Antonio Hart and Lisa Henry with the LACHSA Jazz Sextet

I saw a pretty cool concert last night at Jazz Alley. The Thelonious Monk Institute travels with high school kids and has them teach other highschool kids about jazz. This week they're in Seattle working at some of the high schools in the area, and to kick that off they had a free concert. The highlight of the night for me was Antonio Hart's playing. I haven't seen a sax player like that in a long time... huge round sound! Also performing with the youngsters (can I say that?) was Lisa Henry and her beautiful voice.

Jessie Anderson @ lbs

Jessie Anderson came to the Bridge last week to track some straight ahead jazz songs for a senior project. He got 3 great sounding songs. I was blown away at how well his band (all high school kids) played, and how well they worked in the studio environment. Check out Jessie below listening to a mix.

Crack Sabbath and Stuck on a Bus @ High Dive

Last night I saw Crack Sabbath perform for the first time. I was really blown away by the depth of musicality of the group.... They effectively move from Mingus to Nirvana to Joshua Redmand to Led Zeppelin. Thanks for the great show.

The other surprise of the night was school of rock kids calling themselves Stuck On a Bus tearing up old standards and a few originals. 13 year old kids or so should not be that good!

Far Corner @ lbs

Avant garde jazz quartet Far Corner was at lbs last night tracking a few songs live. Check out the pics... recordings to be posted soon... Please check out their website: http://www.dickvalentine.com/FarCorner/index.html

"I'm Free" - Recording

GO HERE TO LISTEN TO SOME OF MY MUSIC
Excerpt from an Impromptu session after a canceled Marc Smason gig 1-22-10: Marc Smason - Trombone......... Ken Strong - Upright Bass...... Diane Peterson - Flute .................. Greg Vinson - My old beat up acoustic guitar ....................... David Miner - Sax, Keys anything else he could find................. Sounds engineered and mixed by Vern Lawton

again: http://ia361309.us.archive.org/15/items/ImFree/ImFree.mp3

Cody Beebe and the Crooks @ lbs

Helped out producer and studio owner Jonathan Plum on Cody Beebe and the Crooks these past 5 days. Great group of guys, and great music. I stole these photos from some posted on facebook.

Seattle Symphony Pictures of an Exhibition

Saw the Seattle Symphony a couple of weeks ago, and I am only getting time now to post about it. I was almost late! I found a parking spot at 7:50 ten blocks aways, so I ran 10 blocks, and when i got there I ordered a perrier and I had to pay for it ($3) in quarters. At that time, I asked an attendant to help me find my seat, and I was 4 rows back! Then the show started. Thank you Valerie Leslie for hooking me up with this great seat.

On to the concert:
1) Leos Janacek "Suite from The Cunning Little Vixen".
2) Sergey Prokofiev "Piano Concerto No. 5 in G Major, Op.55" - awesome guest artist Alexander Toradze on the Piano.
3) Maurice Ravel's Orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" - I love any orchestral music with a saxophone in it. I also decided while watching this that if I died and came back as another instrumentalist, it would have to be a cymbal crasher or low brass player.