Article about the Cody Beebe CD Release

A great article about he Cody Beebe and the Crooks CD release party: http://www.melophobe.com/concert-reviews/cody-beebe-and-the-crooks-andrew-vait-t-simmons-nectar-lounge-seattle-wa/.... ENJOY! I've also been told the best to buy a physical copy of the album is on their website: http://codybeebeandthecrooks.bigcartel.com/.

Cody Beebe CD Release

I had a great time last night at the CD release party. The Nectar Lounge in Freemont was SOLD OUT! and sold out is packed!

Please go and buy Cody Beebe and the Crook's new album "Friends of the Old Mill" on amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Friends-Mill-Cody-Beebe-Crooks/dp/B003TLMS02/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1277701284&sr=8-4. I recieved a small production credit as well as played some saxophone and flute. It was a very fun project.

I borrowed this photo from fantastic photographer Jeff McKeown. Please look him up if you're interested in some great band photography.

Zappa Played Zappa

Thanks Dweezil for such a fantastic show. I would love to be in your band.

Saxophone Quartet

The Jasper James Chen project ended with a performance at Jasper's wedding reception. He was married in Hawaii several weeks ago and had a family reception at the China Harbor Restaurant in Seattle on Westlake this past week. I had a lot of fun working on the arrangements of his classical works, both as an arranger and as a saxophone player.

SCA & SIFF

The Seattle Composer's Alliance and the Seattle International Film Festival paired up to present a panel of music and film experts to discuss the pairing of film and music.

More News on the Angel Band Project

Another great article mentioning London Bridge and the Angel Band Project: http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15980/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=wXgiMHSb

Angel Band Project

The last couple of days I have been pro tools operator for the Angel Band Project recording session @ london bridge studio. Engineer Chris Shepard from Chicago was fantastic to work with, and the whole session was smooth. Please visit the Angel Band Project blog and donate: http://angelbandproject.wordpress.com/.

Q13 fox here in Seattle covered the story which you should be able to view below.
 

Mixing Tess Henley @ Electrokitty

I'm currently working with r&b/pop/soul singer Tess Henley mixing two songs for an upcoming release. Please visit her myspace page and give her support: http://www.myspace.com/tesshenley. Bellow is a picture of some of the signal flow I was using. I'll let you know when the song are released and where you can find them.

Robert Lang Studios

I visited Robert Lang Studios for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Jonathan Plum was getting some drums sounds with house engineer and drummer Nathan Yaccino. Steven and I both figured we should sport our London Bridge Studio t-shirts. Here is a pic of us in front of the ssl-4000g.

The Hearts of Men

Working with Danjuma Mallum and his actor for the short film The Hearts of Men. We worked on the movie's heavy voiceover as well as some dialogue replacement in the overdub booths @ London Bridge Studios. I am also currently scoring the movie 15 minute short.

Long Time No Blog

Long time no Blog. I've been pretty busy this month, but the next couple of posts are some of the highlights.

Gig @ the Sundown Saloon w/ Christian Smith

I played tenor last night in a newly formed group with Christian Smith on guitar, Vern Lawton on drums, and Ken Strong on bass. We played all original music by myself and Christian in 3 hour long sets.

Seattle Symphony - Sibelius, Rachmaninov, and Adams

Last Thursday I went to the symphony and saw some great music. Guest conductor Robert Spano is intense and emotive (what more could you ask?). Sibelius' "Pohjala's Daughter, Op. 49" was beautiful. Then guest pianist Dejan Lazic killed on Rachmaninov's piano concerto #2. The piece demands an aggressive player, and Lazic got the job done. After the intermission (after 1/4 of the audience skipped out to miss the discordant Adams' piece) was "Harmonielehre." If kind of made me laugh because after the first movement, there was the little old lady rush for the door... "oh no... so crazy... must leave..." To me the harmonic language was barely on the brink of being out. The orchestration is beautiful... I loved the unison harmonics and false harmonics in the strings. The end of each movement seemed to me to have a nod to the minimalists. Very good concert, and if you're reading this and didn't go... you missed out!

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.