The Dena DeRose Trio plays a concert recorded at 2012 Jazz Port Townsend in on the September 16 airing of Jazz Northwest with Jim Wilke. The concert airs at 1PM PDT on 88.5 KPLU, and is available as a streaming podcast from kplu.org following the air date.

With Martin Wind on bass and Matt Wilson on drums, Dena DeRose sings from the piano, swinging hard on up tempo tunes, and deliciously slow on the ballads with fresh takes on some familiar songs.

Dena DeRose studied classical piano as a child and fell in love with jazz when playing piano with her high school jazz band.  The enthusiasm with which she plunged into jazz led to carpal tunnel syndrome which forced her off the piano bench for a while, but during recovery she began singing and today she has become one of the world’s leading combination singer-pianists.

This trio has toured extensively and has recorded 3 CDs for MaxJazz, two of them live at Jazz Standard in New York City.  Dena DeRose now has nine CDs as a leader, and her latest is a solo concert recorded in Belgium.  She teaches in Europe and is Head of Jazz Vocal Department at The University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria and teaches at the Prince Claus Conservatory of Music in The Netherlands.  She is also in demand in the US for workshops and jazz camps including the one preceding Jazz Port Townsend.

With one of the best rhythm teams imaginable, Martin Wind and Matt Wilson, the trio ranges from poignant ballads to joyful abandon in up-tempo swingers.  The set list includes familiar songs, but the way they were delivered wowed the audience at Jazz Port Townsend and the excitement of the crowd comes through in this concert recording.

(Martin Wind and Dena DeRose at Jazz Port Townsend 2012 – photo by Jim Levitt).