XMAS

Hello all, first off let me wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Its been quite a year at the club, many ups and many downs but we are still here and we had a fabulous December capped off with another stellar appearance from The good Dr. Lonnie Smith. The first two nights were a huge success musically and club wise with people loving every minute that the Doc tickled the Hmmond ivories (plastic).

Some fun notes, Cellar Live has received a grant to attend this years MIDEM conference in Cannes, France. I'm heading over there to on January 17th for 10 days with a quick stop in New York where I will have a lesson with tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander and alto saxophonist Vincent Herring. I'm a little nervous about it but am hoping that they will be nice to me :) MIDEM is a chance to hopefully obtain some distribution worldwide as well as look into some licensing opportunities especially with the xmas record. Its a pretty overwhelming conference and I'm hoping to simply make some contacts and network with some people and get the Cellar Live name out there. We have just designed our catalog that looks spectacular so we will be look professional and be well represented.

The Cellar has just announced that tenor saxophonist Chris Potter will be making an appearance at the club in February. This is something that I have been trying for for quite some time and it has finally come to fruition. To be totally honest I was hoping that I could convince him to come and guest with The Brad Turner Quartet but in the end he understandably wanted to come with his own band which I totally respect. I have known about Potter for years, since he was 18 actually playing with Red Rodney. I remember telling all my buddies at Cap College about him and them looking at me as if to say 'as if Weeds knows what he's talking about.' Then about 2 years later when he finally broke out into the jazz big time or at least became better known those same guys came to me saying 'hey Weeds have you heard of this guy named Chris Potter?" Hilarious!! It will be a fun show and I'm particularity interested in the fact that there will be no bass player. Fender Rhodes, drums, guitar and of course Potter on saxes.

Now onto another rant. Where we as consumers purchase our music is really a personal thing. I for one buy on the internet a lot, ebay, amazon.com, artistshare.net etc. Its not that I don't like the local shops but lately the availability of jazz titles has been quite limited however I do still try to support the local shops as much as I can which brings me to my point.

I as I'm sure many other Miles Davis fans have, been waiting for the release of THE MILES DAVIS GROUP Live at The Cellar Door Sessions. It got reviewed in all the major jazz pubs and then went through 4 so called release dates before it was finally released just before Christmas.

I was at the HMV on Robson a few days before Christmas and saw the set there for $156.99 and almost splurged but thought 'hmmm, two days before Christmas is not a good time to buy something for one self.' I put it down and didn't think of it again until the hustle and bustle of the season ended and I did not get it for xmas so off to A&B Sound I went. There is was in a huge rack for the low price of $99.00. If my math is correct that's a $57 price difference which to me is simply a joke. A $57 difference is not what I would call being competitive. My point to this whole rant is although A&B has gone through its fair share of pains over the past few years they continue to be the cheapest outlet for CD's in this city and perhaps even in this country. Bob Bell is great down there and is a tad out-spoken but knows his shit and can order you in anything you want.

HMV has shown no interest in offering its consumer fairly priced CD's and although their selection is far superior, A&B does a much better job and as pointed out earlier can order in whatever you want.

Five days

Its been quite a five days! My good friend Ian Hendrickson-Smith came to town for a visit and its always a good time when he comes to the city. He is such a warm guy and so generous in every way. He arrived very very early on Wednesday morning. We didn't do anything massively exicting, just hung out, caught up etc. We had a rehearsal that night with Sharon (piano), Jodi (bass) and Jesse (drums) for a gig we were doing on Thursday. I was a little nervous because Ian is such a wonderful musician and great player but as I mentioned a very warm and generous musician and I was at ease with the rehearsal. The gig the next night was a smashing success and the alto bari combo sounded great together. Ian and I really hooked up on a number of different levels but the blend was really cool. Unfortunately there weren't many people there but the ones that were there totally dug it and I thought the band sounded great. It was a lot of fun.

The next two nights featuring the night Crawlers, a band that I'm quite excited about. Funky organ music!! We were recording for an eventual release on Cellar Live which will hopefully come to fruition. As I type this I'm listening to some of the takes. Not thrilled about my own playing but I am listening to it less than a day after the stuff was recorded which can sometimes be very tough. The club was busy which was nice. We got about 65 to 70 people per night and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Its another fun week at the club this week. Coat Cooke Trio releasing their cd Up Down, Down Up which is on Cellar Live. Should be fun and then pianist Bruno Hubert and his trio do their part releasing the Cellar Live Christmas CD followed by 2 nights by the B3 Kings releasing the other half of the cd. A Cellar Live Christmas has gotten great reviews so far.

KB

I can't explain the elation I'm feeling at the moment. Im up at 1:00 am because I can't sleep. When you book a show of this magnitude you can't help but be a tad stressed out and a tad scared. I have a clause in my management contract that I have to ask the investor group about any expenditure over a certain amount. Needles to say I failed to ask for permission for this show. For a few weeks I was a goat but the last two nights made me look like a hero as both nights were completely sold out.

An incredible two night of music played by three musicians who were completley in sycn with one another...I can't explain the lyricism, professionlism that these guys displayed. Class acts all around.

Huge shoutouts to CBC:Neil Ritchie, Paul Grant, Bruce Derek, Richard Champagne, Andre Rheaume etc. This night was recorded for future broadcast. Truly awesome!!!!!

Teaser Advertising

I'll just say this - CHRIS POTTER - THE CELLAR - coming soon!

KB Is In The House

Well, it has finally arrived. This is truly one of the biggest 2 days in the history of The Cellar. Its the third show of its size to come to the club. The first two being the less than memorable visit from Kenny Garrett and the spectacular 2 night visit by Benny Green and Russell Malone. The latter I missed because I was on the road with my own band and as mentioned earlier the Kenny Garrett show was very dis-satisfying on a number of different levels.

I have often referred to a 'list' that I made when I first purchased The Cellar. The list contained people that I wanted to bring to The Cellar. On that list were Kenny Garrett, Gary Bartz, Mulgrew Miller, Chris Potter, George Coleman, Benny Golson, Frank Wess and a few other that slip my mind at the moment. On the top of that list however is pianist Kenny Barron. You would think a sax player would be at the top but Kenny Barron holds a special place in my heart. When I was younger (about 7 years ag0) I had the pleasure of interviewing Sphere (Barron, Bartz, Buster Williams and Ben Riley) at Jazz Alley in Seattle for my Chasin The Train radio show. Here was this young punk in a room with four jazz icons all of which had a massive presence. To be honest I don't even remember the interview as I was so scared I was just trying to get through without making an ass out of myself. Once the interview was done I felt okay but of course thought it could've gone a lot better. After all the guys left, Kenny Barron stayed in the room. He pulled me aside and asked if he could talk to me. I was SOOO SCARED. He simply said "I just wanted you to know I have done a lot of interviews and thats one of the best ones that I have evern done." I couldn't believe it and that has stuck with me to this day.

As I sit here doing my radio show I can actually say I'm prepared as I can be for the trio's arrival this afternoon. Usually these shows find me running around like a complete fool, trying to get everything done and I ususally forget a few things. This time however has been a bit different and I feel like I have it all together. Stage set up with monitors, piano tuned, menus printed, tickets rung through. You have no idea how much preperation goes into these shows. All we need now is a trio.

I also want to thank everyone for their overwhelming response to this show. I wish I didnt have to charge so much but I can assure you the pricing is very fair in relation to what the band charges.

Its going to be a fun couple of nights all around and the best part is that CBC is taping the show for rebroadcast so there will be some documentation of this great event.

Cory

Radio Shows

Hello all, this week is going to be a fun week of jazz radio!

On Mondays Chasin The Train (11:00 am - Noon, on 102.7) I'll be featuring the music of Kenny Barron and as a bonus will be airing a short interview I did with him last week. Going to be a great show and a good lead up to his performance at The Cellar this week.

On Tuesday the 13th I sub for John Orysik on "The Wild Years" from 230 to 500 on 102.7 CFRO. I will be featuring music from three of the most underrated saxophonists every. First, alto saxophonist GIGI GRYCE who was the driving force behind jazz musicians getting their publishing rights togehter. He was also more known as a composer and does not get enough credit for being a hard bopping alto saxophonist. Second will be tenor, flute and vibes man TUBBY HAYES who not a lot of people are aware of in America. He is perhaps the best known musicain from Britain who made an impact on the U.S. scene but still remains relatively unknown to most jazz fans. Thirdly I we will took a look at alto and tenorman ERIC KLOSS who burst on the scene when he was a mere 17 years old recording for Prestige. Kloss was blind and played with so much promise at such a young age but due to failing health did not play much in his later life. Im happy to report he is still alive and actually doing a lot more playing now but mostly on flute.

Its going to be a fun show. I hope you tune in!