The Guardian in England just gave a nice review of a performance I did with Curtis Stigers. In it John Fordham offers one of the best pull-quotes I’ve ever been able to share. “Stigers’s backing musicians looked like a convention of accountants, but they delivered a blues and mainstream-swing accompaniment with engaging zest…” The full […]
I decided to “jailbreak” my iPhone 4 the other day. I did it for one reason and only one reason: I wanted a quick and easy shortcut to adjusting the brightness of my screen, and now I have it! I just double-click the status bar and a handy slider comes up no matter what else […]
I developed this event calendar plugin because I wanted a performance calendar to use right here on my own website. In the process I tried to create something that was flexible and easy to use and would work for more than just musicians. I’ve added a few features since it started… beginning and end dates […]
I had the opportunity to visit the Steinway & Sons factory in Hamburg yesterday while I was on tour with Curtis Stigers. A friend put me in touch with the artist relations director there and it was a short taxi ride from the hotel to the factory. I was welcomed warmly by everyone I met […]
OK. This is total geekiness, but that’s just who I am. I’ve spent the last few hours (at least!) looking for any documentation that explains how to have a playlist you create in JPlayer loop by default. I knew it had to be possible since there’s a nifty “repeat” command built right into the player. […]
I just redesigned the website for my piano trio, TRI-FI. I tried for a more fun design style and I’ve got it set up to sell CD-quality downloads and 24bit HD audio downloads right from the website. Hopefully it will make us rich and famous – or at least “jazz famous…”
One of the perks of being a working jazz musician is the travel. Many would complain this is one of the worst parts, which is technically also true because being away from family, dealing with airlines and dragging suitcases and equipment in and out of hotels can be tedious to say the least. But if […]
“Dig and be dug” is a phrase I use often and it’s pretty simple concept that we as jazz artists often forget about. I see it as the Golden Rule for music – do unto others as you’d have them do to you. Apply that to checking out other musicians’ playing and the concept is […]
Just launched! I created this WordPress site for my friend, Keith Hall. He’s a drummer & educator living in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He’s using this new site to showcase his performance credits (he plays with me in my trio, TRI-FI) as well as his educational programs. He’s doing a lot of great stuff – from summer […]
Neil Tesser has said some nice things about me before in reviews of my work with Curtis Stigers, and even the occasional nice thing to me face to face (you know that’s a joke if you’ve ever met him). In his list of Yuletide Jazz CDs he includes A TRI-FI Christmas and has this to say:
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is a carol written by John Baptiste Calkin way back in 1872 to a poem written by Henry Wadworth Longfellow. I guess it’s a lesser-known carol, but it’s always been one of my favorites. It’s a short melody that I expanded with an intro, an interlude and a longer coda to record on “A TRI-FI CHRISTMAS” – plus a few jazzy solos of course…
Just launched! I converted Helen Yee‘s website to WordPress. She’s a multi-instrumentalist and composer here in NYC – playing violin and Chinese instruments (and occasionally a cake pan – you’ll need to visit her site for an explanation of that one). She came up with the original design and color scheme using PowerPoint – I […]