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Last Updated: 9/17/2009

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Age: 43
Sign: Sagittarius

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22 Jan 09 Thursday 3:35 AM

Category: Music
Jazz musician David 'Fathead' Newman dies in NY
source: www.Newsday.com
21 January 2009


KINGSTON, N.Y. - Jazz musician, David "Fathead" Newman, who was a tenor soloist with the Ray Charles Band, has died in upstate New York.

His manager, Karen Newman, said Newman died Tuesday night of pancreatic cancer in a hospital in Kingston, N.Y. He was 75.

A Dallas native, Newman left college to tour with Charlie Parker's mentor, Buster Smith.

According to his Web site, Newman spent 12 years with the Ray Charles Band starting in 1954. He began as the baritone player and became the star tenor soloist.

He returned to Dallas and led his own bands before moving to New York City. As a studio musician he worked on recording projects with musicians including Herbie Mann, Aretha Franklin and Aaron Neville.

Funeral plans were not announced.


 
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19 Jan 09 Monday 10:40 PM

Category: Music
The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
Opening Address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival
Source: www.JazzTimes.com
19 January 2009


God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations.

Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.

This is triumphant music.

Modern Jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.

It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem fora multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls.

Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from the music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail.It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.

And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in a particular struggle of the Negro in America, there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy.Everybody longs for faith.

In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all these.

 
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16 Nov 08 Sunday 10:50 PM

Category: Music
Jazz Birthdays
16th ~ 22nd November 2008
source: www.JazzTimes.com


Nov. 16: W.C. Handy (1873-1958), Eddie Condon (1905-1973)

Nov. 17: George Masso (1926), David Amram (1930), Roswell Rudd (1935)

Nov. 18: Johnny Mercer (1909-1976), Claude Williamson (1926), Sheila Jordan (1928), Don Cherry (1936-1995), Bennie Wallace (1946), Cindy Blackman (1959)

Nov. 19: Tommy Dorsey (1905-1956), Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967), Bill Allred (1936), Kenny Werner (1951), Vincent Herring (1964)

Nov. 20: June Christy (1925-1990), Geoff Keezer (1970)

Nov. 21: Charlie Johnson (1891-1959), Coleman Hawkins (1904-1969), Sal Salvador (1925-1999), Peter Warren (1935), Alphonse Mouzon (1948), Rainer Bruninghaus (1949)

Nov. 22: Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981), Horace Henderson (1904-1988), Jimmy Knepper (1927-2003), Ron McClure (1941)
 
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14 Nov 08 Friday 3:40 PM

Category: Music
Jazz in New York City
14th ~ 20th November 2008
Written by Nate Chinen
source: The New York Times





JAZZ

Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music.


AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE QUINTET (Tuesday and Wednesday) Ambrose Akinmusire, a fiercely gifted young trumpeter who took first prize in last year's Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, spearheads a young post-bop ensemble with the tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, the pianist Fabian Almazan, the bassist Harish Raghavan and the drummer Justin Brown. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $20.(Nate Chinen)

BRUCE BARTH QUARTET (Friday and Saturday) The pianist and composer Bruce Barth prefers subtlety and fluency to any kind of flash. Celebrating his 50th birthday with this weekend run, he leads a strong quartet with Dayna Stephens on tenor saxophone, Chris Lightcap on bass and Rudy Royston on drums. At 8, 10 and 11:30 p.m., Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, (212) 864-6662, smokejazz.com; cover, $30. (Chinen)

MARCO BENEVENTO TRIO/THE INBETWEENS (Wednesday) Marco Benevento, a resourceful keyboardist drawn to heavy grooves, joins forces with two musicians usually found in rock settings: the bassist Dave Dreiwitz (of Ween) and the drummer Ryan Thornton (Rana, Sam Champion). The Inbetweens, who share the bill, are another rock-informed group, consisting of Mike Gamble on guitar, Noah Jarrett on bass and Conor Elmes on drums. At 8 p.m., Public Assembly, 70 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 782-5188, publicassemblynyc.com; $12 in advance; $15 at the door; $10 for students. (Chinen)

STEVEN BERNSTEIN'S MILLENNIAL TERRITORY ORCHESTRA (Monday) "We Are MTO" (Mowo) is the typically brash and exuberant new studio album from this serious little big band, led by the slide trumpeter and arranger Steven Bernstein. Its sound would seem to be too big for this room, but stranger things have happened. At 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883, 55bar.com; cover, $10. (Chinen)

DAVID BINNEY GROUP (Tuesday) The alto saxophonist Dave Binney heeds an avant-gardism that embraces harmony, melody and rhythm, along with amplification. His cohort here includes some regular partners: the keyboardist Jacob Sacks, the bassist Thomas Morgan and the drummer Dan Weiss. At 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883, 55bar.com; cover, $10. (Chinen)

BLUIETT (Saturday) Both in the World Saxophone Quartet and in his own groups, this veteran baritone saxophonist — also known by his full name, Hamiet Bluiett — has always advanced an agenda of blustery incantation. He can leap from a foghorn honk to a jarring screech in a flash, and often does; his presence in a small combo, like the one heard here, is heavily, intensely physical. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Sista's Place, 456 Nostrand Avenue, at Jefferson Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, (718) 398-1766, sistasplace.org; cover, $20. (Chinen)

★ TAYLOR HO BYNUM (Friday and Saturday) As a cornetist, Mr. Bynum works with extreme tension and pinprick control; as a composer he favors jostling counterpoint and elastic interplay. He has a thought-provoking new album, "Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths" (Hatology), featuring his sextet, which performs at 10:30 p.m. on Friday. (In an earlier set, at 9, he enlists just two of the sextet's members, the guitarist Mary Halvorson and the drummer Tomas Fujiwara.) Both sets on Saturday feature his improvising chamber group, SpiderMonkey Strings. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; cover, $15. (Chinen)

★ DON BYRON'S 50TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION (Friday through Sunday) This restlessly imaginative clarinetist celebrates a milestone by taking stock of his oeuvre, doing so on Friday with the madcap swing of his 1996 album, "Bug Music." On Saturday he leads a quartet with Edward Simon on piano, Kenny Davis on bass and Eric Harland on drums; on Sunday he presents a version of the salsa band heard on his two "Music for Six Musicians" releases. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., with an additional 11:30 p.m. show on Friday and Saturday, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $30; $25 on Sunday. (Chinen)

RAVI COLTRANE QUARTET (Tuesday through Thursday) As he has for a handful of years now, Ravi Coltrane balances his slippery, thoughtful tenor and soprano saxophone playing against the cohesive stir of a rhythm section with the pianist Luis Perdomo, the bassist Drew Gress and the drummer E. J. Strickland. (Through Nov. 23.) At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com; cover, $25, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen)

JEFF DAVIS BAND (Thursday) Jeff Davis, a drummer of broad experience, features his own compositions for a group with Kirk Knuffke on trumpet, Tony Barba on reeds, Jon Goldberger on guitar, Eivind Opsvik on bass and Kris Davis, his wife, on Fender Rhodes piano. At 9 and 10 p.m., Tea Lounge, 837 Union Street, near Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 789-2762, tealoungeny.com; suggested donation, $5. (Chinen)

ANAT FORT AND PAUL MOTIAN (Friday) Revisiting material from "A Long Story," her meditative recent ECM debut, the Israeli pianist Anat Fort re-enlists that album's featured drummer, Paul Motian. Her regular bassist, Gary Wang, rounds out the trio. At 7 p.m., Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, Chelsea, (212) 620-5000, Ext. 344, rmanyc.org; $18 in advance; $20 at the door.
(Chinen)

TOMAS FUJIWARA AND THE HOOK UP (Wednesday) Mr. Fujiwara's alert drumming has propelled some excellent ensembles on the new-music landscape. Here he presents his own open-ended compositions for a new band with Nate Wooley on trumpet, Brian Settles on tenor saxophone, Mary Halvorson on guitar and Sean Conly on bass. At 8 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (347) 422-0248, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $10. (Chinen)

ARI HOENIG TRIO (Monday) Ari Hoenig, an irrepressibly kinetic drummer, spearheads this quicksilver trio with Orlando Le Fleming on bass, and Gilad Hekselman on guitar. At 10:30 p.m. and midnight, Smalls, 183 West 10th Street, West Village, (212) 252-5091, smallsjazzclub.com; cover, $20. (Chinen)

INVENTIONS TRIO (Thursday) The pianist Bill Mays, the trumpeter Marvin Stamm and the cellist Alisa Horn constitute the Inventions Trio, which has a chamberlike recent album called "Fantasy" (Palmetto). At 8 p.m., Bargemusic, Fulton Ferry Landing, Brooklyn, (718) 624-2083, bargemusic.org; $35; $20 for students; $30 for 65+. (Chinen)

★ HANK JONES QUARTET (Friday through Sunday) The pianist Hank Jones, still sparkling at 90, represents a period of jazz erudition that still holds many secrets. He's likely to let one or two slip during this run, which includes a respectful conversational partner, the guitarist Russell Malone, along with the bassist Ray Drummond and the drummer Victor Lewis. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 258-9595, jalc.org; cover, $35, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (Chinen)

★ SHEILA JORDAN (Tuesday through Thursday) Ms. Jordan is what they call a musician's singer, sure of phrase and light on her feet. For this celebratory engagement, which kicks off on her 80th birthday, she corrals a handful of the players with whom she has a good rapport, including the pianist Steve Kuhn, the bassist David Finck and the drummer Billy Drummond. (Also on hand: a string quartet stocked with improvisers like the violinist Mark Feldman.) At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 258-9595, jalc.org; cover, $35, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (Chinen)

DAVID KIKOSKI TRIO (Tuesday and Wednesday) David Kikoski, a versatile and adept pianist, will be recording this engagement — with the adaptable bassist Hans Glawischnig and the capable drummer Obed Calvaire — for a forthcoming live recording. At 10:30 p.m., with an additional showing at midnight on Tuesday and at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Smalls, 183 West 10th Street, West Village, (212) 252-5091, smallsjazzclub.com; cover, $20. (Chinen)

RALPH LALAMA QUARTET (Friday and Saturday) Though best known for his work in big bands, the tenor saxophonist Ralph Lalama has no problem applying his nimble style to smaller settings; his quartet here includes the pianist Dave Lalama, his brother. At 10:30 p.m. and midnight, Smalls, 183 West 10th Street, West Village, (212) 252-5091, smallsjazzclub.com; cover, $20. (Chinen)

JO LAWRY (Friday) "I Want to Be Happy" (Fleurieu) is the very fine new debut from Ms. Lawry, an Australian jazz singer with a springlike tone, a nimble technique and a grasp of shading and pacing. Here she regroups the album's strong cast: the vibraphonist James Shipp, the guitarist Keith Ganz, the bassist Matt Clohesy and the drummer Ferenc Nemeth. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen)

JOE LOVANO QUINTET (Friday through Sunday) Joe Lovano has become one of the stalwart jazz saxophonists, partly by triangulating John Coltrane's harmonic inquiry, Ornette Coleman's off-kilter lyricism and Ben Webster's pathos. This quintet, also called "Us 5," includes James Weidman on piano, Esperanza Spalding on bass, Francisco Mela on percussion and Otis Brown III on drums. At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com; cover, $25, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen)

MEPHISTA/ANTHONY COLEMAN (Wednesday) Texture and tonality are flexible elements in Mephista, an exploratory trio with Sylvie Courvoisier on piano, Susie Ibarra on drums and percussion and Ikue Mori on electronics. In a later set Anthony Coleman, a pianist and composer, performs a far-ranging solo recital. At 8 and 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; cover, $10.(Chinen)

★ THE MUSIC OF THELONIOUS MONK (Thursday) The premise is more than solid: Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra playing new arrangements of Thelonious Monk's sturdy and still invigorating compositions. Adding to the appeal is a pair of guests: the Monk-steeped pianist Marcus Roberts and, as host, the news personality Soledad O'Brien. (Through Nov. 22.) At 8 p.m., Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 721-6500, jalc.org; tickets start at $30. (Chinen)

SAM NEWSOME AND LUCIAN BAN (Saturday) The soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome and the pianist Lucian Ban recently teamed up for the "Romanian-American Jazz Suite" (Jazzaway), drawing on their respective backgrounds. They recreate it here with help from the baritone saxophonist and bass clarinetist Alex Harding, among others. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com; cover, $12, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen)

JEREMY PELT QUINTET (Thursday) Jeremy Pelt, a trumpeter with a big tone, a bracing technique and a bold improvisational style, leads his locomotive band with J. D. Allen on tenor saxophone, Danny Grissett on piano, Dwayne Burno on bass and Willie Jones III on drums. (Through Nov. 23.) At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $25. (Chinen)

LOGAN RICHARDSON QUINTET (Thursday) Logan Richardson is a sharp-minded and ambitious young alto saxophonist, as he demonstrated last year with a solid debut, "Cerebral Flow" (Fresh Sound New Talent). Here he spearheads a band with Mike Pinto on vibraphone, Joe Sanders on bass, Nasheet Waits on drums, and Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; cover, $12. (Chinen)

WALLACE RONEY QUINTET (Saturday) "Jazz" (HighNote), the most recent release by the trumpeter Wallace Roney, documents a fierce and free-spirited band, a version of which he leads here. At 8 p.m., Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, 58 Seventh Avenue, at Lincoln Place, Park Slope, (212) 209-3370, bqcm.org; $25; $15 for students and 65+. (Chinen)

ADAM RUDOLPH'S GO: ORGANIC ORCHESTRA (Monday) This meditative large ensemble draws inspiration from earthy and elemental sources. In addition to the composer Adam Rudolph, its ranks include a veritable phalanx of percussion and guitars. At 8:30 p.m., Roulette at Location One, 20 Greene Street, at Grand Street, SoHo, (212) 219-8242, roulette.org; $15; $10 for students. (Chinen)

EMILIO SOLLA AND THE NEW YORK TANGO JAZZ PROJECT
(Thursday) The pianist Emilio Solla fashions a jazz translation of the cafe music of his native Argentina, with help from the saxophonist Chris Cheek, the accordionist Victor Prieto, the bassist Jorge Roeder and the drummer Richie Barshay. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Smalls, 183 West 10th Street, West Village, (212) 252-5091, smallsjazzclub.com; cover, $20. (Chinen)

LENI STERN (Friday) Ms. Stern, a guitarist and singer with an ethereal sensibility, has lately been focusing, intently and fruitfully, on West African music. Her ensemble here includes the Malian kora player Yacouba Sissoko, the bassist Mamadou Ba and the percussionist Makan Kouyate. At 8 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (347) 422-0248, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $10. (Chinen)

TIERNEY SUTTON (Wednesday and Thursday) Throughout her recent album, "On the Other Side" (Telarc), Ms. Sutton applies her pristine vocal style to a bouquet of songs about happiness or unhappiness in love. Her emotional oscillation is often transparent: "Get Happy" appears first as a puzzling dirge and then, more convincingly, as a fizzy delight. (Through Nov. 22.) At 8:30 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080, birdlandjazz.com; cover, $30 and $40, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen)
 
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13 Nov 08 Thursday 1:25 PM

Category: Music
Mitch Mitchell, Drummer for Jimi Hendrix
Experience, Dies at 61
Written by Laurence Arnold
source: www.Bloomberg.com
12 November 2008


Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Mitch Mitchell, the drummer for Jimi Hendrix's seminal 1960s rock trio that melded blues, avant-garde jazz, folk music and electronic noise, has died. He was 61.

Mitchell was found dead in a Portland, Oregon, hotel early today, KGW-TV reported, citing a medical examiner. An autopsy was planned, the station said.

Hendrix, one of music's most celebrated guitarists, joined with Mitchell and bass player Noel Redding to create the Jimi Hendrix Experience in London in 1966. The following year, the band released its debut album, ....Are You Experienced?'' featuring the tracks ....Hey Joe'' and ....Purple Haze.''

The group dissolved shortly before Hendrix's death in 1970. Redding died in 2003.

Mitchell had been performing with a Hendrix tribute band that gave a concert in Portland on Nov. 7, a day after playing in Seattle. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, in an article on the Nov. 6 show, reported:

....Once one of rock's most explosive percussionists, the frail-looking Mitchell was reduced to the role of nostalgic reminder.''

The Jimi Hendrix Experience made a lasting mark on music during its three-year run. In a span of 18 months, the group recorded ....Axis: Bold as Love'' and ....Electric Ladyland'' as well as ....Are You Experienced?'' All three were ....landmark albums,'' according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In addition, Hendrix's ....theatrical, incendiary performances at the Monterey Pop and Woodstock festivals, including the ceremonial torching of his guitar at Monterey, have become part of rock and roll legend,'' the Hall of Fame says in an online tribute to the group, inducted in 1992.

Mitchell played with Hendrix at Woodstock after the Experience broke up. Along with bassist Billy Cox, he also worked with the guitarist on 1970's ....Cry of Love'' album.

John ....Mitch'' Mitchell was born on July 9, 1947, in England.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Arnold in Washington at larnold4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 12, 2008 17:15 EST
 
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13 Nov 08 Thursday 4:40 AM

Category: Music
Obama-Be, Obama-Bop
Celebrating a historic night with
 once-cynical jazz heavyweights
Written by Larry Blumenfeld
source: The Village Voice
11 November 2008




Why not hit a jazz club or two on Election Day, especially when you're rooting for the first black man to make a serious run at the presidency—a guy who still puts up a worthy jump shot, by the way—against a white man born before bebop was even a word?

At least two Manhattan clubs served up politics with their jazz Tuesday night. At the Jazz Standard, beneath Danny Meyer's upscale BBQ joint, Blue Smoke, the dinner menu had been dressed up with all manner of corny puns (depending on your chicken-sauce preference, there were "leftwings" or "right"). The Standard's plan was for bassist Ben Allison to lead his Medicine Wheel band, along with "special election coverage," in the form of between-song updates, from NPR commentator Brooke Gladstone and Slate staffer Fred Kaplan, who writes with equal passion about suicide bombers and saxophone solos. Hell, that sounded a lot better than a night of nail-biting in front of a TV, staring at Anderson Cooper's furrowed brow and Wolf Blitzer's beard.

Seth Abramson, who books the Standard, had long been intrigued by the not-too-coded messages embedded in Allison's musical life: His 2006 CD, Cowboy Justice, contains the track "Tricky Dick," a Cheney allusion that Allison took still further by naming another band Man Sized Safe, in honor of the one in the VP's office, as revealed in a Washington Post profile. Allison must have taken particular offense at Sarah Palin's convention-speech derogation of the term "community organizer": Back in the Clinton years, he'd formed the Jazz Composers Collective, a musician-run nonprofit dedicated to creative freedom and a sense of, um, community.

As vote tallies trickled in, Medicine Wheel shifted rhythms, textures, and musical styles with remarkable fluidity. Moving through two original tunes, "Spy" and "Roll Credits," the band seemed not unlike Obama himself: exciting mostly through competence and intelligence, liberal-minded but not truly radical. Kaplan and Gladstone sat stage left, heads buried in their laptops, awaiting Allison's signal to chime in.

7:50 p.m.—First update. The pair, a husband-and-wife team less amusing than James Carville and Mary Matalin (in part because they're on the same page), was nonetheless disunited: he optimistic, she wary. The facts: Kentucky for McCain, Vermont for Obama; Florida leaning blue, Virginia tinting red.

Allison's band offered a tender version of Andrew Hill's "Love Is Proximity," with violinist Jenny Scheinman thoughtfully underscoring Michael Blake's tenor-sax solo.

8:11 p.m., more facts—Pennsylvania closing for Obama. Mark Warner wins a Senate seat in Virginia. Gladstone, grinning: "Elizabeth Dole is going down!"

Drummer Michael Sarin dug a deep groove into Allison's "Blabbermouth." 8:32 p.m.—Set's end. Electoral-vote count: Obama, 103; McCain, 34. Gladstone held her pensive air, but Kaplan waved her off: "Looks good, folks."

From there, I cabbed down to the Blue Note to check in with Charlie Haden. Now 71, the bassist has long voiced anti-establishment ideas, both through his music—most overtly with his Liberation Music Orchestra, formed in 1968 and reconvened during each Republican administration—and simply by speaking out, as he did a few years back in a good, long interview on Democracy Now. I'd caught Haden's Orchestra at the Village Vanguard on the eve of the 2004 election. After an ominous run through Pat Metheny's "This Is Not America," Carla Bley's minor-key arrangement of "America, the Beautiful," and a gripping version of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" scored for horns, Haden grabbed the mic: "I'm Charlie Haden, and I approve this message." He seemed tense.

"It was as if I wasn't even there," he recalled now, sitting at an empty table in the Blue Note, between sets. "There's a person inside of me that wants to believe things can be different, the way I wish it to be, but I was scared to let that person out. I just knew. The next day, I cried."

A guy with an iPhone poked a head in. It was 9:35. Obama was up, 200 to 87. "I want to relax," Haden said. "But, you know, they can do anything." Haden and his wife, singer Ruth Cameron, wore identical sterling-silver pins shaped like Obama's rising-sun logo. We headed up to the green room. Drummer Matt Wilson and guitarist Steve Cardenas were already there, watching returns on TV. Tuba player Joe Daley asked: "Hey Charlie, if we win, that means the band retires, right?"

10:04 p.m.—Ohio and Pennsylvania both called for Obama.

Not long into Haden's second set, I was reminded how subversive this music is, especially in its close-voiced, often-dissonant harmonies. During "This Is Not America," tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby's modal solo slithered through the tune like a snake in grass. Just after Carla Bley's "Blue Anthem," Allen Broadbent (subbing for Bley) jumped up from the piano bench, shouting, "Obama has won!" Someone had whispered the news in his ear, along with the Democratic electoral vote total: 297. It was 11:20.

"Are you sure?" Haden asked, clutching his bass.

Broadbent nodded.

"Man!" Haden sighed boyishly. He stood silent a few moments. "I guess it's time to play 'Amazing Grace.' " And they did.

I hopped into a cab. Over its radio, I caught a snatch of McCain's concession speech, suddenly drowned out by a black man, head out the window of another cab, issuing a scream of pure joy. Like Haden, I have this person inside of me that wants to believe in better things—long ago lost, now found.


 
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13 Nov 08 Thursday 4:35 AM

Category: Music
Debt retired, Keyboardist Eric Lewis refuses
to be a pawn for jazz establishment
Written by Bob Young
source: The Boston Herald
12 November 2008





When Eric Lewis pulled his bench to the keyboard at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition in 1999, he wasn't worried about performing for a panel of judges that included Herbie Hancock.

He was more concerned about walking away with the $20,000 top prize so he could pay off some hustlers in Manhattan's Washington Square Park.

Lewis, who leads his ELEW group Thursday at Scullers, was $7,000 in debt to what he called "a group of felons" thanks to a speed-chess habit gone bad.

He won the Monk competition.

"All the guys in Washington Square Park knew I won because they all read The New York Times [NYT]," Lewis said from a New York studio where he is composing the soundtrack to an upcoming horror movie. "At the competition, the other players were saying, 'Oh, I'm so happy to be here so Herbie Hancock can hear me.' I went to the competition interview and told them, 'Hey, I'm here to win.'



Lewis went on to tour with Cassandra Wilson after graduating from the Manhattan School of Music, and then worked with Wynton Marsalis, Elvin Jones and Roy Hargrove. Now he's on a mission to stake out his own turf on the music scene - a spot he hopes is closer to stardom than what he calls the "institutional lie" of a traditional jazz education.

He's making headway. Lewis recently was named to the Sundance Channel's "The Next Garde" - a group of emerging innovators changing the cultural landscape. He contributed to the soundtrack of "The Great Debaters" and appeared in the film "The Good Shepherd [trailer]." Last month he performed originals and interpretations of songs by Coldplay, Linkin Park and Evanescence at an event for a group of Barack Obama's advisers. Don't be surprised to see him playing at Inauguration Day festivities.



"The hustlers in Washington Square Park gave me my business education," Lewis said. "They taught me about how things go down in the 'hood. They're felons, but they're colorful geniuses. It taught me that if I wanted something, I had to put my foot down and get it."

The Camden, N.J., native wasn't always that way. In fact, his acquiescence while working with Marsalis is a sore spot he hasn't forgotten.

"What I liked about chess is that I could see a mistake that I made and there was no arguing about it," he said. "Whereas during a six-hour rehearsal with Wynton, he might decide he wanted to go off on me because my sound didn't have enough skank in it, or something was wrong with my comping. It was always very nonspecific. But I was trained to never argue with a teacher, so I didn't."

The post-Marsalis Lewis isn't shy about going after what he wants.

"All those negative experiences are turning profitable for me because they gave me more respect," he said. "The competition in the commercial world is way more intense than in the jazz world. I've decided to see what the celebrity thing is

This is all a dream come true, and it's also vindication. I get to play beautiful music and make people really happy."

Eric Lewis and ELEW, at Scullers, Thursday at 8 p.m. Tickets: $18; Call 617-562-4111.

bobcyoung@verizon.net
 
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13 Nov 08 Thursday 4:30 AM

Category: Music
Jazzfest Berlin '08 Comes to a Resounding
 and Successful Conclusion
source: www.AllAboutJazz.com
12 November 2008



JazzFest Berlin 08 has come to a resounding and successful close. Concluding Festival highlights included appearances by David Sanborn and Herbie Hancock at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and concerts at Quasimodo, A-Trane, and the UdK concert hall on Bundesallee. The multifaceted program assembled by new artistic director Nils Landgren was met with enthusiasm by members of the public and critics alike. The majority of concerts were completely sold out even before the festival opened. Musicians were greeted with standing ovations, and in the large concert hall of the Berliner Festspiele, they even danced to the music.

A terrific beginning for our new festival head Nils Landgren!, said Managing Director Joachim Sartorius. With his musicians love for jazz and his instinct for putting together a captivating and stimulating program, Nils Landgren brought JazzFest 2008 to the point of lift off I look forward to working with him in the coming two years!

After a festival prelude last Wednesday consisting of a trio of jazz films, JazzFest Berlin 08 was launched on November 6 in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele when Vince Mendoza presented his project Blauklang (Blue Sound), sponsored by the WDR, and the WDR Bigband offered a Tribute to Ray Charles with saxophonist Maceo Parker as guest performer. While the public thrilled to the full-bodied sounds in the large concert hall, others embarked on journeys of musical discovery at other venues. Featured were the Avishai Cohen Trio from Israel; drummer Michael Wertmller with Brtzmann and Pliakas; and the extravagant Swedish duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums. Characterizing the program as a whole was an irresistible mixture of the approachable and the experimental, an effective framework for appearances by among others Richard Galliano, Lina Nyberg, Alan Skidmore, Bennie Maupin, Bobo Stenson, Roswell Rudd, Bonerama, The Headhunters, Heinz Sauer, and Ronnie Cuber.

Collaboration with the institutes of the ARD once again took a highly productive and harmonious form. Arne Schumacher, Spokesperson of the ARD Board commented: The fresh impulses of Nils Landgrens program design were a real win for our broadcasts. His stylistic openness was consistent with our sense of a contemporary conception of jazz. This year's festival gives us ample reason to anticipate exciting and fruitful subsequent editions. Altogether three festival evenings were broadcast live by the radio stations affiliated with the ARD, Deutschlandradio Kultur, and the cultural program 1 of the sterreichischen Rundfunk (Austrian Radio). The entire festival program 18 concerts and more than 30 hours of music was recorded in full, and will be broadcast in the coming months.


 
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13 Nov 08 Thursday 4:30 AM

Category: Music
Jazz St. Louis Announces More 2009
Bookings for Jazz at the Bistro
source: www.AllAboutJazz.com
11 November 2008



SOURCE: St. Louis Jazz Notes

Jazz St. Louis has announced additional bookings to fill out the winter/spring 2009 schedule at Jazz at the Bistro:

Friday, January 16 & Saturday, January 17: Lamar Harris
Friday, January 30: Bennett Wood Quartet
Saturday, January 31: Utter Chaos
Friday, March 13 & Saturday, March 14: Funky Butt Brass Band
Friday, March 27 & Saturday, March 28: Legacy Jazz Quintet
Friday, April 24 & Saturday, April 25: Jazz St. Louis All-Stars
Friday, May 8 & Saturday, May 9: Erin Bode
Friday, May 22 & Saturday, May 23: Kim Massie

Three of these ensembles are making their debuts at the Bistro: alto saxophonist Bennett Wood and his quartet; Utter Chaos, which features a front line of trombone and baritone sax modeled on the Bob Brookmeyer/Gerry Mulligan group of the 1950s; and the Funky Butt Brass Band (pictured), a spin-off of the New Orleans-inspired funk/R&B/zydeco group Gumbohead that focuses specifically on the Crescent City's brass band style.

Wood and Utter Chaos have both played at The Gramophone as part of the the Tuesday night series Jazz St. Louis is co-sponsoring there. If they draw sufficient numbers of listeners at the Bistro, it would certainly help validate the notion of those Tuesday shows as another way for JSL to experiment with new talent and programming ideas.

As for the Funky Butt Brass Band, I haven't heard them yet, but I do know the band's tenor saxophonist Ben Reece by virtue of having played a few casual gigs with him. Ben's a good player, and seemed very enthused about the FBBB when I asked him about it a couple of months ago.

Overall, this strikes me as a good, representative mix of new talent and proven attractions (Harris, Bode and Massie), plus the second appearance at the club by the Legacy Jazz Quintet (which includes JSL director of education Phil Dunlap on piano) and the annual gig by the All-Stars, an ensemble of student musicians drawn from JSL's educational programs.

I'd still like to see Jazz St. Louis doing something at the Bistro with both traditional and avant garde/experimental jazz. Executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford and operations director Bob Bennett have indicated to me that they'd consider both if the shows could be made to work from a financial standpoint. So here's a thought: Book a weekend with a traditional jazz band on Friday and something avant garde, experimental and/or free improvisational on Saturday. (Or vice versa.) Booking one night per act instead of a two-night stand would concentrate the turnout, mitigating the financial risks somewhat, and perhaps it could be tied into the organization's educational programs as well.

If nothing else, such a weekend would give young musicians and students a chance to hear, compare and contrast two jazz styles that are currently under-represented at area venues, and who knows, perhaps it could be turned into a genuine teaching moment. There are certainly commonalities between early jazz and the avant garde, such as collective improvisation and the use of vocal-type sounds by brass instruments and extended techniques by reeds, that could be interesting and informative for young players and students (and jazz fans of all ages) to experience and explore.

Tickets for the additional 2009 performances go on sale Tuesday, December 9, 2008 through all Metrotix outlets and the Jazz St. Louis box office.

(Edited slightly after posting to fix a garbled sentence. Edited again to add links.)

Continue...
 
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13 Nov 08 Thursday 4:25 AM

Category: Music
Ten American Bands Chosen to Tour the World
Written by Jeff Tamarkin
source: www.JazzTimes.com
11 November 2008


Jazz at Lincoln Center and the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs have announced the names of 10 ensembles that will tour with The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad program in 2009. American music groups from throughout the United States specializing in jazz, urban/hip hop and other American roots music including blues, bluegrass, Cajun, country, gospel and zydeco were invited to apply for the opportunity to travel abroad to promote cross-cultural understanding, particularly to countries not regularly visited by American musicians. Selected for their artistic integrity, musical ability and educational skills, finalist bands are:

· Brian Horton Quartet
· Chris Byars Quartet (pictured)
· Duende Quartet
· Eli Yamin Blues Band
· Hoppin' John String Band
· NuGenerations
· Roseanna Vitro Quartet
· Ryan Cohan Quartet
· The Student Loan
· Vice Verse All Stars

International tour activities will include public concerts, master classes, lecture-demonstrations, workshops, jam sessions, media outreach and collaborations with local musicians.

Ensembles travel to regions including Africa, Asia, the Balkans, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East for approximately one month in the period beginning February 2009 through June 2009. The program also incorporates free performances by each ensemble hosted by Jazz at Lincoln Center at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center and at the Grosvenor Auditorium at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C.

For more information, please visit The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad at The Rhythm Road.


 
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13 Nov 08 Thursday 4:20 AM

Category: Music
Guitarist Andreas Oberg Partners with
ArtistWorks to Create Online School
Written by Jeff Tamarkin
source: www.JazzTimes.com
12 November 2008


ArtistWorks, Inc., has announced that it has formed a partnership with Resonance Records artist Andreas Oberg to create the "Andreas Oberg Guitar Universe," an online video guitar school. Launching early 2009, the subscription-funded school is expected to attract guitar students from all over the world. Student members post videos on the site and, utilizing ArtistWorks' VMS video handling system, Oberg responds to these student videos from anywhere in the world he is playing. Oberg is offering his personal guidance and suggestions to all levels of players.

Oberg will teach many diverse styles of jazz, pop, fusion and blues. As an additional specialty, Oberg teaches Europe's contribution to the jazz lexicon, Gypsy jazz, the legacy of Django Reinhardt.

For more information, visit Andreas Guitar Universe.


 
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10 Nov 08 Monday 3:45 PM

Category: Music
Miriam Makeba, Singer and Activist, Dies at 76
Provided by Associated Press
source: The New York Times
10 November 2008




Cesare Abbate/European Pressphoto Agency
Miriam Makeba performed in a concert on Sunday night in
southern Italy shortly before she died early Monday

Filed at 2:12 a.m. ET

ROME (AP) -- Miriam Makeba, the South African singer known to fans worldwide as ''Mama Africa'' who became an international symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle, died early Monday after performing a concert in southern Italy, a hospital said. She was 76.

An emergency room official at the Pineta Grande Clinic, a private facility in Castel Volturno, said the singer died after being brought there. Italy's ANSA news agency reported that Makeba may suffered a heart attack at the end of the concert for an Italian journalist threatened by the Naples-area Mafia.

Makeba, often called ''Mama Africa'' and ''the Empress of African Song,'' left South Africa in 1959. She tried to return in 1960 for the funeral of her mother, but her passport was revoked and she was not allowed to enter the country.

She lived in exile for 31 years in the United States, France, Guinea in West Africa and Belgium before having an emotional homecoming in Johannesburg in 1990, when many long-exiled South Africans returned under reforms instituted by then-President F.W. de Klerk.

''I never understood why I couldn't come home,'' Ms. Makeba said upon her return. ''I never committed any crime.''

In 1976, Makeba made speech before the United Nations denouncing the policy of apartheid, or racial segregation. After that, South Africa's government-run radio and television refused to broadcast her songs until 1989.

Entertainer Steve Allen helped launch her career in the United States and she often toured with singer Harry Belafonte during the 1960s. In 1987 she performed with singer Paul Simon on his ''Graceland'' concert tour.

One of her several marriages was to political activist Stokely Carmichael.
 
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10 Nov 08 Monday 12:45 PM

Category: Music
Flamenco Vocalist Concha Buika Comes to
the London Jazz Festival 20th Nov.
source: The London Times Online
9 November 2008




Buika performs at BAM on October 26, 2007
in New York City.

Once heard, never forgotten. Concha Buika's voice is one of the most glorious sounds to have emerged on the international stage in the past couple of years. All sorts of metaphors come to mind: blood-red wine, the sharpened blade of a knife, a cry of pain in a darkened church. The language barrier is really no hindrance at all. When you listen to the Spanish singer, you know instantly that you are in the presence of a rare talent.

She has a chance to convert a new audience this month when she appears at the London Jazz Festival, a season that has cannily expanded its range to include everything from the dub pioneer Dennis Bovell to the Afrobeat showman Femi Kuti (Fela's son) and that quirky string band Carolina Chocolate Drops. With its core audience increasingly made up of thirtysomethings feeling their way into jazz's core repertoire, the event has made a virtue out of venturing to the periphery.

Ironically, despite being hailed as the queen of flamenco fusion, Buika thinks of herself as a jazz singer. Names of great American artists of the past — Coltrane, Ella, Dinah Washington and Betty Carter — are scattered through her conversation. We even devote part of our interview, conducted on a hotel terrace with a serene view of the Lisbon skyline, to a discussion about the relatively obscure Israeli bassist Avishai Cohen. Buika is infatuated with his music.

There are lots of things she loves, in fact. This is a woman who exudes passion and fire, who bursts into volcanic roars of gap-toothed laughter every few minutes. You sense she crams a week's living into every 24 hours. When she tries to find a way to describe how she approaches her vocation, she eventually opts for one of the oldest metaphors of them all: "Art is like — sorry for the expression — f***ing," she says in heavily accented English. "When I sing to you, I want to be inside you. That's what films do, that's what literature does. That's music."

Buika's background is every bit as colourful as her philosophy of life. Born in Palma de Mallorca, she was raised in a poor, all-white neighbourhood where gypsy music and flamenco were part of the soundtrack of the streets. Her father, a left-wing activist and writer from equatorial Africa, returned home when she was still a child, leaving his six offspring to be raised in a strongly matriarchal atmosphere. (Her left arm bears the names, tattooed in her tribal language, of her mother, grandmother, aunts, sisters and nieces. "My muses," she explains.)

Singing was a natural part of daily existence; her mother had a love for the recordings of Charles Aznavour, Sinatra and Miles Davis. In a house full of friends and music, Buika learnt to play guitar, piano and bass. More recently, she has taken up the cello.

Her career began when one of her aunts, a singer, pulled out of a local engagement and asked her to take her place. In the years that followed, Buika led a footloose existence, recording dance singles, playing all sorts of gigs and, at one stage, relocating to London and — believe it or not — Slough. Eight years ago, she even went to Las Vegas, where she found a niche as a Tina Turner tribute singer.

The mother of a young son, she was once part of a bisexual ménage à trois. All in all, she makes Amy Winehouse seem almost staid.

In retrospect, she sees her wanderings as part of a quest: "My voice is older than me. She was waiting for me. I wasn't ready before." She begins to laugh again. "Thank God, after 36 years, I see myself in the mirror and I recognise myself. That's success."

Her career hit its stride when she was taken under the wing of the renowned producer and songwriter Javier Limon — best known for overseeing the hit album Lagrimas Negras, a collaboration between the elderly Cuban pianist Bebo Valdes and the charismatic flamenco singer known as El Cigala. Buika's 2005 album Mi Niña Lola proved a runaway success, Limon providing an elegant, jazz-tinged backdrop for the singer's mesmerising vocals. Think of Billie Holiday mixed with a hint of the 1980s pop star Sade, and the spirit of the buleria, and you have some idea of the album's range. The follow-up release, Niña de Fuego — which features a striking nude photograph of Buika on the cover — is every bit as accomplished.

She seems unaffected by all the attention. Working with Limon, she says, involves none of the usual record-label compromises. When she was first making her way in the world, she got used to tucking her wages down the front of her dress. Not much seems to have changed since then. What matters, she says, is "living with an open heart".

Not that she neglects the technical side. Studying the cello is part of a mission to push herself as hard as she can as an artist and songwriter. She has no time for vocalists who do not trouble themselves with theory: "They complain there is a machismo in the music world. Then you ask, do you know about harmony? No. Do you compose? No. Do you play an instrument? No. I love the freedom playing an instrument brings. Can you imagine if, any time you needed to write, you had to ask someone to come to your house with a pencil? You are in jail. You are enslaved to someone."

Concha Buika plays the QEH, SE1, on November 20; 0871 663 2505, www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk


 
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10 Nov 08 Monday 12:30 PM

Category: Music
New Amsterdam Musical Association's jazz jam
 is longest-running show in town;
since 1922 in NYC
Written by Clem Richardson
source: www.NYDailyNews.com
9 November 2008




Smith for News

New Amsterdam Music Association Chairman Willie
Mack in the organization's W. 130th St.
headquarters.


It has to be the longest-running party in the city.

Jazz musicians still flock to The New Amsterdam Musical Association's headquarters at 107 W. 130th St. for the weekly Monday night jam session, where anyone with an instrument and ability can join in the mix.

It's been that way since 1922, when NAMA members pooled their money and bought the rambling brownstone.

Nowadays, musicians like 13-year-old prodigy Solomon (King Solomon) Hicks join board chairman Willie Mack, financial secretary Shanelle Jenkins, archivist Chuck Foster and musicians William Pyatt, Barbara Pyatt, John Richardson, Albert Sheldon, Steven Sink, Fred Staton and Willie Mitchell in musically setting the place on fire.

On a recent night, groups of four to 12 musicians crowded onto the red-curtained stage at one end of the rundown room that, with its prominently battered but tuned piano, could pass for a movie version of a 1930s speakeasy in more ways than one.

The occasional wafts of sweat, stale cigarette smoke and liquor make it smell like one, too.

The music is always passable, and sometimes it's jump-out-of-your-seat brilliant.

The musicians play off each other and seem to know how to squeeze the best effort out of their bandmates, no matter how long they have been playing together.

NAMA was created in 1901 by black musicians who were barred from joining Local 310, the white musicians local. Incorporated in 1905, the group's long list of prominent members has included James Reese Europe - the founder of the legendary Harlem Hellfighters Orchestra, who is credited with introducing jazz to Europe - and Eubie Blake.

Henry Minton, who founded the famed jazz venue Minton's Playhouse, was a member, and pianist Jelly Roll Morton had a room upstairs, he said.

Solomon's mother, Holly Sampson Hicks, said that history is one reason she brings her son to play there.

"I love the way they have embraced him," she said of the NAMA members. "I could not ask for better teachers for my son."

Mack explained that black musicians formed the group as a way to get jobs because they were shut out of the union.

"It worked so well that the local ended up admitting them," he said.

MACK, a saxophonist, has been a NAMA member since 1968, when a friend introduced him.

"He used to practice in the courtyard there at Harlem Hospital," Mack said. "He was doing some things on his saxophone that I never heard before."

That man told Mack he had picked up some tricks from Gladys Seales, a saxophonist and NAMA member.

"It's been so long ago, I almost forgot about it," he said.

Even as the musicians jammed, other NAMA members met in a crowded second-floor room to map out the building's future.

The group hopes to completely renovate the four-story building, improve the music hall and add rehearsal studios.

They also have plans to renovate two apartments, which could be rented out to musicians, Mack said.

"We want to keep things going uptown, especially for the young people," Mack said.

To help, call NAMA at (212) 234-2973, or contact Mack at williejmack@yahoo.com.

 
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10 Nov 08 Monday 10:40 AM

Category: Music
Music Review: Charlie Haden Liberation Music
 Orchestra ~ Songs with a Political Kick but
Without the Anxiety
Written by Ben Ratliff
source: The New York Times
7 November 2008



Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Charlie Haden


Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra is rather obviously a leftist band. But on Wednesday night it wasn't ready to gloat.

Anyway, it doesn't do party music. Over the course of nearly 40 years, Mr. Haden, the jazz bassist, has sporadically convened the group out of worry. Vietnam, United States involvement in Central America, South African apartheid, the Iraq war: these have been the occasions for its albums and tours. The music written for the band, by Mr. Haden, Carla Bley and others, makes use of folk forms, marches and anthems — people's music — but it's all rearranged, put through a prism, warped a little, forced into broader meanings. It gives you nationalist thoughts, but critical, questioning ones.

"Is everybody happy?" Mr. Haden asked the crowd at the beginning of the first set. Then his voice grew measured: "Now we can play in a way where the music still means what it means, but we can blend in some other aspects of character and personality."

He was talking about the character of the musicians in his band, not the revolutionary subjects of some of his pieces, like "Song for Che" or "Sandino." There were 12 musicians onstage, and the pianist Alan Broadbent acted as a kind of musical director, standing up to cue and conduct some of the band's more recent music, including a sweet-and-sour rewriting of "America the Beautiful" that incorporates "Lift Every Voice and Sing," often called the Negro national anthem.

The new version of the band has a particularly strong saxophone section, which carried the set. In Ms. Bley's clever and stirring piece "Blue Anthem," full of half-hidden quotations (including one from "La Marseillaise"), Chris Cheek, on alto saxophone, played an explanatory, logical solo, perfectly following the lines of the song's harmony. And at two different points — in "This Is Not America" and "Amazing Grace" — Tony Malaby, playing tenor, did something extraordinary. He began soloing with assurance, then suddenly shifted into inappropriate keys, for long stretches.

But it wasn't empathetic free-jazz intuition, and couldn't be understood as such, over broad-shouldered, consonant songs like these. It was more abrupt and combative than that, more like a Charles Ives ear-stretching exercise; not polytonality but vigorous dissent. This was exactly right for the music and the band.

The Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra performs through Sunday at the Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village; (212) 475-8592, bluenote.net.
 
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