Found an excellent interview with bassist Miroslav Vitous. This guy has played with some of the best in contemporary jazz, and is not afraid to speak his mind in this interview!  ¶ 10:42 PM

N*E*R*D, a band also known as the Neptunes, describe their new album as "a mix of retro styles, funk-rock with a jazz element." Their web site is worth a visit, if not for the music samples to download, but just to experience a very tightly put together and well promoted package.   ¶ 11:47 PM

Latest news: Jazz Singer Teams with Furniture Maker (from Reuters).  ¶ 4:41 PM

Check out my latest project, my online Food Diary with recipes and photos.  ¶ 12:56 AM

CD Recommendation: Peter Erskine & Alan Pasqua with David Carpenter Live at Rocco (2 CDs). Exquisite piano trio. Read the review. Listen to samples. Visit Peter Erskine's homepage.

Percussionist Peter Erskine is a prolific jazz artist - his biography reads like a "who's who" of modern jazz ranging from Weather Report to Michael Brecker, "Steely Dan, Diana Krall, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Gary Burton & Pat Metheny, Joni Mitchell, Kurt Elling, Sadao Watanabe, Eliane Elias, Mike Stern, Miroslav Vitous and Jan Garbarek; the BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Ensemble, Ensemble Modern, the ASKO, Avanti & Absolute Ensembles; "Bass Desires " (with John Scofield, Bill Frisell, and Marc Johnson), the John Abercrombie Trio, the Kenny Wheeler Quintet & Big Band , the Bob Mintzer Big Band , the Yellowjackets as well as his own groups, including Trios with John Taylor, Palle Danielsson, Rita Marcotulli, and his current band with Alan Pasqua and Dave Carpenter."  ¶ 10:20 PM

Want to remove red eye from photos? If you have Photoshop, get this free Action list that automatically removes red eye for you.  ¶ 3:36 PM

Check out this live video of jazz pianist Jean-Michel Pilc performing the standard, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise. Warning, this is very serious jazz. It's jazz with no humor, that is a bit pretentious will all its repetitive chromaticism. But it's definitely quite interesting to observe Pilc and his trio perform - Pilc looks up frequently with great communication with the bassist but the drummer seems lost in his own world. Of course, a lot of great players have done well without sight, so I guess "looking up" at the other musicians is simply a matter of personal style. For more about Pilc visit his web site. You can also read this article from the Houston Chronicle talking about his background and music for "non-jazz-educated folks".  ¶ 3:10 AM

Book recommendation: "The Story of a Nobody" by Anton Chekhov (100 page prose narrative).

My latest technique for choosing books is to go to the fiction section of the library and pick out the 5 smallest books that I can find. Because if a book is small and has been published, it must be good, right? Well, not necessarily, but it means that I can read through lots of books quickly because they are short.

While I don't normally review books on this weblog, I felt compelled to write something about Chekhov's The Story of A Nobody. It was written in 1891, and packs in its 100 pages enough emotion, pathos, humour, and great drama to easily fill five or more Hollywood blockbusters. Chekhov is well known for his stage drama, and this book reads like the script of an incredibly engaging, moving, and intricate play, but he takes advantage of the prose form by doing things that would be nearly impossible on stage, even with the best actors. For example, in two pages of dialogue, the female character Zinaida goes through five epiphanies or reversals of outlook on a situation, each one more provoking than the last.

Chekhov's writing helps to bring to the forefront ideas about men and women's roles in society, and the inequalities of wealth and class that are evident in our social customs. He also touches on the challenge of seeking a meaningful life and the problems with domestic relations.

The sickly, disfigured narrator of Chekhov's story becomes a servant under a false name for a man Orlov who is the son of a famous statesman, who is an enemy of the narrator. The narrator hopes to find out information about his enemy and hopefully destroy him. However, as a servant he observes the purposeless and decadent lives of Orlov and his friends, and Orlov's unfulfilling relationship with his lover Ninaida.

The story is told with an unusually well designed combination of irony, sadness, comic pathos, and riveting dialogue.

If you can't find this book in your local library or bookstore, you can read other works of Chekhov online at the Great Books Index or the Online Books Page.
  ¶ 2:51 AM

Strangely, late bassist and composer Charles Mingus trained his cat to use the toilet. He describes the process in his own words. (link grabbed from Memepool). Also on Mingus's web site are some streaming audio clips of his music.  ¶ 12:06 PM

Listen to this music clip of jazz pianist Aaron Parks. Trying to figure out the time signature here is sure a mind twister!   ¶ 1:16 AM

Just came across the Internet Audio Archive which has lots of non-commercial live concert recordings of "trade-friendly" artists. Trade-friendly means that a band allows taping at their concerts. An example of a band whose concerts are available is Bemsha, who are self-described as providing "Music that grants your every wish". They are a "jazzy funk rock act" and a "live band that encourages taping". From listening to their music samples on their web site, my impression is that their music is a lot of fun to listen to, but won't satisfy any purist jazz, rock, or funk fans. Their saxophonist provides an lively energetic frenzy that shows no evidence of jazz theory or jazz harmony. If you're in Scottsdale, Arizona, check them out at Chasers this Saturday (Chasers Bar & Nightclub is at 8005 E. Roosevelt St. in Scottsdale. There is a $5 cover. Doors open at 8 p.m.) Unfortunately Bemsha is splitting up at the end of May.  ¶ 11:56 PM

I found the chords and lyrics for the English version of Mack the Knife by Brecht, Weill, and Blitzstein.  ¶ 10:25 PM

Jazz pianist Eldar Djangirov is a young prodigy - only 17 years old, he has already established his own voice in jazz.



From an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Now an 11th-grader at Francis Parker School, he was the first-place winner at the 2001 edition of the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. He has been profiled on CBS' "Sunday Morning" and is the youngest musician ever featured on Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" series on National Public Radio. He performed live during the 2000 telecast of the Grammy Awards and has released two accomplished albums, 2001's "Eldar" and the recently released "Handprints" (both available through his Web site, www.eldarjazz.com).

[...]

He doesn't remember much about growing up in Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous country near China. But he does recall that jazz events were rare in his hometown of Bishkek and that the first live jazz performance he experienced was his own, in 1995.

While Djangirov had no difficulty adjusting to life as an American, he was dismayed to find young people here as ignorant about the riches jazz has to offer as their peers in the former Soviet Union.

"It makes me feel a little confused, because the true, unique American art form is jazz, and it's recognized around the world," said the devoted pianist, who spends three hours a day practicing.

"Kids my age haven't heard much jazz, and there are so many things in jazz that might appeal to them. Jazz in the schools, and music education in general, should be increased, not decreased. Jazz is what I live for."

(Eldar Djangirov and his trio perform Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the San Diego Museum of Art. Tickets: (619) 696-1969.)

You can visit Eldar's web site and listen to some music clips of his playing. Much evidence of a true virtuoso!
  ¶ 9:46 PM