Tuesday, August 24, 2010 JFK Terminal 5

Headed to Brooklyn tomorrow. I guess my summer is almost over - argh! Been hot in Austin and the morning 8.5 mile run is taking on agonizing proportions. Gonna get the organ quartet recording mastered by Gene Paul (or his partner Joel) while I'm in New York then it's Boston for 6 days for the summer guitar sessions. It'll be great to see my friends again: Larry Baione, Rick Peckham, Jim Kelly, Mike Williams and whole lot of others but I'm not looking forward to Boston all that much. Been making flight reservations for the fall and I think I'm up to about 10 weeks worth now. Had a good time in Brooklyn and Boston.

The mastering went well although it was kind of a pain in the ass getting to Union City from Brooklyn. Saw David Berkman and we went to Iridium to hear the Kenny Davis Quartet - Davis, Geri Allen, Ralph Bowen and Ralph Peterson. Man, everybody was killing but Ralph Peterson was pretty unbelievable. Nice seeing Berkman, too. Guitar Sessions at Berklee was good but seemed really long this year. Great to see Larry Baione, Rick Peckham, Jim Kelly, Bruce Bartlett and everyone else, too. Played a couple of times with Bartlett and that was really fun - he's such a great musician. And he let me play his ancient strat which had a real vibe. I think he said it was a mid-50's neck and late 50's body. The neck reminded me a lot of my 1952 tele neck.
Rob Kazenel and Matt Pavolka played for my student ensembles and they were great. The students were great as well and played their asses off for the concert. I rode back to Brooklyn with Matt - totally exhausted. Sunday night I went to the Village Vanguard to hear Guillermo Klein and that was absolutely amazing. What great music! Piano, rhodes, percusion/trumpet, trumpet, bass clarinet, alto sax, electric bass, drums, some vocals. Not a whole lot of solos but I kind of dug that - I'm going to have to study Guillermo's music a whole lot more. I saw Matt and Akiko Pavolka, Doug and Yoko Yates, Mark Ferber, Maggie Grebowitz and some others. Great night. Now I'm in JFK terminal 5 waiting for a plane back to Austin.

Monday I saw Masa Kamaguchi, Patricia and Hugo - they are going to stay in my apartment while they are in New York. Eric Halvorson came over and we played some duo, Evan Arredondo was in town to put his daughter in college and he hung out for a while. I've finally figured out the la Pavoni so I was able to make them some decent espresso. All in all it was a great trip. In 2 weeks I start my weekly back and forth to Boston and I also start teaching in Austin on Fridays. It's going to be a really rough semester.

henry, I made this with an ancient La Pavoni for Eric H.. What do you think of me now?

coming back from Union city / Gene Paul mastering. Shorter walk taking the light rail instead of the bus.

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July 14 / 2010
Been having a pretty nice summer. Hot as hell in Austin and my morning jogs have been getting increasingly more difficult. Even if I stop every mile or so for water I still lose a lot. Very humid although it's only in the mid 80's if I run by 7:30 or so.
The time off from flying is wonderful, though. Jess and I went to New York and Vermont in late Mad early June and it was great to see some people but I sure hated the travel. In August I'm spending a week in New York, a week in Boston, back to New York and then Austin. Got to see my mom and Eric and Angela Halvorson took us out on a sail on Long Island sound. Really fun.

September starts my weekly trips to Boston although the union is threatening a strike at Berklee so that may not happen. Which would be a real drag because I've already bought some of my plane tickets which means I'll be paying $350 a week for the privilege of staying in Austin. Might be worth it. I also start teaching on Fridays at ACC so I'll need to be here every week.
Playing some really nice gigs. This week I went to Dallas and played with Mike Drake and John Adams at a winery. They sounded great although Mike sure likes to call fast tunes and my fast tune chops are way down. But I saw my friends Nina Katrina and Jeff Robbins and that was wonderful! Such nice people. I wish they would have been able to sit in (not my gig). Jeff and I go way back to Florida in the '70's. One thing that pisses me off about Jeff is that he looks exactly the same. Bastard. Nina and I played together when I was at UNT in the mid-80's and she looks exactly the same too. CRAP! Am I the only one getting old here? Maybe New York was a bit more stressful than I thought. But Nina's a great singer (I always thought so back in the day so today I checked out her CD baby site and she still sounds incredible and totally individual - I don't say this often but great singer) and a really nice person to boot.

Been doing a trio residency at Whip In and that's been a whole lot of fun. Being able to call the kind of tunes I want is a real treat. For me, anyway. I'm not sure the bass and drums are enjoying it. Last month was Kyle Thompson and Aaron Allen/Daniel Durham. This month is Steve Schwelling/Pat Harris/John Fremgen. John played last week and he was killing. I forgot how good he is because I never get to play with him. I'm trying to play some old stuff and some new stuff - mostly standards but some odd meters and a lot of Monk tunes. Only 2 more weeks left for that.

Been working really hard to finish a decent mix of the recording I did with Eric Halvorson/Adam Kolker/Ben Stivers. It's got some good stuff on it and I think I'm getting very close as far as a good mix. Thinking about how I want to release it as well. Probably just on my own but might try to find a distributor. The cover is done, anyway. That's the easy part.
AAA just dragged my 1995 Honda off to get fixed once again. Might be time for a new one. At least it didn't break down until after I got back from Dallas.

sailing in New York (long island sound)

mixing in Austin

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Late April/early May 2010
Played a very fun gig in Austin with Joao Vargas, Brannen Temple and Charles Medearis. Wow - it was fun. There was a poet (Omie) and we sort of riffed off of her words for a while then played a tune (I think we played Black Narcissus, Bye Ya, Adam's Apple - something else). Omie was great and it was really nice to play with Joao, Brannen and Charles again. They listen really hard. Getting ready to go to Colombia on Thursday - a brutal flight with long layovers. First, though, Boston tomorrow, NY on Wednesday and the Colombia Thursday. Going to be fun to play but the travel is going to kill me. Then a few days in NY and going to try to play with Thomas Heflin but first have to get drums back in the apartment.
Wednesday April 28
Boston was tough but I made it through the last week in one piece. Then, on the bus ride back to NY on wednesday, i95 went to one lane in two different places which added an hour to the trip. I had some friends staying at the house in NY and I tried to stay up and greet them but eventually (12:30am) had to try to sleep because I had to wake up at 4am to go to JFK at 5 for the flight to Colombia. They got back about 1:30 and I was able to sleep for a couple of hours.
Thursday - colombia
met Akiko, Matt and Eric at my place and we rode with Spencer to JFK, made the flight and got to Colombia. Had a 4 hour layover in Bogota and eventually got to Ibague for the jazz festival. Ibague was very rustic but beautiful, from the get-go almost everyone was friendly and open. It was kind of humid but not oppressively so. The hotel was fine although the bellhop never showed me how to turn on the hot water and after the first day I was taking cold showers. By the time we checked in it was 7pm (we had been traveling for 15 hours at this point) and Antonio called my room at 7:15 saying he was playing at 7:30 and wanted us to come to the concert if we could do that. I was exhausted but yes, I really wanted to hear Antonio, so we met him in the lobby and went to the concert - close to the hotel. We sat in the balcony - on reflection not a good choice because the sound was horrible and it was very hot - but it was great to hear Antonio and his band (what we could hear of it). Ernesto was playing piano and sounded wonderful and Antonio was killing as usual. Antonio was playing some of the same music as when I'd played with him but he's taken it to another level and I was really jealous of him being able to do that. It really sounded like a band and that only happens through rehearsal and concerts. Eric and Matt were sleeping through the last 30" or so of the concert and I was nodding off myself. It was a really long day. After the concert we went to the hotel to hang out and have dinner and by the time we got to bed it was midnight.
Friday-colombia
I woke up at 6am as usual and started working some more on the music for the concert. Supposed to meet Antonio for breakfast at 9am but started jonesing for coffee about 8 and went to a place near the hotel for a passable espresso. Met Antonio and Eric at 9 and had a chicken tamale thing which was good and more coffee which was not. At 10am went to the university to do a clinic which didn't go all that well and at about 12:30 back to the hotel for lunch with Antonio, Juan Pablo, Eric, Matt and Akiko. Had some sort of fish which was pretty good and a beer which was crucial. At 2:30 or so started the soundcheck excursion which lasted until about 6 at which time we went back to the hotel to change. 7:20 back to the concert site, listened to the other band (very nice) and went on stage about 8:15 or so. Played the concert, great crowd, did an encore then back to the hotel for dinner about 10:30 or 11. Had chicken, Antonio ordered a nice bottle of Chilean wine, more travel/concert business with Antonio until about 1am then sleep. Up at 6am (can't help it), try to find coffee but no one is open, meet in the hotel restaurant at 9am with Antonio, Matt, Akiko, nice eggs with jamon and queso with some arepa's, spend the rest of the morning and afternoon trying to find decent coffee (in Colombia!!!) and fail, off to the very small airport at 3pm. Get on the small plane (Fokker 50) at 4:30 or so, plane has mechanical problems and get off, back on at 6pm or so, off to Bogota, get to international terminal 7pm, have a bite, hang out, off to gate 8:30 or so, plane departs 11pm, JFK about 6am, Spencer picks us up and we are back home about 7:30am. Rest for a couple of hours, do my online office hours then take the R train to manhattan for a gig with Jeremy Stratton, Adam Kolker and Owen Howard. Definitely feeling the strain of the last few days. A mamoun's falafel, some beers, back to Brooklyn.
Monday-new york
Graded online assignments which seemed to take forever. Started at 11am and finished about 6pm. Went to Puppets and saw a lot of friends: Pete McCann, Mike Fahn, Eric Halvorson, Jeff Miles, Ilan the guy from Mexico, Dave Smith...some others I don't remember. Back home about midnight.
Tuesday-new york
Playing with Andrew Bergman today at the studio space on 9th street where I used to rehearse with Lindsey Horner, Allison Miller and jack Walrath. Dave Smith is playing at Cornelia St. tonight and may go check that out. The session with Andrew was really fun - a couple of guys from Brussels whose names I didn't really get - piano and drums and really quite good. Saw Adam Kolker, Frank Anselem!, Matt Pavolka and Billy Mintz at the rehearsal studio - they were doing some playing. It had been 10 years since I saw Frank and very good to see him. I guess he's living in Paris now.

matt - bogota eldorado airport

akiko/eric eldorado

ibague

ibague

antonio concert

first good coffee we had - akiko is very happy about that

eric not so happy with his coffee

adam owen and jeremy at grassroots

the view from the F train Smith/9th st. stop after session

Gowanus Canal - the Venice of Brooklyn!!

back in boston 4/20/10

Went to hear Tony Scherr, Robin Holcombe and Doug Weiselman at The Stone on Saturday and that was amazing. Tony sang some of his tunes, a Jesse Harris tune, some others I don't remember. Robin did her tunes, Doug played bass clarinet and guitar. It was wonderful. On Sunday I played an incredibly fun gig with Don Falzone, Eric Halvorson and Jed Levy at a place in Nyack. Everyone working there was really friendly, a lot of musicians came out (Chris Paison, Joel Newton, et.al), Claudia (Don's wife) was off the road and came out, Steven Bernstein's wife Karen as there... those guys were playing so great. Once again I was struck with how easy it is to play with NY musicians because they listen so well. Took a couple of hours to get back to Brooklyn but it was worth it.
In New York with Jess and had a great time. We ate at the secret taco place, had Kiku sushi a couple of times, Jess brought the La Pavoni and burr grinder so we were able to make espresso, had some Terrace bagels, bought a pizza stone and jess made a great pizza, enjoyed the train ride on the metro north, I ran in the park a couple of times but it was cold and I got sick, missed a couple of gigs but coming back soon, had a good rehearsal with Akiko, Eric and Matt for our concert in Colombia next week. Trying to memorize my music and it's freaking hard. Not the music, the memorization. I find it easier to memorize Skippy than one of my tunes. That says something about my tunes I think. I need to simplify. Back to Austin tomorrow.

with Jed Levy, Don Falzone, Eric Halvorson

la pavoni

shot

pizza!

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http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/archives/2008/12/the_best_torta.php

Pretty close to the apartment. Also had a rehearsal with Eric Halvorson, Matt and Akiko Pavolka for a (probable) concert in Colombia at the end of the month. Ran in Prospect Park a couple of times, beautiful weather, saw and talked to Owen Howard and Jim Black, generally had a good time. Uh, oh, a broken down lucky star bus. They will probably move the passengers onto this bus. Crap. More later.

Turned out okay in that no one sat next to me. Now at berklee, doing a makeup in a few minutes and incredibly worn out. It was only a 6 hour commute so I know it's the end of the year.

george, adam, jeremy grassroots april 10, 2010