So, I heard this story on NPR on the other day and it really made me reconsider where I store some of my documents and files. It turns out that I have no legal leverage, let a lone right to anything that I store on various email or document storage sites.

Read!

Listen!

Come and check out a great New York City based swing group that I’m playing with tonight in YBOR.

If there is one thing you can tell from just looking at me, it is that I love good food, but I really didn’t realize how much I love bad food just as equally. In another one of my eventful brainstorming meetings with my boss, and we got onto the subject of how eating really good food all the time can actually deter from the inherent greatness of the good food. For instance, if one were to get up and eat an incredible breakfast of cream poached eggs with prosciutto, fresh spinach, roma tomatoes, and griere; followed by a lunch of lobster knuckle risotto, and finish the day off with dinner including, bacon wrapped filet mignon, Garlic roasted res skin potatoes, fresh veggies, and a pint of St. Bernardus, and if we were to do it every day, the exceptional nature off this immaculate food who seemingly loose it’s effect. My Boss said that he was eating this great dinner the other evening, but remembered that each preceding meal had been equally as good and he actually thought to himself, “I bet this meal would be so much better if I had just had a PBJ for lunch.” Nothing against the PBJ! It’s just to say , think of how that filet would taste if you had a bologna sandwich and cooked spinach for lunch.

I thought about this for second and said, you know this is just like music. I hate most of the music that I hear on the radio these days, for a multitude of reasons that I would need to take a whole year to blog about, but I digress. Ultimately, I actually don’t mind the Miley Cyruses, the John Mayers, and the Yannis as much when taken into consideration how incredible they make Mozart, Duke, Bird, and Maria Schneider’s music sound. In fact, I would say that the record industry and radio rock as a whole actually magnifies and amplifies the beauty and incredible nature of the music that I do like. I never thought I would say it, but I think I’m ok with this.

Al sent me this…I’m speechless.

So my wife and I decided to get away for the weekend and go down to a bed and breakfast in St. Pete. I usually hate bed and breakfasts being that they are usually frilly and formal. The Dickens House, however, is a 1921 craftsman and it is incredibly relaxing, located right in walking distance of everything, and there is nothing frilly about it. The food is immaculate! Breakfast was eggs benedict with fresh fruit and good coffee and we have free rain of the house. The innkeeper, Ed, is an artist (and chef) and thus has restored much of the house in the original arts and crafts style. If you need a nice weekend getaway from Tampa and don’t want to go to far this is the place. It also has a wonderful front porch, where wine and cheese is served in the afternoons and makes a great place for a composer to relax and write some melodies for an afternoon.

(This was my favorite picture. Sorry about the weddings caption.)

I am pleased to announce the latest project that has been in the works for the last year. We have recently started rehearsals with my new quintet, “The Forefront,” for a recording that will take place on August 18th and 19th. In addition to myself, the quintet personnel consists of Matt Mill on Trumpet, John Oleary on Piano, Alejandro Arenas on Bass, and Mark Feinman on Drums. The group focuses on small group composition and more specifically, developed and through composed small group composition. Basically, we intend to get away from the typical “Head-Solos-Head” forms and add development sections similar to that of modern big band composition. It has had its interesting moments and its frustrations thus far being that we are attempting to compose large scale works but using a much smaller pallet to do so. Many would probably consider five instruments to be far too limiting at times, (and believe me the temptation has arisen numerous times to add just one more horn) but at the same this this definitely has fostered exploration into the vast collection of sounds that each instrument has to offer as well as experimentation with alternate roles for all of the instruments.

We will be recording 8 pieces in August and then the quintet will continue on there after recording whenever need arises. Incrementally, we will evaluating the amassed collections of recordings that we will then compile and piece together into recordings. The greatest thing about The Forefront is that everybody in the group will be writing and arranging music for the group. More to come soon about the first release and check the gigs list for upcoming performances.