Hi all,

Just finished a busy couple of weeks.  I playing three weekends in July at the Icicle Creek Chamber Festival.  The first week I played Schubert's Trout Quintet with Ian Swansen, Karen Dreyfus, Sally Singer and Kristina Dahl.  The Second and third week I played with the festival chamber orchestra performing the Britten Serenade, followed by the Dvorak Serande.  There were many fantastic performers and I would highly recommend this festival to any serious classical students looking to increase their musicianship and chamber music experience.  I also played with Saul Cline at the Ellensburg Jazz Festival and am gearing up for Four nights at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley in Seattle with Ernestine Anderson!  I am really looking forward to this string of gigs.  The band will be John Hansen on piano, Greg Williamson on Drums and John Goforth on Sax....should be swingin'. 

Other Notable News....

I played a recording session with Larry Murante recently.  Larry is a fantastic singer/song-writer and the session was with Ben Smith on drums.  We'll be back in the studio in November to complete the project.  Check out Larry online, he's listed in my friends on my myspace page. 

Other than that.....just practicing (Bottesini, Bach, suite 5, learning some new tunes) and doing some house projects in the little free time I have.  Hope to hear from you all soon.

I have had a busy couple of weeks.  I played two different movie sound tracks including a John Malkovich movie called "The Great Buck Howard".  I Recorded two tunes on Rich Cole's upcoming cd, one of which with the great Randy Brecker.  I have been nominated for Best Emerging Artist by Earshot (www.earshot.org to vote) and will be performing with Ernestine Anderson at Dimitiou's Jazz Alley (www.jazzalley.com) on December 26th and 27th.  Also, in the new year I will have two cd release parties.  One at Hammond Ashley Violins on Jan. 13th (2:00 p.m.) and one at Tula's in Belltown (T.B.A.).  I will also be performing at The Season's in Yakima on Jan. 12 with a great pianist named Jan Lundgren.

The new record "Hereafter"( www.jonhamar.com), has been doing well and has now been reviewed by Doug Ramsey ( http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/archives/2007/12/recent_listenin_1.html) and is slated to be reviewed by both Double Bassist magazine and International Society of Bassist in their spring issues.

It's not too late to pick up a couple copies for stocking stuffing!  www.cdbaby.com/jonhamar2