Rooster_Ties

Get these all the time. Get 'em at work too, where I've *never* used my work e-mail address for eBay, or for any of half-a-dozen banks I get "we're gonna close your account unless you log in" messages too. I work for a very small not-for-profit, and their e-mail filtering of spam is practically noexistent -- so I get tons of phishing stuff, all the time -- at an address I've almost never used in e-mail dealings, or for signing up for stuff on-line.

Link in quote above is dead ( ), but I found it somewhere else!!

Same thing with Monk tunes and me too.

Even I have some Parker in my collection (though not much). Massey Hall (the only Parker I had for many, many years), and the new Town Hall find that Chuck was involved with. It's been said many, many times here before -- but that Town Hall material is absolutely fantastic!! Will dig it out now, in fact, to give it a spin later today. (Oh, I stumbled on a cheap copy of "...with Strings, The Master Takes" a year ago or so. Also quite nice.)

Saw on the Steve Hoffman Foums recently that this is finally coming out on DVD very soon (within the next 6 months, as I recall), from the original 35mm negatives (AFAIK). I'll try to find a link for y'all later -- busy busy at the momment.

One things for sure, . Worth watching all the way to the end (3 minutes).

Oh, great. I can't see the damn puck as it is even on a conventional-size TV screen. Like there's ANY chance in hell that I'm gonna be able to see it on a YOUTUBE size screen. What are they thinking??? (Not that I particularly like hockey much in the first place.)

In my own defense, when I worked in IT -- I worked for slightly over ten years all for just one company -- which was the first full-time job I had after college. Started part time at first for one year (minimum wage, at that) -- worked my way up to full time, then got a huge promotion when I landed a much better job (in the same company) at the corporate offices in Kansas City (which is what brought me to KC). I moved up the ladder pretty steadily for almost 8 years. If I had stayed with it, and moved into the management track, I'd probably be making 6-figures (or fairly close to it) by now. (Heck, I was 70% of the way to 6-figures when I got laid off). Of course, I absolutely didn't and don't have any "management" DNA in me, not one drop -- and I had gotten about as far as a non-technical, non-management IT guy could get. In short, I've never been job-hopper -- in fact, I can't imagine working any place for anything less than 5 years -- unless it was truly a temporary situation.

10 years as non-technical IT business analyst. The first 4-6 years (of 10) were pretty good, and mostly fulfilling (kinda, sorta), and often or at least occaionally enjoyable (I worked with good people, which helped a bunch -- but it was a big corporate environment, aack!!). Then the last 4 years (of 10) were increasingly hell -- the IT world changed like nobody's business in the late, late 90's, especially around 2000/01/02 -- got way more competitive. Everything was suddenly about consultants, and doing way more with way less, and consultants, and competition, and consultants, and 70+ hour weeks, and not having a life, and consultants. Sure as hell don't want to get back in IT, cuz I don't have what it takes to compete in that area. Can't sell myself to save my soul, and I'm just not cut out for it. Not the least bit passionate about it either (and I sucked at the technical side of it (big time), and couldn't/wouldn't and really shouldn't move into management). Got laid off circa early 2003, and probably deserved to -- frankly. Almost 2 years part-time work, doing this and that -- mostly nothing (unemployed), and got into the biggest funk I've even been in, in all my life. Since then, I've been 1, going on 1.5 years working for a not-for-profit environmental agency (a pretty good place, all in all, with mostly good people) doing -- get this -- managing a community recycling center ( ). Took a nearly a 62% pay-cut from my previous IT career, but my stress levels have mostly gone down 80% too, and I'm down to a pretty normal work week (40 hours, though it's Tuesday through Saturday -- my weekends are Sunday and Monday). But I'm aimless (to put it mildly), at best. Always have been, really. And can't imagine what I'll be doing 5 or 10 years from now. Dabbling in lots of things, focussing on nothing -- but then again, that's the story of my life. Jack of all trades, master of none.

Anybody besides me?? I'm 37 -- turn 38 next March.

Wouldn't have it any other way. If there was already an existing local jazz series that had some meat on the bone, I'd already be a happy customer of theirs. Alas, there isn't. And there won't be until somebody does something about that -- and I'm just the someody to do it. I'm just thankful I've got a bit of help in doing all this, and lots of musician friends, and an incredible venue to do it in (with that great piano), and a good location, and a supportive congragation that will come out for things like this (I think ), and everything else. It's a perfect storm for a great jazz series -- I just know it. And one of the most rewarding things will be in getting some bigger audiences for some of the more progressive and/or creative stuff (a couple of concerts per year) -- bigger than they're ever used to. Bigger, and -- plus -- some real money for the musicians too. If I play my cards right, maybe I can get some guys $150 or even $200 per man for one night, where they'd usually be scrappin' by for $75, or $50, or even as little as $35 per man -- in front of an audience of maybe 20 or 30 (or 15 some nights, alas). 'Bout damn time I found something I could do for this music.

74 used & new available from $0.23

Winwood needs to release a live date (something he hasn't done in decades, best as I can tell), reworking material from his entire career (including his solo career too). Maybe a solo concert even... Steve Winwood - Higher Love (piano only version) Steve Winwood - Gimme Some Lovin' (piano only version) I'd buy something like that in a heartbeat. My wife would love it too.

Seems she went by the name Carolina Reston.

Called our fundraising committee chair just now, and officially the money that exchanges hands is a "suggested donation" in exchange for a beverage freely made available to all who attend the event. (We even have "suggested donation" signs.) So we are not officially "selling" alcohol. As I understand it, we've done this for several decades (as have many other churches), and nobody seems particularly concerned about. Maybe similar to how The Blue Room (best jazz room in town) is officially a bar (they sell no food), and officially they should have to card everybody who comes in who is of questionable age (and not let anybody in who's under 21). But I've seen high-school kids in there all the time (almost always with adult supervision), and other under-21 types (musicians on jam nights), but since it's a jazz bar - nobody offical much cares about the underages being in there. They do certainly card people in terms of alcohol consuption (I've seen that plenty of times), but as far as getting in the door -- there's never been any problem that I can see with being under 21. There's rules, and then there's rules.

Not so fast -- here's another (different) "Ana Carolina" supermodel, also from Brazil... http://supermodels.nl/anacarolinaileck Edit: And this one is listed with a modelling agency in Sao Paulo (the city mentioned in the article). http://supermodels.nl/agencies/marilynsaopaulo

No search hits on her full name. Is this perhaps her?? http://www.anacarolina.com The full name given in her bio on the site (can't cut-n-paste anything from their multi-media presentation), does NOT match the name in the article. (But models and actresses change their names all the time.) The website site (above) does mention the same city as the article, so who knows -- they could be one in the same. Who knows

The "...and beyond" serves two purposes... One, to telegraph that this is a more inclusive/expansive definition of jazz. This phrase from my first little press release gets at this too: "...with a diverse range of music and musicians – from hard bop to progressive, and traditional to the avant-garde". And secondly -- "...and Beyond" also gives me a little wiggle room to occasionally (once a year, or more likely once every two or three years) to program some "world music"-type stuff -- or some "world/jazz" hybrid thing. I don't have a lot of plans to do anything like this, but "...and Beyond" does allow for something like that -- if some great opportunity comes along. Or maybe a Blues concert once in a blue moon (maybe twice a decade, at most). (And it's not like jazz festivals hold to a "jazz only" mantra these days either.) By the way, my original idea (which has since gone the way of the Dodo bird), was to call the series "Jazz Brew and Beyond". Our already existing and successful classical chamber music series is called "Classical Grapes" -- which refers to the wine, cheese, crackers, fruit, and other treats available before the concert, and during the intermission (included in the ticket price). Thinking our jazz series would be more of a Beer and Pretzels kind of thing, I was thinking of "Jazz Brew and Beyond", but ultimately I didn't like the ring of that, and decided to go with just "Jazz and Beyond".

Hi all. Well, here and elsewhere the series brand name "Jazz and Beyond" is testing fairly well. I say only "farily" well because all the responses I've gotten have either been positive (though none have been wildly positve), or else neutral -- with no negatives (or at least none that anybody would share with me). The first press release goes out today/tonight, so then the series brand name begins to be cast in stone. And much to my delight and occasional amazement, this thing is really starting to get off the ground!! I've been talking to musicians right and left, and there seems to be quite a bit of interest in their participation. I think they're all a little bit skeptical, given the newness of the series, and my enthusiasm for it - which is perhaps a bit overboard at times. But as soon as I can deliever a couple audiences of 100 (or hopefully more like 125, or even occasionally 150) -- then the proof will be out there. If we can draw those kind of numbers (100+ per concert), then the musicians will get to split something on the order of about $600 or so (assuming 100 paying butts in the chairs at $10 each, with a 66/33 split, meaning the band gets 2/3rds of the door (minus some very moderate event-related expenses, not more than $50 per show), and then the church gets 1/3 -- plus the church gets whatever we make on selling beer, wine, and sodas -- so the church will probaby get a total of about $400 to $500 per show (beverage sales included), best guess). (And if we can somehow get 150 paying butts in the chairs ($10 per butt), then the band would get almost $1,000!! ) I'm pretty sure $600 is way better than most other average paying gigs in this town (as I understand it) -- plus it's a true "concert" setting (in a great room, with a hell of a good piano), with a respectful audience, and musicians only having to play two sets, with maybe a short encore. (Concerts start at 8:00 PM usually, and will be done by 10:00 or so.) Bring it on!!

Yes you do!! Thanks ever so much for the review. Shame the Passing Ships material didn't come off live as well as one would have liked. I've read here and elsewhere that Hill's complex music often takes musicians that are pretty symphathetic to Andrew's music (especially in the past, when the charts were pretty much sketches, at best -- or so I've heard). FWIW, even the "official" recording was a bit rough around the edges too (part of its charm, IMHO).

Actually, I think I did look like Bjork that day. Must have been my meds.

Ran into Jason Moran once on the street here in KC (then again, I knew he was gonna be in town that night). Funny enough, when I ran into him that day -- he mentioned having run into Björk on the street in New York City just the week before.

Yeah Dan, the term "fire-breathing" may be a bit much -- I'll think that one over. I'm not trying to imply "late Trane"-esque music (nor will I be programming that), and the "this is not your father's oldsmobile" reference is, really, what I'm trying to getting at. That said, "wide-ranging" and "eclectic" don't quite capture the excitement I'm trying to express either. "Wide-ranging"?? "electic"?? ==> ho hum -- I might as well just say "weird". But yes, "fire-breathing" may be too much. I'll road-test it with some other local guys tonight and tomorrow, and I'll toy with it some more -- and I do really appreciate the feedback, Dan. I also wish I had the luxury of having the date locked down now, but the press deadline for this one particular local jazz mag is soon (officially tomorrow, the 15th of the month), and the leader of the date I'm booking is out of town at the moment, and can't confirm that everybody in the band can do that date that I've got lined up. I'm probably 80% sure it'll work, but not quite 100% yet. All the other recipients of the press release will have the locked-down date, set in stone, of that I'm sure. It's just that this one local jazz mag has such an early deadline, cuz they only publish once every other month. I'll be sure to be out in front of that deadline in future months (a good deadline for me to have, actually).

Getting very close to needing to send out some press releases for the first concert, which is all but already booked for a mid January date (a Saturday night). What do people here think of me calling the series "Jazz and Beyond" ??? (The feedback I've gotten about that name has all been positive, but I've only gotten actual feedback from a handful of people.) I think it's important to brand this thing, for real. You know, so people don't just think of it as "that jazz thing at that one church" - if you know what I mean. Oh, heck, here's a draft of a blurb I'll be sending out in the next couple days to the Jazz Ambassadors Magazine. Your feedback on the content of this is welcomed... I will have the first concert date locked down very shortly, but the deadline for the next JAM mag is coming up very quickly too, and we may have to go to press with the tentitive date included (or, rather, that it is tentivive). JAM only publishes once every other month, and the next issue is for December and January (combined), with their submission deadline in just a day or two. PS: I'm particularly pleased with the "fire-breathing, no-holds-barred" description of the series. A good friend of mine used that "fire-breathing" term recently when we were discussion some political stuff, and it has stuck with me for several weeks. I'm wanting very much to telegraph that this isn't your typical jazz series, but something (hopefully) rather special.