Category: Music

Thanks

Last night’s CD release show at Snug Harbor was loads of fun. I’d like to thank Dave, Tommy, Tim and Will for playing so much music last night. It really is an honor, and a humbling experience, to have such great musicians put so much energy into playing my music. It is also a great feeling to have so many friends come out to hear my music, and a delight to see the regular Snug Harbor tourist crowd stumble upon something they weren’t expecting, and dig it. Thank you. Finally, I’d like to thank all the folks at Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro. For years, they have consistently provided a great setting to both hear and play music, and they have always treated the musicians with great respect.

Hopefully there will soon be some youTube evidence of the nights proceedings.

“Similar in the Opposite Way” drops today

I am pleased to announce that my new CD, “Similar in the Opposite Way,” is officially released today. The quartet will perform at Snug Harbor, in New Orleans, on Thursday (1/29) in celebration of this fact. This link: http://jeffalbert.com/?p=177 will take you to the page on my website where you can read about it, and listen to samples, as well as order it. I think my website or the label site (www.forasound.com) probably have the best prices on physical product, and I definitely get the largest cut of it that way. It is also available in physical version from CD Baby or Amazon, and in digital version from iTunes, CD Baby and Amazon. I’ll paste direct links below this.

Thanks for listening, and purchasing (if you do so.)

Peace,
Jeff

http://cdbaby.com/cd/jeffalbert2
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001J8AB38/ref=dm_sp_alb?ie=UTF8&qid=1230331565&sr=8-4
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?i=292294922&id=292294847&s=143441 (iTunes direct link)

…still digging Matt Wilson

It’s no secret that I have dug Matt Wilson’s music for a while. This Ottawa Citizen blog piece confirms that I like the way he approaches music personally as well.

Matt Wilson interview outtakes – Thriving on a riff:

“My stuff is not too hard… I’m proud of it, actually, they’re easy I like ’em easy so that I can see what people can do with them. I’m big into how people can look at something and go with it. And go from there.

…

As long as the music doesn’t get in the way of the musicians, I think it’s pretty cool. But when the music inspires the musicians and gets stuff out of them, it’s really great. That’s what all the good writers and arrangers, all those conceptualists do. They know how to usher people
into an environment and allow them to play with it and see what can occur. I dig that part of it.”

(Via @accujazzdotcom.)

Stratusphunk video

I came across this video while looking for an album cover pic for the George Russell Recent Listening post. Note that the announcer describes this music as in the tonal stratosphere. It doesn’t sound out at all to me. Also, dig the great Jimmy Cleveland trombone solo.

Of course, as the YouTube time suck goes, that video led to this one, which is also worth checking out. Interview with Orrin Keepnews…very interesting.

Hung up on style

The following thoughts were initiated this post on Doug Ramsey’s Rifftides blog:Correspondence: Two Young Pianists – Rifftides

A reader had written to Doug, asking a question about a reference Doug made in the liner notes he wrote for a Houston Person CD. The reader was relating his experience at an Eldar performance.

” Brilliant though he may be, his choice of music almost boredered on semi classical.”

It struck me that the complaint was not at all about quality, but solely about style. The fact that the music “almost bordered on semi classical” bothered the reader. It is a shame that many of us, as listeners, seem to consistently miss the chance to enjoy good music because the style does not meet our expectations. Is the placement of the eighth note more important than the honesty and depth of the expression?

Open Ears gets props from DB

The new (Feb 09) Downbeat arrived in my mailbox today. It contains their annual jazz club listing. It was a pleasant surprise to read that one of the five clubs listed in New Orleans is The Blue Nile, which is home to the Open Ears Music Series that I curate.

The Blue Nile offers a wide variety of jazz, from traditional and New Orleans, to Latin and funky. The atmosphere goes from relaxed to slinky. Best bets are Tuesday nights, where the Open Ears Music series has the more experimental jazz.

It is nice that someone has noticed. We are into our second year of the series, and things are flowing nicely. Artists are wanting to play the series (we’re booked through March, with a list for beyond that), and the audience is developing as well. Lately there have been more people there that I don’t know than people that I do know. It would be nice if we could sort out a way to have the musicians leave with more money every night, but that seems to always be the case. If I judge the series by my original goal of being able to provide a place where music could happen that might not happen otherwise in New Orleans, I feel like we have been wildly successful thus far. So, if you are in NOLA on a Tuesday night, you know where to go.

shuffle discoveries – Halvorson & Sickafoose

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I’ve developed a habit of putting all of the new music that I download or rip into a playlist (called “new music”…how creative). I started doing this as a way to make sure that I listened to everything. Kind of like the way I used to keep new CDs stacked next to the stereo, and would only put them into their place in the collection after they had been digested (or at least chewed a little). A handy by-product of my new music playlist system is that when I put that playlist on shuffle, the new music gets to me free of any expectations. I often have to pull out the ipod to see who is playing. It is nice when I hear something unknown, and like it. It gives me confidence that it is the music and not the name that is moving me.

Two recent eMusic scores that struck me in shuffle mode ambushes are Mary Havorson Trio Dragon’s Head, and Todd Sickafoose Tiny Resistors.

I was doing the new music shuffle at the grocery store the other day, and each time a track from one of these albums would come on, I would have to look and see who was making the strikingly good music. I got the Halvorson, because I have been wanting to check her out on her own musical terms, having heard her and about her with Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, etc. I got the Sickafoose, because it kept showing up on people’s year end lists, and my interest was piqued. Both are worth purchasing.