Category: Personal

Hollywood schmolly-wood

I like the fact that some creative New Orleans residents get work from the films that shoot here. Lots of local folks get some work out of the deal, and that is a good thing, especially now.

I don’t like it when they shoot on the street in front of my gig, without telling us that they will be sporadically closing the street and sidewalks throughout most of the first set. It is hard enough to get people to come out on a foggy Tuesday night to hear non-mainstream music, but the dude with the headset at the corner telling people that they can’t walk down the street makes it damn near impossible. This isn’t hard to fix. If they had just let us know ahead of time, we could have hit our email lists with the fact the the street would be closed for a few minutes at a time, throughout the evening. Knowing that a movie was shooting may have even helped bring people out, if they could have known that it would be possible to get there.

Movie folks can sometimes act like the world revolves around them. These people were fairly cool, but still, there are more people in the world than just the ones that care about their movie.

The doubly maddening thing about all of this is the fact that the presence of the movie shoots in New Orleans is, in itself, a sign of the world’s lack of respect for us as professionals. (I say “us” meaning the city in general.) The only reason that these films are being shot here is that they can pay New Orleanians less than they pay people in LA (or wherever else) to do the same work.

Sometimes we allow ourselves to get what we deserve.

Louisiana vs. Illinois

I get to Chicago a couple of times a year (usually) and have lots of friends there. It is bad enough that the Bears keep beating the Saints, but this is too much.

Which state is the most corrupt—Illinois or Louisiana? – By Jacob Weisberg – Slate Magazine: “With the unmasking of Gov. Rod Blagojevich as a kleptocrat of Paraguayan proportion, Illinois now has a real chance—its first in more than a generation—to defeat Louisiana in the NCAA finals of American political corruption.”

Keeping the Hussies at bay

I grew up in Lafayette, LA. I was never a big cajun music fan, but it was definitely in the air in my childhood. There are a few people that I remember as being the really big deals of cajun music. Michael Doucet and Beausoleil and Zachary Richard were at the top of that list. Zachary Richard has lived in other parts of the world at points in time, but Michael Doucet seemed to always be around. I’d see him in the airport in Lafayette or New Orleans, and Beausoleil played pretty regularly in town in my youth.

Lafayette has produced more than its fair share of good trombonists largely through the influence of Robert Schmalz who taught trombone and music history at USL through the 80’s and 90’s. A number of his students have gone on to become fairly well known trombonists. He was my teacher in high school.

Lafayette hasn’t produced many free jazz artists. Dickie Landry comes to mind, but the pool isn’t too deep after that. I imagine that when it comes to free jazz trombonists from Lafayette, I may be the lone member of that club. Imagine my surprise when this popped up on my eMusic screen today.

vote and bowl

vote.jpg

The lines at my polling place were fairly long at 10 am. It took about 45 minutes to get through the line and cast my ballot. I brought my 7 year old daughter along. Fortunately I had just downloaded a bowling game to my phone, and that kept us occupied while we waited.

Have you gotten your “I voted today” sticker yet?

Chicago performances – October 8 – 11

I’ll be in Chicago October 8 – 11. I am doing two shows that are part of the Chicago Calling Arts Festival 3, plus shows at Elastic and the Velvet Lounge. For more specific details visit jeffalbert.com or the CCAF site.

October 8:
Eric Glick Rieman — prepared Fender Rhodes
Jeff Albert — trombone
Dan Godston –- trumpet
Joel Wanek –- upright bass
Marcus Evans — drums

at
Peter Jones Gallery
1806 W. Culyer Street, 2nd floor
Chicago, IL 60613
8 PM

October 9 :
Set 1 – Jeff Albert and Jeb Bishop (trombones)

Set 2 – Josh Berman (cornet), Jaimie Branch (trumpet), Jeb Bishop (trombone), and Jeff Albert (trombone)

at Elastic 2830 N. Milwaukee, 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL 10PM

BTW October 9 is my birthday. No need to bring gifts, just buy CDs.

October 10: Jeff Albert Quartet with Josh Abram (bass), Mike Reed (drums), and Dave Rempis (alto sax)

at The Velvet Lounge 67 E. Cermak, Chicago, IL 9:30 PM

October 11: There are several things on this show. One set is a duo with Dave Rempis. Another set is a piece I organized for several composer/improvisers. It requires us each to bring in some pre-composed melodies, and then we will perform and improvise on these melodies in a variety of ways as prescribed in the piece.

at Heaven Gallery
1550 N Milwaukee Ave, 2nd Fl
Chicago, IL 7PM

My new CD “Similar in the Opposite Way” is finished. It won’t be “officially released” until January, but if you are at one of these Chicago shows, and want a copy, and ask real nice (or have $10), I imagine we could hook you up.

Cool label, cool instrument

Since the Lucky 7s have recently signed a deal for Clean Feed to release our next CD, I was happy to see this nice Clean Feed/trombone shout out on AAJ.

Clean Feed: Between Shadow and Space & Drunk Butterfly:

The Portuguese label Clean Feed has cast a wide net since its inception in 2001. And as it has gained momentum—its inaugural year saw just three releases while so far 2008 has birthed 19—it has become less an imprint and more of a time capsule of a particularly fertile period in creative music.

The trombone has finally caught up with —and to some extent—lapped the saxophone as an instrument for experimentation. Players like Roswell Rudd, Ray Anderson and Joe Fiedler (all with discs on the label) have contributed to this renaissance.