It's also been a busy Fall performance-wise. Upcoming is my return to the
Blues People Festival International in
Newark,
NJ, where I'll be appearing with my trio of
Vince Ector on drums and
Mark Peterson on bass at
Nico's Kitchen at NJPAC, 1 Center Street, Newark, NJ on
Sunday, Dec. 4th at
12 noon (2 sets).
This past September I also headed back to my (increasingly inviting :-)) home country of
Cana
da to play at Edmonton's historic Yardbird Suite, with some fantastic Canadian musicians: saxist Jim Brenan, drummer Jonathan McCaslin, and bassist Rubim DeToledo, in a special Tribute to John Coltrane concert in honor of what would have been his 90th birthday that weekend.
Click below
for an audio excerpt from our (highly "deconstructed" but fun!) rendition of Coltrane's "Giant Steps":
I also performed recently in an eclectic New Music concert with the
Metropolis Ensemble directed by
Andrew Cyr, performing solo deconstructed
Scott Joplin on piano, and on
organ for my arrangement of
Funkadelic's "
Maggot Brain".
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| Performing with members of the Metropolis Ensemble (dir. by Andrew Cyr). |
Finally, I was honored to have again worked with the great baritone saxophonist
Hamiet Bluiett on a couple of occasions (who has been sidelined with illness of late and about whom we are all sending positive vibes every day!) First up was a memorable week of performances in Columbus, OH organized by
Michael VanderDoes, also featuring
Kidd and Marlon Jordan and
Oliver Lake.
Click below for a
video mini-documentary chronicling a memorable week:
Last month I also had the honor of appearing with Bluiett again in a concert organized
by Muhal Richard Abrams and his historic Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, in a group that also featured killer rising star saxist James Brandon Lewis, bassist Luke Stewart, and drummer Reggie Nicholson.
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| (l-r: myself, Reggie Nicholson, Bluiett, Luke Stewart, James Brandon Lewis) |
Prior to our set, I should add that Muhal managed to thoroughly blow my mind with his own set, in which he truly e
ncapsulated in an hour the essence of the AACM conception, with it's seamless merging of notated and improvised elements, and his profound and masterful use of silence!
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