Portland Sax Phenom Plays Boxley's in North Bend
Twenty-one-year-old saxophone phenom and Portland native Hailey Niswanger, who won the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival saxophone competition three years ago, brings her quartet Monday to Boxley's, the lively North Bend restaurant and showcase for Seattle's Pony Boy Records.
A stone swinger, Niswanger plays alto with a burly, broad tone and a trace of the cry reminiscent of John Coltrane's tenor saxophone sound and gets around the horn with the alacrity and sophistication of a veteran.
Niswanger, whose debut album “Confeddie" (dedicated to Eddie Harris) inspired a profile in The Wall Street Journal, appears with Berklee College colleagues Takeshi Ohbayashi, piano; Aaron Darrell, bass; and Mark Whitfield Jr. (son of Bellevue High School graduate and guitarist Mark Whitfield), drums.
Niswanger hits at 7 p.m. Monday at Boxley's, 101 W. North Bend Way, North Bend; no cover charge (425-292-9307 or boxleysplace.com).
