Date: 2009-09-05 Start Time: 09:00 PM Location: Cezanne, 4100 Montrose Blvd, Houston, Texas Link out: Click here Description: Houston’s home for acoustic jazz will host a tribute to the Gerry Mulligan and Bob Brookmeyer Quartet. Bassist Thomas Helton leads his band, Tribute, with Thomas Hultén on trombone, Martin Langford on sax and Bobby Adams on drums.
Performed by Peoria Jazz Band, from the CD “Going Home”
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I came home Wednesday night last week after the dress rehearsal of Brief Encounter, André Previn’s new opera, and happened to turn on the TV just as the last act of Tristan and Isolde started. This was a live performance from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, conducted by James Levine, and it was great! I’ve always liked the overture (or “vorspiel” as Wagner calls it) but never though I’d enjoy 5 hours of Wagner until I got to play it with the Royal Opera in Stockholm last fall. It’s mesmerizing, great story, great music!
If you get a chance to see it, do it, but bring a snack!
Thursday night we rehearsed Mozart’s c-minor Mass at the Centrum in Spring, north of Houston. Everything worked fine until the school district (half the choir was from a local high-school) decided to suspend all extra-curricular activities because of the swine-flu. They moved the concert from last Sunday to May 17, which means I can’t play the concert because of a jazz gig! Even Mozart is not immune to the flu! Luckily it seems like the outbreak is a lot less severe than first thought.
So what’s that jazz gig on May 17? It’s at the Houston Community College northwest, a benefit concert for guitar-great Mike Nase, who suffered a stroke in December. It’ll start in the afternoon through evening, and pretty much all the Houston jazz cats will be there. I will play with Matt Lemmler’s sextet, and also Joel Fulgham’s big band. Come check it out!
This is funny: My ten- and seven-year-olds come home from school raving about all these really cool tunes. Turns out it’s all these songs from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” from 1983! The kids have since been glued to the computer, watching youtube-videos from the 80′s! I don’t mind at all, when was the last time parents and kids actually agreed on music? I played Jakob some Tower of Power, and he thought it was the coolest thing, not realizing it’s 30 years old!
I asked some high-schoolers not too long ago what they listen to, since I have no clue what’s popular right now. The answer: the Beatles!
Performed by Peoria Jazz Band, from the CD “Going Home”
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Performed by Hässlöbrasset/Messing Around from the CD “Wake Up!”
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Performed by Hässlöbrasset/Messing Around from the CD “Wake Up!”
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Performed by Spiritual to the ‘Bone, from the CD “Live in Switzerland”
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Arr:Thomas Hultén, performed by the Paragon Brass Ensemble
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Last night we had the dress rehearsal for HGO’s new production of Rigoletto, opening night is Friday 4/17. Scott Hendricks sings Rigoletto, Albina Shagimuratova is Gilda and Eric Cutler plays the Duke. Amazing singers all three of them, I’m always blown away by what it takes to do what they can do. Just being able to sing over a seventy-piece orchestra with no amplification, talk about breath-control and technique!
Tonight we’re having the rehearsal for the Mozart Requiem, so I’ll drag out my $160 Chinese alto trombone. Mike Warney plays tenor and Rick Reeves basstrombone, the HGO trombone section.
If you want to hear great jazz, come to River Oaks Baptist Church Sunday night 4/19 at 6 pm. New Orleans native and piano-great Matt Lemmler has put together a program about the history of jazz, with a kicking band doing the playing. Gary Welden on trumpet, Warren Sneed sax and clarinet, yours truly on trombone together with a swinging rhythm section. Should be loads of fun!
Ken Ward piano, Thomas Helton bass, Tom Cummings drums
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Ken Ward piano, Thomas Helton bass, Tom Cummings drums
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Ken Ward piano, Thomas Helton bass, Tom Cummings drums
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From Ping.fm: I just uploaded a new video for my web site! Check it out here: http://ping.fm/asx3L 358 days ago
From Ping.fm: News blast: We've named my upcoming album "The Slide Side." 358 days ago
From Ping.fm: I just came back to the Houston heat and humidity after spending two wonderful weeks in the hills of North Carolina. Read more: http://ping.fm/Ue9i6 367 days ago
From Ping.fm: announces: The pre-mastering, evaluation copy of my CD came in today. We'll all be listening and submitting final feedback. It's all starting to happen! 378 days ago
From Ping.fm: I'll be in N Carolina fr the next couple of weeks. Cell phone doesn't work, and I can only borrow a computer once in a while, so it feels like the 1990s! 385 days ago
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