Unpacking from Tour
On Jonathan Maron, ongoing projects, and new earworms.
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Back home after an action packed few weeks.
We did the Blackstar Symphony in Denver, then jumped into a non stop Europe tour celebrating the release of Lullaby for the Lost.
After shows in Tilburg, Paris, Oslo, London, Milan, St. Chamond, Prague, and Poznan, I was home for a couple nights, then back overseas to Copenhagen premiering new music written for the Danish Radio Big Band.
Grateful for all of it. Thankful to the guys in my band; Jason Lindner, Tim Lefebvre, and Zach Danziger for bearing up.
Now Listening
Home (mostly) and delving back into listening.
Larry Young - Unity
My ensemble at MSM is performing “Zoltan” this week and as part of the preparation process I’ve been checking the album and am reminded how much I loved it back in the day. Joe, Woody, Elvin…all so killing
Jaleel Shaw - Painter of the Invisible
Jaleel is a tremendous musician. This is a new record of his and merits repeated listening. There’s a meditative quality to it that I love.
Jonathan Maron
Collaborator Highlight
I first met Jonathan through Mark Guiliana some years ago. It was during the period when the two of them were in Dave Douglas’ project “High Risk” that included Shigeto.
I needed a sub for a concert in DC and Mark recommended Jonathan. He showed up ready to go…no rehearsal…and we jumped in. I realized at some point that I’ve heard him when I first moved to New York in with Groove Collective, of whom he’s a founding member.
We’ve done a great deal of playing together over the years since then and I continue to marvel at what a soulful, thoughtful, deep musician he is.
Jonathan was on the record BLOW as well as the single we did with Gail Ann Dorsey, “Head of Mine.”
He’s killing on “Eye of the Beholder”, which also features Gail. The deep sound he gets is majestic.
On “Lullaby for the Lost” Johnathan appears on the tracks “Stately” and “Solace,” and he elevates both with his thoughtful playing and sound.
Coming up in March, he slays on the MXD track “Magnitudes” (a new project with Ryan Dahle). Jonathan has also done multiple Blackstar Symphony gigs and is always killing. Grateful to him for all he’s brought to all these endeavors.
Rehearsal Clips
Whole tone chords in minor thirds - playing with that sound over a blues. I dig how you hear both augmented triads feel the tension that comes and goes against the tonality of the moment.
