There's grass on my mat...

A brief plug- for the next few weeks I will be teaching yoga outside on Wednesday evenings. The classes will be informal (I know), small (I think), and fun (for sure). The classes are donation based, and net proceeds will benefit YogaHope. Details are on my website. If you're in the area, I hope to see you there!

You may need a new mouthpiece

A late follow-up on the end of the IAJE as we know it- last month's Downbeat (with Return to Forever on the cover- yikes!) has a two page article that summarizes a lot of what kicked around the web, and adds some interesting info and interviews. Only half the article appears online, though the web version adds the details of the organizations financials from '00 to '06- it's worth the read, and then you can find out who won the Critics' Poll, yippee! I came away with two distinct lines of thought:

I have little doubt that the stronger state organizations will thrive (the New Jersey chapter posted its letter to membership online, and I have a feeling the sentiment there is shared by a lot of states.) And in talking to a couple of high school educators I work with, I don't see the collapse impacting work in the classroom in the short term. However, there are long term initiatives and programs that an organization like IAJE can create (think the "Jazz Month" it helped coordinate with the Smithsonian) that are for now abandoned. I see this more as an opportunity for new voices to come forward than as a great loss.

And while financial mismanagement lies at the heart of the IAJE's demise, the intellectual mismanagement of jazz education is an issue as well. (Darcy talks about this in his New Music Box piece, and in the follow up discussion on his blog.) I've already ranted on this enough, but if new music ensembles and new concert approaches can rise from conservatories to play Reich and Carter and student composers, I don't think it's too much to ask for the same from jazz programs...

you'll have to bang your drum somewhere else

The sad thing is, I'm not even surprised at this anymore. If you're around Cambridge tomorrow, this is a worthy cause. And call Kennedy and Kerry as well. This is somehow making us safer? (via Jennifer Kimball)

Wednesday, 7/17, 8pm til...
Ryles, Inman Square

Benefit concert for Vicente Lebron,
a beloved local musician who was detained by Immigration and Naturalization Services (working under the auspices of Homeland Security) on his last trip through Logan airport in with the band he's played with for 10 yrs, the Either/Orchestra. His passport and green card were confiscated and after a hearing June 9 was incarcerated in the S. Bay Correctional center where he remains indefinitely. A native of the Dominican Republic and a great conga/timbales player, he's lived here for more than 30 years, has a wife, children and grandchildren all here in Cambridge. The proceeds will help with legal expenses...

featuring Orchestra Morphine, Club d'Elf, Gabrielle Agachiko, Russ Gershon's Mood Elevator and more....

full stories here in the Phoenix..

Lindsay notes that the terror watch list is now at a million names, with no end in sight... I'm sure there are many Vincente Lopezes who may not have benefit of visible friends...

A festival of...

Since the festival scene in Boston isn't anything like what it used to be- no Globe Jazz Fest, no Phoenix produced concerts, and the Beantown fest is in May- I look south, to Newport, the great name in music festivals. And I have to say, this year's Newport Jazz Festival is really, really good. While I have no use for Chris Botti, and I look at Aretha these days with a mixture of anticipation and fear, I'm excited about just about every second act on the bill. As much as I would love to see Herbie and the Gauchos, at best I'll catch the Saturday show- I've seen Wayne's current quartet twice in its first year, and I'm really curious to see what a couple of years together has done.

If I were a folk fan, however, I can't imagine I'd be thrilled. Someone explain to me where the folk is in this year's Newport Folk Festival? In fact, while there are some cool names on the bill, Calexico notably, I'm having trouble figuring out what in the hell the festival is about.

I know that strict genre lines are way too arbitrary, and that marketing overrides all other factors in booking these days, but every time I look at that bill- Jimmy Buffett? Brian Wilson?? I just scratch my head. I'll be curious to hear the reports in August...