Jim Diggity

A wonderful weekend of music took place at the club this weekend. I'm not even saying that because I was in the band! I felt quite humbled playing with James Danderfer and Ryan Ishkanian. They are both great players. The rest of the band was Chris Gestrin, Paul Rushka and Joe Poole. The hightlight of the weekend however was not someone's individual playing but the writing. James Danderfer is mature beyond his years in his playing and writing. Hell, he even has me liking the clarinet. He played clarinet all weekend and left the sax playing to Ryan and I. He really makes the licorice stick sound beautiful. As I said before however his composing is really taking on a life of its own and the tunes are wonderful. To look at them and to try to play them is very very hard but he has this gift of writing tunes in odd time signatures that are somewhat accesible to the audience. I think the best tune is a 5/4 number called 'City Of Angles' which if I have my way will appear on a new album and definitely be shopped around for movies or tv. It just has that beautifully melancholy feel and sound to it that makes it perfect for a movie of some sort. 'Pill Bugs' another wonderful tune with a really great groove and a quirky melody that after hearing it a few times and playing it a few times sits a lot easier than you think. Chaffone, Scones, Ulumiquilu were very very happening tunes as well. It was a lot of fun. There are rumours that Danderfer may hook up with vibraphonist Don Thompson for this years jazz festival which would be remarkable. Stay tunes.

Im off to NYC and France tomorrow and am looking very forward to it! MIDEM is a pretty amazing conference and I'm trying not to expect to much for my first time but its hard not to get excited about the various possibilities that exist when you're in a room full of hundreds of people that are like minded. It should be fun. I'm going to try to post everyday if I can and will do my best to post some pics as well!