Jeff Albert's blog
This blog has been neglected in recent years. I am going to try to revive it. It will be 20 years old next month. Yikes! I am hoping to get some of that creative juice back into my internet life, and my real life. This may be a start.
Here is a picture of me and Marco Fiorini at ICMC 2025 in Boston. This was a Somax2 workshop, run by Marco, who is on the IRCAM team that is developing the software. I learned a lot and will be developing new work that incorporates Somax 2 in the next few months.
More details at www.instigationfestival.com
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Happy October! Even though we will not be doing jazz fest at the fairgrounds, it seems like there will still be a bit of music happening. It is nice to see some of the dependable music hangs (old and new) returning. Things like George Porter at the Maple Leaf on Mondays have long been a part of our listening and living rhythm in New Orleans, and the fairly recent addition of the great outdoor venue at The Broadside has reopend after a little time off. Carrollton Station is getting back into the music scene, which is nice.
One of those venues that has long been part of the scene at a variety of physical addresses is Zeitgeist. Their new location in Arabi is a great space, and for part of October they will be showing the new free jazz documentary called “Fire Music,” and each showing will be followed by a live musical performance. I will be playing with Dave Cappello on Tuesday, October 12.
Here are my October public performances:
Monday, October 11, 2021: David Bode Big Band at Carrollton Station (8140 Willow St, New Orleans, LA) at 9pm
Tuesday, October 12, 2021: Jeff Albert & Dave Cappello at Zeitgeist (6621 St. Claude Ave, Arabi, LA) at 8pm, following a screening of Fire Music: the Story of Free Jazz
Saturday, October 30, 2021: Luther Kent & Trick Bag at Monkey Hill (6100 Magazine St, New Orleans) at 9:00pm
I hope to see you at one of these. Stay safe.
-Jeff
Photo by Dennis McDonough at The Hungry Brain in Chicago
From September 16 – 19, 2021, I had the pleasure of participating in the Instigation Festival in Chicago. Steve Marquette organizes this long weekend of musical collaboration, and it is always fun and artistically rewarding but this year it felt particular restorative for me. It was the first time I had performed daily for four days in what seems like years, and they were all musically rewarding endeavors.
One of the highlights of the trip was a new piece that the festival commissioned from Mikel Patrick Avery called Nice to Meet You. It is Mikel’s musical exploration of the idea of restarting so many of the relationships that have been paused by the pandemic. We performed the piece at Constellation (which was not the original plan but sometimes things work out for the better) so there is a lovely archive of the excellently produced stream.
This video also contains the second set by Charles Rumback, James Singleton, Jim Baker, and Ed Wilkerson.
It was so nice to hear these musicians tonight. This band was a formative part of my early musical life, and I am so grateful to still be able to hear and talk to them.
Hello all,
I hope your summer is coming together in ways that bring you peace. Mine has been a bit restful so far, and looks to have some excitement upcoming. Part of that excitement is these two upcoming concerts.
Thursday, July 1, 2021 from 7-9pm CDT: Stellar Spells (Rob Mazurek, Jeff Albert, James Singleton, & Mikel Patrick Avery) at The BroadSide (600 N. Broad Ave, New Orleans, LA) presented by Scatterjazz. This is an outdoor venue. Advance tickets are recommended and available from the venue’s website.
Sunday, July 25, 2021: Jeff Albert, Katinka Kleijn, Chris Alford, and Will Thompson at The Hungry Brain (2319 W. Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL) at 9pm.
Rob Mazurek will only be in New Orleans for one concert, and it features some of my favorite people to make music with. Rob is making video to go with the music, so it will take full advantage of the Broadside’s theater projection screen/stage. I am confident that Stellar Spells is the proper name for the band. I will be in Chicago in late July with Will and Chris for a private function, and while we are in town the fine folks at The Hungry Brain are hosting us for some public sound exploration, and we are honored to be joined by the marvelous Katinka Kleijn on cello. Both of these concerts are singular happenings, so please join us for some music and fellowship.
As always there is music to hear and buy at https://store.b4d-records.com, and I will have a concert at a great new venue in Jackson, MS in August. More on that next time.
Thanks for listening.
Peace,
Jeff
This is a new track by Mahmoud Chouki that features the rest of the Unanimous Sources horn section along with some other great New Orleans musicians. I mastered the audio. Enjoy.