Author: Jeff Albert

WOW! Internet scamming goes old school.

I just got a phone call on my home phone from someone who asked for me by name, and proceeded to tell me (in heavily accented and awkward English) how odd it was for him to contact me like this, since we do not know each other, but something has happened at his hospital in the UK, and his patient has named me as next of kin, and…

That is where I hung up. Unknown name, Unknown number, says the caller ID. Moments later the phone rang again. Unknown name and number again. I didn’t answer, he didn’t leave a message.

The internet scammers have come full circle, gone old school, reconnected with their telephone scammer beginnings. It is the circle of life scam.

Back from Chicago, with mp3s

While this post isn’t a podcast in the sense of me talking with theme music, etc., it does contain some mp3 links.

I just got back from Chicago, where I spend a week rehearsing/performing/recording/performing some more with the Lucky 7s. I feel really good about the new material, and expect that we’ll have a new CD out in a few months (now that I’ve said that, I am sure it will be a year).

For those of you that missed the shows (you know who you are), here are some live mp3s.

These were recorded at The Hungry Brain in Chicago on July 22, 2007. Keefe Jackson was unable to attend this performance, so Dave Rempis is playing tenor sax on these recordings.

#6 (mp3) written by Jeb Bishop

Ash (mp3) written by Jeff Albert

Jaki’s Walk (mp3) written by Jeb Bishop

Future Dog (for Jaki) (mp3) written by Jeff Albert

These are two improvised pieces from our performance on July 22, 2007 at The Hungry Brain in Chicago. This was Lucky 7s plus guests. The musicians are listed by each recording.

Improvisation (mp3) by Jeff Albert (trombone), Josh Berman (cornet), Jeb Bishop (trombone), Dave Rempis (tenor sax), and Jason Stein (bass clarinet).

Improvisation (mp3) by Jason Adasiewicz (vibes), Jeff Albert (trombone), Tim Daisy, (drums), and Dave Rempis (tenor sax).

Creative Commons License
This music free to share under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License.

Lucky 7s Chicago performances

I’ll be in Chicago this coming week performing and recording with the Lucky 7s. Lucky 7s is a group that I co-lead with Chicago trombonist Jeb Bishop. Other members of the group are Josh Berman, Keefe Jackson, Jason Adasiewicz, Matthew Golombisky, and Quin Kirchner.

We will be performing new material, as well as stuff from our first CD. We will also spend a couple of days in the studio, recording what should be our next CD.

The performances are:

Wednesday, July 18, 2007 @ The Hideout 1354 W. Wabansia, Chicago

Friday and Saturday, July 20 & 21, 2007 @ The Velvet Lounge 67 E. Cermak Rd. Chicago 9:30 PM

Sunday, July 22, 2007 @ The Hungry Brain 2319 W. Belmont, Chicago

The Hungry Brain gig will have some guest action as well. Dave Rempis and Jason Stein will be with us, and there are some other invitees that I haven’t heard confirmed so I won’t mention their names, but it will be fun. We’ll probably do one set of Lucky 7s material, then a set of improvisations by various combinations of Lucky 7s and guests.

Please join us for any or all of these nights, and be sure to say hello. If you can’t get to Chicago, I am hoping to put a piece or two from each night on the free mp3 section of the Lucky 7s site. I’ll probably cross post them here as well.

Merle’s Miles for MS

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I got turned on to this guy on a trombone list I am subscribed to. He is an amateur bass trombonist. From his website:

Merle Knotts, an MS patient, is pedaling 3,300 miles on a recumbent tricycle from Marietta, Georgia to Oak Harbor, Washington to attend his 50-year high school class reunion. He is soliciting tax deductible donations to the Georgia Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for the fight against Multiple Sclerosis and hopes to raise at least $10 per mile between now and the end of the trip.

There is a cool journal of his trip, with great photos of the sights along the way. If you would like to support his cause, you can do so here.

New Dave Douglas 2 CD set; Greenleaf gets it; Bilbao Song

I just got the new Dave Douglas Quintet Live at The Jazz Standard 2 CD set. It is a collection of all of the tunes that have never been released on CD that are on the massive Live at The Jazz Standard week long gig download set. The cool part is that since I had already purchased the full week’s worth of downloads (which includes all of these tracks), they sent me the new CD version free. I didn’t have to ask or check a box or anything. These guys at Greenleaf Music get it. We should all pay attention too what they are doing. I think we are seeing the future of the good music business in these guys.

More good news…

When I was looking for a pic of the DD CD cover (which I didn’t find a suitable one), I stumbled across Available Jelly’s Bilbao Song, which is available for download purchase at Muicstem. I had read some reviews of the album and wanted to get it, but I was having trouble finding it in any of my usual outlets. The fact that on the Musicstem site the artist is listed as Michael Moore, instead of Available Jelly, might have had something to do with that. Anyway, I am listening to it as i type.

RIP George Brumat – Owner of Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro

From Jason Patterson, who books Snug Harbor (New Orleans’ premier jazz room):

To all the Friends of Snug Harbor,

Owner George Brumat died yesterday peacefully in his sleep of an apparent
heart attack. This has been a huge shock to everyone associated with the
Snug but we know George would want us to keep on keeping on. So the business
will remain open even though there is a big hole in all our lives now
without his presence. If you want to make a testimonial of any length about
George, please e-mail it to Jason@snugjazz.com. We will announce
arraignments for funeral and memorial event as they are confirmed. Thanks
for your thoughts and prayers.

Yours in overcoming adversity,

Jason

Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro

George was a great club owner. I know that is hard to believe that any club owner could be great, and I know that none of them are perfect, but George was the greatest I have ever dealt with. He always treated the musicians with respect. He listened to what we did. He gave the musicians financial guarantees. I always knew the minimum amount of money I would get when we worked for George. On good nights there was more than I expected in that little brown envelope, but there was never less, even if the club was near empty.

I remember when Snug reopened after Katrina. It was one of the first times I thought things might eventually be ok. I am sure George lost loads of money in those first months, but he was open, and still paying the bands, because that was what he could do to help the city. And it definitely helped lots of folks spirits. George was a class act, and I will miss him.

be.jazz insight…

Mwanji over at be.jazz has a nice long post covering much of the recent happenings in jazz blogdonia. I especially like this bit. He is referring to a Dan Melnick Soundslope post.

be.jazz: jazz blog:

“I would like to flip Dan’s interrogations around (forgive me if the following sounds wishy-washy): listeners cannot ask of musicians more than they ask of themselves. Instead of demanding that musicians push boundaries, for example, we can only ask that we challenge our own listening habits and comfort zones. It’s a risky entreprise, one I find difficult and don’t do often enough: it takes time and perhaps money, our current opinions may be proven wrong or misguided, we might somehow stumble. But hopefully, in some way, we learn and broaden our perspective. Only by doing this, I think, can the listener get a taste of what it means for the musician to undertake a similar endeavour.”

Settled In Shipping: Shattered dreams and shuttered doors

Settled In Shipping: Shattered dreams and shuttered doors

Montreal based musician/blogger David Ryshpan writes about the closing of an open minded Montreal performance space.

Unfortunately, the recent opposition to our request for the Salle de Spectacle permit by principally one local resident is causing our existence as a cultural centre to be called into question.

and

Noise complaints on St Laurent are fallacious, to me; if you have a place on St Laurent, you should know what that entails. Peace and quiet are to be found on many other streets in the city; The Main isn’t one of them.

It’s like deja vu all over again. It seems to me that the smaller more progressive musical venues are the ones that get shut down by this one noise complainer/permit shuffle because the small venues that book fringe music don’t have the cash to grease the system. The venue dilemma has been getting attention with the recent closing of Tonic in NY, and Marc Ribot’s very public stance on the subject. There has also been an interesting thread on the Chi-Improv mailing list dealing mostly with the qualities needed for a successful venue. One side says low rent is the highest priority, and the other side says cheap funky dives are demeaning to the artists and patrons. Both sides are right to some extent.

Many are supporting public funding of performance venues, and that would be cool, but even public support in the form of clear and stable permits and zoning would be enough to make it possible to run a non-mainstrem venue. The greatest injustice in all os this is that these venues can be allowed to operate (for years sometimes) with no problems, then when one person complains, the government says that the area is not zoned or permitted for that use, but that use has been allowed for long periods of time prior to the complaint. If it wasn’t legal before stupid Leo started complaining, why was it allowed to operate. It makes it look like our cities are selectively enforcing our laws, and that’s not good.