I've been keeping pretty busy since the last post. I've been living in New York and spending time between there and Burlington, Vermont. In New York I've been playing at a lovely restaurant named Lola. http://bit.ly/hCzwjo. I've been playing every Thursday with the bassist Jason Goodman and his father, a pianist named Jonathan Goodman. Its been going very well. We're starting to develop our own voice and intepertations of the songs. Its a very interesting process watching an arrangement of a song just develop on its own without the aid of one being laid out for you on paper. Say you take a song like "Recorda-me" by Joe Henderson. If you just simply play it out like you do on the paper: latin feel, certain amounts of measures devoted to a chord, then it could get stale. But if you add some syncopation, moments of hesitation and a little openness then you can put a whole new take on a song. Its great when the feel and changers predetermined for you, but to simply create a new approach or arrangement of the tune simply by playing with a group over and over again is (in my opinion) way more rewarding.
The next step for me is head up to Burlington, Vermont to pursue some projects. I've been searching for a place, found a job, and am ready to make the move. I love Burlington and me moving back there has been making me wonder if its where I'll settle down for a little bit. I'm going to take these upcoming music projects to help me make that decision.
What are the projects? Well here we go:
1) Project Organ Trio! I am 1/3rd of this band that focuses on organ trio jazz/soul. We finished an epic run this past January. Residency at Nectars (www.liveatnectars.com), performed at the Monkey House (www.monkeyhousemusic.com), began a series of music at the Half-Lounge (www.myspace.com/onehalflounge) and laid the foundation down for an amazing project with Craig Mitchell. Craig Mitchell is one of the most productive people I have ever met. The dude is everywhere. Spins records from New York City to Vermont and every place in between, runs a record label, handles other artists and began a studio. Somewhere, he found some time to join Project Organ Trio on stage for a few tunes. I don't want to toot my own horn but we killed that shit. This leads us to project two.
2) POT, Daiki Hirano, Josh Weinstein and Craig Mitchell.
Oh man. I am excited about this one. POT and Josh Weinstein collaborated before as the Young Americans. We helped the lovely Hannah Lebel own Manhattans Pizza (www.myspace.com/manhattanpizza) so we know we can play some great tunes. With addition of Daiki Hirano on the percussion and Mallet Cat, we know we'll help Craig Mitchell come up with some new tunes to slay the stages of some big Burlington, Vermont clubs. If these gigs work out maybe we'll take it on the road. Could be fun.
3) Solo album! I believe I'm taking the plunge into bedroom recording. I've been fascinated with artists that are all about the DIY approach towards music. I think that I can muster up the creative energy to come up with tunes to record on my own with my friends sitting in to help me out with the heavy stuff. I have some songs on the back burner that I need to get out of my head to clear my palate. Lets hope it all goes well.
Thats about it. I'm sure something else will happen in between. Hopefully some new tunes for you guys soon. Three out of the four Nectars shows were recorded so hopefully I can grab some good quality songs out of there to post online.
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