groove and with impeccable meter.  It's always a great time to play with John because he plays at such a high level consistently that demands respect.  I have to always "bring it" when he is in the house.  John's playing is rooted in the tradition of the bop era, yet he is always striving to find expression as a modern jazz musician.  Here's a clip from the gig of a fun standard called It Could Happen To You.

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On Saturday night we had the excellent pianist Ryan Burns.  Ryan has a much more lighter touch in his approach.  His phrasing is nimble and has a playful like quality that is almost facetious.  Yet, his level of technical chops reveals the seriousness of his playing and a deep musicality.  Ryan is a very versatile musician.  You can see him play with some of the best jazz musicians in the region, and also play non-jazz type gigs easily.  He even plays bass in a Led Zepplin tribute band!  Ryan has played in my New Year's Eve band at The Fairmont Olympic Hotel for the last seven years in a row.  That's a gig that requires a lot of changing musical gears.  Ryan sounded great the other night.  What struck me on this night was that he was ready to play.  He always is as a professional player will be, but some nights are better than others and I thought that he really brought it this night.  Ryan also has a music school where he teaches called the Burien School Of Music.  We had several excellent video cuts from this night.  Please visit our YouTube channel to see and hear them.  Here are a couple videos of two stylistically different tunes.  Enjoy!

Stella By Starlight

 

Little Sunflower

Please visit our YouTube channel to see and hear more tunes with John Hansen and Ryan Burns as well as many videos from Jazz in The Georgian and highlights of Smooth Groove Productions special events. 

Jazz in The Georgian every Fridays and Saturday nights, 6pm-10pm at The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, 411 University Street, Seattle, WA 98101, 206-621-7889.

Come on out!  Hope to see you all soon!