WorlView Live in Sunnyvale

Well, tonight's the night for our show in Sunnyvale. We hit at 8pm and everything is on track. We sound check at 6pm and run thru any last minute changes in the tunes. I really love this band. Everyone is so musical and most of them are leaders of their own bands. Our very own Kris Strom, (saxophonist with the Nuclear Whales, Ed Johnson and Novo Tempo ect..) has her own CD coming out very soon. Look for her CD release party listed here in the near future.
Sebastien and I were on KCSM 91.1 with Clifford Brown Jr at 1pm yesterday. It was very cool to hang and chat with Clifford. He has a way of making you feel comfortable, like you are in your living room with a group of your closest friends. I saw Alisa Clancy and Melanie Berzon (more KCSM dj's) and it felt good to be back at the ol' alma mater. I went there in "73" right out of high school and studied with Fred Berry. "Trumpet's....what the #%%## was that!!!!"
Last time I blogged, I was going in the studio to record some tunes with the quartet. We got three great cuts and Kris Strom dropped by and played on one of them. Curt, Tom, Kris and Sebastien did a great job and of course, Gary Mankin was his usual amazing self. If any of you are thinking of doing a CD, check out Open Path studios in the Willow Glen area of San Jose, CA. Very professional and comfortable.
I had a few friends drop by to say hi. Pianist, trombonist, hand therapist, yenta and writer Lori Stotko, Niel and Jennifer Levonius. Niel is a trumpet player here in the South Bay and also put together and maintains my web page for me. Afterwards, we had dinner and played a few games of ping pong. The ball was flying and it doesn't seem possible but you can work up quite a sweat smackin' that little ball around.
Got some great news the other day. Pianist Jon Jang and Wayne Wallace are starting a new band and one of our upcoming gigs is at the Monterey Jazz Festival in September. Looks like Susan and I will be staying there the whole weekend because I'll be playing with the Carla Bley/Steve Swallow Big Band too. Should be a great weekend for jazz.
On another note...it's raining and I hope it doesn't rain too heavy tomorrow. I'll be flying to LA in the morning. Talk to you all soon.

WorlView 4.0 session is today

Well, I'm sitting back, having a cup of coffee and in a few hours, the quartet will be recording 4 tunes for a new CD. Sebastien is coming down to Mountain View via the train and I'll pick him up and get some breakfast. Here's the personnel for today's session:
Sebastien Lanson-guitar
Curt Moore-drums
Tom Bockhold-bass
myself-tpt & flugel
Gary Mankin-engineer
We'll be recording at Open Path recording studio in the Willow Glen are of San Jose. I've recorded many times in that studio and I would recommend it to all! Gordon Stevens, Tim Volpecella (Tim, I know I spelled this wrong...sorry!), Scott Sorkin all have a good thing happening and I always look forward to a great experience in the studio there.
Here are the tunes we'll do today:
J-Bop-comp. Me
Choo On This-comp. Me
Dancing Sumo-comp. Vincent Jourde
Too Young To Go Steady- ?
and if we have time...
Organ Grinder-comp. Woody Shaw
(I took a few lessons from Woody when he lived in the area back in the 70's. What a talent!)
Sebastien and I went to Yoshi's last night and saw the Kurt Rosenwinkel quintet (thanks KCSM).
Man, that was a great band. Kurt and Mark Turner wrote some happening tunes and everyone played well. I was hoping to see Jeff Ballard on drums. We used to play in a few bands here in the bay area until he went to NY and got famous. (with Chick Corea and everyone in the jazz world, you go dude!) But the cat on drums sounded great and it was very inspiring to hear such a high level of music.
We'll finish this CD in a few months when I can get the other cats (and the dough to fund it) together. This CD will be released sometime next year as WorlView 4.0/5.0 (quartet/quintet)
but I'm going to do a live date with the septet at BOAS that we'll record as soon as everyone is available. The folks in that band are in a million different groups and scheduling can be a trip at times. I'm sure many of you who have their own bands know this very well. That CD hopefully can be done by late Nov or Dec.
Ok, I'm looking at the time and I've gotta run....I'll fill you all in at a later time about the session. Bye!

WorlView happenings

Hi everyone!!!! The band and I have a great gig coming up which you've probably read about in my previous blogs. We'll be at the Sunnyvale Community Theater in Sunnyvale, CA on March 18th. I'm working on the set list and getting everything in place for a successful concert. We'll be playing tunes from "WorlView", my next CD(release date sometime in the late fall) and Sebastien Lanson's CD, "In Transistion".
We'll have the following folks with us at this gig:
Sebastien Lanson-guitar
Wayne Wallace-trombone
Kristen Strom-sax
Murray Low-piano
Tom Bockhold-bass
Paul VW-drums
Micheal Spiro-percussion
I received many nice emails from people who came by to see us at BOAS last time. I want to thank everyone for supporting us and say hi to our new friends Gary and "Mel", Wayne Adachi, my wife's friend and art tart, Peggy and Ben Johnson, Tom and Lyndi Carr, Dave and Shirley Deneau, Al Molina and everyone who stopped by to hear us.
The next day I'm off to Pasadena to play at a CMEA event there with the Aragon High School Jazz Ensemble led by my friend and fellow trumpeter, Mike Galisetus. If you haven't heard this band, check out one of their gigs. They are absolutely smokin'!!!
I'll post again before the gig and in the meantime, thanks for supporting live music!!!!
Peace,
John