All About Jazz published an extensive review/recap of the Portland Jazz Festival today in their online edition. There’s also a shorter version that appears in this month’s print version of All About Jazz:New York. I’m mentioned a couple of times in the local section - once for sitting in with Dan Balmer’s band and the other for the casual gig Russ Kleiner put together at the Tugboat with Damian Erskine, Dan Duval, and myself. Here’s the article.
I headed over to the Tugboat tonight, where I caught a set of music by Chris Mosley’s ExStatic band, featuring Damian Erskine, Russ Kleiner, and Tim Willcox. I had brought my tenor along, so I joined in on an entertaining version of “Tenor Madness” as well as “Reunion,” a Mosley original.
I always enjoy hearing Willcox and I’m very much looking forward to his upcoming CD release party.
Most of the rest of the day was spent working on JazzPDX, which is currently down during a server change. When it comes back up, it’ll have a slightly different look, and the capability for quite a few new features. I’m looking at the possibility of podcasting from the site (maybe with some collaborators), which is something I’m pretty excited about.
This weekend I start teaching at Cadenza Academy, the music education center Mike Pardew is a part of.
Last night was E4’s first show since the summer. We played at Jimmy Mak’s, subbing for Balmer while he’s on tour. We had a good sized crowd that actually stuck around through the second set.
We were lucky to have a number of friends stop by at sit in, including Ben Darwish, Shelly Rudolph, and Russ Kleiner. Also nice to see other new and old friends like journalist Tom D’Antoni, bassist Eric Gruber (who has played often in my acoustic band), and jazz super-fan and community activist Pam Jones.
Instead of the usual E4 setup, we tried it with Clay playing mostly acoustic piano, Damian on his new fretless, and me splitting my time between alto and tenor. I liked the new sound - I think there was a bit more flexibility than our usual style.
I’m hoping to get some pictures from the event soon, but for now, here’s a clip from my composition “Weasel Socks”:
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