Long Time No Blog

Wow, long time no blog. Sorry about that, I hadn't realized how long it has been since I last posted. Almost 3 weeks. Things have been rolling along quite nicely here at The Cellar with a plethora (yeah thats right) of good shows here at the club and despite the changing seasons the crowds have kept up at a relatively good pace considering. Some highlights: Pianist Ross Taggart brought in a wonderful trio (Ken Lister on bass and Craig Scott on drums)on May 21st and played a spirited couple of sets. Brad Turner was at master control getting the sounds on tape so who knows what will happen. May 14th was a fun night with vocalist Lorraine Foster doing a tribute to Rosemary Clooney which sounded fabulous. Lorraine did a wonderful job and the crowds were thoroughly entertained. George Evans made a rare Cellar apperance on May 12th and 13th and thoroughly entertained the audience. The trio of Jesse Cahill (drums), Jodi Proznick (bass) and Tilden Webb (piano) were particularily impressive. Guitarist Oliver Gannon appeared with his quartet on May 11th and as he always does HE SWUNG HIS ASS OFF. I have had the great pleasure of having a lot of great musicians play here at the club but none make me smile more than the'King Of Canadian Jazz Guitar.' It was great. I can't honestly say it was a highlight for the crowd because I don't know but for me it was a highlight. My band with Sharon, Jodi and Jesse played on May 20th and it was so much fun I can't believe it. There is not 3 musicians I would rather play with more. It was fantastic!!!

Some exciting booking possibilities. I had a very very nice conversation with Hank Jones last weekend and also had a chat with Cedar Walton so there are some exciting things in the the works for the fall. Its gonna be a pretty fantastic second half of 2006.

Mike Allen

Im listening to Mike Allen's Quartet as I type this post. Man this band sounds so good. They have just returned from a three week tour and boy does it show. They're firing on all cylinders tonight. I heard their cd release about 6 months ago and they sounded good but not quite like a total band yet. Don't get me wrong they sounded great but tonight, they really feel and sound comfortabel with one another. Bruno sounds fabulous. Hell, they all sound good. Very decent crowd to which is always nice at this time of year.

The crowds for the most part have kept up pretty well however the next few weeks will be the big test. With the days getting longer and longer and the weather getting nicer and nicer things get scarier and scarier. Tell your friends and don't forget us down here at the club. The music is still happening and besides we're closing for three weeks at the end of July so you can get all the beach and sea wall time you needs then.

Learned a lot of things when I was down in South Carolina. Some things that we're going to implement here at the club hopefully very soon. Keep your eye out for '2 For 1 Entree' Thursdays and we will be staggering our reservations in order to ensure that we keep food quality high and service levels good! Basically what it will mean is that we will only take a certain number of resos at 700, then another set at 730, 800 etc. The Jazz Corner has this worked out perfectly and it helps out their kitchen sooo much.

Thats it for now.