Ok, so really this should be the subject of a dissertation. I recently (last fall) acquired a slew of Freddie Hubbard albums and have been checking them out slowly but surely. Today, I launched Backlash at 7am (which felt like 6am) because it stars Up Jumped Spring. We needed that this morning. Yesterday, it was a lovely 60 degress outside with much sun, few clouds, and lots of peace and quiet. The kids played in the sandbox. We grilled. It was fantastic. This morning - already a tough one because of daylight savings time - we awoke to deep grey skies and heavy, wet snow. So, Up Jumped Spring was really necessary. Lo, and behold, but what should Freddie Hubbard quote at the beginning of his solo? Umbrella Man. Don’t know that one? Check this out:
Who’s in the band? Obviously, Dizzy & Louis, and my guess is Sam Jones & Louis Hayes on bass and drums, with perhaps a Jaki Byard on piano. Thoughts? Yes, it looks like a very young Tony Williams on drums, but is that even possible? Nice laugh track, eh?
As you know, I teach at New England Conservatory. One of our students was mugged recently - he was beaten up and his baritone saxophone was stolen. Kelly Roberg, a friend and colleague at NEC, has organized a fundraiser that will (one hopes) help our student acquire a new instrument. If you are in the Boston area, please attend this event. The music will be absolutely incredible, and this is clearly a worthy cause - the young man who was the victim is a great kid, and quite a talented musician. If you aren’t in the Boston area, please consider contacting Kelly to find out how to help. The details:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
8TH GRADER MUGGED AND BEATEN, HIS BARITONE SAXOPHONE STOLEN. FUNDRAISER CONCERT PLANNED TO PURCHASE REPLACEMENT.
An 8th grade baritone saxophone student of mine at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School was on his way to spend the night with his big brother in Dorchester, who would then accompany him the next morning to his audition at Boston Arts Academy. Getting off at the wrong stop, he was mugged, beat up pretty bad (severe concussion, stitches on his lip), it happened while he was on his cell phone calling his brother to say he was lost (at Dudley station in Roxbury!). My student’s bari sax was stolen, and he probably lost consciousness, although nobody knows for sure because he can’t remember a thing about it.
After a night at Boston Medical Center, he is back home, recovering and has secured a new audition date in early March for Boston Arts Academy. He desperately wants to attend BCA next year and his admission heavily weighs on his audition. Without a saxophone to play, I am organizing a fundraiser concert to raise funds for a new instrument. (if the stolen one is unable to be recovered by police)
Please help me spread the word about this important fundraiser concert! Any coverage of this performance in your publication would be greatly appreciated – don’t hesitate to contact me with any requests for jpegs, interviews or guest spots to the performance.
CONCERT DETAILS:
March 15th 2pm
Quartet of Happiness and Jim Hobbs and the Hobbettes
LilyPad, Inman Square 1353 Cambridge St. Cambridge, MA
$10 admission (100% proceeds towards a replacement baritone saxophone)
Quartet of Happiness takes modern jazz and infuses it with a hefty dose of cheekiness and irreverent humor, wrapping it all up in the sort of theatrics reminiscent of Blue Man Group. The group has made it its mission to take jazz out of the ivory tower and make it accessible to a wide-ranging audience. www.quartetofhappiness.com
Jim Hobbs and the Hobbettes are Jim Hobbs on alto sax, Joe Morris on guitar, Jacob William on bass and Laurence Cook on drums. Members of this band also perform with Thurston Moore’s Avantnoise Band, Fully Celebrated Orchestra, Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Joe and Mat Maneri, Rob Brown, Raphe Malik, Ivo Pearlman, Borah Bergman, Andrea Parkins, Whit Dickey, Ken Vandermark, DKV Trio and others. http://celebratefully.squarespace.com/home
Press contact: Kelly Roberge, 617-775-3235, kelly_roberge@yahoo.com
Actually, it’s more of a remix. Anyway, last year, I mentioned that I was digging some mashups (by “last year,” I mean 2007). A friend of mine just sent me this very excellent mashup (again, more of a remix, but very very excellent nonetheless): [Read more →]
I guess I should consider “Shameless Self Promotion” as a category, rather than a title. Note to self. Anyway, for those of you who love your iPod and/or iTunes and don’t yet have a copy of Study of Light (my totally rockin’ debut as a leader), here is a convenient way of solving this problem. If you don’t have iTunes, then you will want to consider a more conventional approach.
Sitting here in my hotel room, thinking about tonight’s gig in Denver with the great Ethiopian singer Mahmoud Ahmed, it dawned on me that there were a few more things about 2008 that I wanted to mention. I started the conversation in my last post. [Read more →]
Good God. Months have passed by since my last post. It’s almost like I have been so overwhelmed by life that there has not been time to post anything new. It’s not like I’m out of ideas. No, in fact, if I can find the time somehow, I have a backlog of material, plus new ideas like reviews of jazz theory books, a new series that I like to call “An Un-Handyman’s Guide to Home Maintenance and Repair” (First installment: Installing a Dishwasher - Sort of Level is Close Enough), and a few thoughts on things happening in the music world. [Read more →]
Needless to say, this was a fantastic summer. I visited Holland, Germany, lovely Ohio, Toronto (which lived up to its “Rush’s hometown” vibe - it rocked), and England. I also played Lincoln Center in NYC, and spent 30 hours in Ireland (had Guinness at the airport at 10am on a Saturday - it was excellent, even though it cost me $9.67). At the start of the summer, a horrible moment involving the theft of my gear turned into something wonderful: I Play GK. Yes, it’s been a fantastic summer. [Read more →]
Interested in studying jazz at New England Conservatory? Already a student, but wondering about auditions, registration and the upcoming schedule of events (”When do classes start?” “When do ensembles start?” “Lessons?”)? As you probably know, I’m on the faculty at NEC, in the School of Preparatory and Continuing Education. I work for David Zoffer, Chair of the Jazz Department. After talking with Dave about various answers to the above questions plus a few others, we decided that it might be helpful to post some information here, along with a few forms. This post is not intended to replace what is available on NEC’s website in any way - the NEC site is the default place to look. You should consider this merely ancillary to what is available through NEC. [Read more →]
So that’s it. After something like 6 years, the time has finally come to put the old rm.com site out to pasture. It’s still here, living behind the scenes, hanging out, reading Proust, longing for the good ol’ days. But the time has come for the old site to retire. [Read more →]
It’s Sunday afternoon here in lovely (and I really mean it) Boston. It doesn’t really feel like Sunday afternoon, though, but that’s because of the crazy schedule I managed to keep in the past week. Briefly, it involves a drive to NYC on Tuesday for a 5 hour rehearsal, a gig at Lincoln Center on Wednesday followed by a return drive to Boston that night (arriving home at 5pm Thursday). Thursday afternoon, I caught a flight to Dublin that arrived on Friday morning at 5:30am. Spent the rest of the day in Dun Laoghaire and played a concert that night. Caught a flight back to Boston Saturday morning, arriving mid-afternoon yesterday. So, I’m not sure what it feels like right now, but Sunday afternoon is not really where I’m at. [Read more →]
