Karin Kajita Jazz Quintet

The Karin Kajita Jazz Quintet is a dynamic hard bop band in the style of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. We feature tunes by Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan, Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Tommy Turrentine, Lee Morgan, Harold Land and others. We also play original compositions and arrangements by Karin. We have performed at Seattle Jazz Fellowship, Bumbershoot, the Anacortes Arts Fair, the Evergreen State Fair, the Shoreline Arts Fair, Seattle Jazz Vespers, the Bothell Arts Fair, Bainbridge Commons, Interbay Golf Course, Collective Visions Gallery, First Night in Tacoma, Best of the NW Arts and Crafts Fair and many others. 

The quintet also presents the show "The Life and Music of Duke Ellington" in which we play Duke's music with historical backdrop and many entertaining anecdotes about his improbable rise from playing in a soda fountain in Washington DC at 14 years old, to orchestra tours around the U.S. and Europe. We have performed this show at Horizon House, the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, Seattle Jazz Vespers and a "Sounds of Winter" concert through the Bainbridge Island Parks Department.

Personnel: Karin Kajita, piano; Erik Esvelt, trumpet; Rich Cole, tenor sax; Al Shabino, bass; Randy Doak, drums; Angela Petrucci, vocals