This should be a lot of fun – ain’t nothin’ like some zydeco and crawdads… Pinch those tails, suck those heads and dance, dance, dance! At the ninth annual Gator By The Bay Festival (May 7-9) the Louisiana bayou comes to Spanish Landing Park in San Diego, bringing along 8000 pounds of crawfish (that’s where the tail pinching and head sucking comes in) and some of the hottest Cajun, zydeco, and blues music around. Dance fever at Gator By The Bay. Courtesy photo The festival is expected to draw more than 10,000 attendees, enjoying 70 performances on six stages, dance lessons, cooking demos, kid- and family-friendly activities, a plethora of food options including those succulent crawfish (a.k.a. mudbugs)and lots of dancing. For those unacquainted with the genre, Cajun music stems from the traditions of the descendants of French Acadians (Cajuns), who settled southwest Louisiana in the mid-1700s. Zydeco, the wilder, [Continue Reading...]

Pat Metheny is a great guitarist, although stylistically he sometimes gets mired too much in that adult contemporary/smooth jazz ilk for my taste. I heard about the Orchestrion Project about a year ago and was very excited to see this: Youth Radio’s Charlie Foster says, “I saw an amazing concert Saturday night in Berkeley, where Pat Metheny jammed out with an orchestra of robots – playing pianos, vibraphones, a bass, a weird bouncing guitar machine and every kind of percussion instrument – all controlled by his guitar through solenoid triggers. It was insane steampunk and beautiful jazz.” via boingboing.net

Ernie Svenson is a pioneer in law with regards to the paperless office and e-Discovery. He practices and lives in New Orleans, where I believe it is required by law for all citizens to play an instrument. So he is also a guitar player. Here he describes how the magical iPad has helped with learning tunes. I’ve played guitar since I was about 15. These days I play an acoustic steel-string guitar—a Taylor 310-CE if you’re interested in that sort of thing. Mostly, I figure out songs that I like and then sing as I play. If I really like a song then I’ll spend the extra time memorizing the lyrics.  But that takes a lot of time so I don’t do that much anymore. Before I had the iPad my routine would be to Google the song name and add the word ‘lyrics’ or ‘chords’ (the latter if I was too [Continue Reading...]

Here is another Q&A from Jambase with an icon in the jam band scene. This time it is David Murphy from STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9), a very hip band that blends typical jam band funk and rock with more eclectic electronic and world beat styles. They were even featured on Apple’s website for the band’s use of technology in live performance. Definitely a band I am dying to see live. You can hear why by checking out STS9′s recordings at archive.org. David Murphy is a touch cooler than most of us will ever be. Defined by sharp lines and possessing one of the more intense stares in the jam scene, the Sound Tribe Sector 9 bassist seems to glide – sonically and otherwise. His role is an interesting one, because there are few precedents for the type of music he and his longtime mates explore. While jazz or rock [Continue Reading...]

Coffin is, along with Karl Denson and Skerik, among the best of the newer generation of innovative sax players. These are guys who have the jazz background and chops but are playing and creating music that is danceable and much less constrained than jazz has become. Recently Jambase interviewed Jeff briefly: There’s a streamlined intensity to Jeff Coffin. Even when he smiles – and he’s got a great one, especially when he’s really feeling it full bore onstage – one gets the impression that he’s serious as a freakin’ heart attack about delivering only the very best music he and whatever aggregate of hyper-talented folks are at his elbow can muster. Miraculously inventive on saxophone, clarinet and flute, Coffin is a willful musical chameleon who rejects any limiting tag, preferring to be simply known as a ‘musician’ without qualifiers. His playing reflects this wide-armed embrace of music in the grandest [Continue Reading...]

Wish I was there! Fans at the 41st annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival were greeted with buckets of rain on the first day. Though the numbers were a bit thin and most of them damp, those who did weather the storm were rewarded with spirited performances, no lines for food and plenty of Fest atmosphere. Between noon and 3 p.m. roughly two inches of rain covered the Fairgrounds, but the only set that got canceled was Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band. Everyone else played right on through. Kayceman’s Top 3 #1 – Lionel Richie Watching Lionel Richie go from “Dancing On The Ceiling” into an instrumental Van Halen “Jump” tease and back into “Dancing On The Ceiling” was a standout moment of Richie’s Friday Festival closing set. Playing lots of Commodores, talking ’bout Afros and making the cougars purrrrr, this was nothing but fun fun fun. #2 – Rotary [Continue Reading...]

I have to confess my ignorance of Khalil Shaheed prior to hearing this story. But I feel like I know the guy, because he reminds me of some amazing musicians that inspired me as a kid – not just because of their musical performances, but also because of their hands-on involvement in the community. There are lots of great players out there, but only a special few for whom passing on their knowledge is important. These are people that understand the therapeutic effect of practicing and playing music. I’ve never met Shaheed, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what sort of a human being he is. I wish I could be in the Bay Area this coming week to attend the benefit show for Shaheed at Yoshi’s in Jack London Square. Keep on Keepin’ on, Khalil. As the Oaktown Jazz Workshop’s rhythm section, made up of [Continue Reading...]

I love Joe Marillo’s playing. I’ve seen him a couple of times at Dizzy’s. He and Charles McPherson are arguably the two greatest jazz saxophone legends here in San Diego. One thing about Jazz, the older you get, the better your playing is. These guys are certainly an inspiration. Keep on keepin’ on Joe! He’s been making music for 53 years, and San Diego jazzman Joe Marillo shows no signs of slowing down. Veteran jazz saxman Joe Marillo. “It never gets old,” says the veteran tenor saxophonist, who will turn 78 in May. “I could play all day. The more you play, the more you get into the alpha state. It thrills me.” Local jazz enthusiasts need no introduction to Marillo, who came to San Diego in 1974 after playing music 10 years in Las Vegas. His Joe Marillo Quartet was a staple of bygone clubs like the Crossroads downtown, [Continue Reading...]

Here are some photos from my visit to this year’s NAMM Convention: For more, visit my Picasa web album. I’ll be posting more about the show in the coming days and weeks.

PHISH SUMMER TOUR 2009 from Phish on Vimeo. Woo Hoo!