Back in Vancouver

Well, after a trying trip to Europe I'm back in Vancouver and happy to be back home. The club was run flawlessly by Raymon during my absence which has made the transition back to reality a pleasant one. A big shout out to the staff as well for handling things so well while I was gone. I returned to a minimal amount of madness which I can't always say has been the case when I have returned from being away.

I was happy to return to a copy of Denzal Sinclaire's new album. What a treat. Once again this album finds Denzal in fine form doing what he does best. The tune selection is awesome and the musicianship superb. Russell Malone adds a great color to the album and some fabulous playing by tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake and Brad Turner on flugelhorn really add to the whole sound of the album. I strongly suggest you get out and get this record, you'll be glad you did. Also Denzal is doing his CD release at The Cellar on Wednesday, February 15th.

I know its not good practice to announce something before you have signed a contract but this one is way to exciting to wait. This could be my heaviest booking ever. Big George Coleman is set to appear at The Cellar in September as part of our 6 yaer anniversary. He will be appearing with another one of my favorite tenor saxophonists Eric Alexander. This is a major coup becuase George Coleman doesn't like to leave his NYC apartment. I have been trying for GC for quite sometime but it just hasn't happened. While taking a lesson with EA in New York, I brought it up with him because they do this 'two tenor' thing so I thought I had an in with Eric and I was right. I will be trying to find some sponsors for this show so I can keep the price of the tix down. Stay tuned for an official announcement.

Nice

Im now in Nice. It was a nice end to Midem last night with a dinner with a bunch of people from the Canada stand. A few drinks, some food etc.. I learned a lot this trip and as I may have said earlier its not that unusual to feel like your first time at Midem was a waste. Its an overwhelming thing and if I took one thing away with me its, what to do and not do next time. It will be interesting to see if any of the contacts I did make pan out into anything. I did get a small distro deal in the US which is kind of a good intro into the US market. If I already told you that Im sorry. I also met with Koch Canada re distro in Canada and they had some very cool things to say so we ll see what happens. There were a few promising ones for sure. I came to Nice today for a change in scenery. I spent the better part of the last two hours roaming around the city while they get my hotel prepped. Nice and Cannes are both very cool cities.

I heard from Seamus Blake today as well which is cool. Sounds like he is ready to come home for a visit. We re going to work on three night for him and BT at the club. Stay tuned to the News page of the site for that announcement soon.

The Ugetsu record is coming out soon, hopefully available by the end of february and then shortly after that one will be the Olly and Bill Coon disc. Again stay tuned to the news page for info.

I just found out that Chris Potter is sold out as well. Definitely a record for the club in terms of pre sales for a show. Its gonna be a fun night no doubt.

CW

MIDEM

Well, I have to apologize for not writing more during my stay here in Cannes, France. To be totally honest there wasnt much to write about. Today is the first day that I feel normal. the first three days of the conference I was completely ill and not much into making contact with anyone so it was a lot of just walking around trying to feel normal. I was excited to come today and actually start making some progress albeit a little late. To my astonishment however I found out that most people leave today. A big drag!! So my first MIDEM experience was not what I would call a pleasant or productive one. Apparentely its not that unusual for first times to feel that way. I did meet some good people and make some contacts I suppose and it will be interesting to see if any of them follow up or show any interest.

Im going to head to Nice tomorrow and stay there for the night instead of spending another day in Cannes.

I will be home soon!

France

Hello all. Sorry for the lack of writings. I don't have much to report. Unfortunately most of my time here has been spent in bed nursing a bad case of the flu. Being sick in a foreign country really sucks and MIDEM is not a place you really want to be when you're not feeling well. Things hvae been pretty over-whelming here and although I have had some good meetings with various people jazz continues to be a tough sell in all regards. Onward and upward we go.

I finally arrived at JFK after a 2 hour bus and train ride. Im tired and not looking all that forward to the next 15 hours. Had a late night last night but a chill night at the same time. The gig was a gong show. It was at one of the premiere jingle houses in NYC called JSM. The studios are unreal, right in the Chelsea district. It was a pickup gig. There a ton of food and drink. The band was well, lets just say not a funk band but they did the trick. We played about 4 tunes before making way for somw rapping by Beetlejuice and High pitched Eric from the Howard Stern show. The Reverend Ron from Run DMC got up and wrapped. From there it just digressed. We got our money and got the hell out.

It was then down the Village to Joe Strasser's house. He is an awesome drummer and a very, very cool guy. Also very smart. We just hung out, drank some beer, listened to some tunes and got into a philisophical, heated debate about Miles Davis. It was cool to cuz Joe has bought all that infomercial crap like The Magic Bullet. I want that thing so bad! He said it sucks. He had all kinds if other crap to.

Although the trip was short I enjoyed just hanging rather than listening to music every night and partying. It was cool. I also found myself really wanting to practice as well which is a little weird for me. Eric really got me fired up!! Im sure no one feels sorry for me but I am not happy about getting on this plane. Next time I post I will be in Cannes, France.

Night 2, Day 2

I ventured back downtown last night to hang with Jim Rotondi (a great trumpet player) from here in NYC. He has played the club a few times and is really buring. We started at Smith's which was a little to crowded so we ended up at The Bull Mouse, had a few beers and yaked about a bunch of stuff. The cool thing is that he it trying to bring out Chris Tarry (bass, himself and Joe Strasser (drums) to Vancouver to hook up with myself and Brad Turner on rhodes do three nights at the club and hoepfully record a record. The project is gonna be cool, we just have to find out when is the best time. From The Bull Mouse we went to SMOKE. My place! A tenor player named Jerry Weldon was playing. Older dude, who swung his can off. Not the 'typical' vibe at Smoke but it was good to be there. We didn't hang to long there and then I took a cab home and was in bed by 12:30. I have to say that this time out I'm not as into checking out music as I usually am. Having said that, there isn't to much to check out this time around. Dave Holland's big band was playing at Birdland but $40 is a little out of my league. Kenny Garrett and his crappy band were at The Blue Note so that was a no go and not much else happening.

I got up this morning and went to my lesson with tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander. The best $80 I have ever spent. It was great. He really laid some shit on me that I can dig my teeth into. It was very cool. He is such a great guy and probably my favorite young saxophonist. Plays with a lot of power. Big sound! The cool thing about it is that we talked about getting him and George COleman to the club. Can you imagine that? How amazing would that be!

Im just gonna chill out for a few hours before heading to my gig tonight!!

Jazz Record Center

Okay, well, I did pretty good considering I had over 10,000 records at my disposal. It was tough to go in there. I managed to get out for under $100 US which I think is pretty dam impressive. Harold Mabern - Rakin and Scrapin, a 1969 session with Mabes, Blue Mitchell on trumpet, George Coleman on tenor sax, Bill Lee on bass and Hugh Walker on drums. I love Harold Mabern but have to confess I bought this record because myself and Ian are trying to get Mabes out to Vancouver in May and this is a perfect record for him to sign. Soul Of The Bible with The Nat Adderley Sextet presented by Cannonball. An intriguing record that has just been re-issued and there is very little info on the cover and its sealed and I haven't opened it yet. According to Fred its a later period Cannonball record and before it was re-issued it was one of his most sought after records. The Art Farmer Quartet feat. Jim Hall Live at The Half Note. This record looks like a dandy and I have never really checked out Art Farmer all that much but this was a great period in his career, and finally, The Jazztet at Birdhouse in Chicago, 1961 featuring Benny Golson and Art Farmer. Its a drag I can't listen to them until I get home but hey, it gives me something to look forward to.

I went to Virgin and managed to walk away and then went to the Apple Store. Apologies in advance to people who are reading this on their PC. Apple is where its at, plain and simple. This store is so heavy I can't even tell you. I bought iLife 06 and am looking forward to using the podcasting feature on it for future radio shows!

Thats it for now.

New York, New York

Welcome to NYC that will be $75 please. Im $75 down and I just got out of the freaking airport. I was going to take the train and bus into the city but it was pouring rain and wasnt all that comfortable taking transit into NYC with all my stuff. Got to Harlem at around 11:30 and was greated by the always friendly Ian Hendrickson-Smith. He has a great pad on West 122nd Street and St. Nicholas. Its huge and very nice. We went around the corner to 'Perks' a great little club and b3 organist Seleno Clark was playing with his trio. You may remember Seleno from one of my New York diaries (vancouverjazz.com). He is an older fellow who plays with a ton of soul and is a riot to watch. A real people pleaser. We just hung out and listened to some tunes and chilled out. The bartender Sabrina was a very cool. I found out later that she is Roy Hargrove's girlfriend. We then went to Popeye's Fried Chicken because I was sooo hungry. This however was a mistake right before bed but oh well, what can you do.

Its a miserable day here in NYC, pouring rain and I'm finding it hard to get the energy to go out. I also know that when I got out to The Jazz Record Center, Virgin and The Apple Store, its going to make a serious dent in my pocket book. Ah, New York City!

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!

Radio Shows

I have a big week on COOP Radio this week subbing for NOU DADOUN on Friday, my show on Monday and subbing for JOHN ORYSIK on Tuesday. Check it out!

January 6th from 230 to 530

Hour #1 - Music from the 1970 MILES DAVIS CELLAR DOOR sessions.
Hour #2 - An hour dedicated to the underappreciated TROMBONE.
Hour #3 - Music from tenor sax legend HOUSTON PERSON including an interview!

January 9th - CHASIN THE TRAIN, 11:00 to Noon
We will feature the music of tenor saxophonist and clarinetist James Danderfer as well as have James in studio for a chat.

January 10th - WILD YEARS, 2:30 to 5:00
I don't know yet but it will be HAPPENING