IAJE and Cornelia Street
Jan 14, 12:47 PM
IAJE Jazz Madness. I always feel very overwhelmed after these Jazz Extravaganzas. I saw some great music, heard some insightful conversations/debates, met some great new people and connected with old friends and colleagues. Some highlights:
Mike Murley and Dave Liebman – Dave was Mike’s teacher and Mike was my teacher when I played saxophone. Mike actually reminded me that I was one of his first saxophone students, along with Tara Davidson (whose solo on the Paul Read concert was one of the highlights of the conference for me as well). You should check Tara out. She and I played together in the Toronto All-Star Big Band when we were kids and I hadn’t heard her play live since that time.
I went to several clinics that were very interesting and great for networking. The most interesting was the Blog session that featured new friend David Ryshpan and old friends and colleauges Darcy James Argue and David Adler
Speaking of Darcy, his Secret Society North show was great – featuring among others the great Ingrid Jensen on trumpet and Gordon Webster on piano. I had seen the NY version of the band and hearing it in a bigger room with a huge sound system seemed to make the music even more exciting (if that’s possible) and cranked the band’s energy level. I wish that all that the people who had heard the other big band shows had been at Darcy’s show as well. He got a great turnout but nothing like the Humber show which featured music by Vince Mendoza and was very beautiful but didn’t quite move me as much.
I was partly in Toronto because Marty Ehrlich (who I work with under my Orange Grove hat was performing with Myra Melford at IAJE. Their set was possibly the most creative music making I heard all week. Every tune was a new creation and full of such soul and passion. I wish I had taken some video. If you haven’t checked out Spark! yet, you definitely should.
I also had a great time hanging out with my brother Ernesto and although our CBC interview didn’t work out we will do it at a later date for sure.
I got back on Saturday night in time to play last night at Cornelia Street Cafe with Jeremy Udden, Mike Baggetta and Dan Loomis . Thanks to those who came out to see us. Unfortunately, I messed up turning my audio recorder on so I have nothing to post. We had a great time though and will hopefully play again sometime soon.
With the APAP conference in town there are a million things to see in the city tonight. I will be checking out a few different shows:
Liali Biali at the Living Room at 7PM, Ayelet Rose Gottlieb at 9:30 at Drom and The New York Voices at 10:30 at The BlueNote. Whew. Hope I make it to all of these tonight!
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