Wow!! What a night we had last Tuesday at Yoshi’s with Terrie’s band. Sold out crowd and I give Terrie a lot of credit for making it all happen. She started pushing those tickets month in advance and she sold the place out. And what a great band with guitarist Terry Hyatt, drummer Derrick (D’Mar) Martin, bassist Kirk Crumpler and Hammond B3 player Willis Hickerson and three killi’n backup vocalists. The new tunes sounded great and Terrie was in fine form. We’re already looking forward to getting back in there.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve just returned from Zacatecas, Mexico after a very successful performance and Master Class with Terrie Odabi and  her band. Zacatecas is a beautiful old colonial mining town several hours north of Mexico City and the concert promoters of this Jazz and Blues festival created a beautiful performance venue in the sprawling atrium of the Modern Museum of Art (Museo de Arte Abstracto “Manuel Felguérez).  Terrie put on a command performance for the 400 or 500  in attendance and had the place up on their feet dancing and singing. I was humbled by such a generous crowd that met with all of us afterwards. We all felt like rock stars for a day, signing autographs and taking “selfies”. What a beautiful city, filled with beautiful people that know how to have a great time.

Guitarist Bruce McLeod,  bassist Doug Miller, drummer Jimmy Hobson and I have been in the studio on and off for the past year and have complete a recording that I’m very excited about. All of the material is compositions by Bruce and they are in a style that is sometimes best described as having an ECM (records) sound. The material is at times moody, sparse, dark, dream-like and programatic. I’m very pleased with how this has turned out. Bassist Doug Miller is a remarkable player of a very high caliber with impeccable time and intonation. He offers up a few beautiful bowed solos throughout the recording that are worthy of high praise. Jimmy is a very inventive drummer and keeping it both loose and carefully tied together. Look for this on iTunes and as a digital download sometime this summer.

I’m very excited to announce that I recently accepted a teaching position in the Jazz Department at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, CA. I’m honored to join George Marsh, Randy Vincent, Cliff Hugo, Kasey Knudsen, and Dave Scott under the department leadership of Doug Liebinger.