At the saxophone conference. First gigs post-surgery!
Um, he was right, anonymous person on the internet.
Come through! Lots of opportunities to see some great jazz!
A friend and I went to see Al Foster at Smoke in NYC. The band was Chris Potter, Brad Mehldau, & Joe Martin. And it sounded every bit as wonderful as that lineup sounds. I got to talk to Al before the gig and he told me great stories about Miles Davis. What a beautiful man and master of the drums.
This is a band with Monk on piano, Matt Vacanti on bass, and featured guest Sam Kininger on alto. Great times. I've also played the venue with featured guests Giacomo Gates and Gabe Condon.
The Kirkland Art Center is one of the great smaller venues in the region-- it's a wonderful-sounding room with great programming, attentive audiences, and kind, exceptionally competent volunteers. And it's been the site of some of my favorite gigs in the last few months. Thanks to Monk Rowe!
One of my local buddies hipped me to this at the Frisell show. How did I not know about this? Paul Motian heaven! www.podomatic.com/podcasts/unc...
After the beloved web forum Cymbalholic closed down I lost that sense of daily engagement with cymbals and what they mean to jazz drummers.
I found this article while searching for more info about Rudy Royston. Thought provoking! jazztimes.com/features/lis...
Bill came out, introduced the band, and proceeded to play one long set with no breaks between songs. Bill's music comes from such a beautiful, peaceful, yet unusual place. Being a listener feels like being at sea with no landing places, only vast expanses of beauty, serenity, terror, and disquiet
Last night I got to see Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan, and Rudy Royston at the Center for the Arts in Homer, NY. I could not have asked for a better musical experience. The band was transcendently beautiful and endlessly surprising. And the venue is just incredible. It's like a mini Ryman.
I've got the band picked out and most of the tunes. It'll be entirely dedicated to the music of Thelonious Monk. I'm hoping to record the album live in the Spring some time. More details soon.
To that end, I currently have a few musical projects I'm working on. First, I have my record of my indie rock songs that I need to finish. It's mostly just vocals and mixing that need to be done now. It's been hard to work on that since my son Leo died. But I'm also working on a jazz record.
I hope it's OK that I'm mostly going to post about music over here. All nine of you have been warned.
