Claudio Rochat-Felix and Michael Marcus at 418 Public House:  Drums, Bass, and Saxophone.  Really cool chance to stretch on things and mess with forms in interesting ways.

Claudio, Tim Kennedy, Ian Sheridan, and Thomas Marriott at Vito’s:  First time playing with Tom and a great time playing tunes and interacting as a quintet.

Eric Hullander, Owen Ross, and Tyler Graves at the Seamonster:  Another standards gig, for the most part, but run through the Seamonster lens.

Bill Bradburd, Geoff Harper, and Tim Kennedy at the Columbia City Gallery:  Sort of a Dexter and Hayes reunion; it had been too long since I’d played with Bill!

Jacob Zimmerman jam session:  This was just Jacob and me playing saxophone and talking; I left his house really motivated to continue getting deeper into playing music!

I was really happy to be a little busier in town with different people; Although I always feel connected to the music community in Seattle, this added something different to the connection, in a great way.

I also participated in a student recital as a teacher for the first time!  Although I still want my focus to be performance, I really enjoy teaching kids, and I was happy and proud that some of my students were able to perform in front of friends and family.  Hopefully the first of more to come.

Last but not least, this past weekend I played in the Lucky Mystery Now Orchestra, which was essentially a conglomeration of several funk groups including the Polyrhythmics, and performed original music written and arranged by Lucky Brown.  Many of the other Polyrhythmics members have known Lucky for years and years, but I’ve known him just for the last year or so, and I admire his dedication and energy that he puts toward his music.  To see him in front of the LMNO so happy to hear us play what he wrote was inspiring to me, and something I hope to remember as I continue to write and perform.

I enjoy playing music at bars and smaller clubs; I think the social/party atmosphere can really help people get over their discomfort at trying to get into types of music they don’t hear very often.  If the setting is too formal, I feel as though listeners sometimes question their own reactions to the music, because they think they need to know more to enjoy it.

That being said, I don’t get a chance to play at concert or recital halls very often, and to be able to do it while at Central was an awesome opportunity.  Something about the darkened hall and silence as everyone there focuses on the sounds to come creates an atmosphere that can heighten the experience.  The audience was attentive but also threw out some great energy, which really helped us rock out a bit at times, and in the end we put on a great show, which is always at least part of the goal.  Hope to do it again soon!

Posting from my phone for the first time, while riding in the van with the Polyrhythmics in Idaho! I plan on putting up an album with some of the more beautiful views when I get back home.

This is the longest amount of time that I have been on the road, traveling and playing music, and this is after traveling with Hardcoretet the previous weekend, so the last month or so has been an interesting combination of lots of time with my bandmates and lots of time meeting new people that came out to the shows, which has been encouraging and enlightening.

I am still learning about engaging and connecting with listeners at shows. In both live stage performance and face-to-face contact, I feel like there are opportunities to really bring an audience further into the experience without compromising my own personal musical expression, and I feel as though I don’t always do that, which is something I can work on.

Loving this time traveling and playing, but also excited to return home to Seattle with some major motivation and direction!

Art

It’s been a really fun run of performances the last couple of weeks.  Polyrhythmics had a memorable mountain show at the top of Heavenly Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe, Hardcoretet played the Comet Tavern for the first time with two great bands in Industrial Revelation and Skerik and really got to rock out, and there were a couple of pick-up gigs that felt great for my playing:  Grant and Delvon (airing out an old Pocket Change tune!), sitting in with McTuff, and a semi-Dexter-and-Hayes-reunion with Tarik, Tim, and Ian.

In addition, I’ve been able to take a little bit more time and practice, which has made a huge difference (what a surprise).  I hope to keep the momentum going in the coming birthday month!

I love that movie.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve enjoyed a real boost in new stuff to listen to.

When I heard that Easy Street Records in Lower Queen Anne was going away, I headed over to Sonic Boom in Ballard.  I hope to make it a monthly trip.  I bought “Oblique”, by drummer and composer Tyshawn Sorey.

I’ve also been rocking the library quite a bit, which is a HUGE resource.  Between the opportunity to place holds on items at any branch and the jazz sections that I can comb through whenever I go in, I’ve found a lot of great stuff.  Checked out albums by Loren Stillman (also the saxophonist on “Oblique”), Donny McCaslin, Ike Sturm, Ben Allison, and several other jazz artists, as well as Noah and the Whale, Little Dragon, and other bands from different genres.  It feels great!

I’m really hoping this recent boom will help me find some more specific ideas and approaches to both improvising and composing, and I’m excited to see if that’s the case.

It may be a bit early for this, but I don’t care.

So…I had planned a New Year’s-themed post, with resolutions and everything, and then realized I would basically be typing the same thing I typed last year.

Sigh…

I was not exactly stellar in following through on my resolutions.  When I look back on 2012, though, I don’t regret all that much of what I did, even if some of it was contrary to those resolutions.  For the most part, I moved forward, took care of business as best I could, and took some chances too.  I will say this:  I wish I had more pictures.  For all the jerking around Facebook can sometimes do with us, and although it can have some pretty negative effects on my social interaction, I was happy to have a timeline to look back on this year.

There have been a fair amount of changes; nothing huge, just a lot of social and personal things.  I made new friends, adjusted to changes with old ones, played and heard a lot of inspiring music, taught and learned from fun students, and kept a roof over my head.  I don’t want to ask for much more than that.

Hi all!

Happy holiday season to everyone; so far the Winter has me settling in to a new living space in the Magnolia area of Seattle and getting my playing and teaching schedule together, hopefully in some kind of sustainable manner.

Bands have been progressing forward in really notable ways: tours, new venues, and plans to record; and I’m very happy to be teaching excited students, which hopefully become greater in number in the next year. If you know of anyone, of any age, interested in lessons, please do not hesitate to have them shoot me an email!

The hot weather took its time, but it is finally here, and my schedule has been pretty effective as far as getting me out there to enjoy it!

Festival performances with the Polyrhythmics and Theoretics have been really fun, especially because I hadn’t really gone to many music festivals before, either as an audience member or a performer.  The last few months really hooked me (combining car-camping with live music in the outdoors?  How can you go wrong?) and I hope to make it a tradition to go to at least 1 or 2 each Summer, regardless of whether I’m playing.

It’s not over yet though; I’m excited to hit the road in the next couple of months with both Polyrhythmics and Hardcoretet.  Also, Hardcoretet will be enjoying some new musical partnerships soon.  Time to start composing!

I ran across an interview with Nature Conservancy scientist Joe Kiesecker where he talked a bit about keeping in touch with his childhood friends from Brooklyn, some of which “are in prison, and a few are no longer with us.” When asked why they’ve stayed friends even in those cases where their lives went in such different directions, he said:

“They’re real people. I spent most of my career in academia. Those people think what they’re doing is the most important thing in the world; they think that because they’re only talking to other academics. My childhood friends were my connection back to that real world.”

This answer made me stop because I think about my life in a similar way fairly frequently. I think it’s important to value the opinions of my friends that aren’t musicians as much as those that are musicians for reasons similar to Kiesecker’s; they keep me aware of how my musical life appears and sounds to people.

I also love that they share music and bands with me that I never would have listened to, and (hopefully) when I share my music with them it’s something they wouldn’t have heard otherwise.

Bottom line, the more varied experiences my friends have around me, the better off I will be, and I’m thankful to have so many different personalities in my life.

- Art

Taking a moment to send a general thanks out to the amazing community of musicians and music-lovers I’ve met recently. Whether it’s a small town or a big one, huge stage or tiny room, the support that I’ve gotten from those who are listening is essential to me; I could not perform music otherwise. In addition, I’m humbled and thankful to have been given amazing opportunities to play with incredible musicians, all of whom are also beautiful human beings. Every day my goal should be to live up to the standards and examples set by these two groups.

Okay enough schmooze, carry on.