PORT ANGELES — Greta Matassa, the Seattle songstress who’s taken home the Northwest Jazz Vocalist of the Year prize seven times, will not only teach a free clinic here Wednesday but also give a free concert Thursday night.
Peninsula College and its Vocal Jazz Ensemble instructor, Elaine Gardner-Morales, are making both happen:
■ The vocal-jazz improvisation clinic, open to the public, will go from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in Maier Hall at Peninsula College, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
■ A “Solo Showcase” concert featuring Matassa and Vocal Jazz Ensemble singers Jessie Spicher, Daniel Camper and Alexis Hamman will go from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Olympic Cellars, 255410 U.S. Highway 101 just east of Port Angeles. Local pianist Al Harris and saxophonist Craig Buhler, Seattle drummer Jeff Busch and Bainbridge Island bass man Ted Enderle will back the vocalists.
There’s no charge for either event, while donations to the Peninsula College Vocal Jazz Ensemble fund are welcome.
“I’m an ear-trained jazz musician. I don’t necessarily teach by theory,” Matassa said in an interview Monday.
So in her clinics, she asks singers to veer away from the linear approach. Listen for the chords beneath the melody; they’re the bone structure.
Matassa also provides exercises that train the vocalist to sing what he or she hears.
After Gardner-Morales and Matassa met at Idaho’s Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival last winter, both teachers decided a trip to Port Angeles was in order.
Triumphant return
It’s been a long while since Matassa has sung out here; she performed many years ago at the Juan de Fuca Festival fundraiser in Port Angeles and at Jazz Port Townsend.
Matassa, who was inducted into the Earshot Jazz Hall of Fame in 2014, is busy with festivals and teaching.
Her gigs include performing at and leading a “Singing with a Big Band” workshop at Tula’s in Seattle in May, playing the Fairbanks, Alaska Summer Arts Festival last month, headlining Shoreline’s North City Jazz Walk next week and singing on a jazz cruise to Alaska later in August.
In 2016, she plans to release an instructional e-book for jazz vocalists.
At her rare free concert at Olympic Cellars, Matassa plans to dip into the Great American Songbook, for classics by George Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter. This is the bedrock music, songs she learned by the time she made her professional debut at age 17.
“Greta is more like an instrumentalist in her approach to singing,” said Gardner-Morales, adding that she is not just a pretty voice out in front of the rest of the musicians.
“She lets them shine, and she shines. You’re going to hear everybody in the band . . . all communicating,” Gardner-Morales said.
This is something to behold, she said, also noting that as evident as Matassa’s native talent is, the work she devotes to her art is what got her to this point.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
