Monday, March 23, 2009

For all, I care

it's all about the commas. Meanwhile...

The Bad Plus dissect their classical "covers" on the new album, with video and choreography to boot. I'm jealous, and now curious to hear about the cover covers. (The epic series of Wynton posts is great to, and has been discussed roundly on the interweb.)

Ryshpen thinks about how to approach the avant-garde if you're on the outside looking in.

The last month plus of stuff over at D:Out, especially the Ornette and the Headhunters stuff, is fantastic.

I'm baffled by twitter, much as I am by texting, but it certainly has possibilities as a kind of haiku, as being explored by old friend Jed Wilson and Christopher Walken. Also, many congratulations to Jed and his wife Deena on their new baby!

My bracket picks on Facebook are in the top 2 percent, with 15 of the Sweet 16 still in, which gets me a whopping 7,448th place. I'm so proud... (hides in corner)

Dave Douglas gets asked about practicing. Many of the responses are great, and I'll try to pick this thread up soon.

If you missed it, old friend Rudresh Mahanthappa was on Fresh Air earlier this month. The whole thing is great, but the sound clips of Carnatic saxophone playing blew my mind.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Gigs to see- March/early April

I missed a lot of good ones so far in March, but there's still plenty to check out

Best bets (three way tie)

3/20-21: Cassandra Wilson @ the Regattabar (waaay too expensive, but she is amazing)
3/28- huge bill of Quartet of Happiness, Scurvy, the amazing Mostly Other People Do the Killing and Ronald Reagan at the Cambridge Y
4/3- The Bad Plus with Wendy Lewis @ Berklee Performance Center

Other good stuff

3/24- Jeremy Pelt @ Regattabar (so far I'm not convinced of him. Somebody change my mind)
3/26- Christian Scott Quintet @ Scullers
3/26-7- Kenny Barron @ Regattabar
3/28- Eric Friedlander @ Lily Pad
3/28 Jenny Scheinmann @ Regattabar (somebody tell me why they all have to be on the same night?)
4/3-4/4- John Scofield @ Regattabar
4/15 Florencia Gonzales Big Band @ Ryles

I have my tickets to The Bad Plus, want to get to Chrstian Scott after what I heard at Newport and have to decide between all those gigs on the 28th- MOPDTK probably win.  

See a couple people I ain't got to in a minute.

I'm trying to get back to blogging after this very long hiatus- my life has been insanely busy. Mostly good busy, but very busy.  A few personal updates:

- I am about three months away from completing a 500 hour yoga teacher training at South Boston Yoga, which is absolutely amazing, but pretty all consuming, especially for someone with no background in human anatomy.  If you're in Boston and haven't taken class with David or Todd, the co-owners yet, I can't recommend it highly enough.

- I am also teaching a lot more yoga, regularly at Spirit Bear Power Yoga, and soon Equinox on Franklin Street, in addition to the Beacon Hill chain, and as a sub at the beautiful new A Little Yoga in Wellesley.  I will be updating the teaching page soon.

- I am hoping to finish album #3, a collection of duos, some dating back several years, this summer with some live Johnny Carcrash performances.  Stay tuned.

There are about seven thousand things that have caught my eye in blogdonia, and I'm hoping to say more about it in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned.