Multiple musical pilgrimages 

Hello Folks. Long time no update! I just completed the last in a series of week-long trips to perform in, and to partake of, the (jazz and improvised) music scenes of three very different communities within these United States: 1. New Orleans, 2. Northeastern Ohio, and 3. Los Angeles. And it is striking to me just how markedly different they are, with each exhibiting its own idiosyncratic cultural/artistic particulars. My New Orleans trip was centered around my two performances with trumpet player Anthony…

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NYC "tour" + album release 

Over the past month, I participated in a total of five performances... which was a LOT for me, especially considering that I've still only had a mere SIX gigs this whole year!  :(   Anyway, the first and last of these involved my now frequent duo collaborator, Ron Heglin, with which I co-lead a 2-voice (only!) project. The occasion for our shows was the release of our album, Duos and Solos, out on Artifact Recordings. These performances went quite well in general, though my solo pieces on these evenings…

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Back from NYC... again 

Hello again! This time I am writing just after a very successful trip to NYC in the early days of May, 2018. The primary purpose here was for me to participate in a recording session for drummer/composer Sam Ospovat's first album as a leader since moving to NYC. It featured the core group of Sam on drums and composition, Kim Cass on bass, and Matt Mitchell on piano. I joined on one tune, called Rancune, and two other tunes featured guitarist Brandon Seabrook and alto saxophonist Nick Lyons. I really think…

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What's New(s) 

Well, I thought I was going to contribute posts in this section fairly frequently, but here I am nearly FOUR YEARS after my last post of this type... anyway. Many things have happened recently about which I am quite happy: 1. I've struck up a duo with vocalist Ron Heglin which is bearing some very interesting fruit, 2. I've moved EVER SO SLIGHTLY into the realm of SOMETIMES using (actual) words, through my collaborations with both Ramon & Jessica's Gertrude Stein project and very recent 8-voice ensemble…

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Gravity and Levity 

Holy Jeezus!... hard to believe that it's been damned near a year since I've written anything here. But who cares? Nobody's reading it anyway. 2013 ended up being a year in which I was LEAST involved with music since my head-long involvement began 10 years prior... least involved, that is, as measured by the number of public engagements of a musical nature in which I was a planned participant. This is undoubtedly a result of me becoming more of a "home-body" and therefore not getting out much... which in…

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Speech melodies, Hollys Martin, and Erno Dohnanyi 

It's 2013 (has been for three months now), and this year has brought several new musical things for me which are of significance. Firstly, I have recently been engaged by reedman/composer Sheldon Brown to participate in his excellent and far-reaching endeavor, Distant Intervals, which consists of Sheldon on saxophones and clarinets, Dave McNabb and John Finkbeiner on guitars, Michael Wilcox on fretless electric bass, Vijay Anderson on drums, and Andrew Joron on theremin (!) and poetry recitation. This…

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settling in... 

We're settling in to our Oakland existence for real now. LOVE it here!!! Much has been gained by being in close proximity to the bulk of my musical collaborators. And speaking of one of them, drummer/percussionist Sam Ospovat and I have completed our duo recording, Passwords, which we've elected to release solely on bandcamp (this online music distribution site). The whole album of 7 tracks will sell for a mere $5. It features some originals (including some freely-improvised stuff), jazz standards, etc…

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in the hood! :) 

We've made the move to Oakland!! I feel much more at home here, to be honest. Plus, most of my musical collaborators are within a couple miles of me now. Speaking of some of them: The Holly Martins (me, Kasey Knudsen, Eric Vogler) just did two stimulating stints at various colleges. The first was a many-hour performance/workshop at the Sonoma State university Jazz program, and the second was an afternoon performance/workshop followed by an evening concert at Willamette University in Salem, OR. Fun…

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stuff, more same, and... 

Hi folk(s)! Well, I have nothing of much significance to say, as I've been focusing a bit more on my non-musical endeavors of late. Nevertheless, I have managed to do a few stimulating gigs in the past few months. The Holly Martins played at the wonderful John Schott-curated Berkeley Arts Festival; Bleeding Vector played at the SIMM Series at the SF Musicians Union; and a new band in which I am a member played (twice!) at Bird and Beckett Books. What I've been mainly dealing with, however, in the musical…

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nothing much... just a routine update 

I haven't written on here in a while, so I thought I would do just that, so that all (one, none?) of you can read what I'm up to ("up to what I am"?). Recently, I took part in a couple of fun shows in which I was sort of a  "ringer": First was a guest appearance with trumpeter Anthony Coleman's big band. This also featured some VERY strong rappers/spoken word folks. I always like it when my scatting shtick is refracted against that of vocalists from the hip-hop arena; I've always considered what I…

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