Gone Camping Edition

The family and I are leaving within the hour for the mountains to camp for the rest of the weekend. 

I wanted to quickly acknowledge Darcy's post on Bob Florence's passing, he includes a wonderful story from Ingrid Jensen.  I play in a big band where his charts constitute a bulk of the book and they are always a joy to play.  His writing was a big factor in my decision to pursue arranging as part of my aesthetic.

Also, not sure of the street date of this but The Saxophone Summit has a new recording on the way.  Here is a bit from Bret Primack's video page.  Some wonderful words about Brecker here.  Lieb sums it up well with his comments.  Thanks to David Valdez for hipping me to this...

Enjoy the weekend....

Happy Birthday...

To Adrienne Rich.  

I love her poetry, here is a link to one of my favorites.

How 'bout a big hand now...

This is KILLER!  48 glorious minutes of Art Blakey and the Messengers circa 1961.

Thanks to Russ Neff at My Favorite Things for posting it.

Most of my posts of late have been links to other sites like this.  I do apologize and I will have some substantive writing very soon...

Chuck says it all!!!!

Things have lightened up for me a good bit.

We graduated two classes yesterday and my teaching load has dropped considerably.  Now that things are a bit lighter, I can focus on some projects I have put on the back burner, most importantly, my transcribing.  I have spoken before about how I feel about transcribing as a pedagogical tool and those feelings were reinforced today upon reading this.  What a great article!!

Thanks to Revd. Andrew for posting the link...

Busy Sunday

The past 72 hours have seen some extraordinary activity in the world of Jazz Education.

First, was this.  This letter was posted on IAJE's website as well as delivered to the membership.  Upon reading this I checked my Vienna and sure enough, the blogosphere was abuzz.  Here are some of the more informative posts:

Darcy's take.

A new blog for me, The Independent Ear, has several posts.  Here is one of the most telling.

Doug Ramsey (Rifftides).

I am deeply saddened by the news that IAJE as we know it no longer exists.  I have been to three conferences in my my life and they were very positive experiences for me.  I was able to to get enough of a "Buzz" to keep my energy and enthusiasm up for most of the rest of the year. I must, however, agree with some of the voices that have characterized the experience as too commercial.  There is (or I should say, was) quite a consumer culture around the conference - all the newest books, horns, records etc.  But, again, let me emphasize, the experiences were overwhelmingly positive for me.  I will miss that experience.  Some of the highlights of the past three years have been:  Maria Schneider, Kenny Werner's Trio, David Liebman (in a variaty of ensembles), John Holenbeck, Jerry Bergonzi, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, One for All, Darcy James Argue's Secret Society North, Nordic Connect, and countless clinics and other performances.  Here are some links to my posts from Toronto.

In other news:  My trio piece was premiered today.  An amazing, sensitive and giving performance by the "Diversions Trio".  Pictures will be posted here soon and a recording will be posted on MySpace as soon as it is mixed.

More Sound

Here's some more from Stan with The Boston Pops.

Thanks Bev and Denis!

A poem for today...

The best Seasonal Poem ever....

Thanks TBP for posting this.