House Party/Recital warm up

This past saturday, Chris and I hosted a house party  so we could rehearse for my recital. It worked great- a lot of people came out and smooshed into our basement to hear us jam out on some new music.  This is a tune of mine called The Root. I started composing it while I was in New Orleans for the first time a month ago.  

Now I just need to figure out how to convince people to pay us for playing this music (still a mystery). It’s funny to me that people will come up to me and say “man that sounded great, you guys are awesome” and yet when we ask for people to give us a little for 2-3 hours of entertainment, no one contributes. I think it is a matter of donation versus door charge. When people are told to pay or leave; they cough it up. But when you offer the option; people don’t feel the responsibility to pay.  People should want to pay for entertainment that they enjoy, I’m just sayin’…

I tried out a new sevice called UStream this past weekend at the house party.  It is a live audio and video streaming sight where users can chat.  I will be using this site for my recital, so if you are not in columbus this weekend, then you can watch and listen to the recital from your computer or phone.  I will start broadcasting at 3:45 on saturday here.  Also on thursday 2/10/11 we’ll be broadcasting the dress rehearsal (10pm).

Recent recordings: Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings-Count Basie, Off The Wall- Michael Jackson, Spirit Moves-Dave Douglas & Brass Ecstasy

New Orleans and the JEN Conference

I spent the past weekend attending the JEN (Jazz Educators Conference) conference at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana. As I’m sitting here stranded in the Atlanta airport thinking about it- it was one of those trips that seems to be ten times longer than it was because of how busy you were. It was only about 48 hours that I was in town, but I feel like I’ve sufficiently experienced New Orleans and met some great musicians in the process.

I performed Saturday morning as part of the Student Composer’s Showcase. The rhythm section consisted of top players from the North Texas One O’Clock Lab Band. We played my piece Fire Blossom and the band did really well (we only rehearsed it as we were warming up 15 minutes beforehand). I think the lack of rehearsal helped make the performance very spontaneous. I am very pleased with how it came across, and humbled by the musicianship displayed by the NT players.

This tune Fire Blossom I wrote this summer while in New York city. I began composing it while I was eating Grimaldi’s pizza on a bench in Hillside Park, Brooklyn. It started with a lyric that I wrote while at the park. During my drive back to Buffalo, I started putting music to the phrasing of the words. This gave the melody a deeper logic rather than just writing a lyricless piece.

I am very grateful to JEN for hosting me for the Composer’s Showcase. It was a great experience to meet and receive feedback from people like Steve Weist, John Clayton, Ruben Alverez, Paris Rutherford and many other great musicians. The thing that stood out for me was that the word competition was not being used and that each piece, accepted or rejected received feedback from four noted musicians and educators. I can’t really say enough about Saturday morning, It felt great to share my music with people who I’ve never met.

I absolutely love the city of New Orleans, the whole place just breathes culture. Another small reason why I might love New Orleans might be that there is all types of music but primarily jazz playing everywhere around the city. The food there was absolutely incredible. The first night I was there I had Seafood Jambalaya and greens (thank God I had a lot of it-it make my night on Burbon St. stomachable). After the Composer’s Showcase, I had a Beignet and coffee at Cafe Du Monde. It was tremendously tasty, and the long line made you exceedingly anxious and starved by the time you were served. I made the mistake in not changing from the performance, and I was wearing black dress pants. The beignets are caked in powdered sugar, and there is no way of eating them without getting it all over yourself. Needless to say, I had to walk home with white streaks of sugar all over my pants-looking like a pastry chef. Later that Evening, I had a fried oyster po-boy at Mother’s. It was fantastic, but as I was eating it I was witnessing the Seahawks eliminate the Saints from the playoffs.

Anyway, as I finish writing this I am in the process of writing and arranging new music for a few gigs coming up and for my recital on 2/12/11. I am currently planning to perform Stevie Wonder’s-Girl Blue, Nick Drake’s-Place To Be, Daft Punk’s-Something about us, Wayne Shorter’s-Speak No Evil, Duke Pearson’s- Is That So, and a few new originals.

Recent Recommendations: Joe Lovano Us Five-Bird Songs, Wayne Shorter Quartet-Beyond the Sound Barrier, Roy Hargrove Big Band- Emergence, Woody Herman-Giant Steps, Stanley Turrentine-More Than a Mood, Stan Getz-Serenity.

Jazz

Holiday time

I am writing this post as I put off studying for finals as I go into Exam week at OSU.  I wanted to share a video that I just posted on YouTube.  It is of the OSU Art Blakey Combo performing an arrangement I did of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.  The two things I think you should take from this video are the 4 horn players (including myself) two stepping in the beginning, and the use of sleigh bells. (as played by Wes Perry).  You can’t really tell but this was at a concert for over 1,500 people.  The concert was a showcase of about twenty different musical groups from OSU, it changed styles pretty drastically; we were after a Bach Suite and a before a Wind Ensemble piece.  The advertisements for the show said: Featuring over 300 Musicians and Vocalists…we were in the former category.

Holland Theatre…

Last week, I played with the OSU Jazz Ensemble at the Holland Theatre in Bellefontaine, Ohio.  The place was incredible; instead of regular walls or sound panels, the place had friggen windmills and a cityscape making the pretty huge theater much more intimate.  It was interesting to be in a small town playing: everyone was very welcoming, and they made the entire band a home cooked dinner before we played!

The main reason that this gig was unique for me was the good energy that was going on for the two hours that we were playing.  There are two things that are necessary to have a good performance…the band, and the audience.  The band needs to on it musically, but also the band needs to be collectively content with one another .  I know that I play better when I’m with positive people that put off good vibes and have the same goal in mind: to enjoy the gig, to entertain, and to make the best music possible. Jim Masters started directing the OSU big band this past year.  He has been one of my favorite directors because of his attitude towards the band.  He puts his heart and soul into everything he is involved in, and his positive loving attitude brings out the best in everyone in the band.  This one season on concerts with Jim has been the most enjoyable for me in large part due to him.

The audience is obviously a very important component in improvisatory music too.  I feed off of an audience that is into the music being played.  There is nothing better than an audience that is connected to the music.  When the band and audience are happening, the other things (venue, sound equipment etc.) really don’t matter!  It just becomes the most basic of things: A band playing their own music that fills a void for their listeners, that no other entertainment can fill.

In today’s modern age of immediate information, I think people are insecure about simply going to see a musical performance (I mean, many people I know can’t even listen to an entire song on their i-pod before they switch to the next one).  If they can’t listen to one song on their own time, how can you expect them to sit through an hour long performance?  Going to the movies can be a moving experience (depending on how good the film is), but going to see good live music can be a more transcendent experience.  I think that music that is improvised can achieve a even higher level of entertainment than other music because it dares to create ideas thats don’t exist until the moment they pop into the performers brain.  The fact that the audience can positively effect that is why I think improvisatory music has a future.

Alright, this has turned into me claiming that everyone has ipod ADD and desperately trying to convince you to go out and see more shows (which you should).  In conclusion, I had a great show, I love positive people (especially musicians with no ego on the bandstand) and hereby knibb high football rules.

Recent Movies/Music: Signed, Sealed Delivered- Stevie Wonder, Sonny Side Up-Dizzy Gillespi, Bag’s Groove- Mile’s Davis, SF Jazz Collective Live 2010- SF Jazz Collective, Medicine Music-Bobby McFerrin, Nancy Wilson With Cannonball Addreley- Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley, Black Dynamite-Scott Sanders, Annie Hall- Woody Allen.

Here is one of my favorite tracks from signed sealed delivered.

Halloween with the Assault Squad

This past halloween I had the privilege of playing at a raging house party at The Ohio State University.  It was by far one of the funnest gigs I have ever played.  Mostly because there were no expectations or formalities.  It was just me and four other guys entertaining our friends and having fun for three hours.  We were in a medium sized room that had at least 20 people in it listening and having a good time while we were playing.  There’s definitely a certain energy that you can feed off of when you are playing to a wall of people.  At one point later in the night, Chris (esteemed trombonist, tub tunes trumpet artist, and roommate of mine) couldn’t play past about 4th position on his trombone since he would be hitting people that were listening to him.

The thing that really made it a good time was the energy in the room while we were playing.  It was definitely something I have not experienced in a while.  I felt like playing to a wall of people who were digging your music was much more fulfilling than hearing a distant audience clap while on a stage.  And yes we did have the belligerently drunk moron who yelled “freebird!”, but I’m pretty sure the dirty looks from the rest of the crowd made him shut it. It was definitely a new type of gig that a lot of instrumental musicians would be hesitant to go play since there are no set guidelines or expectations.  But, It definitely paid off; I left that party feeling pretty pumped about how my music was received.

So here it is…Chris and I were dressed as Gym Teachers and the rest of the band was dressed as Mariachi Musicians.  The band is called the Assault Squad and the theme of the part was Zombie New Orleans.  Our motto is “Assaulting you ears: one melody at a time”.  Enjoy the wonderful video editing and introductions done by Chris Ott (and enjoy my dancing during Chris’s solo)

Blue Skies/ Chief Waneta…and Sexy Sadie

Last night I played a gig with the sultry seductress named Sexy Sadie.  It was her 85th birthday, and all of her friends came out to hear her sing with the big band I was in.  I have no idea where the hell she got all her energy from (or her stage name).  She put me to shame as I sipped coffee during the entire 3 1/2 hours of the gig after an entire day of classes.  Despite the six decade age difference between us, it was surprisingly refreshing to see someone so undoubtedly in love with music…

After several weeks of voting for the Jazz Star Competition I made it to the top five and the finale.   I had to choose two pieces to represent my music.  I decided that I should play Blue Skies first, because I wanted to play one standard since it was called a “Jazz” contest and second, because it is one of my Grandparent’s favorite songs.  Whenever music came up in conversation, or when I had my sax out, they would ask me to play Satin Doll or Blue Skies.  I would never want to play them because I didn’t know the melody and I was too embarrassed (and because I was a little punk who thought he was too cool for some stupid swing tune by a dead guy I’d never heard of- what kind of name is Irving anyway?)  I chose this song for my grandparents on the White side.  The unaccompanied intro is to make up for whenever I wouldn’t play song requests.

Chief Waneta I wrote for the Fagan side of my family.  It was a gorgeous afternoon in May.  I had just finished running and was stretching in the oval at Ohio State.  I knew that I had to write a tune soon for this competition, so I had been searching for inspiration.  I began to think about the cottages that my two uncles own adjacent to each other on Lake Waneta.  Immediately as this image presented itself: I started hearing the first part of the melody and my mind snapped into composition mode.  I ran back to my dorm (residence hall, what have you…)  and recorded myself singing the melody on my phone (many, many times have I found myself hearing an interesting idea without anything but my cell phone to record it with.  Thus my phone is filled with my ridiculous falsetto singing.)  The tune embodies memories of swimming, ‘bombfires’ (as a misinformed 10yo version of myself would say), hikes, weddings, ice-skating, sledding, water skiing, fireworks, Christmases, Thanksgivings, and all of my family.

I have to hand it to Angelo, Danny and John for bringing the tune together: when I brought the lead sheet into rehearsal, I only had a limited idea of how the overall piece would sound.  Once they got a hold of it, they each made it their own and made the tune groove and work.  Each performance of this tune with these guys is different.  I love that!  They always keep me on my toes and listening.  Being able to perform  with them at this finale and at the Jazz festival in front of both sides of my family was a very unique and special experience.

Recent Movies/Recordings I Recommend:Play it Again, Sam-Herbert Ross/ Woody Allen, Live at the Beehive- Clifford Brown, The Trio (live July 28 & 29, 1961)- Oscar Peterson, Flirting With Twilight-Kurt Elling, For Emma, Forever Ago- Bon Iver.

Recording Session Pt. I

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This past weekend I finished recording the first half of my upcoming CD (I think I am going to name it Between the Lines).   I had an extremely good time in New York.  My trip went as follows: first I traveled 8 hours from Buffalo to SUNY Purchase.  Then we had rehearsal #1 Thursday night followed by rehearsal #2 Friday afternoon followed by a rushed cross-town commute to Park Slope, Brooklyn, where we played at Puppets for a few hours. 11am on Saturday the recording session began, we recorded 7 tracks and were all done by 8pm.  I then had to rush to get Chris to JFK to catch a 10:30pm flight.  Thanks to construction on Atlantic Avenue, we arrived at the airport at 10pm (he did make his flight).  From 1pm until 10pm on Sunday, I was in the studio mixing the tracks with Chris Parks (audio engineer for the session).  After mixing I rushed to get to the Vanguard to see Brian Blade Fellowship, which I was too exhausted to enjoy.  Monday I had the day to relax, I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, ate most of a Grimaldi’s Pizza and hung out in Brooklyn Bridge Park.  Monday night was my last night in town, so I made it count: I went to three jam sessions and a show at the Jazz Gallery.  The first was some friends getting together in Brooklyn.  The second was the Vando-Jam at Iguana where I was meeting up with David Gould (Head of vandoren’s New York Studio) to talk about reeds and whatnot.  Next I was at the Jazz Gallery to see Adam Cruz (and Miguel Zenon and Chris Potter)- Great show and great venue: simply a small space to see great musicians at affordable prices.  Then I headed over to the Smalls jam session with Spencer Murphy.  It was the normal jam session- 15 Saxophonists, 2 trumpets, 1 bassist, 1 drummer, 1 piano player, and 1 scat singer who could not get the mic to work.

Chris Parks, and the man/the legend. Rockin the 90's Buffalo Bills Brice Paup Jersey.

Then after a few tunes Kurt Rosenwinkle came up and wanted to play drums.  He sits down and looks at us, and in a patronizing tone says “Lets play some bebop”.  Of course Donna Lee is played.  He sure is a great guitarist…  Anyway, then I made the long haul back to Buffalo on Tuesday.

This recording session would not have been possible without the work of my great friend James Ryan, who was our chauffeur, photographer, chef, host, and entertainer during the entire process.  I cannot thank him enough.  Also my friend and teacher Kenyatta Beasley was a great resource for me, he was co-producer, and trumpeter who stuck around during the entire session to hang and be another set of ears.

Our performance at Puppets was a great time thanks to everyone who came out!  Yeah that’s you, Lissy, Nadia, Mary, Kronenfelds, Marks, and all the other friends and fans who came out.

During the recording session something very surreal happened.  It was midday on September eleventh and all of a sudden thousands of while balloons began floating by the studio window.  Attached to each was a card with the name of a victim of the 2001 tragedy. This was a moving reminder of the actions that day, and how different our nation is now.

This recording session was funded by The Ohio State University’s Undergraduate Research Office.  They provided me with a grant this summer to help defray the costs of the recording process.

I am very proud of the tracks from the session; they are an accurate depiction of the bands energy and dynamic sensitivity.  We are currently finishing up the mixing process.

The tracks that we ended up recording were: Fire Blossom, Blue Skies, Roxanne, Things Behind the Sun, Swag, Sandbox, and Late Night Tango.

Recent Books/Recordings I recommend:

The Girl Who Played With Fire-Stieg Larsson, Speak No Evil-Wayne Shorter

Musicians I recommend: Scratch Track- a band I saw in San Fransisco.  Great soulful vocals and solid grooves. Javi Santiago- very talented piano player in NYC.

Late summer ’10, writing music

Imagine you have had one singe task to complete all day, and no matter how much you plan ahead, or how hard you work you cannot get it done.  This is how I have felt for the past few weeks.  As my recording session approaches, I was yet to compose all of the pieces for the date.  For example I am planning on recording Nick Drake’s Things Behind the Sun. The verse and chorus worked fine for the tune, but I was hearing newer harmonic ideas for the solo section.  It took me about a week to figure out what I chords I really wanted.  All of a sudden after playing a few progressions on the piano (very slowly, and with atrocious voicings), a set of changes appeared out of nowhere along with the concept of the whole piece.  It is interesting how a creative idea can take so long to complete itself in your head.  It seems as if this tune completed itself subconsciously and then once it was completed it presented itself to me in its entirety.

Enjoy the flowers^

It is a wonderful feeling to be content with a new batch of tunes.  I have solved a musical puzzle for each tune; each piece had a different challenge.  Some tunes were complete ideas, others were fragments that I had to work out for weeks.  The more that I compose, the more complete my ideas become.

When composing  (singing to myself, hopefully out of the public’s earshot/ sitting at a piano trying to plunk out some semblance of a progression) I still debate the strength of a phrase melodically, or what kind of groove I want.  Each piece I write is like a time capsule of what I am hearing at that period of my life.  Whatever musicians I am checking out affect what I am writing very clearly.  The more music I find, the better armed I feel to compose.  By taking my favorite music and putting it in a blender (in my head), my compositions are just small kernels of each tune rearranged my own way.  My goal is to write original music with this method in my mind.  My uniqueness and originality will always be rooted in my favorite music.

Recent Books/Movies/Recordings I recommend:

The Old Man and the Sea-Earnest Hemingway, Punch Drunk Love-Paul Thomas Anderson/ John Brion ( I loved how they used silence to accent sounds),Mocking Jay-Suzanne Collins, Sigh No More-Mumford and Sons, Five Leaves Left-Nick Drake, OK Computer- Radiohead, Soul Station-Hank Mobley.

Also, I wan to encourage everyone to check these two excellent piano players who I will be recording with: Chris Ziemba & Angelo Di Loreto

#1 Early summer ’10, Rochester Jazz Festival

This summer has been very eventful so far for me; I received a grant From OSU for a recording project which I will be doing in September, my quartet won a competition at the Rochester Jazz Festival (which included a big ass Happy Gilmore check, a recording session (late December), album design, a main stage performance at the XIRJF, and album design), and I’ve been playing and traveling constantly.

The recording project in September is going to fill half the CD which I will be releasing this spring.  It will be a mixed bag of originals and arrangements of tunes by Sting, Nick Drake, and Leslie Bricusse (that guy who wrote the music from Willy Wonka)

Check Please

My Quartet (Angelo Di Loreto Piano, Danny Ziemann Bass, John Hubbell Drums) won the first Rochester Jazz Star Competition this June and we had the opportunity to play at the Gibs St. Stage at the Rochester Jazz Festival.  The whole competition was an interesting ordeal.  I had a TV interview at  in which a reporter told me I had a “Mellifluous Broadcaster’s Voice”.  We made it through two (ridiculously competitive and long) rounds of internet voting to get to the finale where the top 5 acts competed live.  We played an arrangement I did of Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies, then we played and original of mine named Chief Waneta.  I was a great chance to play in front of all of my extended family (from Rochester).

Here is where you can see the finale: http://www.rochesterjazzstar.com

By the way THANK YOU to every one who voted and helped me get to the finals of the competition.  I am completely humbled by the friends and family who helped support me through the competition!

The Quartet Sweaty 'n Disheveled after playing in 90 degree full sun heat

After we won the competition I traveled to San Fransisco to visit family.  I got to see the beautiful UC Berkley Campus (and the city) and relax after a busy spring semester.  I flew back to Buffalo to perform in Webster, then I had the great opportunity to play on a main stage at the Rochester Jazz Festival.  We enjoyed hearing and meeting the other contestants in the Jazz Star Competition.  We met some more nice players at the Jam sessions at the Plaza Hotel.

gettin' down at the Water St. Music Hall

This past week we played the Rochester Music Festival at the Water St. Music Hall.  There was some great energy from the sold out 1200 person crowd.

Right now I am teaching sax lessons in Buffalo during the week, and playing every Tuesday night at The Stillwater.  I’m composing constantly for the upcoming recording sessions.  I am leaving Thursday for another trip to New York to see some shows and line up some gigs.

Recent Books/Recordings/Movies that I enjoyed:

Highway Rider-Brad Mehldau, Pink Moon-Nick Drake, Home-Aaron Goldberg, Songs in the Key of Life-Stevie Wonder, Hunger Games I & II- Suzanne Collins, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo- Stieg Larsson, Inception- Christopher Nolan/Hans Zimmer, Edward Scissor Hands- Tim Burton/ Danny Elfman