vacation photos and other thoughts

Since I've last blogged, I've been to DC for Passover, Seattle and San Francisco (for a professional and personal vacation). And of course, I've been in and out of New York a whole bunch of times (3X since I came back April 26). And I'm going back yet again tomorrow for a recording session, then down to DC on Saturday night and back up to Philly on Monday. Whew!

Maybe at some point I'll get around to blogging something about my excellent trip to the Left Coast, but for now I'll just leave you with a few pictures and let the pictures do the talking.

A specialty record store called Zion's Gate Records on E. Pike St. in Seattle. My first day there before the EMP Pop Conference began. Strangely enough, in Zion's Gate, I found a copy of Quartet Music's Window on The Lake on Nine Winds (yes, that's Nels and Alex Cline, Jeff Gauthier and the late Eric Von Essen, for whom Cryptogramophone records was founded). Nels and Jeff look like they are straight out of Ridgemont High. Alex looks like the wolf man. I kid you not. Of all places - a reggae specialty shop in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle!?!? Who knew?


a rad skateboard and urban chic clothing/hat/shoe shop also on E. Pike St.

me on Pike St. with my first vinyl purchase of the trip.



A human-sized bunny in a store window. Naturally.



Pike Place Market - with blue skies.



flowers at Pike Place Market



belt buckles at Pike Place Market

more to come soon...

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On another note, I've been wondering if there is a way to get my Twitter feed syndicated on my blog (but do I want you all to see what I'm tweeting?). I don't know the answer to that question. And I also would like to set up mobile blogging once again which I had set up on my old iPhone but never set up for my new one.

I'm strongly considering migrating this blog to a WordPress format as I am beginning to get used to that system on my new business website. Let me tell you, its way better than anything Google has come up with yet (but you do have to pay for the hosting).

the out-of-towner

Ever since I moved again in Philly to a much nicer and cheaper spot with my friend Gabe, I've been spending a lot of time out of town in New York and elsewhere on business and pleasure.

I spent Labor Day Weekend in Detroit for the Detroit International Jazz Festival, which is billing itself as the largest free jazz festival in North America (i.e. most acts and 'free' meaning free-of-charge as opposed to so-called avant garde 'free jazz'). It was remarkable how many acts they had and the variety of said acts.

Here's a Detroit-based website's overview:


Matt Wilson's kitschy, but totally killing Arts & Crafts band with Terell Stafford on trumpet, Gary Versace on organ and Martin Wind on bass (having recently replaced the late Dennis Irwin) blew my mind - I think it was my first time seeing that band live, though I've listened to the records many times.

Here's a taste (with the late Dennis Irwin):


Cyro Baptista's Beat the Donkey, a zany (Brazilian-based) percussion/keyboard/electric guitar/dance band that's part Captain Kangaroo, part Blue Man Group, part avant-jazz bonanza and filled with players of variegated ethnicity who aim to please with highly choreographed schema - a few times in their set they all came to a complete standstill mid-song and held the pose for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about 20 seconds in complete silence. There are at least two excellent recordings by Beat the Donkey on John Zorn's Tzadik label, Beat the Donkey and Love The Donkey. Apparently Baptista has a new album which I've not yet checked out called Banquet of the Spirits.

Here's a taste of Beat the Donkey:


I also loved seeing the Dutch ICP Orchestra, a group that I brought to Pittsburgh and wrote about here back in Spring of 2006. I got to hang with Michael Moore (the talented woodwind player and longtime expatriate) pre-show and congratulate him on making some really excellent recordings for his own Ramboy label, which I have to thank Bruce Lee Gallanter at Downtown Music Gallery for turning me onto when I was in his store in late April.

Here's a taste of ICP:


There was a theme to the festival - The Detroit-Philly Connection: A Love Supreme which was a somewhat tenuous pairing in my opinion since there is no direct connection between the two cities except for the fact that many Detroit and Philly jazz and soul musicians played with each other over the years and that both cities were tour stops for all kinds of musicians who were on the road. So they had Christian McBride as the artist-in-residence and he put on a convincing opening night tribute to Marvin Gaye along with emcee, former Detroit Lions play and Football Hall-of-Famer Lem Barney and soul singers Lalah Hathaway, Rahsaan Patterson and new crooning phenom José James. On Saturday there was a Philly-Detroit Summit with Christian McBride, Detroit-born drummer and jazz drummer-turned hip-hop mogul Karriem Riggins, Detroit guitarist Perry Hughes, Philly saxophone veteran Bootsie Barnes, Geri Allen and Randy Brecker. For more complete reviews including very in-depth coverage by Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press, go here.

I was in New York on Sept. 8th for Soundcheck on WNYC with my client the pianist Aaron Parks (there I got to meet and chat with Starbucks' Hear Music superstar Sonya Kitchell and her charming mother - both of whom already knew Aaron through his younger sister). Later, I had a meetings with some interesting French dudes about a week of performances around NYC they are going to film in mid-November for a French music television channel, Mezzo. And I am going to publicize it. It's being billed as "Autumn In New York" which is somewhat ironic since they aim to catch the most cutting edge jazz on the scene and that moniker denotes a very retro classic jazz/pop ethos. Anyways, they aim to shoot acts such as math-jazz trio Fieldwork, electronic musician Val-Inc w/ either guitarist Marvin Sewell (a frequent Jason Moran and Cassandra Wilson cohort) or trumpeter Graham Haynes (who has made some very fine experimental electronic recordings of his own - notably 2006's Full Circle), Jaleel Shaw's band, the trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire's band (recent winner of the Thelonious Monk Competition) and a night of hip-hop meets jazz w/ trumpeter Raydar Ellis, drummer Chris Dave, pianist Robert Glasper, saxophonist/keytar player Casey Benjamin, bassist Derrick Hodge and others presented by Revive da Live.

Here's a taste of Revive da Live:


I was back in the city from Sept. 11-13th. Could not believe it has been only seven years since the attacks of that September morning which I awoke to from a phone call in my college dorm room as a freshman at Carnegie Mellon (somehow it seems like more time has passed). It didn't feel particularly poignant being in New York City on Sept. 11 until I spotted the two luminous beams shining up into the night sky commemorating the towers and the lives lost. Speaking of which I was back in the city to see the 2nd night of Aaron Parks' CD release run at The Jazz Standard. On the way back downtown after a interview with Ted Panken on WKCR's Out to Lunch, Aaron told us that he was just a few blocks away from the towers on Sept. 11, 2001 and watched people jumping out of the Towers which scarred him for quite a while. So that was pretty heavy... But Thursday night's set was brilliant - really loved their rendition of "Riddle Me This" and "Nemesis," my two favorite tracks on the new record.

Here is Aaron Parks playing Nemesis at J&R Music's JazzFest in late August.


On Friday night I did a double header starting at Sweet Rhythm to see my client, the percussionist Steven Kroon and then I joined writer Siddhartha Mitter for the midnight set at The Blue Note by an immensely talented pianist from Baltimore named Lafayette Gilchrist whom I've written about previously here. Gilchrist has really matured as a writer and soloist. This was one of the tightest bands I've seen in some time (alto sax, trumpet, tenor sax, bass, drums) - and they were all Baltimore cats! Total unknowns. So kudos to The Blue Note Club for presenting this music. Lafayette's new release, his 4th record for Hyena is called Soul Progressin'.

Here's some video of Lafayette who's got a modern day Monk look goin' on:


Then Saturday I journeyed from Bedford Stuyvestant to Downtown Brooklyn, walked down Court Street and had lunch with my new buddy Stanley Crouch. We mostly discussed Obama, McCain and Palin and a little bit of music. Obama and this year's campaign are the subject of his next book. Were were inadvertently joined by Bill Frisell who has known Stanley for some time. Bill just happened to be in the same pizza place in Carroll Gardens, Francesco's, which I cannot really wholeheartedly recommend, though realize I can't eat tomato sauce anymore, so take my words with a grain of salt (or parmesan, as it were).

Here's Stanley in the context of hip-hop in the black community (skip to 2:15):


That night I went to the Vanguard to catch the Paul Motian Trio w/ Joe Lovano and Frisell, where I met up with another guitar player I know. This is a show I will never forget (unless, perhaps, I see them again). Two Monk tunes, "Misterioso" and "Crepuscule With Nellie" and two Motian tunes, plus a closing rendition of George and Ira Gershwin's warhorse of a standard, "Our Love is Here To Stay." No recent footage of this band is available since god knows Lorraine Gordon won't let cameras into the Village Vanguard - the only place this band plays nowadays since Paul does not travel outside New York. Thus, this band REALLY needs to record a live DVD.

Due to my poor planning that night, with no place to sleep in New York, I had to wait for a train at 3 AM which I borded and immediately fell fast asleep on, missed my stop in Philly and landed in Wilmington, DE, where I got a hotel room for the remainder of the weekend.

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Back in NYC now (it's taken me at least 5 solid hours to write this post) and I'm here through this coming Wednesday for the CLEAN FEED FESTIVAL NY III AT THE LIVING THEATRE (21 CLINTON ST BTW HOUSTON & STANTON), which is a showcase for several bands on the Lisbon, Portugal-based label, Clean Feed Records that records some of New York's finest improvisers as well as people in such far-flung locales as California, Texas and....wait for it...Portugal!

Some highlights coming up include Tony Malaby's Tamarindo with William Parker & Nasheet Waits on Monday night at 9:30 and Wednesday night at 9:30 Michael Blake's Hellbent (this video is from Italy and is hilarious - why can't I live in a country like that?) with Marcus Rojas on tuba, Charlie Burnham on violin (from James 'Blood' Ulmer's Odyssey) and G. Calvin Weston on drums (formerly of Ornette Coleman's Prime Time). Come one, come all! Even though I'm being paid to tell you that, come anyways. It's good music. And it's all on Clean Feed!

catching up...Top 10s (new stuff & reissues/box sets)

"How did you get this number?"

I love it when people utter these words which I heard today from an acquaintance I just wanted to catch up with (it being the holidays and whatnot) on the telephone. His number is clearly listed in the white pages (which for those technologically inclined or visually impaired, can be accessed effortlessly online, from any computer, with a simple Google search including the person's last name and the state in which they reside or their first and last name and the town and state, etc.).

It's as if the white pages were a big secret? If you're so concerned about it, don't list yourself.

Enough of that.

I'm not really in a bad mood. However with most of my home friends out of town or occupied, I've been left to spend a day with myself reading, eating and trying to find amusement in Web 2.0 - namely the now immensely popular social network, Facebook.

I ate a wonderful Malaysian lunch alone at a very spacious suburban restaurant called Penang, in Bethesda, MD (unofficial restaurant capital of the state). I enjoyed roti canai (described as "the all-time favorite Malaysian crispy Indian-style pancake, served with curry chicken as dipping sauce") which I recommend to anyone trying Malaysian for the first time. So greasy, but so good. And for my main course, I enjoyed kari ayam, spicy dish of coconut red curried chicken and potatoes over a bed of sticky rice. All the while, reading a new book by James Lipton of Inside the Actors' Studio.

Back at home, this leaves me to ponder various lists that I have been devising and refining over the last few weeks regarding recordings and musical functions I attended during 2007. However, I can't post about this right now as I am away from my collection for the time being and will likely have to wait until the New Year to fully elaborate upon.

Suffice to say, the very elite "Top 10" list I am having published in various outlets including the JJA wiki (once I renew my membership), goes like this in order:

1. Niño Josele - Paz (Callé 54/Song BMG)
2. Chris Potter Underground - Follow The Red Line: Live at the Village Vanguard (Sunnyside/Universal Music France)
3. Alan Pasqua - The Antisocial Club (Cryptogramophone)
4. Bobby Sanabria - Big Bang Urban Folktales (Jazzheads)
5. Nels Cline Singers - Draw Breath (Cryptogramophone)
6. Tain & The Ebonix - Folks' Songs (Dark Key Music)
7. Manuel Valera - Vientos (Anzic)
8. Kendrick Scott Oracle - The Source (World Culture Music)
9. Herbie Hancock - River: The Joni Letters (Verve)
10. Helen Sung - Sungbird (after Albeniz) (Sunnyside)

(Note: I made an error originally putting Rudresh Mahanthappa's Codebook in my 2007 Top 10 which is supposed to appear in All About Jazz's printed edition in LA, Chicago and Seattle and possibly SF as well. In reality, it was released in October 2006 and thus does not qualify for 2007 consideration, so I have substituted another ).

And my Top 10 Jazz Reissues/Box Sets:

1. Miles Davis - The Complete On The Corner Sessions (Sony Legacy)
2. McCoy Tyner - Horizon [Keepnews Collection] (Milestone)
3. Stanley Turrentine - The Spoiler (Blue Note)
4. George Benson - The Shape of Things to Come (A&M)
5. Joe Henderson - Power to the People [Keepnews Collection] (Riverside)
6. Bobby Hutcherson - Mosaic Select (Mosaic)
7. Frank Sinatra -- A Voice in Time: 1939-1952 (Sony Legacy)
8. Thad Jones - Detroit/New York Junction (Blue Note)
9. Flora Purim - Butterfly Dreams [Keepnews Collection] (Milestone)
10. Frank Foster - Manhattan Fever (Blue Note)

In the interest of full disclosure: Some of these artists are or have been clients in various capacities in the past year either directly or through another employer (a PR firm I work for) including most titles on the ACT Music label, many of Blue Note Records' new releases including: Charles Tolliver Big Band, Kenny Werner, Bill Charlap Trio, Joe Lovano & Hank Jones, Ron Carter, Kenny Burrell, Charles Mingus Sextet w/ Eric Dolphy, Jacky Terrasson, Nigel Kennedy and Stacey Kent (any others like Wynton Marsalis, Robert Glasper, Terence Blanchard, etc. were worked internally by Blue Note's publicity staff or by other independent PR firms), the Cryptogramophone label and all affiliated artists, most catalog on Concord Music Group and its family of labels which were part of the Fantasy acquisition - namely all titles in the Keepnews Collection and pretty much all catalog except Stax releases, Kendrick Scott and Rudresh Mahanthappa). While some might see this as a conflict of interest, I justify it for the fact that I have the distinct honor and good fortune to work with some artists who are indeed some of my favorite musicians.

Please support the artists and the independent labels (who are often the forgotten link in the food chain and also the bigger financial losers in today's marketplace) by buying this music legitimately in hard form or digitally if you don't have it already.

Coming soon: an interview with up-and-coming pianist Helen Sung and other lists of honorable mentions, non-jazz genre Top 10s (because, I listen to more than jazz) + records I heard about from other bloggers, Pitchfork, All Music Guide or journalists whose opinions I respect, but never got copies of or never got a chance to listen to...

meet me in Monterey / Sonny Rollins tidbit

Tomorrow I leave for my first Monterey Jazz Festival and some much-needed vacation, which should at least partially explain the lack of blogging since August. I plan to blog while I'm out there about my daily activities in the South Bay (around Palo Alto and Mountain View - Google and Apple country), San Fran and the East Bay (to meet some writers I talk to all the time but have never met).

I will attempt to take notes on the shows I see in Monterey and any I might see in the Bay Area following the festival (though the chances of that actually happening are fairly low). It should be a lot of fun anyways.

I also moved again since my last post. Pictures soon once they finish painting it and fixing the space up (that happens while I'm gone). I finally have a place and a year lease and can finally stay for an extended period of time, which is better than moving every two-three months, as I have been forced to do recently for various reasons.

On an entirely different note, David Adler, one of my favorite writers and a new Philly friend, wrote an in-depth account of last night's historic concert by Sonny Rollins, Roy Haynes and Christian McBride at Carnegie Hall. The first paragraph grabbed my attention immediately:

Last night's historic Sonny Rollins show at Carnegie Hall was, among other things, a terrific and much-needed jolt of New York energy for this writer. Drummer Rashied Ali marched into the Pick-a-Bagel as I was finishing my sandwich. You just don't experience this sort of thing in Philly. With a cursory glance around the lobby and inside the hall, one could spot saxophonists Joe Lovano, Paquito D'Rivera, Antonio Hart, Kenny Garrett, Loren Schoenberg, Bill McHenry, John Zorn (in black leather and red camouflage); New Yorker editor David Remnick; pianist David Berkman; organist Dr. Lonnie Smith; drummer Lewis Nash; guitarists Russell Malone and Pat Metheny. And a good many journalists and critics.

Very inspiring, even though I wasn't there. It really got me in the mood for what I think I'm about to experience out in Monterey.

Ok, off to pack some more. More updates soon.