Johnny E

Respect and thanks. But his music will never die!

We're heading out to Seattle on the 17th for a few days. I was hoping to catch a show, but can't imagine we'll get too far beyond the city. Are any of these close to the city? (I know that Yakima isn't too close by but am clueless on the rest.) No - none of those shows are very close to Seattle. Yakima and Ellensburg are both about two hours from Seattle and the others are farther. Bummer.

Cafe Metropol, Los Angeles

I'll admit I haven't been following this story closely -- what are "the totally bogus real-estate conditions"? guy A huge (and inceredibly ugly) condo was erected right next to Tonic (actually condos went up on both sides, but the big blue one on the corner is more relevant to this story). In the course of contruction, the basement to Tonic was structurally damaged. The condo owners then supposedly reported to the city that Tonic's basement was unsafe, and it was condemned. Meanwhile, Tonic's landlord upped the rent from $5K to $10K, which is far more than the upstairs of Tonic alone could support. Now the building that Tonic was in will likely be demolished to make room for more condos. FUCKIN' BULLSHIT!!! What can we do here to help the cause? Write Bloomberg? what?

Whoa! I have a completely different story to tell, which I will keep to myself. But once he saw Reptet he really liked us and said he would have us back any time. Condolences to his friends and family. My old friend the guitarist Dion Paci was a associate of his. Man, 40?!?! wtf?

Hello all, One person took photos at The Revolution cafe in SF and descibed us as 'Part marching band; part straight ahead jazz ensemble; part Sly and the Family Stone. There is no way to capture their crazy energy in a static image.' I still don't know who that person is. Thanks to Magic Beth we got write ups in the LA Weekly and LA City Beat which led to a decent turn out at Cafe Metropol. The Penguin made an appearance and mayhem insued. Gas was outrageously expensive in California, but the tour still made a small profit. Upon our return we appeared on the new varity show 'Big Night Out' on the Seattle Channel (cable 21). It will be aired later this month - I'll let you know once I get the details. It is a wonderful program with high production value and I believe it is destined to be picked up by a local Seattle affiliate. You can also watch it online here. And for our Seattle based board members, this Friday, April 13th we'll be performing at Egan's Ballard Jam House. It's an early show (7PM) and students get in at a discounted price. We hope to see you there. And if possible, please stick around for Bling! at 10PM. It features Beth Fleenor on Clarinet and Denny Goodhew on piano. They are awesome! There will be a surprise group performance following Bling! But I can't say anything more about that. Just show up if you can. April 13th, 2007 Egan's Ballard Jam House 1707 NW Market Street Seattle, WA 98107 7:00PM All Age Show!!! http://www.ballardjamhouse.com

What? When? Where? Do tell. We're doing a performance/workshop at Central Washington University in Ellensberg on 5/17, Seasons in Yakima on 5/18, TBA in Missoula on 5/19, Sandpoint, ID on 5/20 and a high school in the day on 5/21 then home. I guess the Sandpoint show would be closet to you. We had a show agreed upon for Center Stage in Spokane on 5/19, but the guy bailed out because of a big parade or something that he forgot about. Got any ideas or connections for a 5/19 show in Spokane or Missoula?

Back from tour everybody. Thanks to all the board members for coming out. medjuck, how did a guy like you end up marrying such a beautiful woman? You must be rich. It certainly couldn't be your looks or sense of humor. Well when we met I was a lowly college teacher, who was already bald. As she said in a film she made for our 25th anniversary, she thought I was smart and funny. She also once told our kids that she could tell I liked women and many men don't really. Give my regards to her...I'm glad she liked the show.

Back from tour everybody. Thanks to all the board members for coming out. medjuck, how did a guy like you end up marrying such a beautiful woman? You must be rich. It certainly couldn't be your looks or sense of humor. We made a lot of new fans, and a lot of connections. Next we do a Eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana trip in May, then it's summer time in Seattle with more touring in the fall. Monktail is presenting a series of outdoor concerts this summer in Cal Anderson Park on capitol Hill in Seattle. They will be helf on the first Saturday of June, July and August. We are still finalizing the talent (I'm not aloud to say anything until all the stuff is final), but it appears we will be hosting some real internationally recognized heavy weights...stay tuned.

hey all. I have a quick minute on a friends computer so I thought I'd give a quick recap. The show in LA was nice. We got a nice write up in the LA Weekly. Medjuck was there with his lovely wife. RDK was obviously there. Izaak came out dressed as a penguin for the final few numbers. Noise complaints from neighbors ended a wonderful night abruptly. The SF show was crazy. It was packed with people spilling out into the street. The horns started down the block while ben and I flailed away on bass and drums in the club. Like the pied piper it seemed the horns had drawn the minions from the mission district to our little venue. One woman did handstands then whooped herself into a frenzy with one of our tamborines until she fell backward over our merchandise table. She laid there twitching her ass and thighes to the beat. It was trippy as only a San Francisco gig could be...or should be. I hope to see gslade at the Mobius in Ashland tomorrow. Back to Seattle on April 4th just in time for the start of the new baseball season.

And they're off... See ya'll on the best coast, da west coast beeyatches!!! Come out to one of the shows...I dare ya'.

We hit the road one week from today. I hope to see some of you at the gigs. ta-ta -john

Does anyone know how to contact Roswell Rudd? I'm helping to put together a series on concerts in cal Anderson Park in Seattle this Summer and I'd love to talk to him about it. But my web searched aren't coming up with anything. Thanks -john

Happy Birthday to both of us!!!! Can you believe another has gone by already?

Thanks everyone. 37 but I don't feel a day over 35...go figure. Anyway, I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now. Hope to see some of you when were touring the west coast later this month. -john

The San Luis Obispo show has been moved to a new venue, so I thought I would bring this to your attention. -john

Yes. I might find that copy of 'To Our Children’s Children’s Children' I been looking for or that out of print Ennio Morricone soundtrack. It doesn't take that much longer and the potential benefits more than outweigh the negatives.

I couldn't disagree more... Well, I guess I could, but I won't. I just disagree. -_-

Much of your reactions to Copeland's comments confirm his point. Many of us take "jazz" way to seriously. It's just a label people put on things so they can make selling "product" easier. It's all music folks. The true innovators don’t get hung up on labels because they are too busy internalizing ALL the music they hear, regardless of genre. Copeland simply says what he says because he's smart enough to know that a large majority of 'jazz people' are pretentious snobs that wouldn’t know irony or sarcasm if it came wrapped in a Coleman Hawkins saxophone solo.

RIP

Shut up bitch!

Man, we'd love to come down to Australia. If you have any ideas on securing enough funds to make such a trip happen, I'm all ears.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE End date 4/3/07 Press Contact: Beth Fleenor* The Frank Agency 206.568.2068 beth@thefrankagency.org *CDs, photos, and more information available upon request REPTET - WEST COAST TOUR March / April 2007 March 28, Davis, CA - Delta of Venus March 29, San Luis Obispo, CA - Linnaea's Cafe March 30, Los Angeles, CA - Cafe Metropol March 31, San Francisco, CA - Revolution Cafe April 1, Berkeley, CA - Anna Jazz Island April 2, Ashland, OR - The Mobius April 3, Hood River, OR - The River City Saloon Information: www.reptet.com, www.monktail.com "This Seattle sextet does it all: it grooves, it rocks, it squawks - occasionally, it even talks. Mostly, it sounds like a New Orleans jazz band on crystal meth." ~Critic's top choice for 2006, Alex Gelfand - Jazziz Magazine~ "Reptet achieves “a bittersweet and elegiac mood of orchestral grandeur.” ~Downbeat Magazine~ Monktail Records recording artists REPTET will be touring the west coast this spring to promote their critically acclaimed and historically galvanized new CD, Do This! The bands tour of the west coast begins in Davis, CA and takes them through much of California and southern Oregon. The tour includes appearances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Berkeley and beyond. Reptet is a sextet consisting of six multi-instrumentalists all of whom are members of the internationally acclaimed Monktail Creative Music Concern based out of Seattle, WA. They have established themselves as a group of considerable excitement, flair and vision while simultaneously debunking preconceived notions of what a jazz group ought to be. Their music has been aired on radio stations across the United States and Europe, Reptet’s new CD, entitled Do This! Was chosen CD of the year by Alex Gelfand of Jazziz Magazine, was chosen as a finalist for Jazz CD of the Year by the Independent Music Awards, and was chosen one of the top 10 recordings of the Year both Duck Baker (Jazz Times) and Kenny Weir of the Melbourne Herald Sun (Australia’s largest read daily newspaper). They recently won two Earshot Golden Ear Awards (best of Northwest jazz) for ‘Outside’ Jazz Group and Best Performance (as part of the Monktail Raymond Scott Project).