Hello Friends, My new recording Fortune Telling (Adivinhação) is finally here. Read on for installment two of the long version in installments (the short version is in the liner notes below). Tim Armacost and I cooked up the idea of recording the tunes from our Seattle gigs in New York but after sleeping on the idea …
Hello Friends, My new recording Fortune Telling (Adivinhação) is finally here. And some of you may be interested in the story so I’ll tell the long version in installments (the short version is in the liner notes below). Our old teacher and eminent trumpet player Bobby Bradford used to caution us in subtle ways not to …
Hello faithful jazz nerd friends. Maiden voyage for another big band tune I arranged, this time an original called “dewired”. Yes, there is backstory. But only for people who know me super well. For the rest of you there are two secret musical references, one obvious and the other not so obvious. Get either of …
Hey folks! Long time no see. I’ve been taking a break to travel in some friendly European countries where society is not failing as it is here in the US (due to the long-term effects of right-wing policies). More about where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing later, but for those of you tracking …
Hey folks, Bored again. Covid bored. Fuck. Here is take 1 of GMH. Great tune. Problem for me is I heard the Joe Henderson version of this when I was 20 and I can’t get the Joe-isms out of my head when I play it ever since. It’s an amazing cut but I think it …
…not quite yet, but I’m working on it. At the moment I’m getting the right tools together and practicing on some crappy wood before I use the good stuff. If you didn’t read about the exciting lead up to this project, see the transformation of the cherry tree from my backyard to its present incarnation …
Hello folks, Thank you for your overwhelming response to my request to boost my recordings with the major online services last week. Incredibly, the algorithm is even MORE aware that I exist and is serving up my tunes to humans far and wide. My numbers are popping and the royalties are rolling in. To express …
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 …
Hello again folks, I pulled out the clarinet and made this thing. I think since I switched to tenor from alto, my embouchure got a little more flexible so it didn’t go too badly. I had literally given up on this axe because there are so many great doublers in Seattle, I couldn’t use it …
What is there to say other than this is one of the heaviest tunes in the jazz repertoire. The closest thing (I think) we have to an original recording is one of Billy Strayhorn singing and playing it trio in a live setting. That performance leaves some questions as to what the melody really is …
Hello Folks, Our new album “Freebird and Other Jazzy Things” is now available on iTunes and Amazon. If, despite my ruthless spamming, you did not attend our CD release event at Boxley’s, you Seattle friends have the opportunity to hear The Young Lizards at Tula’s this Tuesday, March 4th at 7:30 p.m. Cuts from the …
Hey Folks, Here are some shots from The Lizard session at Studio X . What an awesome facility, and thank you to Reed (owner/engineer) for your ongoing support of jazz. Since our new tunes are a ton harder than those on our first album (which we recorded live), we thought the whole process might be …
Hello Seattle Friends, please join us at the Royal Room this Sunday, February 26th at 7:30 pm at 5000 Rainier Ave., S. A creation of Seattle’s own super-talented-superstar Wayne Horowitz, The Royal Room is Seattle’s newest, edgiest, hottest place to be seen….and of course, hear great music. The Lizards will be playing selections from our … Continue reading
Hello Seattle Friends, the Chris Fagan/Dave Peterson Quartet will be appearing tomorrow (Friday, February 3rd) at Hiroshi’s from 7:30 to 10:00 pm. As always, the cover charge is zero, the food is excellent, and the company superb. We will be playing some exciting modern jazz including original tunes by the talented Dave Peterson. Did I … Continue reading
http://youtu.be/sEJ-8qsURnc 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
Hey Pacific Northwest friends, the Young Lizards will perform at Boxley’s in North Bend, Washington on Wednesday, December 14th at 7:00 pm. Not only is Boxley’s listed in Downbeat’s top 150 jazz rooms, Boxley’s will not be charging a cover for this event! That means more of your hard-earned monetary resources may be re-directed to … Continue reading
Hello Seattle friends, For many of us, this coming Thursday, November 10th will actually be much like a Friday owing to work being canceled for the Veterans Day holiday on 11/11/11. To celebrate this happy occassion, I will be teaming up with the wonderful guitarist, Dave Peterson as well as highly individualized bassist, Jon Hamar, … Continue reading
Hello Folks. The Economist gives us a wonderful article this week telling us of poverty-stricken record labels that can’t sign anything but a sure thing (with healthy, growing followings and robust merchandise sales) and laid-off A&R folks that have not been rehired back into the profession since the meteor hit the music business in 1999*. … Continue reading
The new tools of the trade are both bewildering and useful. Bewildering in terms of the amount of time and bandwidth a person could spend creating profiles, initializing widgets, uploading media, analyzing stats and so on. Useful in terms of creating impressions (although who knows how deep or lasting) among the multitude of thrifty jazz … Continue reading
Hello Folks, The Lizards album “charted” at 70 this week which pleased us very much. If you follow the link, you will see that the numbers in the jazz world are not huge. #1 received only 220 spins for the week. Nonetheless, we feel validated by showing up. I’m out there trying to book gigs … Continue reading
When I arrived in New York as a young dinosaur in 1986, avoiding extinction consisted of mainly a/ not starving, and b/ not getting shot by a crack-head that wanted to trade your Mark VI for some rock. The latter meant avoiding places like the last car of the ‘A’ Train after late-night gigs, simple … Continue reading
If you tuned into the radio interviews thanks. If you missed it, you can replay the San Diego interview here. You’ll find it in Vince Outlaw’s “Jazz Live” show a little ways down the list 🙂 Continue reading
Chris Fagan Jazz 