I miss coffee

Hello internet jazz/music junkies! It's been a while since I've written anything on the internet and decided it was time to remedy that. Lately, I've been trying to keep my ears to the ground, so to speak, trying to absorb all that I could musically. In the process, I have renewed my itunes account, mostly thanks to @redraspus (check out his web page and twitter. impressive). Through this I have acquired a lp that I am truly impressed and amazed by. Maurice Brown released a cd recently named "Cycle of Love". I'd call it jazz fusion but that wouldn't attempt to describe it accurately. I'd say it's r&b - jazz...maybe?. It's definitely worth a listen. I'm not gonna review the whole thing here though. It just proves that there is a lot out there and you just have to be looking for it. Fortunately, that particular recording just kind of fell into my lap.

Anyway, the reason I'm on my quest for any form of inspiration is because I've been trying to "evolve" my sound. In trying to become a better performer, I can't let myself get bored or comfortable so I push myself to listen to something different everyday. Itunes, youtube, facebook, twitter, last.fm, pandora; these are all means to an end. The end being me learning something and applying it in performance. I hear some musicians say,"I want to get better but I have no idea what to practice now. I have reached my limit here, or with this particular instructor. I'm the best I'm gonna be." That's just wrong. First, don't stop pushing to be better. Go out and find something that challenges you. Go out and find someone that sounds way better than you and ask them questions until they tell you to go away or until you've learned all you can. I learned something earlier this year. As soon as "you" say that "you can't", you won't. It's a defeatist state of mind. I get down on myself all the time. You wouldn't believe how many times a day I say that I suck or I need to be practicing right now. It's okay to kick yourself sometimes as long as you believe that you can always do better. I like to keep it modest too. I'm not the "I'm totally better than you" type. I'm more like the "I'm gonna be as awesome as I can be" type.

Also, I think I learn even more in the time where I'm not practicing physically. I practice in my head a lot. It's that thing that trumpet players do when they're fingering there notes on trumpet, without a trumpet. It's kind of sad...and awesome at the same time. It's the time where I don't have to think about holding my horn. It's when I want to hold my horn and do something about the notes pouring out of my head. It's when I hear something and I want to play it but I'll have to wait until I get home. Yeah, I'm a little obsessed with music. It's tragic because I haven't been able to practice as much as I want lately. I just started a job and things are starting to get busy. I'm just going to have to wait for things to settle down a little to get back into a groove.

Wow, this post went all over the place. Next time I'll try to keep it simple and to some kind of point.

Bill Evans

Ok, so there are about one hundred million reasons (give or take) why you need to know about Bill Evans. His re-harmonizations of standards and work with extended chords is phenomenal. There is no doubt that he changed the way jazz was played by pianists everywhere.

I’m no pianist but Evans’ music has been a big influence on me. I can listen to his music all day (literally) and never get tired of it. One of my all time favorite tunes is How My Heart Sings off the 1962 album of the same name.

Below is a list of what I consider the top 5 Bill Evans tunes. I hope you dig them and explore more of his music.




Seeing him in action is pretty awesome, too! Click here find some video footage.

We're Back!

Back towards the first of the year, I started a website which housed a directory of local jazz musicians, venues, reviews, an events calendar, and anything else that had anything to do with jazz in and around Dothan, AL. It was complete with blogs on local artists and their projects and post from a Troy based jazz trombonist, Matrin Sager. This time around, I plan to expand the list of active bloggers and have local and national guest writers.

Several months later, after struggling to find event listings and musicians miscontruing my intent with the website, I took it down. The only problem with that is I love jazz. I want people to know when and where jazz is happening so they can get out and support it. I want it to thrive in this area and I want people to be exposed to it.

Please let me know if there is a jazz show out there that you don't see on my calendar. Also, if you are a venue or event planner and have live jazz from time to time or a musician who would like to be listed or featured, please email me at dothanjazz@gmail.com.