Hello Everyone!
WorlView is set to hit tonight at 8:30pm and I'm excited to play with the cats again. Percussionist Michaelle Goerlitz will be joining us for the first time at BOAS/Club Elite. Paul VW will make his debut there as well.
We have the regulars:
Dr. Wayne Wallace-trombone
Kristen Strom-sax and flute
Murray Low-piano
Tom Bockhold-bass
My executive producer Brenda Keener will be there helping by selling WorlView CDs. I know many of my friends will be there to support live jazz which is getting harder and harder to find these days. It will be combination of beautiful ballads and interesting blue note style along with a touch of latin jazz.
I want to take a minute to thank my friend and person who does my artist rep work, Matt Beasley for all of his help and support. For those of you who don't know Matt, he has his own booking agency, Avatar Productions and works with such luminaries as Nate Pruitt, Ed Johnson, Rick Vandiver and his lovely and talented wife Jennifer Lee. Thanks again Matt, you've helped keep my dreams alive!
I also want to thank my wife Susan Clare Worley for all of her love and support. Many of you understand why they are truly our "better halfs" (no she didn't pay me to say it!) Susan and I will be celebrating our 8th anniversary this July 5th. Love ya!
On behalf of my band and I, we hope to see you all tomorrow night at BOAS/Club Elite at 8:30pm. And please come up and say hello!
Peace,
John
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Monday, May 16, 2005
Six days till WorlView's next BOAS gig
Well, it's coming up fast. My next gig at BOAS/Club Elite is this coming Saturday, May 21st, 8:30 to midnight. I'm looking forward to playing with the cats again. I took the month of April to regroup and now am ready to go. The personnel is the same as the Sunnyvale gig with the exception of no Sebastien and Michelle Goerlitz on percussion. She's been playing with Ed Johnson's band and has been doing a great job.
I had an interesting week rehearsing and recording with Mark Appelbaum and the Stanford Jazz Orchestra. We recorded last Friday at Skywalker Ranch in Marin. What a beautiful setting for a studio. I had recorded a soundtrack with Jon English and the Bay Area Jazz Composers Orchestra there a few years ago and forgot how magnificent the grounds were. The engineer was Howard Shores main guy and he got a great sound for us. We are playing that music this coming Wednesday evening at Dinkelspiel Auditorium on the Stanford campus if anyone wants to fall by. You will hear sometime totally different than what you expect from a Stanford Jazz Orchestra concert and that's all I'm going to say.
Hope to see y'all at either concert or both and if you make it, come up and say Hi.
Peace,
John
I had an interesting week rehearsing and recording with Mark Appelbaum and the Stanford Jazz Orchestra. We recorded last Friday at Skywalker Ranch in Marin. What a beautiful setting for a studio. I had recorded a soundtrack with Jon English and the Bay Area Jazz Composers Orchestra there a few years ago and forgot how magnificent the grounds were. The engineer was Howard Shores main guy and he got a great sound for us. We are playing that music this coming Wednesday evening at Dinkelspiel Auditorium on the Stanford campus if anyone wants to fall by. You will hear sometime totally different than what you expect from a Stanford Jazz Orchestra concert and that's all I'm going to say.
Hope to see y'all at either concert or both and if you make it, come up and say Hi.
Peace,
John
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Red House Jazz is going strong
My friend Stuart Nafey is the cat directly responsible for turning me into a blog meister. He has his own blog site Red House Jazz and has been posting regularly. His latest feature is to interview local San Francisco bay area jazz musicians and has asked me to be included. Thanks Stu!
If you don't know Stu, he's a bass player, works for Sprint and is married to pianist/trombonist, hand therapist and generally the funnist woman on the planet, Lori Stotko. Stu is one of those guys you see climbing the walls (really!) at Planet Granite in Belmont, CA. They both live in Half Moon Bay, CA. and are my wife Susan and I's best buds.
Check in regularly with his blog for ideas of where to go to see live jazz, profiles of jazz musicians and just a fun place to land if you have a minute or two of free time. Ed Johnson is the featured musician this week.
Peace,
John
If you don't know Stu, he's a bass player, works for Sprint and is married to pianist/trombonist, hand therapist and generally the funnist woman on the planet, Lori Stotko. Stu is one of those guys you see climbing the walls (really!) at Planet Granite in Belmont, CA. They both live in Half Moon Bay, CA. and are my wife Susan and I's best buds.
Check in regularly with his blog for ideas of where to go to see live jazz, profiles of jazz musicians and just a fun place to land if you have a minute or two of free time. Ed Johnson is the featured musician this week.
Peace,
John
Friday, May 06, 2005
Sessions over for now
We finished 6 tunes for Ed Johnson's new CD today. We'll play some of those tunes tomorrow at our gig at BOAS. The music is heartfelt and the variety of styles is beautiful. If anyone gets the chance, come down and check out what we do...
Tomorrows show is at 8:30pm and we hope to see you there.
Tonight some of the cats went to the Giants game to see the home team whup the Senators. Did they? I guess I'll find out when I watch the news later.
And by the way, Sebastien Lanson officially turned 30 years young today.
Happy Birthday Mon Ami!!!
Tomorrows show is at 8:30pm and we hope to see you there.
Tonight some of the cats went to the Giants game to see the home team whup the Senators. Did they? I guess I'll find out when I watch the news later.
And by the way, Sebastien Lanson officially turned 30 years young today.
Happy Birthday Mon Ami!!!
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Another fine night of music with Ed Johnson and Novo Tempo
It's the wee small hours before another day in the studio with Ed Johnson and Novo Tempo. Like a whirlwind of swirling paper, a million thoughts and bits of music are flying thru my mind , keeping me awake at 5am.
Ed has done it again. He's written six more masterpieces that bring forth a myriad of thoughts and feelings with every note, chord and breath. Jennifer Scott and Rene Worst are here from Vancouver, Mark Ivester is here from Seattle and we have our bay area regulars, Kristen Strom (TQ, short for Tone Queen), Scott Sorkin, Jason Lewis and Michelle Gorlitz plus the master of the digital arena, Gary Mankin. Last but not least our producer Leslie Evers, bringing her presence and intuition, working side by side with Ed, bringing to life another masterpiece on Cumulus Records.
We played at the Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica, CA last Saturday evening. It probably was one of the best nights we ever had. This band has the uncanny ability to pick up where we left off from the last gig and kick ass on the next. We played as if no time had passed since the last time we all got together back in...(it escapes me at the moment but you catch my drift).
We saw many of our friends, Morning Nichols, Bobby Norris, Dave (manning the soundboard), Gary Woods, Shawn Terry and Terri Derogatis, her mom and dad, Tami Ellis, Lionel Emde, Rene Batti and many more during the night. Thank you all for being there, it means the world to us to play for you.
For those of you who are listeners rather than players, this is the kind of band that musicians like myself work so hard in the woodshed to be able to play in. You step onto the stage with folks that you respect, love to play with and from the first note, take off like a flock of birds. Twisting, turning thru every musical nuance and the only way to describe it is to call it "magical". It's a totally different experience than playing what we musicians call a "casual" or a commercial type of gig where we step onto a stage and wish we were somewhere else, doing something else with someone else...
Don't get me wrong. You can have fun playing with cats playing "BrickHouse", "Twisted Sister's" greatest hits and the rest of whatever someone else wants you to play. But there's a catch. Nowadays, when you play a gig like that, the band plays an hour set and the DJ fills in for the next set. Then the band usually plays one more and is done and the DJ finishes out the night. It seems that the audience talks during the band's set and when the DJ is on, they rush the dance floor! Even if you play the same exact tune, exactly like the record, the audience will sit there talking about God know's what until the DJ comes on. It doesn't matter to them how good you are or how good you sound! People don't know what to do when they see a live band. They've lost the ability to communicate and interact with live musicians. It's a shame that music in that section of the universe has come to that. The day will be here soon where the bride and groom's 20 year anniversary first dance will be "Cop Killer" and even the DJ will be replaced with an Ipod and 4 hours of digital anonymous blah.
Okay, enough of the soap box...
Ed Johnson and Novo Tempo will be playing at BOAS this coming Sat, May 7th from 8:30 to midnight. If you want to experience an evening of musical bliss that takes you from here to Rio and many ports in between, stop by and be prepared to have your hearts moved and your minds opened.
And when you do, treat yourself to a fabulous dinner experience. The cuisine is world class and Joe the bartender serves up some tasty libations. The cover charge is $10, $5 with dinner, $5 for those under 21 and they can stay till 11pm.
This is one of my favorite bands to play in along with Wayne Wallace's Rhythm and Rhyme and of course WorlView (which will be at BOAS on May 21st).
And if you do stop by, please come up and say hello. We love to see our friends and want the chance to thank you all in person for supporting live music in the South Bay.
Till then.....
Ed has done it again. He's written six more masterpieces that bring forth a myriad of thoughts and feelings with every note, chord and breath. Jennifer Scott and Rene Worst are here from Vancouver, Mark Ivester is here from Seattle and we have our bay area regulars, Kristen Strom (TQ, short for Tone Queen), Scott Sorkin, Jason Lewis and Michelle Gorlitz plus the master of the digital arena, Gary Mankin. Last but not least our producer Leslie Evers, bringing her presence and intuition, working side by side with Ed, bringing to life another masterpiece on Cumulus Records.
We played at the Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica, CA last Saturday evening. It probably was one of the best nights we ever had. This band has the uncanny ability to pick up where we left off from the last gig and kick ass on the next. We played as if no time had passed since the last time we all got together back in...(it escapes me at the moment but you catch my drift).
We saw many of our friends, Morning Nichols, Bobby Norris, Dave (manning the soundboard), Gary Woods, Shawn Terry and Terri Derogatis, her mom and dad, Tami Ellis, Lionel Emde, Rene Batti and many more during the night. Thank you all for being there, it means the world to us to play for you.
For those of you who are listeners rather than players, this is the kind of band that musicians like myself work so hard in the woodshed to be able to play in. You step onto the stage with folks that you respect, love to play with and from the first note, take off like a flock of birds. Twisting, turning thru every musical nuance and the only way to describe it is to call it "magical". It's a totally different experience than playing what we musicians call a "casual" or a commercial type of gig where we step onto a stage and wish we were somewhere else, doing something else with someone else...
Don't get me wrong. You can have fun playing with cats playing "BrickHouse", "Twisted Sister's" greatest hits and the rest of whatever someone else wants you to play. But there's a catch. Nowadays, when you play a gig like that, the band plays an hour set and the DJ fills in for the next set. Then the band usually plays one more and is done and the DJ finishes out the night. It seems that the audience talks during the band's set and when the DJ is on, they rush the dance floor! Even if you play the same exact tune, exactly like the record, the audience will sit there talking about God know's what until the DJ comes on. It doesn't matter to them how good you are or how good you sound! People don't know what to do when they see a live band. They've lost the ability to communicate and interact with live musicians. It's a shame that music in that section of the universe has come to that. The day will be here soon where the bride and groom's 20 year anniversary first dance will be "Cop Killer" and even the DJ will be replaced with an Ipod and 4 hours of digital anonymous blah.
Okay, enough of the soap box...
Ed Johnson and Novo Tempo will be playing at BOAS this coming Sat, May 7th from 8:30 to midnight. If you want to experience an evening of musical bliss that takes you from here to Rio and many ports in between, stop by and be prepared to have your hearts moved and your minds opened.
And when you do, treat yourself to a fabulous dinner experience. The cuisine is world class and Joe the bartender serves up some tasty libations. The cover charge is $10, $5 with dinner, $5 for those under 21 and they can stay till 11pm.
This is one of my favorite bands to play in along with Wayne Wallace's Rhythm and Rhyme and of course WorlView (which will be at BOAS on May 21st).
And if you do stop by, please come up and say hello. We love to see our friends and want the chance to thank you all in person for supporting live music in the South Bay.
Till then.....
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