Because I play better when I'm breathing... next gig, this Friday.

This weekend I will be playing my first public gig in awhile: I am involved in a Boston Fashion Week benefit at the Langham Hotel on Franklin Street. The website is here. I'll be playing before the runway show with a trio featuring fantastic guitarist Greg Duncan. All proceeds benefit the Zakim Center for Integrative Medicine. It is sort of a collision of my professional worlds- it will be a yoga-heavy crew, and a lot of my friends and colleagues in the yoga world were photographed for the exhibit. I'd love to see you there.

Give, Buy, Listen

Like most of us, I'm sure, I was stunned, dismayed and heartbroken this week by the terrible turn of events in Haiti. There were a number of Haitian students in my high school class, and some were friends. One of the sad realities when I worked at City Year was going into urban schools and seeing how Haitian students were discriminated against... by other black students! I can only imagine the heartbreak, fear and anger in the community right now.

In addition to all the other ways you can help, CD Baby, my online record distributor, is donating $1 of every CD sold for the next two weeks to relief efforts in Haiti, via Portland OR based Mercy Corps. Artists still get their full payment- this is coming right out of CD Baby's pocket. So, for the music connoisseur, this is a win-win. You get great music on very artist-friendly terms, CD Baby gets business, Haiti gets money. If you haven't checked them out, CD Baby has an incredible number of great artists, famous and obscure. Let me suggest:

No Sale Value- my second CD, and a good one if I say so myself. Featuring Jenny Scheinman (now touring with Bill Frisell), Chris Vataloro (now playing with Antibalas on Broadway in Fela), and well as many other great players. And me...

Ron Miles - one of my personal heroes. The album with Frisell is great.

Anna Dagmar- an old friend and wonderful songwriter

Four Across- with friends Josh Deutch and Carmen Staff. Great players, great writers.

Erik Deutsch- the toast of Brooklyn these days, I'm told.

Kellie Lin Knott- another old friend and good songwriter.

Maybe Baby- It has Jennifer Kimball on it. What more need I say?

Leni Stern - great guitarist, mainstay of the 55 Bar.

And that's just scratching the surface. So go buy already, K?

Next performance: Pat Donaher Khabu Duo, 11/18 Rutman's

Pat Donaher/Khabu Duo

Wednesday, November 18, 7:30pm

Rutman's Violin Shop, 11 Westland Ave

$10 Suggested Donaher

www.khabu.net

Boston really needs to get hip to 'Bhu. More soon.

We're also playing music for a benefit yoga class, with the fabulous Chanel Luck teaching. Details here.

Next Gig: Tales of Johnny Carcrash, Friday 10/30, 7:30pm, Rutman's Violins

After an 18 month hiatus, I'm thrilled to be playing again. If you're within shouting distance, come and listen:

Tales of Johnny Carcrash

Improvised duos with Pat Donaher and Hwaen Ch'uqi

Friday 10/30, 7:30pm

Rutmans Violin Shop, 11 Westland Ave (near Symphony Hall and the Whole Foods)

I have a little webpage up at my site about the gig, including some sound clips and links for Hwaen. (Formerly Jeff Tomlinson; I still call him Jeff) This is the first of two gigs I'm using to finish up an album of duos, please God. More about the gig as the week progresses

Video of Hwaen's recent performance at the Richter Competition in Moscow is here

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.

Tales of Johnny Carcrash, Saturday, 5/10, 3pm @ Lily Pad

I'm thrilled to (finally) be performing with Hwaen Ch'uqi this weekend in our duo Johnny Carcrash, in a matinee show. A play on Jeff's (as I know Hwaen) name, Carcrash is an improvised duo that he and I have been doing for several years now. Jeff is a fascinating guy- a classical pianist originally from the Peruvian Amazon, an improviser in a genre where improvising is often a lost are, and a wonderfully nutty human being. We don't get to do this very often, so please come and check it out! One of our pieces is up on my myspace page- sound quality is not ideal, but I like the music. The details:

Tales of Johnny Carcrash
Pat Donaher, reeds, Hwaen Ch'uqi- piano

Saturday, May 10, 3pm
Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge Street, Inman Square
$10 suggested donation

Spread the word- hope to see you there!

my jukebox still only costs a nickel

I wanted to put out one more last-minute call for one or two more pop chestnuts to mutilate, er, cover on my gig Saturday night. I'm honestly flummoxed. I'm looking for something, well, overplayed and despised that we can knock around some, a la TBP doing "Chariots" or Frisell doing "Live to Tell". (And I know, I know, Ethan didn't mean it that way.) So far, the plan is to do some Beatles and Beach Boys tunes I've player before with Ooomph, my friend Jeremy Udden's great reworking of "Eternal Flame", and new reworkings of stuff by Feist and Journey. What else fits...

On a more serious note, a portion of the proceeds from the gig (and please god there will be some) will go directly to the fund for Andrew D'Angelo, the great NYC musicians who is fighting a rare form of brain cancer. If you can't come, please consider contributing via Andrew's website. He is an amazing musician and a true original (see Ethan's wonderful tribute), and we need him here for awhile longer...

You see my face and the music starts

As others have duly noted, Facebook has added a feature for musicians' promotion, and I have jumped in with a new Facebook page of my very own. I agree with Darcy's assessment- the look is pretty generic, and the navigation and editing features are pretty clunky. (though on the plus side once I got past the "CID" part of the process, putting music up was easy and painless.) It seems ridiculous that a site that is so clever in friend mode- you can throw sheep, for heaven's sake- is so dull here.

That said, I make do, and would appreciate your fandom on the new page. As with everything else in my life, it's a work in progress, and will hold me over promotionally until I can put Patdonaher.com up. And just to make it worth your while, there are two never-released sound clips on the Facebook page. One is a promo version of the No Sale Value tune "Jackson", and a live duo with the amazing Bob Brookmeyer. For a limited time only, so check it.

side airbags

This spring, the long dormant Johnny Carcrash duo with Hwaen Chuqi (nee Jeff Tomlinson) will reunite for a few gigs. Details forthcoming. To celebrate that, and my 250th friend on Myspace, (If you can really count a production company and a yoga e-mail list as friends) I've posted one cut from our Knitting Factory concert in 2001 on the myspace page. And if you're not a friend yet, don't be shy.

Blogging will resume in earnest... soon.

Lift @ The Lily Pad, Sunday, 9/9, 7:15 pm

Here's the full info:

Pat Donaher & Lift

Jason Palmer- trumpet
Carmen Staaf- piano
Bridget Kearney- bass
Eric Platz- drums
Andrew Stern- guitar

Lily Pad, 1393 Cambridge St, Inman Square (map here)
7:15 pm, $10 suggested donation

I'm excited for this one- it's not often that ALL your first calls say yes, and can rehearse at the same time, but that happened here. We'll be reimagining some of the book I wrote for this instrumentation several years ago, and adding new things too. Sound clips will surely follow, but if you can, hope to see you in person.

(I'll be adding to this, and leaving it at the top of the page until the gig is done.)

Next gig- Lift @ Lily Pad, Sept. 9

First, for the first time in awhile I shifted ye ole myspace page, to include a live version "Wedding Day", a song I wrote for my brother's wedding. Their fifth anniversary is in a few weeks- yikes. Even that far out, I think this is one of the best tunes I've written. The band is Lift, with special guest Tim Albright. We may resurrect it for...

My next gig is all set! I will be bringing a new, full sextet version of Lift to the Lily Pad in Cambridge on Sunday, Sept. 9. Hit will be at 7:15. A new, fleshed out version of "Hopscotch" (also on the myspace page) will be on the menu, as well as some new and older music. (all this music has bumped blogging a bit, in case you haven't noticed. The lineup is:

Jason Palmer- trumpet
Carmen Staaf- keys
Andrew Stern- guitar
Bridget Kearney- bass
Eric Platz- drums
moi- saxophone

Andrew, a newcomer to my world, and Eric are two thirds of Fat Little Bastard, a great guitar trio. I'm the worst player in my band- I love that feeling. More as it comes.

Name that tune. No really, I mean it.

Yesterday at 4:29pm marked the 12,000th visitor to the visionsong blog. That's twelve thousand hits in a little more than a year- you do the math. Readers come from lands very familiar and some I only dream of. (Tibet, New Zealand and Brazil are my favorites when I look at sitemeter). Thanks to everyone who stops by, and everyone who links here. It's really flattering.

To celebrate, I'm wanted to send you more music, and get more feedback. (I already know green is not my color, and rogaine is a bad idea, so not that kind of feedback...) I just posted a new tune to my Myspace. It's not really new, but it's never seen the light of day before. I recorded it in 2003 with my band Lift, featuring the amazing Jed Wilson on piano and Jason Nazary on drums. The problem is, I never came up with a proper title for it- it's been nicknamed "The Happy Tune" every time I've every played it, and I've never liked that name. (I feel like parts of it also need a rewrite, but that's coming too.) So, please send me a new title for the tune- I'll consider anything as long as it's not profane. If it fits the vibe of the tune, even better. The winner, if they so desire, gets an personally autographed copy of one of my CDs. (my autopen is broken). Post suggestions (or praise the tune, rip the tune, I'm okay either way) to the comments section below. Contest closes 5/31.

And thank you for your support.

Lift and It Says Live @ the Lily Pad, 4/23 7:15 pm

Here we go again- I'm pleased to be onstage with two wonderful groups of musicians, and hope the Bostonians and others passing through will join us. The lineup(s):

Lift:
Pat Donaher- saxophone(s)
Carmen Staaf- piano, accordian
Eric Platz- drums
others (possibly TBA)

We've had some lineup shuffling for this, so I still have no idea what this will sound like. Except to say that Carmen and Eric are amazing, so it'll be fun regardless. Carmen has won enough awards and notice for her playing to make me very jealous, and is currently playing her own music here and in New York, and holding down a teaching gig at Berklee. Eric is well regarded the drummer for Fat Little Bastard, as well as several more singer-songwriter kind of projects. The music will be primarily form-based; that's all I can say for now.

It Says Live:
Monikah- voice and sounds
Pat- reeds and laptop
Lucy Railton- cello
Michael Plunkett

I am thrilled to work again with Monikah (Monika Heidenmann) for the first time in several years- I wrote a few pieces for her at NEC, and love her more recent solo stuff. She makes the trek up from NYC to join us. Locals will remember Lucy from the recent Behearer band hit and from her work with local emo-jazz unit Naked Cuddle, among other things. And Michael is my oldest musical compadre (we've been playing together one way or another for almost 20 years now. Yikes.)
The music will be primarily free improvised, with various levels of preset direction. And the band's name (live is a verb here) comes from a Rumi poem, which we'll probably touch at some point.

The Lily Pad is located at 1393 Cambridge Street in Inmam Square (Google map here). There is a $10 suggested donation. If you want to stick around, the legendary Fringe plays at 10pm (seperate cover) Hope you can join us.

Pat Donaher & behearer band at Lily Pad, Sunday 3/4, 8pm

From the Department of Shameless Self-Promotion:

Pat Donaher and behearer band
with the Dov Manski Quartet
Lily Pad, 1393 Cambridge Street,
Inman Square, Cambridge (near the fire station corner, next to the Druid)
Dov and co. go on at 7. We hit at 8:15 or so.

After our rehearsal last night, I am really pumped about the gig, and the music. We'll be playing a couple of tunes culled from the front lines of the behearer list, most notably Julius Hemphill's seminal Dogon AD. (I hope to write more about the tune soon, as transcribing and rehearsing it was very interesting. We were talking in rehearsal last night- does anyone know what the title alludes to?) We'll also be playing several tunes from "Ear of the Behearer", the Dewey Redman record that the project takes its name from. The album is interesting in the way it bounces back and forth from crazy-free tunes to fairly (but not quite) inside-sounding forms. We'll also play a ballad I wrote for Dewey (still struggling with the title), and "Ramblin'" by Ornette Coleman, Dewey's mentor, fellow Fort Worth native, and hero.

Now, they who will kick my ass on Sunday evening:

Jason Palmer- trumpet. This is my first chance to work with Jason, but not for lack of wanting. He is a fantastic, versitile kick-ass trumpet player, and a beautiful, quite guy. (quiet for a trumpet player, anyway) Best known for his work with Greg Osby and Matana Roberts, he also leads the only jam session I'll frequent regularly, Sunday afternoon at Wally's.

Bridget Kearney- bass. Bridge is one of my favorite local bass players, winner of more awards than I care to think about, and lots of fun at parties. (You can also see her with her more regular project Lake Street Dive next weekend at the Milky Way, in my neck of the woods.

Lucy Railton- cello. I met Lucy through Bridget, but it turns out that she runs in the same circles in London as my old friend (and No Sale Value bassist) Tom Mason. Auspicious company, and a more than worthy constituent. (Did I mention how cool it is to play with a cellist? I'm beside myself in a giddy, not quite age-appropriate kind of way) Lucy is often seen locally with the band Vroom.

Thor Thorvalldson returns from the last hit to hit happily things with wooden sticks. And so I'm not the only bald guy in the band.

It'll be great to hear Dov again as well. He subbed in my now-defunct band Lift a few years ago when he was a mere NEC pup, but I since he's grown into a local A-list pianist.

Tell your friends, warn your enemies, and I hope to see you there,

Hit the ground crawling

For those of you in the area who really like high school jazz, I will be a "special guest" tomorrow (Tuesday) night at the Boston College High Jazz Night. 7pm, 150 Morrisey Bvld, playing great jazz chesnuts. Actually, I'm looking forward to it- it's my alma mater, and the combo I'm playing with is pretty good, especially the rhythm section. It's a nice baby step for me back into live gigging.

I have also confirmed my first gig as a leader since my days on Cruise Ship X. It will be Sunday, March 4 at the Lily Pad in Cambridge. More details to follow, but it will have a Behearer theme and some great local players. I'm excited!