For you folks that are tuning in from Canada, Europe, and beyond, let me just say YES, I knew the United States was messed up, but not just how messed up until the unthinkable happened four years ago. Months after the nightmare has ended, I still give thanks every day that the democracy, imperfect as … Continue reading
I was briefly involved with the Herb Sherry organization in the 80’s while trying to survive as a newcomer in New York City. Playing single engagements or “clubdates” was a way to make some low commitment money back then. Due to musicians being forced into lower echelon work by a collapsing music biz, I used … Continue reading
Hey folks, I wanted to share this part of an ongoing avenue of my practice to develop “stand alone” solo playing of both standards and free tunes. This one is actually All the Things You Are with an extended variation on the traditional intro. The goal of course is for it to make compositional sense … Continue reading
Hello Folks, Welcome to our new international guests and my apologies for boring you with yet more on the U.S. election. I can’t resist updating my earlier post on the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), our modest source of government sponsored arts funding now that our election is decided. The NEA has been a loved … Continue reading
Partly to welcome our new friends from Burkina Faso, and partly to satisfy my own need for new sounds, I availed myself of the bounty of the internet and found this excellent cut by Volta Jazz of Burkina Faso. The song entitled Fintalabo and composed by Kone Idrissa was posted to the VOM website by … Continue reading
Hey folks, Speaking of “Rich” it looks like the lawyers pulled the repost I did of the Steve Marcus/Buddy Rich Youtube video on my earlier post. Here’s a replacement video of Steve on tenor blowing a great solo on a tune based on the chord changes from “Cherokee”. Fantastic player. I would see Steve on … Continue reading
Have any musicians bothered to whine about Spotify royalties (or lack thereof)? That’s right… $0.0047 dollars for a download. I know, I know. I’m making it worse by letting people know where they can go and barely pay for music. SALES DATE PARTNER ARTIST ALBUM SONG PAYABLE Apr 15, 2012 Spotify Chris Fagan Lost Bohemia … Continue reading
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced the recipients of the 2012 Jazz Masters Award, “the nation’s highest honor in jazz.” This lofty honor bestows the grand sum of $25,000 on each of the five recipients, embarrassingly low for the likes of Charlie Haden and Jack DeJohnette, two of this year’s five recipients. Incidently, … Continue reading
Maybe I’ll stop asking this type of pointless question someday but probably not because I’m nuts. Click here for Steve’s obituary Continue reading
