Boshnack wrote “Seismic Belt” during a 3-month residency at 18th Street Arts Center earlier this year, through their annual Make Jazz Fellowship in Los Angeles. This award is sponsored by the Herb Alpert Foundation to support promising, emerging composers. Boshnack debuted the music in two concerts in LA with an all-star band she assembled. This Earshot Festival performance of “Seismic Belt” features an incredible line-up of Seattle musicians joined by one special guest from her Los Angeles band – Lauren Elizabeth Babaon violin & viola. Pianist Alex Chadsey has been a mainstay of Boshnack’s projects, as has drummer Max Wood and tenor and baritone saxophonist Chris Credit. Troy Shiefelbein joins on upright bass, and violinist Begin Scarseth rounds out the string section with Baba. This unusual instrumentation brings together elements of her previous ensembles: she combines her love of string writing (as evidenced in B’shnorkestra) with a piano-driven rhythm section (from Sam Boshnack Quintet) and horn-heavy melodies (in Reptet).
Photos by Emma Wang, courtesy of 18th Street Arts Center.
Boshnack’s love of hiking the peaks of the Pacific Northwest, combined with travels to other areas located on the Ring sparked her fascination with volcanoes, and the cultures that surround them. As with her other recent projects, this work leads the listener into a storied landscape projected as musical narrative. In 2017, she released “Nellie Bly Project” which illustrated the 19th-century daredevil/feminist/journalist’s heroic life. In 2016, her desire to celebrate individual expression and virtuosity of musicians outside of Western classical music prompted her to compose “Global Concertos” – which explored the sounds of five continents, performed with a representative musical ambassador from each.
Watch video about “Seismic Belt” and Make Jazz Fellowship – https://vimeo.com/270227399 (password is firejazz).
Samantha Boshnack’s Seismic Belt Live in Santa Monica will be released in March 2019 on Orenda Records!
B'shnorkestra 