I am an avid reader of Seth Godin’s Blog and this recent post, really hit the nail on the head. As my quintet, The Forefront, will be releasing a record in early 2009, we have been plastering that all over everything that we can. However, Seth points out that this sounds so vague that is makes it seem further off than it actually is. It’s next year, in 2009. That seems distant, however it is only 3 months away. It is funny how our language can create illusions that can actually be detrimental to the message that we are trying to convey. Perhaps something like, “New Record Coming in 3 MONTHS!” would work?  Well I think I can work on that a bit. Check it out!

The Forefront will be performing a benefit concert at the University of South Florida on Monday, October 13th at 8:00pm. The proceeds will go to benefit the Sweet Home New Orleans Renew Our Music fund, and the Association for Jazz Education at the University of South Florida.

Where: Driving directions and USF Map
Located in Fine Arts - FAH 101
When: Monday, October 13th at 8:00pm
How much: Free, Donations Encouraged!

Sweet Home New Orleans Mission:
To perpetuate New Orleans’ culture by providing direct services to the individuals and institutions that will carry them forward.

What they do:
Sweet Home New Orleans is a non-profit agency that provides services to the city’s musicians, Mardi Gras Indians, and Social Aid & Pleasure Club members in the following areas:
– Case Management to help clients develop a plan for post-Katrina stability.
– Housing Assistance in the form of Relocation, Rent/Mortgage subsidies, and grants for Renovations.
– Advocacy for cash grants from partnering agencies, and other services such as pro-bono legal advice and financial literacy workshops.

Additionally, the Renew Our Music Program offers:
– Financial Assistance with bills, instrument repair, transportation, and other immediate need.
– Performance Subsidies including cultural education programs, second line parades, and gigs that stimulate local businesses and help artists get back to work.

New Orleans music, the root of the city’s identity and a driving force behind its economy, is an expression of a unique American culture perpetuated by approximately 4,500 men and women. These tradition bearers practice a functional art that unites and strengthens communities. For generations, they have transmitted this culture to family and neighbors. Since Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing flood, however, thousands in this community still struggle to access public assistance and lack the resources to rebuild their neighborhoods and their lives in a post-Katrina economy. The future of this culture depends on their return.

Fourteen service organizations from around the city and the country formed Sweet Home to help these artists become self-sufficient again, and in so doing, to secure the cultural continuity of New Orleans. Renew Our Music, founded as New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund just days after the storm, has provided direct aid to over 1,700 tradition bearers, including nearly $400,000 in three months following the flood. Now, as a program of Sweet Home New Orleans, Renew Our Music works toward long-term economic development for our clients.

Sweet Home New Orleans operates in the Treme neighborhood, steps from Congo Square, considered by many the birthplace of American music. These streets are the source of New Orleans’ characteristic rhythms, which drove the development of jazz and R&B. We are proud to support these indigenous traditions, and we invite you to join us as we expand our reach to ensure New Orleans’ unique culture continues to revive the city.

Here’s a gallery of some stuff that TBT Photographer Leigh Armstrong took at the Canvas 4 Show.

The Forefront will make its official debut at the Canvas 4 Art Premier at The Element Church in Tampa, this Friday September 26th. The whole shindig kicks off at 8:00pm and we will be playing one long set from 8:30pm to 10:00pm. The group has been working on a recording to be released in early 2009 and will be debuting some of the music from this recording as well as various other pieces. For more information check out www.theforefrontjazz.com

Canvas is in their second year and exists as a biannual art premier. This is an excerpt of their purpose statement: “Canvas exists simply to promote a community of inspiration. Our idea, our dream, was born to provide a springboard for up and coming artists, in such a way that would benefit both their craft and career.”

On another note, my wife Bonnie, a graphic designer and painter, will be showing some of her work at the show.

Click here for directions!

Other Bands on the bill include RELO and Lush Progress.

Originally posted here!

“On August 18, we recorded 5 tracks for our upcoming release. The sessions went really well and we are very pleased with the out come. The tracks are mostly original compositions as well as a couple of deconstructed/reconstructed arrangements with a variety of diverse styles. We all felt that the recording successfully captured the essence of the group’s personalities and abilities through the many diverse varying elements of the music.
However, this session was bittersweet as it marks the end of our drummer and close friend, Mark Feinman’s current tenure with the band. Mark has been playing with all of us for the past four years and he is now moving up to New York to continue his schooling at SUNY Purchase and start a new chapter in his musical career. We are always truly inspired by his hard work and dedication, and his attention to detail that allows his creative voice to be heard loud and clear over everything that he does with us. He will certainly be missed and we wish him all the best in all that he does!”

Originally posted on www.theforefrontjazz.com

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

On Monday July 14, we finished mixing the recording and finally decided on six tracks that we will use for the final release of the record.  The session was great and Elm Street is definitely set up as a place to hang and relax while mixing. When we revisited the tracks, we were discovered that we got a excellent capture on all the instruments up front and really didn’t have to do too much in the mix and finished it in one day. The room we recorded in had a great natural reverb to it and so the recording has a nice presence and genuinely clear sound.  Overall we are very pleased with the recording and look forward to a fall release.

Last night we finished up the second day of recording in Holland. The first tune we put in the can was a gorgeous jazz waltz written by Lee called “Blue Tuna Boulevard,” which was reminiscent of the Bill Evans trio recordings of the 1960’s tastefully mixed some of some Frisellesque styles and phrasing. The first of the other two tunes was a street beat/funk version of the Charlie Parker classic “Scrapple from the Apple,” and the second, an arrangement of Wayne Shorter’s ”Footprints” with a double-time feel reminiscent of the Scofield Uberjam Band recordings.

We’ve been delighted to be working with engineer, sound guru, and owner of Elm Street Recording in Lansing Michigan, Ryan Wert. Ryan, Lee, and I went to College together and it has been great to catch up and continue working on such a highly professional level. No matter what curve ball we throw at him, he has already taken care of it!

The project has been a great experience for everyone involved and we look forward to mixing it down on Monday July for a hopeful fall release.

As many of you know I am currently up north on vacation and recording with Holland Michigan based Guitarist Lee Heerspink over the next couple weeks for a record release later in the year. So far we’ve finished recording about half of the record and we’re quite please with the outcome. At this point the record seems to be seems to be unfolding into a groove oriented record with a whole lot of back-beat.

Yesterday we were able to put 5 tunes in the can Giving us a lot of freedom over the next week. First we recorded “Softly as a Morning Sunrise,” only the melody has been tweaked and superimposed over the changes from Wayne Shorter’s “Black Nile,” giving it it’s own fresh flavor. The second chart was an original composition of mine entitled, “Ray’s Blues,” dedicated to the late, way beyond great Ray Brown that features West Michigan’s own Charlie Hoates on Bass. The third is a simple rhythm changes calypso, fusing motives from “Oleo,” and “Cottontail,” to cleverly disorient the average jazz aficionado (something I think most of us have considered doing at one point or another). We also recorded an interesting version of my arrangement of the Herbie Hancock 80’s hit “Rockit,” that will also by appearing on my upcoming quintet record to be released in early 2009. The last tune is an original of Lee’s dedicated to a mutual friend John Rodriguez, which I am personally hoping will end up being the title track for the record entitled, “Pull Your Stinky Face.” This track consists of groove meats, Americana, meets just plain nasty!

More to come soon!

I recently had the privilege of attending the International Jazz Composers’ Symposium, in my own backyard in Tampa. The Symposium consisted of various lectures, research presentations, guest artist encounters, new music reading sessions, and each evening was capped off by a concert featuring the music of guests artists Bill Hollman, Stefon Harris Ft. The Turtle Island String Quartet, and Jim McNeely performed by the composers conducting Chuck Owen’s Jazz Surge. It was the perfect chance to hang and meet other composers while experiencing and discussing each other’s musical tendencies, perceptions and struggles. The word camaraderie kept floating around amongst the various sessions and hangs in between and I think this best illustrates the overall success of event. The symposium was an opportunity for a bunch of composers to all turn on the hose and get theirs hands in the dirt and mud to assist each other in shaping our understanding of music and composition.

I would have to say that the new music reading sessions were definitely the crack of the symposium, with the notable highlights of Caitlin Smith and Lars Mollar. Each composition took you to a new place and opened new insights into things like the creative process, harmonic concepts, and most notably, or at least to me, melodic construction. Strong haunting melodies, you know the kind that you walk away singing for the next week, were not as prominent as I would have expected them to be at a jazz composers symposium. Immediately I started asking myself, is it me or what? In fact, bulls eye, it is me! When I write, and I assume it is the same with so many others, I tend to get so caught up in chasing after cool, hip harmony, and trying to shock listeners’ ears that I forget to write a good melody. A melody that at least ten people in the room will sing at some point in the next week. We write “songs,” not an epic adventures into the depths and bowels of human understanding of ordered sound. Fifty percent of the charts that I heard, I couldn’t have sang back to you after the reading was over. This is by no means a dig on the composers or the music but merely an observation of our (myself included) explorations of the music. Where is the melody in the grand scheme of things?

In the end, I left the symposium with more questions than answers or conclusions. But that is the beauty of what we do. To continue to ask questions keeps us reaching higher and higher for God knows what. I think group addiction, if there is such a term, (and if there isn’t…dibs) is the best kind!

What am I reading?

Modern Art and the Death of a Culture

By Hendrik Roelof Rookmaaker