You won't Get In-N-Out Quickly for a While, But It's Worth Checking Out

Until today, I had never been to opening day of a restaurant, never mind the debut of an entire chain in the area. As much as I've always joked about camping out for free Chick-Fil-A when one of their stores opens, it has yet to happen. In fact, I'm usually one of those "I'll wait for the crowd to die down" type of people. So the fact that I ended up at the new In-N-Out Burger in Allen within an hour and a half of its opening may have meant that I was in totally new territory, but I'm totally glad that it happened.

So the obvious first question would be, "How bad were the lines?" Well, the walk-up line for the dining room really wasn't too bad, considering the crowds; it was "only" an hour and ten minutes from the time we entered the line until we hit the registers. The drive-thru line, however, was a much different story; one of the police officers directing traffic told me on the way out that the line had peaked about two miles back. And I heard somebody in line behind us asking a driver who was about six cars in back of the menu board how long he had been in line up to that point, and he said, "two hours." Yikes--I can't imagine using that much gas!

As for the food itself? I really liked it! Here in the DFW area, there are really two types of burger joints: The typical cheap, greasy McDonald's/Burger King/Wendy's-type places, and the much better (but usually pricey) options such as Scotty P's, Five Guys and Mooyah. In-N-Out slides quite neatly into its own niche in between those two types of places.

If you've never been to an In-N-Out, the menu is quite minimal: Hamburger, cheeseburger, and Double Double (two meat patties, two slices of cheese), and you can get a combo of same with fries and a drink. Sure, there are some things on the "not-so-secret menu" that can add variation (the most notable being "animal style," which involves grilled onions, double the secret sauce, mustard-fried patties and pickles, though I dispensed with the latter as I always do), but it's still pretty easy to memorize everything.

Texans will have to get used to the fact that the burger is built up, not out (much like urban architecture vs. suburban); it's skinnier than the burgers sold by the high-end places, but the famous Double-Double does go up a little higher, so while it takes a smaller grasp to pick it up (and includes less bread, which might please the carb-conscious folks), it was still quite filling and satisfying.


The fries were quite good; they could have maybe been a little warmer (although I'm somewhat forgiving in that regard because of the insane opening-day crowds), and--this surprised me--I almost felt the need to lightly salt them. (Understand that I'm a minimal-to-no salt guy who's been known to take salt off my fries at other places, so the fact that I thought something might need a pinch of it is telling; still, I prefer that to the other end of the spectrum.)


The thing that was most impressive was the prices: A #1 combo (Double double, medium fries, medium drink) comes in at only $6.15, whereas a Mooyah or Five Guys will usually set you back nine or ten bucks. (But as I noted on the Facebook picture I took of the receipt, they should probably tweak their price on the #1 by a penny or two, so that it doesn't come out to the purely evil amount of $6.66 with sales tax!)

I'm sure a lot of native Texans will want to know how it compares to our beloved Whataburger. And you know what? I'm going to punt that one--elude the question like the best of politicians. Each of them is unique, and in dine-out-crazy Dallas, there's room for both of those places.

And in case you're curious, I got a #1 combo: Double double, animal style (save for no tomatoes or pickles), fries and a Dr Pepper.

So when the initial hoopla settles down, what will be left is a pretty unique take on the all-American burger and fries, reasonably priced for what you get, and open till 1:00 in the morning (1:30 on weekends). If you're not a fan of big crowds, wait a week or so, but if you're a serious burger fan, check the place out so that you'll know what everyone has been talking about all this time.

(And let's open that proposed Garland location pretty soon, OK? We were originally supposed to be first!)

I'll have pictures added to this post once I can sync my new iPhone to the computer.

Kids Have the Darnedest Ways of Getting to School

Saw a kid get dropped off at school in a Yellow Cab this morning. I sure hope that either Mom or Dad is a cabbie, because otherwise, that would be a really expensive way to get to school.

(It was pointed out to me that it was also possible that the kid overslept and missed his/her ride, which actually happened to one of my Facebook friends one time.)

Kids Say the Darnedest Things at Gigs

Kids say the darnedest things at gigs:

KID (walking by the band): Are you going to play jazz?
BASSIST: Yes we are.
KID: Is that a bass (pronouncing it like the fish)?
...BASSIST: Yes, it's a bass (pronounces it correctly).
ME (after kid is out of earshot): Yes, it's a bass [like the fish]. You play a lot of scales on it.

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

Last week's post reflected a week that was heavily devoted to the music of one artist, as I was looking for inspiration for an arrangement I was doing. This past week, I was back to my usual collection of stuff that might be new to many of you, but hopefully you'll click the links and check these folks out.

• MONDAY: Fieldwork, "Door." Trio with unusual instrumentation (Vijay Iyer, piano; Steve Lehman, alto; Tyshawn Sorey, drums) continually redefines musical boundaries.

TUESDAY: Fly, "Sky and Country." Second CD (and first on ECM) from Mark Turner, Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard--the first, and thus far the only group I've had the pleasure of seeing live at the Village Vanguard.
WEDNESDAY: Fredrik Kronkvist, "Ignition." A fine release from altoist best described as the Kenny Garrett of Sweden.
THURSDAY: "The Essence of George Benson." Great early compilation of pure instrumentals with Ronnie Cuber on bari and Brother Jack McDuff on organ,and a variety of drummers.
FRIDAY: Level 42, "Running in the Family." A quick break from pure jazz with this funky UK band with jazz roots.
SATURDAY: Chris Potter Underground, "Ultrahang." Potter is always inspirational to me on concert days, and the latest one from his bassless fusion quartet filled the bill this time.
SUNDAY: Christian McBride, "Gettin' To It." Debut from acclaimed bassist mixes strong originals (including my favorite composition of his, "The Shade of the Cedar Tree") with a few standards.

Stay tuned for more next week; I've gotten lots of new music lately that's still waiting to be played in the car.

This Series Is Keeping It Real

It's easy to go to a musical performance and see the really good parts: The end results of all the hard work, the applause, and so on...but unless you've ever been a musician, you might not think about all of the grunt work that goes into what is seen on stage:

When we talk about full-time or professional musicians, we don't really look at the inglorious parts of being one: the practicing, the rehearsing, the chasing down of gigs and recordings, the way most actually make money. (It's not gigging, that's for sure.) And with good reason: That's boring to most people, usually.

Not to Luke Rabin. He's a drummer, and founded a group called FREEWAYarts: "a company that hopes to alternatively finance music through supportive communities while offering artists a more sustainable livelihood." And FREEWAYarts has started a series of short online interviews with musicians (mostly drummers so far) about the realities of making a living in music. Check out its Vimeo channel for more, including one feature with Rabin himself.

There's a lot more on the subject to be found in this excellent post over at A Blog Supreme. Here's the money quote, in my opinion:

Musicians don't choose to do music — it chooses them. It's almost a cliche by now, but how else do you talk about an inexplicable driving passion? Time and time again, you get people saying things like this: "For me, the decision was kind of already made. It wasn't like I decided, 'Oh, I think I'm just going to do this.'"

As they say, read the whole thing.

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

It's been an unusual week for music for me, so here's a slightly unconventional recap of my car-tunes for the past seven days:

• MONDAY: The Flashbulb, Love As A Dark Hallway. Newest release from prolific multi-instrumentalist Benn Jordan shows more of a jazz influence this time around.


• TUESDAY: Pat Metheny, Secret Story. Great "solo" effort from '92 includes most of the Group, plus strings.


• WEDNESDAY:Pat Metheny Group, Letter From Home. Yes, two in a row. I was listening to a lot of Pat this week as inspiration for an arrangement I was doing on a very Methenyoid tune.


• THURSDAY: Pat Metheny Group, The Way Up. The Pat-fest concludes with the epic '05 work by Pat and longtime cohort Lyle Mays.


• FRIDAY: Trio Elf, 746. We return to wonderful obscurity: a German group reminiscent of the Esbjörn Svensson Trio, but with heavy breakbeat influences.


• SATURDAY: Youngblood Brass Band, center:level:roar. A wonderful New Orleans brass band/hip-hop hybrid with ace sousaphonist Nat McIntosh.


• SUNDAY: James Morrison, Snappy Doo. In settings ranging from a quartet to full big band, the amazing Aussie plays every instrument on the album with the exception of guitar, bass and drums (which are ably supplied by Herb Ellis, John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton).

As noted above, I listened to a lot of one artist this week for a good reason; next week will have a more typical collection of wonderful lesser-known musicians. (It was also funny to hear people say "Hey, I've finally heard of somebody who's playing in the Kevmobile!" on the days I posted Pat. Click on the links and change that, folks!)

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

As always, here's a rundown of the (mostly) new (at least to me) stuff that's served as the soundtrack to my week as I drive between schools and what-not:

• MONDAY: Imagination Quartet, IQ. Debut EP from Polish foursome includes some fine originals.


• TUESDAY: Jerry Bergonzi/Joey Calderazzo/Lars Danielsson/Jukkis Uotila, Fast Company. Legendary U.S. tenorman joins pianist Calderazzo, a Swedish bassist and a Finnish drummer for an engaging set, many of which are Bergonzi originals.


• WEDNESDAY: Kim Edmundson/Alan Oldfield Project, Reality Check. My esteemed friend and fraternity brother Oldfield, a former Californian now living in the DFW area, and his L.A drummer buddy lead a quintet through a set of excellent Oldfield originals and a cover of Bobby Timmons' "Dat Dere."


• THRUSDAY/FRIDAY: Jane Ira Bloom, Mental Weather. A fine recent effort from the eminent soprano saxophonist/composer.


• SATURDAY: Spymob, Sitting Around Keeping Score and Steps Ahead, Modern Times,. My "early drive to Ft. Worth" tradition from the Minneapolis-based band best known for their work with the Neptunes and N.E.R.D., followed by one of the best U.S. albums by the Mike Mainieri-led fusion outfit from their Michael Brecker days.


• SUNDAY: Jars of Clay, Much Afraid. My favorite among this band's many albums, likely because of its Beatles influence.

As you can see, it was an uneven week of driving--Thursday's CD bled into Friday, while Saturday had two all to itself. But no matter how little or how much I drive, the music is always good. Stay tuned next week for more!

Adios to Amosan; I"ll Miss You, Old Friend

For as long as I can remember, I've had problems with canker sores, and I've also managed to bite my tongue (in a literal sense) more frequently than humans should be allowed to do. Until I got about halfway through college, there wasn't much I could do about it; I tried products like Anbesol and Carmex (the latter touted itself as being "for cold sores," but I found it worked even better as a lip balm), but nothing really worked.

But then a friend turned me onto this product called Amosan. Manufactured by Oral-B, it was sort of a weird concept: It billed itself as an "oral wound cleanser" (which prompted another college friend to say something like, "Help, I've been orally wounded!") and came in these tiny little packets of powder. The idea was to dissolve one packet in water "as hot as can be tolerated," swish it around in your mouth for 30 seconds, and...ahhh! Relief!

Amosan was never available everywhere I shopped, but I could find it sitting faithfully on the shelves at Walgreens and Albertsons for years, until recently. Even then, it was still possible to buy it on Amazon.com (yes, Amosan on Amazon), which I, having run out (and having bitten my tongue at least five times in the past two days), set out to do.

Except it's not there anymore. It was discontinued a year ago. D'oh! Even Amazon doesn't have back stock, so I'm pretty much out of luck on that front (unless I can find some on the shelf at a mom-and-pop drugstore somewhere...and yes, I'll be looking).

Is anyone else out there a faithful (and now equally bereft) Amosan user? If so, have you found a suitable replacement? One forum suggested using "3% hydrogen peroxide," but I'm not sure how to mix that, so I'd be open to suggestions in that vein as well.

Playing Last Week in the Kevmobile (and Other Conveyances)

OK, this is an abbreviated post (and it's a day late, because I was exhausted from yesterday's 12-hour bus trip), but I can't let a week go by without giving a shout-out to some of the bands I've been listening to recently, no matter what vehicle I might be in at the time:

• MONDAY: Dan Haerle, Jack Mouse and Bob Bowman, The Truth of the Matter An excellent piano trio (with some synth enhancements) led by my former jazz professor. (It's so cool to hear an original of Dan's and think, "Hey, that was really hard when it was assigned in Improv IV.")


• TUESDAY: Mike Murley/David Occhipinti, Duologue, Vol. 2. Guitar/sax duo (a format that's of great interest to me at the moment) from Canada explores a variety of styles, mixing originals and standards.


• WEDNESDAY (on the bus): Roy Hargrove, Earfood, and Snarky Puppy, Bring Us the Bright. As we drove through Oklahoma and Missouri, I listened to tunes by artists who got their start in Texas.


• THURSDAY-SATURDAY: Nothing. The trips from the hotel to the performing arts center took less than ten minutes, and even on the trip into downtown St. Louis on Saturday, I spent my time not with headphones on my head, but rather doing this odd thing called "talking to people." I wish I could do more of this while I'm driving.


• SUNDAY (on the bus back home): Tim Collins, Fade, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Winterwood, and the eponymous debut by Speak. In my effort to chronicle lots of new tunes, I don't do a lot of reruns (or if I do, it's on a day when the logged album is completed and I still have driving time left), but today was devoted to a few old favorites to make the long trip go faster.

So this may not seem like a lot of music for a pair of 12-hour bus rides, but, well...the bus had a DVD player, and I also got to see four movies that I hadn't seen before (and one other that was a rerun to me). But the new music has already resumed, and I'll recap the week ahead next Sunday.

That Three-Week Gig Has Worked Out Pretty Well So Far

ST. LOUIS--By now, the story of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra--née Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra, née the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra--is fairly well known by now: At the request of Jones and Lewis, Max Gordon allowed a big band to booked for three Monday nights in February, 1966 at his legendary Village Vanguard in New York City at the request of Jones and Lewis, who had each come off the road with Basie and Kenton, respectively.

And forty-five years later, the band is still going strong, having survived the passing of both Jones and Lewis (as well as Gordon) and performing under a name that now reflects its home base instead of its leadership. Many of the band's veteran players have a history with the group dating back to Thad's day, so tightness and swing still rule the day. And even with a few subs on board tonight (at least if one compares tonight's lineup to the personnel listed on the band's website), the band played in such a unified fashion, it was as if everyone on stage had been together for the entire 45 years of the band's existence.

And a lot of the core band was there tonight: Four-fifths of the saxophone section (Dick Oatts and Billy Drewes on altos/sopranos, and Rich Perry and Ralph Lalama on tenors) was in attendance, as were trombonist/spokesman John Mosca and bass trombonist/producer Doug Purviance. Lead trumpeter Nick Marchione and jazz trunpeter Scott Wendholdt were on board tonight, as was new bassist David Wong (as we pause to remember the late Dennis Irwin). And the subs--most notably pianist Michael Weiss, drummer Andy Watson and the bari player, whose name was Mark something (help me here!)--did an outstanding job of filling in for their missing counterparts.

As imagined, the evening featured a healthy portion of charts both famous and obscure by co-founder Thad Jones, including "Central Park North," "Kids Are Pretty People,' "Groove Merchant" and the encore "Mean What You Say." Other highlights included the music of pianist/composer-in-residence Jim McNeely, represented here by his arrangement of Jimi Hendrix's "Up from the Skies," along with a brand-new suite of three movements, each featuring one of the band's premier soloists--Oatts, Wendholt and Perry (in fact, the movements were simply entitled "Oatts," "Scott" and "Rich," respectively).

Needless to say, the band blew the roof off the place. The 40-year-old charts sounded as fresh as ever, and the new music stood ready to take its place among the classics. Very few times can a big band where virtually everyone is a world-class soloist (many of them leaders in their own right) be found outside of New York City, and it's great to see this band hit the road every now and then.

Another treat this evening was a brief but memorable appearance by Clark Terry. The legendary trumpeter/flugelhornist/vocalist/sweetheart of a guy was our guest artist at the college in '98, back when he was "only" 77 years old. Now, at age 90, he's very frail and can no longer play (thanks to a heart attack a few years ago), but he came onstage to sing an old favorite, "Just Squeeze Me," with the UMSL band's rhythm section, and he closed out his portion with his famous "Mumbles" routine (in case you're curious, the last intelligible part of the song this time around was a shout-out to his hometown St. Louis Cardinals). Clark is one of our national treasures, and I'm glad that I had the chance to see him again.

The festival is off to a great start! Tomorrow, it's the Ron Carter Trio; I'll blog that as well.

Oh, So Close to Old Home Week

ST. LOUIS--I lived in this area--Florissant, to be precise--in first and second grade. Since then, I've been back as an adult six times, but never in my own vehicle (or even in a rented one). I've always wanted to see my old house, but I've never been able to find the means to do so--again, mostly because of lack of personal transportation.

But I have gotten closer than ever as of this evening; after coming back from dinner, the bus driver offered to make a supply run for anyone needing provisions, and I went along for the trip. As we went onto I-270, I realized that we were skirting the border of Florissant, so that we were within five or ten minutes of my old house (coming back and plugging it into Mapquest showed us to be 2.8 miles away).

How I wish I were the one driving! I wasn't going to inconvenience eight other people and make the bus use the extra gas, of course...and besides, I'd want to go during the day when I could take pictures. And my "consolation prize" was that I got to pass by the hospital where my sister was born when we went back to the hotel.

I'll get to see that house again one of these days, but it really brought out a sense of longing to be that close tonight.

Fallliversary

ST. LOUIS--At the end of what's been a long day of travel, I pause to note that today marks the second anniversary of my accident. I'm thankful for a virtually complete recovery, and I'm having much more fun on this bus trip than the one in '09 when my leg was all braced up.

(If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go here for the whole story; if nothing else, the post from 4/14/09 will give you a general rundown of that fateful evening.)

As I said a year ago, little things that I used to take for granted are back to normal now; here's hoping it stays that way for the foreseeable future.

Blogiversary

It's hard to believe, but it was eight years ago today that I started The Musings of Kev. Why did I begin this? Well, let's review what I said at this time last year:

I began blogging for several reasons: To have an outlet for creative writing; to vent about a few things in a larger forum; to satisfy the journalism bug that bit me in college (writing CD and concert reviews, among other things); and, well, because a lot of my friends were blogging at the time (I guess that's the "all the cool kids are doing it" line of reasoning).

I started out doing very short posts--things that would probably be Tweeted today. Eventually, the Blogger software went through a few updates, and suddenly, my posts had headlines, tags and so on. As I learned more and more about HTML, things like links and embedded videos would make their way into various posts. As I read more and more "A-list" bloggers, some of their styles inevitably crept into mine.

And in the year since I wrote those words, The Musings has run into its most formidable adversary: Facebook. I finally caved and joined the social networking behemoth a year ago this month, after holding out for quite some time. It's been a great experience, as I've reconnected with plenty of old friends from college and high school, kept up with former students and met a lot of new brothers in my fraternity, Sinfonia.

So what does all that have to do with blogging? Well, I've always had a limited amount of computer time during the business day, since I'm teaching lessons or directing ensembles for most of the day. And when something as immediate as Facebook (which I read and update from the phone) gets the bulk of my attention, my other forms of online presence seem to suffer. (I've also been practicing and arranging more this year, both of which also cut into my limited non-teaching time.)

But nonetheless, I remain committed to this blog, and one way I've done is by a slight duplication of effort. Every Sunday has become a recap of the new music I'm listening to in the Kevmobile (which itself grows out of a daily series of tweets on Twitter that simulpost to Facebook), and some of the shorter posts on Facebook about the unusual things I run across in daily life (such as the perennial "Kids Say the Darnedest Things" series) will become posts here as well. I may not always have time to do a long post with links (as has been the custom over the past several years), but I usually have something to say every day, so I may end up saying the same thing (in various states of brevity, or not) across all three platforms. If nothing else, my blog readers, Twitter tweeps and Facebook friends don't have all that much overlap, so it's not as if too many people will be bombarded with the same post several times a day.

And for those of you who stop by regularly, whether for a short time or for the entire eight years (is there anyone out there in the latter category?), I thank you for your patronage, as well as for your patience when I do get backed up on posting. It's a big, wide Internet out there, and I appreciate your visiting my little corner of it. (And if you really want to get this thing going bigger, start up a discussion in the comments. It's nice to know the thoughts and opinions of those who read this.)

Copyrighting Pi: The Saga Continues

Right after Pi Day (3/14), I posted the story of Michael John Blake, the Canadian musician whose video of a clever musical rendition of the first 31 digits of pi was ordered taken down by another ocmposer who had done a similar thing a number of years back. I said that I'd post an update once I got more information, and this weekend, a reader did the work for me:

I saw that you posted about this issue back around Pi Day and said you'll "keep following this story here as well".

Well, there has been a significant new development. Michael John Blake was finally successful with his counter-claim, having his video restored recently after a wait of weeks. But now, Lars [Erickson] has taken the next step, and filed an actual lawsuit.

A PDF of the filing can be found on Scribd if you simply search for "Erickson v Blake" (I'd link it but I don't want to be eaten by the spam filter)

As you can see, Lars wants to thieve EVERYTHING from him:

"This is a case of copyright infringement against Defendant Michael John Blake. The suit seeks actual damages, plus disgorgement of Defendant's profits, and statutory damages as well as the recovery of Plaintiff s expenses and reasonable attorneys' fees. Plaintiff also requests additional relief in the form of an injunction preventing
Defendant from engaging in further infringing acts."

Pretty disgusting that he's going to this length. I'm also surprised he took it this far. It's easy enough to bully someone with a DMCA takedown, but to actually file a suit? I posted a mocking comment on his Youtube profile a few weeks back - when "Newscientistvideo" uploaded a copy of Blake's video - taunting him about whether he wasgoing to claim against them too. He deleted the comment in moderation but replied in PM claiming he HAD already submitted a claim against them too. The video never went down, so that's obviously a lie.

--- Billy Wenge-Murphy

And in a later correspondence, Billy adds the following:

One more bit you might be interested in is that Lars was already aware
of a pi song which was created independently of his own, and he
treated it much differently. This video by "DSarahGarland":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wxp0x2JoXo

If you follow the Youtube comments, Lars has been going around arguing that people clearly must have learned how to play Pi from his "Explanation of the Pi Symphony" video (nevermind its measly 24K views).

But, wait! Look at the comments! He put up that video in the first place because of her! He knows damn well others didn't have to copy him, because this girl's nearly identical creation inspired him to explain his own.

That seems to suggest ulterior motives for his treatment of Blake's work - jealousy maybe? Greed? Blake got more attention in one shot than Lars did in decades. Why be so friendly to that girl and so aggressively litigious to Blake?

Agreed--that's pretty strange. Thanks, Billy, for the update; I agree that Lars seems to be going way too far to protect a melody that's generated by a number. It reminds me of the music that came out after J.S. Bach died, where every composer and his cousin was writing melodies on the figure "B-A-C-H" (with "B" meaning "B-flat" and "H" meaning "B-natural" in old-school notation). Had there been stringent copyright laws in those days, would anyone be filing "Hey, I thought of that first!" lawsuits against each other? I sort of doubt it.

Sounds like this one isn't over; more updates to come.

UPDATE: Only a few hours after I posted this (and a mere ten minutes after I watched the video again for the first time in nearly a month), the video has been taken down again, at Erickson's request. This guy isn't exactly winning friends and influencing people, is he?

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

Do I really play something brand-new in my car every day with no repeats? Well, yes and no. I do play something new each day--the "official" album that gets blogged and Facebooked and Twittered. But sometimes, I do more than one album's worth of driving in a given day, and that's where the repeats come in; I simply don't include those in the postings.

And now, a recap of this past week:

• MONDAY: The Claudia Quintet, "Semi-Formal." Composer John Hollenbeck presents jazz minimalism and other cleverness.


• TUESDAY: Vijay Iyer Trio, "Historicity." A fine recent effort from the rising piano star.


• WEDNESDAY: Curtis Macdonald, "Community Immunity." Impressive debut from the saxophonist/composer, and perhaps the soonest that a CD has made it to the Kevmobile after its release (it dropped yesterday).


• THURSDAY: Dafnis Prieto Sextet, "Taking the Soul for a Walk." Cool grooves and tunes from Cuban-born drummer & group; many of the compositions have a definite Chick Corea-ish vibe.


• FRIDAY: Miles Okazaki, "Generations." Latest effort from the innovative guitarist adds wordless vocals to the mix.


• SATURDAY: Vijay Iyer, Prasanna and Nitin Mitta, "Tirtha." Jazz meets India in this great trio of piano/guitar/tabla; the sound was so fresh to me that, after hearing it on Iyer's website when snagging the link for Tuesday's entry, I had to snag it almost immediately. (Read more about it and hear two full-length tracks from the CD here.)


• SUNDAY: Dave Holland Quintet, "Critical Mass." It's a tough choice, but--in my humble opinion, of course--I consider this to be the best of all the excellent albums by the group I consider to be the best working combo in jazz.

Yet another great week for music! Next week includes two days of long bus travel, so the theme will be a little bit different, but I may have more entries per day as well.

It's Just a Sign of...I'm Not Actually Sure

I've passed by this sign regularly for several weeks, and I still have no idea what they're going for here:


Did they mean to say something about the Bible, but were lacking many letters, or was the church having an emo moment and attempting to say "BLEH," lacking only an H? (And what would it be like to go to Emo Church? I bet the sermons would be entertaining: "Lo, and thou shalt wearest thy hair only over thine eyes, and cloak thy loins in the skinniest of jeans.")

UPDATE: One of my Facebook friends suggests that perhaps the sign meant to read "BLESS" and the two S's fell off. Who knows...

Wondering About My Favorite Bari Player? I'll Take a Mulligan

On this day in 1927, Gerard Joseph Mulligan (known to the world as Gerry) was born. Throughout his 68 years of life, he would be known for several things: His major contributions to Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool recordings; his baritone sax style that was also rooted in the "cool jazz" aesthetic; his Concert Jazz Orchestra; his piano-less quartets with Chet Baker; and his many well-loved compositions such as "Line for Lyons."

As I noted on Facebook this morning, anyone who loves the bari certainly owes Gerry a debt of gratitude, as does anyone who loves cool jazz. I was fortunate to be able to meet him at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago in 1993 and also see him perform with the One O'Clock Lab Band as part of the Gomez Artist Series at the Meyerson a year or two before his passing.

Happy birthday, Gerry; you won't soon be forgotten.

Beer: It May Not Just Be for Breakfast Anymore, But It Still Is for Some People

When I was buying my newspaper this morning, the guy in front of me had several items: A Coke, a bag of chips..and a rather large can of beer. A few things came to mind:

1) I hope the guy was just getting off work and not headed there.
2) If he was headed to work, I hope his job isn't something like brain surgeon, air traffic controller..., or the guy building bridges on the Bush Turnpike extension.

I've never seen anyone buy a beer that early (~7:30) in the morning before. How about you?

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

As always, the weekly recap of music from the car--hopefully something that's new to you that you'll end up checking out:

• MONDAY: Stockton Helbing,"Lodestar." Debut CD from the amazing drummer/writer/producer who's also an esteemed colleague of mine at the Texas All-Star Jazz Camp and a producer on the Kris Berg recording project with which I'm currently involved.


• TUESDAY: Gino Vannelli, "Black Cars." This album is more stripped-down than Gino's usual fare (especially its lush predecessor, "Nightwalker," and the synths scream '80s, but they're still great songs.


• WEDNESDAY: Miles Okazaki, "Mirror." Engaging debut from the guitarist/award-winning composer.


• THURSDAY: Numinous, "Vipassana." Composer Joseph C. Phillips, Jr. offers up a fine variety of jazz-tinged minimalism--think Steve Reich meets Maria Schneider.


• FRIDAY: The Flashbulb, "Réunion." Tasty collection from Chicago-based guitarist/electronic musician Benn Jordan.


• SATURDAY: Tiny Tribe, "Strange Stories & Faraway Places." German trio and special guests mix jazz with electronics.


• SUNDAY: Niels Lan Doky, "The Target." Danish pianist joined by the great Danish bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Jack DeJohnette on drums.

It's been a great week for music, and it starts again in the morning!

Time for a Change?

I'm growing weary of the rat race, and it's getting harder to make a living doing what I do. But I may have an out: An uncle has offered me a stake in his highly successful New Zealand sheep farm if I go work part-time there for 5 years (after that, I can come home and still see the profits). I'd have lots of time to practice and write and could even do lessons over Skype. I'm considering it; what are your thoughts?

UPDATE: April Fool! I don't have any uncles in New Zealand (though I have to admit that working a part-time job for five years to earn a perpetual stake in a thriving business would be nice if it really happened). A lot of people fell for it on Facebook.

Did you fall victim to any pranks today, or did you pull one yourself? Let me know in the comments.

It Seems Like This Should Be Obvious, But...

...it would appear that not everyone gets it.

There was an interesting quote in yesterday's paper from an official at a local school district (no reason to name names) that announced personnel cuts: "'We didn't understand the state position that you can do cuts outside of the classroom,' said [John Doe], the associate superintendent for business services." Hmm--perhaps the district could start by eliminating positions like "associate superintendent for business services."

And if you've read this blog for any length of time, you probably know my opinion regarding an important change that should be made to those administrators who remain.

I hope this doesn't sound too much like a "never let a good crisis go to waste" sort of thing, but the budget cuts that are coming to public education would seem like a good reason to make some fundamental changes to the system, and spending the majority of dollars in the classroom would make a lot of sense. (Your mileage may vary, but comment below if you disagree, and please tell me why.)

Playing Last Week in the Kevmoible

I didn't have time to do this post on the usual Sunday, because yesterday was taken up with a bunch of really good activities. But here's the weekly rundown of car-tunes for you:

• MONDAY: Gino Vannelli, "Nightwalker." Soulful singer's effort w/ jazz fusion studio cats holds us well after 30 yrs.


• TUESDAY: David Sanchez, "Street Scenes." My favorite CD from Puerto Rican tenorist w/ guest spots from Kenny Garrett.


• WEDNESDAY: Chick Corea, "Three Quartets." The classic session with Brecker, Gomez and Gadd.


• THURSDAY: YT little d, "Dancer." Talented cast of current or recent UNT students led by bassist Yuka Tadano.


• FRIDAY: Bobby Watson and Horizon, "The Inventor." One of the great Blue Note CDs from the patron saint of Combo PM.


• SATURDAY: Kneebody, "You Can Have Your Moment." Latest release from the innovative quintet.


• SUNDAY: Nils Petter Molvaer, "np3." Another fine release from the Nordic techno trumpet titan.

Next week should be much more relaxing than this one, so the weekly recap should once again be on time. As always, thanks for your patience.

This Weekend's Forecast: Wayne, Wayne and More Wayne

It's been great to have Wayne Bergeron as our special guest at the college this weekend. He played two amazing performances with our groups on Friday night and last night and gave a very informative clinic yesterday afternoon. A little later today, I get to experience him in the studio, as he's going to be a guest on some tunes on the CD project that I'm involved in this year.

And of course, we all got to get our picture taken with him:


What an amazing weekend! And the next portion of it is just hours away...

Another Guitarist Who's Got It Down Pat

The jazz world is blessed with two Pats--both guitarists--whose last names sound somewhat alike. Once again today, in the absence of blog time, here's a great song to listen to from Pat Martino. (The uploader disabled embedding, but click the link; it's worth your time.)

This was one of the first things I learned to play on tenor when I bought one almost eleven years ago. The tenor on this one, and the original recording, is the amazing Eric Alexander.

I have two days of jazz festival coming up at the college, and a recording session the day after that. I'll have reports from all of them when everything is done.

Since I Don't Have Time to Do a Real Post Today...

...I'll share a song instead:



It's "Crossed Wires" by Mike Mainieri, the vibraphonist and longtime leader of various editions of the group Steps Ahead. This one comes from a 1981 album, Wanderlust, which was released before Steps Ahead had a domestic recording in the U.S. (though they'd already enjoyed tremendous popularity in Japan). Most of the Michael Brecker edition of Steps Ahead (Peter Erskine, Warren Bernhardt) is on board, even though it's not an official Steps album, and Marcus Miller plays bass. I'm happy that it was re-released on CD a while back.

As for this song--yes, it reminds one a bit of "Birdland" for a moment, but it's a cool tune in its own right. The pictures on this video are cool as well, though it's NSFW from about :29 to :43 (it was evidently done by someone from Italy, where a naked lady is considered more artistic than naughty, at least as I understand it).

Enjoy!

Minimalism Meets Maria? I Love That Idea For Reasons Too Numinous to Mention

While catching up on Twitter this afternoon, I happened to read a tweet from Darcy James Argue, the "steampunk big band" composer who has been discussed in these pages before (and whom I had to miss a few weeks ago when he led the One O'Clock through a program of his music in Denton). He mentioned that he was going to see a show by a group called Numinous, and for whatever reason, my curiosity was piqued.

So I visited the Numinous blog, which led to the group's website, where I learned that Numinous is the project of a composer named Joseph C. Phillips, Jr., and he has a fascinating story: Started out as a school band director in the suburbs of Seattle; came to composition late; saw a Maria Schneider clinic at Washington State and was summarily blown away; went to NYC and spent six years in the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop. And what he's come up with is music that skirts the jazz/classical border, heavily influenced by Schneider as well as minimalists like Steve Reich and John Adams, but with a sound all its own that has to be heard to be described. Here's a small sample of one of his newest works:


(And for something a bit more on the jazz side, watch this.)

I'm always on the lookout for new sounds, so I'm really glad that DJA tweeted about this today (and I look forward to my eMusic credits refreshing next week so that I can snag a copy of this latest work, Vipassana; check out more here or here, or at the iTunes Store, which has the lengthiest samples).

I love discovering new music! What else will cross my path this week?

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

This week brought a wealth of new music (and there'll be even more once I bring in a "wealth of new money"; fiscal discipline kept me from buying all the new things I wanted). Here's the latest:

• MONDAY: Kurt Rosenwinkel, Heartcore. Guitarist's '03 effort is often called his "electronica album." Also features the great Mark Turner, a frequent collaborator, on tenor sax.


• TUESDAY: Quebec Antique, The Abbey Tapes. British/Canadian duo mixes electronica with organic sounds a la The Postal Service. (The Canadian half is Michael Blake, whose controversial song made of Pi is the subject of Monday's post.)


• WEDNESDAY: Haftor Medbøe Group, "A Box of Monkeys." Scottish guitarist mixes jazz with pop/club styles on a 5-song EP. His truly international band features a frontline of trombone/tenor; vocalist Anneke Kampman joins for two tunes, and effects are added by a programmer who goes by the handle "Babyshaker."


• THURSDAY: The self-titled debut EP from Recess, a Brooklyn hip-hop, melodic pop group featuring a horn section of UNT expats, trumpeter Jay Jennings and my fraternity brother Sylvester "Sly" Onyejiaka. The EP can be downloaded for free here.


• FRIDAY: Gorillaz, Plastic Beach. Undoubtedly the best band ever assembled that's made up of animated characters. This album is all over the map, style-wise, and includes guest appearances from Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, Bobby Womack and half of the Clash.


• SATURDAY: Jonathan Kreisberg, Unearth. The guitarist's first quintet album after years of trio-ing (that was also the title of one of the trio albums!), and his first one of all original compositions. Saxman Will Vinson wasn't on board yet, but Scott Wendholt provides excellent stuff on trumpet. (BTW, while Googling info for this album, I discovered that Jonathan and I share a birthday!)


• SUNDAY: Big Audio Dynamite II, "The Globe." I dug this out after hearing Mick Jones' guest stint with Gorillaz; still holds up pretty well despite being nearly 20 years old. (And I discovered while getting this entry together that the band has reunited and will perform in the U.K. starting next month!)

Our Weekly Supply of Catch-Up*

One would think that, with so many hours of time off during Spring Break, that I would be able to finish my blog posts in a timely fashion. But this week, one would be wrong. Still, I've caught up on a lot of other stuff this week, so hopefully that bodes well for blogging in the weeks ahead. Anyway, here are the unfinished posts from earlier this week that have now been completed:

• My take on the copyright controversy surrounding Michael John Blake's "What Pi Sounds Like" song.


• Yes, we have too many laws on the books already, but there really should be one addressing rogue robo-callers.


• My annual St. Patrick's Day greeting to readers.


• Another way to fix education: Require everyone to major in their chosen discipline, rather than just a generic education major.

Tomorrow will once again feature the new stuff I've been listening to in the Kevmobile this week. (I'm going to start the shell of that post now, so that it's not late as well.)

* I don't know if I've ever mentioned this here before, but as a kid, I really did see a store brand of catsup/ketchup that was spelled "CATCHUP"--weird...

Another Simple Solution for Education

With budget crunches happening seemingly everywhere at the federal, state and local level, education has been in the news a lot lately. I've posted my own suggestions of how to deal with these budget crises, especially as they relate to education, but one more thing occurred to me today, and it's something that I'm not sure has ever been posted here before.

The prompt came from a post at the Althouse blog, which has received even more attention than usual the past month or so, thanks to Althouse and husband Meade's coverage of the people protesting Wisconsin's union-weakening legislation in their town of Madison. The paragraphs that caught my attention were these two, from commenter JorgXMcKie:

While there are many very good students in the College of Ed, on average they are in the bottom 1/3 of ACT scores, but the overall college GPA is probably the highest in the University. So, probably they're not the sharpest knives in the drawer, but they do have really high self-esteem.

Most of them don't really learn a subject, they learn how to 'educate'. They learn how to make the all-important lesson plans. They learn that no one outside the Education Establishment knows anything about education. They learn that they deserve to be highly compensated whether or not their students learn anything.

And this was my response:

I have long believed that nobody should be allowed to major in education, which should instead be a minor, studied in combination with a major in one's chosen teaching area. It doesn't matter how much somebody knows of teaching techniques and the miscellaneous psychobabble taught in ed-school if he or she isn't a master of the subject being taught.

As a (non-unionized) teacher, I've always believed that the best among us combine the skills of a master with the heart of a servant. Union membership, with its me-first attitude, tends to deemphasize the former and make the latter nearly impossible.

The comment thread is still going as we speak, and nobody's said anything to directly contradict me. But feel free to start your own thread here.

Erin Go Blog

Happy St. Patrick's Day to my Irish friends (and that casts a pretty wide net right now; as I told someone on Facebook, I think that most of us of Irish ancestry are more than willing to give pretty much anyone a free one-day membership pass into our club today).

Some things remain unchanged from last year at this time:

Not only am i wearing green, but the green in question is a T-shirt that came from Ireland itself, when Mom and Dad went there a few years ago (Mom and Dad went to Ireland, and all I got was a pretty cool T-shirt...and some Guinness, though I would have enjoyed the factory tour they took even more). My T-shirt says Sláinte!, which is an old Irish toast roughly meaning "good health." As I noted a few years ago, it was a popular slogan for the Bennigan's restaurant chain, which lost its good health a few years ago.

But other than the wearin' o' the green, along with a certain odd-colored beverage in my near future, this has been a pretty relaxing day thus far. As I've noted in the past, ever since St. Patrick's Day became part of Spring Break, we've lost a lot of the amusement that goes along with seeing kids either try to pinch each other at school or seeing how little green one can wear to be immune from same. (My all-time favorite was the kid who pinned a leaf to his shirt.)

May the luck o' the Irish be with ye today!

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I wonder how many of the people that say they're Irish today will say they're Mexican on May 5th."--my fraternity brother Sam R., on Facebook. (Hey, I assume they hand out day passes just like we do...)

There Oughta Be a Law...

OK, so I'd probably be the first person to tell you that we have too many laws already, and I'm completely in favor of having some sort of "sunset provision" where old laws come up for review every ten years or so, in order to see if they're still needed. And most of the time, I'd like to see less government interference in business, unless said business is acting badly.

And in this case, I think that a business is acting badly. Even worse, I can't even identify the business in question.

It goes like this: For some reason, I still have a land-line phone, though I question why I do this on a regular basis. ("In case of emergency" is the only reason I can conjure up, but I can probably do other things for the same peace of mind that don't cost $33 a month.) I never actually answer this phone, but it's hooked up to an answering machine (no sense in paying the phone company for voicemail when I have a perfectly functional, if ancient, device on hand), and most of the time, people just hang up on it, which is fine. I get the occasional long-winded messages from political candidates when election time comes around, but otherwise, if anything is even on the tape, it's a dial tone (remember those?) from the caller having hung up concurrently with the beep of the machine.

But lately, there's been a disturbing trend: Companies who not only use a recorded message--which is annoying enough in the first place--but start the message right when the machine picks up. That means that anything the robo-caller "says" during the time it takes for my greeting message to play (and my greeting is looooong, basically advising everyone to send me email instead) is clipped off, so what I hear after the beep is the second half of the message, if even that much.

Again, this is annoying, especially when the caller ends up requesting a person who has never been at this number (of which, I should point out, I have been the sole holder, seeing as how my area code was created during the time it was assigned to me). Sometimes they sound like they might even be collection agencies, but there's no way in the world I'm going to call them back without knowing if the call was even intended for me in the first place.

So here's where it gets really bad--the thing that has sparked my possible call to action: Lately, I've gotten some calls where the recorded voice has obviously "spoken" the name of a person during the time when my greeting is still playing, so I miss that portion of the message on my recording. But the part I do hear goes something like this: "If you are not the person we have named, you have five seconds to hang up. By continuing on the line, you acknowledge that you are the person in question."

The problem here is pretty obvious, I would think: During such a call (at which point I'm not even home, mind you), my answering machine is not smart enough to recognize the name of the person and hang up if it's not me. So in effect, my machine is committing me to something that is likely not true, without my being able to do something about it!

So this is one of those rare times where I'll actually say, "There oughta be a law." At the very least, I would like to see such robo-calls outlawed, because an answering machine is being asked to do something which it has neither the capability nor the authority to do. (And I'd really like to see robo-calls themselves outlawed, but I'm certain that Big Telemarketing has its hands in the pockets of enough members of Congress that such a thing could happen anytime soon.)

Have you had any experiences like this from a robo-call? And do you agree that this behavior needs to be outlawed? Let me know in the comments.

Yes, You Can Copyright a Melody--But Suppose It's Also a Number?

Since yesterday was Pi Day, I was hoping to post something whimsical about that subject, and, true to form, some of my Facebook friends came through with a clever video they'd found on YouTube. It's a guy who took the first 31 digits of pi, assigned them the corresponding scale degrees in music, then turned that into a melody. He started out in eighth notes, then added other instruments at both slower and faster rhythmic subdivisions, which resulted in a really catchy tune. I linked to it on Facebook as well, as did several other friends. It even made its way onto TIME Magazine's website.

But when I sat down to blog about it this afternoon, I was quite dismayed to discover that the video had been taken down from YouTube "due to a copyright claim by Lars Erickson." Huh? Who is Lars, and why does he object to a melody made from pi?

Some quick research showed that Erickson is a composer who wrote a symphony based on pi back in 1992, and it just happened that he started with an eighth-note motif as well. But beyond that...the two pieces couldn't be more different, and in my opinion, the piece that got taken down, by a Canadian musician named Michael John Blake, was far more clever and interesting than the symphony. (I'm almost hesitant to give Ericksson any links, but you can follow a lot of the discussion and listen to part of the symphony here.

But this brings up a larger question: Can someone really copyright a melody if it comes from a fairly obvious source such as the world's most famous multi-digit number? And what about twelve-tone compositions? I'm sure more than one composer used the same tone row; if YouTube had existed in Schoenberg's day, would he have been demanding that other composers' videos be taken down if they used "his" row?

And while Erickson is certainly within his rights to copyright his entire work, it seems a little arrogant to attempt to include the concept of making a melody out of pi in the copyright. As YouTube commenter "marklandson" said,

It is clearly the role of copyright to protect creativity. Copyright does not protect anything that is obvious or discoverable through ordinary knowledge. In the case of “your” melody based on pi, the assignment of the digits of pi to the various notes of the scale is based on an ordinary and obvious system that literally countless other musicians have done over the years. You were certainly not the first to do it with the number pi. I myself did it before 1992.

Beyond the opening motif, the two works couldn't be more different. So was Erickson's blocking of Blake's video a jerky thing to do? (I didn't witness this myself, but evidently, the only bad move Blake is purported to have made was deleting comments to his video that referenced Erickson's work, though others have said the only comments Blake deleted were those that were rude or vulgar.)

Thankfully, the recording of the song that Blake placed at the iTunes store was still up as of tonight, so I snagged a copy, and it's a fun addition to my library. Meanwhile, I have no interest in Erickson's work (which, as I said, I consider far less interesting than Blake's in the first place), and I wonder how many potential fans he's lost today by being such a bad sport about all of this.

Meanwhile, there was one silver lining to all this: On the page with the since-removed video, Blake had links to his other projects, including a wonderful duo called Quebec Antique, featuring Blake and Andy Dollerson (the Canadian and the Brit met in Austin, by the way). Their music can be sampled at their Facebook page; evidently, it's reminiscent of a band called The Postal Service, which I'll also have to check out. I've already picked up this CD from eMusic, and it'll be the next thing I listen to in the Kevmobile.

UPDATE: Blake has a new video up where he explains his take on the situation and announces that he's filed a counter-claim. We'll keep following this story here as well.

Blogging With a Side of Catch-Up

Now that I'm on spring break, I can finally catch up on the past week's posts:

• A cruel last-minute finish to the Mean Green men's basketball season


• A quick bleg for advice on treating an injured digit


• My thoughts on Chuck Greeberg's departure from the Rangers


• One final visit to a doomed bookstore, and some thoughts on the waning era of bookstore-as-CD-store.


• And of course, my weekly roundup of what's been playing in the Kevmobile.

Blogging should be less sporadic with a little bit more time on my hands this week, so please return often.

Enjoy some Pi with your coffee: Happy Pi Day (3.14, of course). Tomorrow's post will discuss a clever music video that was gone almost as quickly as it went up, why it got taken down, and the ethics of same.

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

As always, I bring you the list of stuff that was playing in my car this week, with special emphasis on new arrivals:

• MONDAY: Kenny Werner, Lawn Chair Society. The pianist covers a variety of moods and textures with an all-star band of Chris Potter, Dave Douglas, Scott Colley and Brian Blade.


• TUESDAY: Jack DeJohnette, Parallel Realities. The drummer (who also plays synth bass on this effort) may be billed as the leader, but I like to see it as a totally equal partnership between him and the other two luminaries, Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny.


• WEDNESDAY: Christian McBride & Inside Straight, Kind of Brown. The bassist extraordinaire leads his newest group through a spirited program of originals.


• THURSDAY: Joshua Redman, Elastic. Still one of my two all-time favorite Redman albums (along with Mood Swing), the tenorist tears it up as he explores new territory with Sam Yahel (organ, keys) and Brian Blade (drums).


• FRIDAY/SATURDAY: Chris Potter 10, Song for Anyone. In sort of a scaled-down version of Brecker's Quindectet, Potter explores new colors with string trio, woodwind trio and rhythm section, with compositions quite different from his jazz-rock group Underground (who released an album of their own on the same day as this one).


• SUNDAY: Earl Harvin/Dave Palmer, Strange Happy. My two college classmates, joined by my former prof (Fred Hamilton), were better known as the Earl Harvin Trio (occasionally expanded to a quartet on this disc by another college classmate of mine, Chris McGuire, on tenor/bass clarinet). Here, they deliver a tasty set of acoustic originals, their last such outing before going in a more experimental direction when pianist Palmer switched primarily to Rhodes. Their once-a-year gigs in Dallas in the mid-Oughts were must-see events.

There are still more new things that I got from eMusic in the past week that haven't made the car rotation yet, so I'm sure they'll show up in next week's report. (The daily updates go out on Facebook and Twitter as well.)

One More Run to the Border(s)

I've been aware for several weeks now that Borders Books and Music is downsizing, and that one of the casualties of this effort will be the huge store in Dallas at Preston and Royal. Seeing as how this is pretty close to my church, it used to be a regular stop on Sunday afternoons, especially because of its ginormous music department. Many an hour was spent at its listening stations, checking out the latest jazz offerings (and interesting-looking things in other genres as well).

So I stopped in again this morning for the first time in several years, in search of a possible bargain. And the first thing that struck me (besides how few other customers were in the store) was how small the music department had gotten; a good two-thirds of the area had been replaced with bookshelves. (And this was not simply a downsizing brought on by the store-closing sale, either; the bookshelves in question had permanent signage above them which indicated that the displays have been there for a while.) As for the bargains themselves? If there were some there, it was hardly worth the time to look, as any sense of order had long ago been abandoned, and it's not like they'd have employees going around reshelving everything at this point.

I've posted in the past* about the apparent downfall of the whole "bookstore as music store" idea, and it's only gotten worse since then. (Scroll down to the bottom section of the linked post, "A heads-up to the brick-and-mortars," to read my earlier thoughts on this subject.) Still, it was a good run while it lasted, and the timing was perfect; the departure of big chain music stores like Blockbuster Music, Tower Records and Virgin Megastore left a void that Barnes & Noble and Borders filled for a while, but the writing was on the wall the past several years when the bookstores shrunk their music departments down to bare bones.

Still, it was a Catch-22 of sorts for them; no doubt, it's expensive to keep physical CDs in stock at a store, but if they're not there (or if they cost considerably more than the same stores sell them for on their websites), people won't buy them, and they may not come in at all. For me, a trip to the local Barnes & Noble was a weekly ritual until they downsized their music department (replacing a lot of the music shelves with audiobooks, which don't seem to sell at all); it also means less business from me in their cafe, and I haven't even renewed my membership the past couple of years.

The recorded music business itself is also changing, with a lot of distribution taking place in the form of digital downloads. (And a lot of the music I've bought recently is of the indie variety that might never show up inside a Barnes & Noble or Borders in the first place.) Still, it would be nice to have a place that combined music purchasing with the social aspect of a bookstore; the Hear Music burning-bar concept trotted out by Starbucks a few years ago never really, took off, but I wonder if a bookstore that offered some sort of downloading machine into which customers could plug their iPods would be successful.

Still, on this day, I remember the years of the bookstore-as-CD-store, and they were good. It still surprises me that the Preston/Royal Borders is closing (it's the same location where former President Bush drew an overflow crowd to his book-signing just a few months ago), but the new Barnes & Noble that's catty-corner across the street evidently took a lot of its business away. I'm also glad that Borders isn't completely going away, and that the one in Watters Creek is among those being spared.

Do you have a favorite memory of buying music at a bookstore, or of the Preston/Royal Borders in general? Feel free to share in the comments.

A Ranger Quckly Rides Into the Sunset

I couldn't believe what I was hearing on the radio as I was in the process of waking up yesterday morning: Chuck Greenberg was resigning as CEO of the Rangers? Surely that was crazy talk that could only be attributed to my early-morning grogginess. After all, he just got here! Surely he's not leaving already?

But as the day went on, it was obvious that the news was true: Greenberg is out--selling his stake in the team and everything--and Nolan Ryan will add "CEO" to his title of team president.

I was among many who hailed Greenberg as a hero when his ownership team--with his and Ryan's names listed most prominently--beat out Mark Cuban and Jim Crane to buy the team out of bankruptcy in August. I knew that there were other "money men" behind the scenes, but they seemed willing to let Greenberg and Ryan be the public faces of the ownership group, and Greenberg really connected with the fans since the group took over.

But obviously, there were some not-so-joyous times in Mudville. What really happened? We may never know for sure, but this is obviously part of it:

In a Rangers news release, Greenberg, who was managing general partner and CEO, said he, Ryan and co-chairmen of the board Ray Davis and Bob Simpson have "somewhat different styles" and he said he was disappointed that they "did not work through our differences."

Sources said Greenberg's departure was the result of a variety of factors that built up during the offseason.

One included Greenberg's selling a suite at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington that general manager Jon Daniels used for meetings and to entertain family members and various opposing front-office people. Ryan and Daniels didn't want the suite sold.

Greenberg also got more involved in the Michael Young trade talks than the baseball operations staff wanted, sources confirmed.

The Average Joe Fan on the Street (like yours truly) never had any idea that any of this was going on, so the whole thing comes as a shock. The big money guys (whose names are Ray Davis and Bob Simpson, and they'd just as soon shrink back to anonymity once this issue has subsided) are saying that nothing will change, and one can only hope that a year full of drama (Team in bankruptcy? Manager admits to doing cocaine? Iconic infielder demands a trade?) can finally come to a close with this announcement.

So long, Chuck. And thanks for doing what you did to bring the deal to fruition last year; I think it certainly was for the best that your group won, even if it's not your group anymore. The fans really appreciate it.

Spring Has Sprung...

...and break has broken, and it couldn't have come at a better time. After a nice visit with my parents the past few days, it's time to settle down for some serious relaxation. (I'll get stuff done over the break, of course, but I won't keep getting behind-er with any extra things piled on top of what I already had to do.)

And I start out this break with a call for advice: Anyone ever dealt with a strained/sprained toe before? It's the second toe on my right foot--not the same limb that was so messed up a few years ago, but it's making me gimpy all the same. There's no displacement or discoloration, so I'm not imagining anything is fractured. I experienced a little foot pain for a few hours a few weeks ago when I played a gig in my dress shoes without putting the cushion-y insoles in them, and since then, there's been some occasional soreness at the end of the day, but it's just been in the past day or so that things have gotten pretty painful.

Anyway, I've been experimenting with buddy splinting, and I'll try ice. I won't have to walk as much with the week off from teaching, so that should help. Anything else I'm forgetting? Let me know in the comments.

The Tournament Final Was Mean to the Green

I thought for sure that my alma mater, Morth Texas, would be making a return to the NCAA tournament this year. They had a pretty good regular season, and they had dominated so far in the Sun Belt Tournament. Plus, when I turned on the radio after rehearsal tonight, they had a seemingly safe lead with just over a minute to go.

And what a difference that minute made. After a couple of key turnovers by the Mean Green, Arkansas-Little Rock needed a near-miracle to even tie the game and send it into overtime. But UALR senior Solomon Bozeman hit a 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds left to put the Trojans ahead by one, and UNT's inbound pass was stolen by another Trojans player to seal the 64-63 win that kept the Green out of the Big Dance. (And while the Trojans will head there instead, for the first time since 1990, they may well have to do a play-in game with their 19-16 record; UNT, by contrast, ended the season at 22-11.)

Still, it was a great year for Coach Johnny Jones and his senior-laden team. I don't expect a huge drop-off for next year, though, as UNT has become known during the Jones era as a good place to play, so I'm sure that some of the better players in the state will still flock to Denton.

The next major UNT sporting event will be the first game in the new football stadium in September. I can't wait!

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

The iPod went into hibernation again from Monday afternoon until part of Tuesday, so I rocked the classics on CD until it woke up again.

• MONDAY: The end of the Happy Apple CD from the previous day (see last week's post) until the iPod went to sleep.


• TUESDAY: Böhm-Halle-Sell, "Try to org." Innovative German/Norwegian trio of piano, trumpet and laptop (with two of the three guys named Rainer) combines tuneful melodies with a generous helping of electronic skronkiness. I need to check out their DVD, which seems (from the trailer featured on their MySpace) to be a bit more straight-ahead.


• WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY: Kurt Rosenwinkel & OJM, "Our Secret World." The guitarist's first CD of originals with a big band, Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos out of Portugal, whose members did the impressive arrangements. (Yes, I liked this one so much that I played it twice, which is why it took up two day's slots.)


• FRIDAY: Kneebody, "Low Electrical Worker." I can't get enough of this group; in this case, their second release disproves the idea of the dreaded sophomore slump with great, genre-busting writing and playing throghout.


• SATURDAY: DjM Trio, "The Intrigue." Chicago-based band describes its interesting style as "an amalgam of Jungle/Dub/Afro-Beat/Jazz." (To my ears, the band is less successful when the guitarist picks up a tenor sax, but I'm also really picky about saxophone tones, so that could be just me.)


• SUNDAY: Jonathan Kreisberg, "Shadowless." Newest effort from the guitarist who's commanding a lot of my attention lately. His band from "The South of Everywhere" (featured in yesterday's posted video) remains mostly intact from that CD, save for the replacement of pianist Gary Versace with my old college classmate Henry Hey.

As always, I'm looking forward to another great week of music and driving.

This Band Is Rocking My World

And no, they're not a rock band; I like a good one of those every now and then, but there's so much jazz to absorb right now. Enjoy an innovative tune from a cutting-edge guitarist and his band who deserve a lot more recognition:



I first heard about Jonathan Kreisberg from some of the students at UNT, and I'm happy that several of his recordings are on eMusic, which allowed me to acquire the CD from which this tune is the title track. The band is killin', and they make great use of unusual textures and odd meters. Some people call Kreisberg the "next Metheny in waiting," and I think the title is fitting.

One of the members of the nighttime combo at school is working on adapting this tune for our group, and I'm happy to be a co-conspirator in this venture. I hope we can do it justice.

Happy Anniversary to My Alma Mater

Today, I give three cheers to Stratford High School in Houston--home of many memories and a lot of growth on my part. If this seems like an unusual date for a school to open, well, it was: As the story goes, the building wasn't done at the beginning of the year, and the Stratford populace was stuck in portable buildings on the campus of its rival, Westchester High, for most of the year. But on March 4th, they marched forth into their new building, and the school put itself on the map with a state football championship less than five years later. (The Stratford-Westchester connection would continue to spawn interesting tales for years: In the mid-'80s, during a spate of school consolidation, Westchester would close, and the majority of its students would end up going to Stratford, and in the 2004-2005 school year, Stratford students found themselves back on the Westchester campus--since reopened as a magnet school--while major structural defects to the building, discovered during routine asbestos removal, were repaired.

A march that I composed in high school (which was performed again a few years ago at one of the high schools where I now teach) is named "Spartania," in honor of Stratford's mascot, the Spartans. Happy anniversary, Stratford; long may your banner wave.

Playing a Loooooong Game of Catch-Up

OK, it's been a crazy few weeks--preparing for a weekend with both a recording session and a gig with a guest artist, then getting students ready for a rescheduled Solo & Ensemble this past weekend. Blogging already took a hit once I joined Facebook, and the fact that the above events pretty much ate the two or three free hours that I usually have at home means that I'm all kinds of behind. So I'll be posting things from the past few weeks over the course of this week, and I'll alert everyone as things go up.

Thanks as always for your patience. I'm committed to keeping this going, but sometimes the days just need to have a few more hours in them.

UPDATE: And the catching up has begun. Check out some pictures from the unusual venue where I played a gig over the weekend, along with two weeks' worth of "Playing This Week in the Kevmobile" posts.

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

I haven't been able to blog much recently (though a few posts have been started and will ultimately appear in their proper places), but here's my weekly music rundown:

• MONDAY: "The Philadelphia Experiment" by a group of the same name. Uri Caine, Christian McBride and Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson celebrate their hometown in funky fashion.


• TUESDAY: Oktoposse, "Blues Lee -- Volume III." Occasionally wacky German octet puts out some seriously good music, and the five horns sound like a big band at times.


• WEDNESDAY: The Monterey Quartet, "Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival." Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Gonzalo Rubalcaba + Eric Harland = win.


• THURSDAY: Mike Mainieri, "Wanderlust." Early '80s effort from vibist/Steps Ahead leader hints at that band's US debut, with generous helpings of Michael Brecker along the way.


• FRIDAY: LTC + Mark Turner, "Hikmet." American tenorist and Italian trio unite on a tuneful romp of mostly originals, plus interesting versions of "Skylark" and "Love Theme from Spartacus."


• SATURDAY: Jaga Jazzist, "One-Armed Bandit." Norwegian band (featuring ECM trumpeter Mathias Eick) mixes jazz with electronics and all kinds of other stuff.


• SUNDAY: Happy Apple, "Happy Apple Back On Top." Improv-laden Minnesota-based trio featuring The Bad Plus' David King on drums.

The rising price of gas may limit my leisure driving a bit, but I always have to get back and forth between schools, so there'll always be music in the Kevmobile. More next week, of course...

All the World's a Stage...

...including some things you might not think would be used that way:


This was our "stage" at a school fundraiser last night, at the Eisemann Center in Richardson. And here's what it looked like from our vantage point:


The sound wasn't as bad as it might seem (although it was LOOOUUUUUD before the guests arrived). The natural amplification meant that we didn't have to play with much volume at all, and people on the uppermost level said that it really sounded good, and they couldn't believe we were all the way down on the lower-level stair landing.

(As I said on Facebook, I've always wanted to play at The Landing, but this wasn't exactly what I had in mind!)

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

Here's the weekly list of my iPod selections...

• MONDAY: Nobody's Business, "Forward Momentum." Denton-based group featuring former One O'Clockers Evan Weiss and Roberto Verastegui, along with my drummer of choice for small-group stuff, Colin Hinton. The instrumentation is trumpet/Rhodes/guitar/drums, which makes it sort of the trumpet equivalent of Chris Potter's Underground.


• TUESDAY: Rainer Tempel, "Tempelektrisch." German keyboardist and top-notch composer leads a band that's not as electric as the name implies.


• WEDNESDAY: John Ellis and Double Wide, "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow." Funky tenor w/ organ, drums...and sousaphone!


• THURSDAY: Tim Collins, "Fade." Vibraphonist writes memorable tunes and uses "guitar" effects on his vibes at times. The final tune, "Joyride," is one of the happiest songs I heard in all of 2009.


• FRIDAY: Paquito D'Rivera: "A Taste of Paquito." One can't possibly fit his "greatest hits" into a single CD, but this is a pretty good sampling of his Columbia Records years.
  
  Also, Dog Soup, "Fragments." British quartet started as a Miles tribute band, went off in own direction (with great results).


• SATURDAY: Radiohead, "The King of Limbs." All the cool jazz kids love them, and the coolest ones (Chris Potter, Brad Mehldau, etc.) cover their songs.


• SUNDAY: Steve Coleman and Five Elements, "Def Trance Beat." Adventurous improvising over funky rhythms, and one of the best free downloads I've ever gotten.

This has been a busy week, but thankfully, there's been some great music to see me from place to place.

A Classic Building Deserves a Classic Vehicle

I mentioned this car in my profile of the Drury Plaza Riverwalk a few years ago, but I never got a close-up before this year:


It's a 1930 Ford--built one year after the Alamo National Bank building (which now houses the Drury) opened, and it's from the collection of the Drury family that started the hotel chain.

I think that's all for TMEA stuff this year; back to regular blogging tomorrow.

Yet Another TMEA Checklist

I guess I should do this before TMEA gets much farther in my rear-view mirror: Every year, I look back and see if I've done certain things that seem to take place every year during the convention. Since we lost a day to weather, let's see how this year stacks up by plugging this year's answers into the template that I've used for quite some time now: Did I manage to..

• Spend quite a bit of time in the exhibit hall? Check. It's pretty much mandatory to do this; some newbies even refer to the exhibits as "the convention," as in, "Have you been to the convention yet today?" even when outside another convention event.


• Eat way too many big meals on the Riverwalk? Hmm, maybe half of a Check; I paced myself pretty well this time, and the massive amount of walking seemed to offset the biggest ones.


• See some people I hadn't seen in several years at the UNT reunion? Check. This is statistically bound to happen nearly every year, and this year was no exception.


• Make jokes about how, when, I was in college, the free food at said reunion would serve as Friday night's dinner? Check. And some undergrads perked up when I said that, as if they were thinking, "Hey--great idea!" The tradition lives on...


• Watch someone propose to his girlfriend during the serenade at the Sinfonia sing? Check; three of them this year, and one of them is a buddy of mine. Congrats, Justin and Adah!


• Get to the convention center in time to see the high-school all-state jazz ensemble on Saturday morning, making it with just minutes to spare? N/A; this year's concert was at 2:00 in the afternoon, right before my college guys' concert, so there was plenty of time to get there after lunch.


• Fight the crowds at the Rivercenter food court at lunchtime? Nope; never ate there, save for a Starbucks break on Saturday afternoon. It was Fuddruckers down the street FTW again this year.


• Get a table there (the food court) by spying someone about to leave one and pouncing on it 2.5 seconds after they'd gotten up? Nope; see above.


• See the Andean Fusion band playing some sort of a classic-rock cover song on ancient wooden flutes just outside that food court? Nope, at least not live; they were always on break when I was in the Rivercenter, so all I heard was the CD that they played in between sets. (I did hear a new rock song on the CD, though; they're now covering Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall." Heh.)


• Eat at Casa Rio and The Original Mexican Restaurant? Check. I added this to the checklist, because, no matter how much the locals tell me I should drive off-site to get "real" Mexican food, these are the two places where I always end up every year.

Needless to say, I also did a ton of walking, and that was taking its toll by the end of the day on Saturday. But as I said earlier, the walking offsets the big meals and then some, so it's a net gain.

TMEA is one of my favorite times of the year; it seemed too short because of the one fewer day down there, but the part that we got to experience was great. My calendar is already marked (electronically, of course) for February 8-11, 2012.

When I Go Out of Town, I Get an Office

As I said earlier, I'll be posting pictures from TMEA throughout the week. The first one comes from the Drury Plaza Hotel, which was profiled two years ago in this post.

As I noted earlier, this building started off its life as a bank, and the hallways and doors have kept that certain office-y vibe even after the renovation:


In case you're wondering, the frosted glass on the outside has wood paneling behind it, so it's not like privacy is compromised in the effort to keep the classic look of the building. And while the mail slot works, the only thing I received through it for the duration of my stay was a flyer from "Big Tony's Pizza."

...And We're Back

The trip to TMEA has been completed, and I'm beyond tired now. I had maybe 15 minutes to relax at home upon my return before heading right back to school for a rehearsal for an upcoming recording session.

As always, it was a great time in San Antonio; I was doing so much stuff this year that I didn't even have time to post during the past two days (though I've been Facebooking like crazy). I'll try to have some pictures up in the next day or two for those of you who aren't Facebook friends. But for now, it's back to my 287 loads of laundry and off to bed.

And Old Home Week Begins Once Again

SAN ANTONIO--After a day's delay because of the weather, we finally arrived at TMEA in the middle of the afternoon. While it's colder than usual down here, it's also nice and sunny, which makes for much nicer walks from the hotel to the convention center (and believe me, the walks are needed, what with all the amazing food choices down here). Within five minutes of leaving the hotel, I had already run into nine people I knew; as I said on Facebook, this has to be the greatest "family reunion" of music teachers that there is, anywhere. I've never felt more at home in a city that I only visit for five days every year.

One thing's for sure; either my alma mater has exploded in popularity (as if it hadn't been wildly popular in the first place), or we just got off to a really late start. Whatever it was, the One O'Clock Lab Band's performance in the newly-renovated Lila Cockrell Theatre was more-than-standing-room only well before the downbeat, which I don't think was the case the last time they played here six or seven years ago. I got to hear most of the concert from the hallway and actually see the last tune (the iconic "Got a Match?").

It's been a tiring day of driving, and with a belly full of Mexican food, I'm comfortably settled in my hotel room. There's an early meeting tomorrow, followed by a fun-filled, action-packed day. In other words, a typical TMEA.

Blowing out the candles: Happy 10th birthday to my oldest nephew, Noah. The story of his actual day of birth (which was also during TMEA) has been blogged before, on the occasion of his third birthday.

Snowpocalypse 2.0?

Well, here we go again...maybe. After an unprecedented four days off from school last week because of winter weather, it looks like we're in for a second round tonight--just in time to mess up my departure time for TMEA in the morning. (I'll have students from my school with me who will be performing down there, so if the school closes, the trip can't start yet.)

So what do you think--will this be a (much briefer) repeat of last week, or will it be more like this past Sunday night, when the much-heralded "snow during the Super Bowl" never actually took place?

UPDATE: We did get our "winter events," but by midday the following afternoon, the sun had been out a few times, and a lot of what came down had already evaporated. Here's hoping for a travel-worthy day on Thursday.

It Was a Good Game; How Did You LIke the Ads?

As always, the commercials that run during the Super Bowl get as much attention as the game itself. While there weren't as many memorable ads last night as there have been during previous years, there were still some good ones.

My personal favorites? The NFL Fans commercial that seamlessly mashed up all the different TV series, from Happy Days to The Simpsons would be tops in my book, followed by VW's Little Darth Vader spot (which almost doesn't count as a Super Bowl ad, because it went viral on YouTube nearly a week before the game), and the Bridgestone beaver would be #3 for me.

So what were your favorites? (If you need to review them, because you missed one on a potty break or the place you were watching the game was just too loud, go here.) Cast your votes in the comments.

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

This week's entry will by much shorter than usual, since--thanks to Snowpocalypse, which caused me to drive a grand total of 14.8 miles between Monday night and Saturday afternoon--I wasn't in the car very often. But here's a rundown on what did play when I was driving (and didn't have the radio on for weather forecasts):

• MONDAY: Deep Schrott, One. As I said on Twitter, there's nothing like a bass saxophone quartet to get you through morning rush hour.


• TUESDAY: Nothing. The ice was at its worst on this day, and I only went as far as the corner.


• WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY: Synergy, Cords. Larry Fast, known to some as the Godfather of Techno for his early work in synthesis, gave us this 1978 gem which still holds up well all these years later. (And this was done before MIDI, when every track had to be laid down one at a time; it took about 9 months to make an album!)


• SATURDAY-SUNDAY: Jonathan Kreisberg, South of Everywhere and Donny McCaslin, Perpetual Motion. Two serious up-and-comers here; Kreisberg, the New York-based guitarist (who seems to be a favorite of all my jazz friends at UNT) and McCaslin, the tenorist known for his work with the Mingus Big Band and Dave Douglas. (I also met him on a hotel elevator in Greeley, Colorado a few years ago.)

Here's hoping for a more normal week of driving and listening, especially with TMEA on the horizon.

(All of the CDs listed above are also available through eMusic. Thinking of subscribing? Show the blog some love and let me refer you; we'll both get some free tracks out of the deal.)