Jazz and Peach Cobbler

Among the mutually insane schedules everyone I know is keeping these days, some good friends congregated from their various points of origin for one night and day of some of the best Jazz being played anywhere. The Monterey Jazz Festival is an annual event of epic musical proportions; one I've heard about almost every year since I was 11 but had never been to. At Katrina's kind invitation, an auspicious surplus of grounds passes, and an agreement that I would eat as much Peach Cobbler as was sent my way, I was able to attend this years festival.

The drive down the peninsula was gorgeous, anyone who was outside in Northern California that weekend will agree that it was some of the finest weather all year. I spent Friday hanging out with my sister at her digs in Santa Cruz, which was awesome. Then after a tasty breakfast I jumped in the little red convertible and shot down the 1 to Monterey. Everyone else was just ponying up to go over when I got there and I hastily dumped my stuff and joined them.

The first act we saw was a young guy named Matthew Bourne, a Brit with a very -- interesting musical style. I wish his website had some links to some of his music because there really is no good way to verbally explain it. What he does is blend the use of a sampler and his piano, looping selected portions of film, books on tape, music from Pinocchio and others as a source for the 'sample' that he then dissects on the piano. In effect he reduces the sample to it's emotional touchstones and then riffs on that, sometimes going to the extreme mellow, sometimes to the extreme outrageous. It was a disturbing and uncomfortable performance to sit through, which we in fact did not, but it was also a glimpse at one musician's take on the true essence of what Jazz is about. I requested a copy of his demo/promo CD from the website and hopefully that'll lend itself to these scant words.

Walking out of that, Katrina and I re-joined Alex and Vanessa outside and saw some killer Blues being laid out. As one of my witty companions put it, "After listening to that even Britney Spears would sound sweet." The day held yet more pleasures. We sat in on a fascinating talk with Branford Marsalis about the condition of the Jazz world, the relationships between established musicians and the young up-and-comers, and the relationship between Jazz and the ever-present commercial consumerism. The man had some wonderful things to say, and some moving things to share, and some things that he just wasn't at all hesitant to get off his chest.

Dinner was also an affair to remember. I think we spent almost as much time trying to decide what to eat as we did taking in all the jazz. There were just too many good choices. And the cobbler, oh the cobbler. It was a heads-up comparison between two competing booths. One had great cobbler and the other had great ice cream. I was STUFFED.

Back to the music. We saw The Army Blues, Mavis Staples, the Miguel Zenon Quartet, The John Scofield Band and more. Katrina and I were able to snag two single seats in a full house for the first set with Joey Calderazzo and his trio, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Jeff 'Tain' Watts, both of whom play in Branford's quartet along with Joey. It was a moving performance. Midway through Joey called their friend and colleague, the jazz musician Michael Brecker, at his hospital room back east where he is awaiting a bone marrow procedure (info here). He had told him he wanted to play a song he wrote for him to his Voicemail and that, so he wouldn't disturb him because of the time difference, he should leave his phone off. Except that Michael answered the phone and surprised Joey. They talked for a few moments before he set the phone down on the piano and they played one of the most beautiful straight-ahead jazz compositions I've heard in awhile. It was short, simple and very, very deep.

After that Vanessa and I hustled over to the arena where we did a little arena pass switcheroo with Warren so we could catch the last twenty minutes of (drum roll please) TONY BENNETT. Holy cow. What a showman, what pipes that man has. The last of the truly great big band voices and he was fantastic. I could have gone home happy right then. Instead we accosted a couple of early departees for their arena passes (right in front of Clint Eastwood I might add), and then, since we could all go in now, watched Mavis Staples sing her lungs out with the John Scofield Band, and then we wandered home.

Back at the motel, wine was drunk, cheese and fruit consumed, and laughs were had. I woke up bright and early and had to wait until 9a for the spa to open, then I spent a very relaxing hour reading and cooking myself in the hot tub and the sauna.

Mmmmmm.

Elephants!

I drove the motorhome on a GM Goodwrench TV commercial shoot up to Grass Valley for two days. I'd never been to Grass Valley before, it's quite a charming little town. And these two elephants were certainly the largest quadrupeds to ever walk their streets. Incidentally, if anyone was curious what the going day-rate for two adult African elephants, their wranglers, and food and transportation might be it'll run you around 5500.00, which, pound for pound, is a helluva deal if you ask me.

Oh yeah, not having anticipated seeing something photo worthy, these are all taken with my camera phone, so please excuse the poor quality. Still, I think you'll agree, they are discernably elephants.


Eight tons of fun


With a wrangler

Songs to Wear Pants To

Mom's birthday coming up? Your two month anniversary is just around the corner? What better way to say "I love you" than with a custom written song. Check out what these satisfied customers ordered:

"If you could help me out with something that would be great. I really like this girl, but I don't know how to express it. If you could write a song about her with her beautiful light blue eyes, long brown hair, and great athletic body, that would be awesome."
Song About a Girl

"I need a muzak/elevator music version of the Village People's song YMCA for use in a play I'm sound designing. The characters enter a gay Denny's restaurant and this would be funny in the background."
Muzak YMCA

Back in the U.S.A., What the hell is going on around here?

I'm back in the states and have been for three weeks. In those three weeks I haven't blogged a thing due to one thing or another. School, work, seeing old friends who were visiting. I've been enjoying the weather, trying to re-assimilate to life here, and hanging out with my dog.

It's been weird not writing, but also it kinda became easier and easier not to do as the days passed. I had every intention of doing a huge photo post, and an update about my thoughts on the end of the trip and on the summer in general, but all of that just seemed too self-centered given the state of affairs elsewhere in our country. I've also, like many of you I'm sure, been absolutely fixated on what is going on In LA and the Southlands. The hurricane has damaged a hell of a lot more than just cities, towns and homes. More lives have been lost as a result of the hurricane and the mismanagement of the aftermath than have happened since the SF earthquake in 1906 in which about 6000 people were killed.

There is a vast amount of information that has to be sifted through in order to find what is really going on. Fortunately there are several people I know who already spend much of their time scouring the news and media sources. These are a few links to some of the most moving/startling/outrageous information available.

Interview with Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans

FEMA Daily Stupidity

Site that cites ONLY verifiable sources, pretty balanced coverage

This is just a few, I don't have time to put everything here but if you're interested, Rick Abruzzo has put together a pretty comprehensive collection of resources and I can email it to you upon request.

On another note, I plan to start writing as often as possible again, so the blog will be updated as necessary. I've been periodically checking my own blog in the last few weeks to see if someone had posted something new unbeknownst to me... I know how that sounds, but hey, it could've happened. At any rate I'm back online now.