From: "Doug Bright" <75366.2463@compuserve.com> To: Subject: Article: December, 1981 Date: Friday, March 18, 2005 4:01 PM THE SEATTLE LAKERS: HOME COURT IS PIONEER SQUARE By Doug Bright From HERITAGE MUSIC REVIEW: December, 1981 If you think the Seattle Lakers are a newly ac- quired Los Angeles basketball franchise, it probably means you haven't been down to the Pioneer Square Tavern lately. The PST serves as home court for an impressive new team of jazz musicians which I recent- ly had the pleasure of hearing. The evening began with an up-tempo rendition of "Have You Met Miss Jones", then the group slowed things down in a profes- sional yet natural manner with a song from Black Or- pheus. The real beginning, though, was the presenta- tion of one of my favorite standards, "I'm Beginning To See The Light". The group takes its name, direction and vocal renditions from a young lady named Janis Lakers. Her voice, though not compellingly soulful in the Billie Holiday sense, is extremely pleasant, and her style--indeed her approach to a wide range of jazz material--is fresh, youthful and spontaneous. The underlying concept is not that of the "red hot mama" of the blues, but a very enjoyable recapitulation of the tradition of female vocalists like June Christy who had their heyday in the mid-fifties. Though she's been singing professionally for the last ten years, Janis's entrance into the jazz realm is fairly recent. Her first idiom during the early days in Michigan was contemporary folk. The turning point came when she arrived here about two years ago and joined a forties-based female vocal group, The Swingaires. All it took was a little more modern jazz exposure, and she was hooked. The Seattle Lakers have been performing as a unit a little less than a year, but they work together in a way that suggests much more experience. They all seem to share the same philosophy of jazz. Both Janis's vocal improvisation and the instrumental breaks re- flect just the right balance between freedom and sim- plicity. They're always inventive, but they never go too far. This is perhaps best illustrated by their treatment of "Bluesette" and a Bill Evans Instrumen- tal arrangement of "Some Day My Prince Will Come" in an easy, swinging, up-tempo waltz. Material ranges all the way from Ellington to Spiro-Gyra, but the same warmth and melodic emphasis are there throughout. It's even enough to make a radical old traditionalist like me start to wonder if there might be some good stuff written today after all. It may be that "I'm beginning to see the light" about contemporary jazz and rock, but I suspect it's the Lakers rather than the original artists who deserve most of the credit. It's the freshness, the tastefulness, and the enthu- siasm of this new jazz group that will probably keep them going and growing for a long time to come. At least, I certainly hope so. ----------------------------------------