Know Thyself....

According to the "what breed of Liberal are you" quiz, here are my results....

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Peace Patroller, also known as an anti-war liberal or neo-hippie. You believe in putting an end to American imperial conquest, stopping wars that have already been lost, and supporting our troops by bringing them home.

Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com

Happy Birthday...

 John Coltrane

I will be listening to Trane for most of the evening, the playlist I have put together has material from all three of the big periods.  His music never ceases to inspire, everything about him is superlative.

Here is one of my favorite videos of Trane in performance.  Such beautiful intensity and dig the steam pouring off of Elvin...  

You know, the rain is gonna come...

Well it's been a busy week!

After a wonderfully relaxing vacation in Chicago/Northwest Indiana I'm back at work with two new classes.  My role this term is much more administrative (yuck) than pedagogical and I am dealing with that shift with varying degrees of success.

Going back to work, as with many musicians who teach, always brings my thoughts to priorities; where do I focus..on my art or on the teaching?  I read something that brings that question into very specific relief a few days ago.  Over at Bottomless Cup, D0nna Tr0y has written so eloquently about this dichotomy that I feel I can add nothing but kudos on articulating a very complex set of concerns.  I also must congratulate her on her very brave decision to focus on her art full time.  Read the entire piece here. 

I have just completed a few arrangements for various people and ensembles, but my own writing seems to always get pushed aside in favor of other projects.  If any writers out there have any wisdom to share on this point, I'd love to hear it.  I have a composition that has been sitting on my piano for several months now!  I hate to sound like I'm complaining because I am truly happy and grateful for the work, but it is a true dilemma of balance.

This past Wednesday I played a very "sustaining" gig.  I have a standing trio that I do occasional work with.  We have a "semi-steady" hit at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk VA.  This past Wednesday was especially rewarding.  The communication and energy was great and I felt myself playing in a much less self-conscious way.  Self-consciousness is something I have been dealing with in my playing a lot lately.  It seems that the more I deal with vocabulary, the more aware I am of it NOT being present at certain critical times.  Of course, upon listening back, it is often more coherent than I think but the point is that I am not as in the moment as I'd like when I'm playing.  This past Wednesday was a breath of fresh air if for no other reason than I was able to play and detach from what I played in a very quiet and calm way.  It feels nice to get back to that again.

This next week I'm presenting a recital in honor of Trane's Birthday.  We'll be performing material from all three of the big periods and I'm looking forward to exploring this material in a much deeper way over the next few months.  The challenge for me in presenting something like this goes back to the idea of self-consciousness I wrote about a bit ago.  When I'm playing standards or tunes in general, I feel that I bring a good bit of who I am to them.  When ever I approach Trane's material, the history and archetype is SO strong in my mind's ear that I begin to think about how I SHOULD be playing over these tunes instead of what the music is doing now.  As Lovano says:  "The tune is playing you"!  As I work through this recital my goal is to present the music in a way that not only highlights Trane's music but also his aesthetic of individual expression through the music.

Finally, we're waiting for Hanna to pass over.  We're expecting a tropical storm by the time it gets here...nothing too serious, I hope.  I will say this, my friend Jackie is right!  Kenny Wheeler is wonderful music to listen to while watching rain!!

Checking in...

As I continue to enjoy a brief respite, please enjoy this new (for me) discovery. Great footage of Lovano and Harrell:

Part 1

Part 2

The Jazz Showcase & Jimmy Heath

A benefit to having family near Chicago is that on every visit, I get a good Chicago fix.

Last night I ventured in to the new Jazz Showcase to hear Jimmy and Tootie Heath and it was just beyond words. First, a few words about the venue. I have a long history with the Showcase, going back to its tenure at The Blackstone Hotel, through its location on Grand. It was the first jazz club I ever went to thanks to their very progressive and still in place All Ages policy. I have heard too many heavies there to count but some of the standouts include: James Moody, Elvin Jones, David Liebman, Ira Sullivan, Tom Harrell, Dave Holland, Joe Lovano and John Scofield. I even had the great opportunity to perform there for a week. When I was at NIU, the Jazz Ensemble had a long standing performance there the week of the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic - this is when the Showcase was at The Blackstone - and I played there with Jon Faddis doing all of Dizzy's Big Band rep. I was very happy to read that the Showcase was back in action at Dearborn Station in the South Loop.

The room is great. Not a bad seat in the house and the sound is to die for. It is still a pantheon of jazz history with pictures and playbills of "Showcases past" and enormous photos of Bird and Trane still watch over all proceedings.

Jimmy Heath was just KILLIN!!!!! If you have the chance, RUN, do not walk, stroll or otherwise prevaricate to hear him. The man is a walking Rosetta stone of the jazz language of the past 60 years. His vocabulary is deeply rooted in Bebop but he has kept pace with the rhythmic, sonic and harmonic progression since the Bebop era. He has a rich, dark sound with, to my ear, overtones of Trane and Joe Henderson but not sounding at all derivative. The harmonic language, while rooted in Bebop, was very forward thinking and always grounded in a sense of melody that can sometimes be lacking in very harmonic playing. His rhythmic interaction with Tootie was just off the map. These two were completing each other's sentences left and right. Something that comes for YEARS of playing and developing together.

The only disappointment was the size of the audience. There were probably 25-30 people in the club, and for a town like Chicago on a Friday night, I would have expected more.

Through Sunday at The Jazz Showcase
806 S. Plymouth Ct.
Chicago IL 60605
312-360-0234

Sets at 8 & 10 on Saturday
4, 8 & 10 on Sunday

Live from beautiful Hebron IN....

I'm on vacation for the next few weeks.

It's very nice to have days where I can shed, write and ride at my leisure. Tonight I'm going into Chicago to hear Jimmy Heath at the new Jazz Showcase, expect a full report tomorrow.

Not nearly as exciting as what's happening over at Bottomless Cup...reporting from Down Under and all...

In the mean time, enjoy some Wayne here, here and here.

Sunday Links

In the second edition of the occasional feature, Here is some killin' Newk!

My Top 5 Sonny Rollins Tracks:

Sonnymoon for Two - A Night at the Village Vanguard

St. Thomas - Saxophone Colossus

Without A Song - The Bridge

The Eternal Triangle - Sonny Side Up

Body and Soul - Sonny Rollins and the Big Brass

You???.....