The Kemah Jazz Festival is coming up September 25-27, right by the waters of Galveston Bay. It was canceled last year due to Hurricane Ike, but we’re back this year. I will be performing Friday night with the Houston Professional Musician’s Association Big Band, featuring Lynn Seaton on bass, and Sunday afternoon with my buddy Thomas Helton’s (no relation!) group Tribute. Thomas has collected all the original charts from Miles Davis’s legendary “Birth of the Cool”-album from 1948, and we’ll perfom them all, complete with French horn and tuba in the group. It’s a gas getting to play them, and hopefully we’ll get some more opportunities in the future with this group.
More Hurricane Ike-related news: I’ve been playing at Houston’s Second Baptist Church (56 000 members in all campuses) for several years. The worship center at their main campus was heavily damaged last year in the hurricane, and after an extensive renovation they had the opening weekend last weekend. They’ve upgraded all the audio and video systems, in addition to pretty much redoing the whole interior, and looks and sounds amazing. The moved the horn section behind the drums and percussion, and we can’t help but feel like they think we’re not as good-looking as the drummers!
