If you want to hear some good jazz, come the out the jazz concert at Muniversity of Houston’s Moores Opera House Wednesday night October 8 at 7.30 pm. Both big bands will perform under the direction of Noe Marmalejo and Ryan Gabbart, Henry Darragh will sing and play some cooking piano and I’ll play a few tunes, among them a new big band arrangement of Pilska Polska form my CD. These band are made up of students from UH, and they’re kicking and swinging, good stuff!
So what about my CD, will it ever come? Yes! It’s off to the printers and is scheduled for release on October 19, more on this web-site and also on the Tierra Studios site, www.tierrastudios.com.
The first opera for the season is Wagner’s Lohengrin, one of those five-hour deals. Most operas or shows I’ve played have been at the most three hours, and I couldn’t imagine sitting in the pit for five hours. That was before I got to play Tristan and Isolde with the Royal Opera in Stockholm, Sweden, last fall. It was an amazing musical experience, and this Lohengrin-production promises to be another high-light. Patrick Summers is conducting, cast is great, something to look forward to.
August and September are brutally hot and humid here in Houston, and gigs don’t really start to pick up until late September-early October. I had a pretty busy weekend with a Klezmer-gig Friday, Paragon Brass Ensemble Saturday morning, Second Baptist early evening and then a party-gig with Infinite Groove Saturday night. Sunday night we rehearsed with Joel Fulgham’s new big band made up of some of Houston’s finest. Joel is a fantastic drummer, and he can soon be heard on my new album, out October 19….
How I celebrated winning the HGO/Houston Ballet audition? I spent $300 on a new rear-main seal for my $900 Chevy truck, so now it won’t dump any more oil on my drive-way!
