Category Archives: Rational and Irrational Thoughts
Could you do me a favor…..
Hey folks, Strange thing happened the other day. I got a royalty check. Yeah I know. Incredible. As it turns out, all the $.000000002’s that the streaming services give you eventually add up to a two figure dollar amount that they finally send you. In this case, I got a boost on Spotify because I … Continue reading
More Sax Mouthpiece Geek Talk Part II
Here’s a recording of the same tune with the Selmer Short Barrel I wrote about in the previous post. It was a C* originally and opened up to a E or and F by a mouthpiece dude here in the Northwest named Bob Carpenter. I can’t remember what the tip opening is. This mouthpiece has … Continue reading
GEEK ALERT: Sax Mouthpiece Talk
Greetings folks, As you may/may not know, I played alto for decades and reached a point about five years ago at which I started to hate everything I played on that instrument. (all my recordings are on alto.) So I switched to tenor and defaulted to the mouthpiece I had on hand at the time, … Continue reading
The Imperfect “Democracy”
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
Herb Sherry Orchestra Tribute
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
Stand Alone Playing
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
Reeds
Is it Worth Borrowing from China to Fund the Arts?
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
Welcome #Jazz Fans from #Burkina Faso
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
Chris Fagan Jazz 