Singers don't often pair up in concert and three together is extremely rare. Egos and voices might clash, but nothing of the sort happened when Dee Daniels, René Marie and Dena DeRose teamed up for a vocal extravaganza at the 42nd annual Jazz Port Townsend presented by Centrum. The well planned and executed program featured each of the singers in a solo performance and in duets with the other two, with a finale bringing all three together in the classic blues "Centerpiece". The singers were backed throughout by Dena DeRose at the piano, Chuck Deardorf on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums.
Dee Daniels, René Marie and Dena DeRose are also highly regarded educators as well as performers and taught a vocal jazz workshop during the week preceding the festival. Together they represent a wide range of styles and all three are songwriters as well as performers. Their concert earned a standing ovation from the near-capacity audience in McCurdy Pavilion at Fort Worden where Jazz Port Townsend takes place each year at the end of July.
The concert was recorded for Jazz Northwest and will air on Sunday August 14 at 2 p.m. Pacific on 88.5 in the Seattle - Tacoma area and stream at kplu.org. After broadcast the program is available for streaming on demand at jazznw.org. Jazz Northwest is recorded and produced by Jim Wilke exclusively for 88.5.
Next in the series of Jazz Northwest broadcasts from the 2016 Jazz Port Townsend festival is the Tribute to Woody Herman by the Faculty All-Star Big Band airing on August 28 at 2 p.m. on 88.5. Along with Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Woody Herman led one of the longest lived big bands from the late 1930s to the mid 1980s and launched the careers of dozens of young musicians.
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