As you have probably noticed by now, it takes little to amuse me. Sometimes, the simplest tracks, fills, grooves, videos, or whatever can hit me and hold me down like a schoolyard bully. Such is the case with this week’s DIG. I found this video about a week ago (I have to give it up to Pork Pie Jazz for hipping me to it) and have probably watched a dozen times. It even inspired my last post, What Jazz Is. There is just something about the imagery  juxtaposed over this beautiful jazz composition.

The tune is A Flat in Oslo (composed by Kevin Dean) and the footage was filmed in the Plateau Mont Royal and Mile End neighborhoods in Montreal Quebec. It is an installment of a film series called Jazz, Period. The band is Kevin Dean (Flugelhorn), Al McLean (Saxophone), Morgan Moore (Bass), and Dave Laing (Drums).

Where I come from, jazz is somewhat similar to…say…the rings of Saturn. Everyone knows about them but few acknowledge their presence. Out of that, there are very few who understand their composition or reason for being. So, it’s not uncommon for me to have a weird look passed my way when I tell someone what my favorite genre is. This often requires some sort of Q & A session in which the “A”s normally fall on inattentive ears and go over the person’s head.

Hundreds of these encounters over the thirteen years I have been a jazz head have all played out the same but one question asked by a young, trouble-making, good ol’ boy really stuck with me. It was one of those really simple questions that hit you like a swift kick in the balls. One that really makes you think.

… The guy just looked at me and said “Jazz? What do you get out of that?”

I came back with my usual spiel, he nodded and the subject changed. We both went on with our day and I seldom saw him after that. That question, however, is still with me. The answer is easy. Jazz makes me feel. It’s the composition of the answer that gets tricky. Why do I relate to jazz? What about it makes me feel?

Those two questions are really just one. If I ask what about it makes me feel (any emotion) the answer is- the way I relate to it (as is the case for any art that touches someone in an emotional way). Therefore, the real question is…Wait for it…Why do I relate to jazz. Which translates into – What do I think about – consciously or subconsciously – when I hear a jazz tune? What is it about Paul Desmond’s re-entry after the drum solo in Take Five that makes me giddy? Or, Miles’ All Blues that makes me feel like I can take on the world? How come when I hear pretty much anything by Mulgrew Miller, I’m just proud to be a musician?

Well, I don’t have a clue! I know that much of it is dictated by memories and past experiences but for whatever reason, my brain links jazz to pretty much everything – Even if there is no reason to do so. When I hear good jazz, I, quite literally, get excited. My heartbeat picks up and I feel like I can conquer the entire universe. It inspires me to play, live, laugh, and enjoy life. It’s times with friends, times with my son, times with my wife and times when I am alone. It’s the sad, the happy, the mundane, and the exciting all wrapped in a beautifully syncopated rhythm that forces my foot to tap. Life. That, my friend, is what jazz is.

Ok, so the All-or-nothing deal might not be the best route when one is funding their first studio album. As the people who pledged via my Kickstarter site already know, my project was not funded.  Why didn’t it work? Well, I think it made it a little confusing to some people who don’t know what the program (Kickstarter) is about. My need to find a trust worthy method may have made pledging too much of a process. Also, given the fact that I only have a few live tracks out (that feature a different lineup and represent a band lead by someone with over two years less experience than now) makes it hard for people to know what is going to come of this recording. Plus, such limited recordings of my band means the fan base is rather small.

But hey, you win some, you lose some. Unfortunately, I still have an album to pay for.

So, I will now simply resort to a proven method (one I should have done first but I have to make things complicated) and offer incentives and exclusive footage and recordings as well as a limited edition (for this project only) T-shirt directly from my site.

 Below are the packages. Please take a second to look through the options and , if you choose to help out, know that I am greatful for any contribution.

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Listener Package:

$5.00

Digital Download one week before official release

You are down with some cool grooves and would dig throwing them on your iPod for your morning jog.

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Fan Package:

$15.00

Above plus video footage of rehearsal and recording sessions

You dig the sounds and are intrigued at the process behind making them. Listening isn’t enough; you want to see it done and connect with the musicians.

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SupaFan Package:

$35.00

Above plus a signed physical copy of the album (early, of course) 

Ummmmm, fan? No, I don’t think so!! You need a signed copy of that baby just to sleep at night! You gotta have it in the car AND on you iPod. You only pause it long enough to watch some awesome vids of the group. You, my friend, are a SupaFan!

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Uber Fan Package:

$50.00

Above plus a limited edition “Uber Fan” T shirt

Spptttt…Those little SupaFans ain’t got jack on you! And, you got the shirt to prove it!

**Specify size and color (Black or Pink). Please allow 4-6 weeks for shirts to ship**

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Awesomely Uberific Package:

$100.00

Above plus mention in the liner notes

A lover of Jazz, you are proud to support such a project and want everyone to know it! As well you should; a gift of this size is worthy of admiration. Shine on, my friend. Shine on!

**Specify size and color (Black or Pink). Please allow 4-6 weeks for shirts to ship**

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 just want to help!

Whatever you like

Reward, shmeward. You just want to help out a musician and promote a unique American art form.

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Recently, a regional fast food restaurant joined forces with a local Christian radio station and launched what I consider to be one of the smartest marketing campaigns I have ever seen. Now, I’m sure this is not the first time this tactic has been used but I know that down in the Bible Belt, in a town with boatloads of cash, and with a restaurant that closes on Sunday (that’s a big deal around here), this is a guaranteed WIN. If musicians find a way to adapt this, I think it can work for us, too.

So, here’s the deal-

The local Christian radio station posted a “note” on their website in pdf format. You print it out and hand it to the drive

thru teller at the fast food place. This certificate tells the teller that you are paying (yes, paying) for the car behind you.  The cashier then hands that piece of paper to the car behind you which explains why they got a free meal and about the radio station. It encourages them to call into the radio station and record a response to what happened.

So let’s analyze this, shall we?

1-      The restaurant is advertised on a local radio station with a pretty large audience.

2-      The restaurant gives away nothing! There are no discounts, promotional merchandise, or anything. All, as in 100%, of their profit margin is intact.

3-      Patrons as well as non regulars will go there (if not to pay for someone else) in the hopes that the car in front of them will pay their way. So, the chance that sales will increase during this promotion is pretty much 100%!

4-      The radio station has their name, call letters, and phone number handed to someone who just got free food.

5-      The note welcomes them to call the station and share the experience. Thus, initiating interaction.

In theory, this is a homerun in the marketing world. It’s the result of a comprehensive understanding and near perfect execution of demographic and geographic targeting. I can’t wait to see and share the results.

I’m working on adapting this for musicians. If you have any ideas, comment them.

A few weeks ago, I decided to start a new Myspace page. The old one, due to some really odd coincidences, will be lost forever as soon as Chrome forgets my log in info. So, even though I seldom check MS, I decided it is a necessary evil and started anew. Anyhow, while I was perusing my other Myspace page’s friends to see who I wanted to ad, I came across a cat that I didn’t know about. A saxophonist out of my old stomping grounds, Atlanta, named Mace Hibbard. Intrigued, I decided to check him out.

Turns out, he, not too long ago, released an album called When Last We Met (2007) and has several of the tracks on his page. To be honest, I was suprised. It’s not often you come across really good music on a Myspace page.

Turns out Mace has a pretty nice career going for him. He is an adjunct at Georgia State and has played and arranged for a lot of cool cats including Derek Trucks- who won a grammy for the album Hibbard played on and arranged for.

The line up for When Last We Met includes Louis Heriveaux on piano, Bryan Leitch on guitar, Marc Miller on bass, and Justin Varnes on drums.

Check out Hibbard’s official site for mroe info.

The last three years of my life has been kind of crazy. Rewind 30 or so months and I’m living in my dream town (which I still daydream of) and working hard at writing and playing music so I could make a little bread. Of course, I was also climbing up and down six flights of stairs for eight hours a day making sure guitars were properly placed and accounted for. Life was pretty close to exactly how I thought I wanted it. Now, present day…

As I type this, I lay in bed with my wife to my right, my dog at my feet and a video monitor blaring in the darknes. The feed is from my son’s room. My boy, now pushing 15 months of age has been asleep for hours an is oblivious to the fact that I can’t take my eyes off of him. He is so beautiful.

Since his birth, I have become a better person. I thought I knew what it meant to love but I had no clue. I thought that geography defined me but I was wrong.

I found out that what we are known for isn’t where we live or how nice our house is. It has nothing to do with our accomplishments or collections. It all comes down to how we affect the people around us. Do we lift them up? Do we encourage them to be whatever they want to be? Can they come to us when they feel their world is ending?

My father died when I was really young so I can’t really remember much about him. What I do remember, though, is pretty great. I know I loved him. So, I guess that means he did his job. I didn’t get to talk to him about girls or bullies and he didn’t have a chance to teach me how to fight or shave but I will never forget him. I will always remember one fishing trip where my foot got stuck in the mud and my shoe was almost lost forever and I will never forget a single helicopter ride and him chasing me around a car because I was too scared to get in. I don’t have many more memories of him and I don’t remember his smell or his voice but I still miss him. I know, too, that if he was alive that he would have been there for all those moments where I didn’t know what to do and my mom didn’t know what to say.

So, I guess that’s my goal- To be there when my son needs someone. When his life crumbles, I have to help him rebuild. When he’s ready to shave, I need to show him. I need him to know that I would do anything to do all of that with him. He has to know that he means the world to me. If I can’t be there, though, if I die tomorrow, I hope he knows how much I loved him and my prayer is that he remembers me like I remember my dad.

Ahhhhh, the quest to fund an album! The days of record labels and development deals are gone, as we all know. As The Gunslinger, Roland, would say, the world has moved on. So, I have been searching for a way to raise money for my upcoming album. I really like the Artist Share approach but I don’t have the fan base to be accepted into their program. I, of course, have been mulling over the DIY micro-patronage plan but I didn’t want people to be leery of PayPal or Google Checkout and not participate. I even contacted Jason Parker (who gave great advice, by the way) and picked his brain a little on the subject.I decided the best way for me to do this is to go through a really cool site called KickStarter.

Kickstarter allows you to host your project and offer rewards for people who donate. It’s basically the security of an Artist Share project and the freedom of a micro-patronage program.  The only catch is, the project has to be completely funded before any money is collected. So, if you have a $1000.00 goal (mine is $1,750) but only $900 is pledged by the closing date, no one is charged and no funding is completed. Yup, it’s all or nothing.

Therefore, I need all you guys to help out! You can pledge as little as five bucks and that will get you a digital copy a whole week early! And the higher you go, the cooler the stuff gets! You can’t beat that with a double bass! It only takes a sec, too.

Here, I’ll make it even easier…

Thanks in advance to anyone who chooses to pledge. Just know that even the smallest contribution is greatly appreciated.

Working on the music for this album has been a lot of fun. I may even have time to add a tune or two to the six originals that I already have prepared and I know there will be one tune that my trombonist, Martin Sager, wrote. I have been ready to start rehearsal for about a month and a half but my schedule has completely blown up (not that I am complaining). So, for the next month (at least but maybe a little longer), I will be thinning out my calendar to allow for a period of focus and devotion to get this record finished. Hopefully, by the end of summer the recording part will be over. I have most of the details worked out so when I get the band ready, it will hopefully go pretty quickly.

During this little break, I will also be working on other things to make my work as a musician more efficient and to make my music and performances more enjoyable and interactive for my fans. There may even be some opportunities for friends and fans to participate in the recording project. Please keep an eye and ear out for the many things to come from me and the CHB.

Ok, things got a little crazy last week so I missed a DIG…but hey, I said it would be “mostly weekly!” Anyhow, for this installment, I am going to cover an album that means a lot to me.

 You see, back in 2004, I was a lost man. Living in Atlanta, I had just gotten out of a very unhealthy relationship with a smooth jazz group (who will remain nameless) and was really trying to find myself musically. I knew Smooth and Nu jazz was not my thing as I had previously thought!

A couple weeks later, I was looking online and came across a pianist that wanted to form a band. He threw out some interesting names so I emailed him. The music he hipped me to really sent me in a new direction.

…Fast forward six years…

Several days ago, I sent my band a chart for a Ben Allison tune that we are going to cover at an upcoming gig. This, of course, led to a spike in Allison tunes in my playlist which led me back to an album the Atlanta pianist showed me. The album is a 1998 release from Palmetto Records called Medicine Wheel and is still my favorite Ben Allison album.

The players on Medicine Wheel include Michael Blake (tenor and soprano sax), Ted Nash (tenor, alto, soprano sax and bass clarinet), Ron Horton (trumpet and flugelhorn), Frank Kimbrough (piano), Tomas Ulrich (cello), and Jeff Ballard (drums), all of whom were (and still are) at the forefront of modern jazz.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

Ok, you’ve got a lot going on, right? You’ve got music to make and tours to play and social networks to maintain so, why should you throw anything else into the mix? Well, let’s see…somebody asks someone you know “hey, I need a band to play…” and that somebody hands them your business card. Now, two things can happen from here. One, they put the card in their pocket and go about their day. That night, when they’re cleaning out their pocket and getting ready for bed, they come across this bent up card and say “crap, I forgot about that.” They may remember it tomorrow but they may not. Now, scenario number two, they grab your card and pull out their phone. Bam! In just a second, they have your site up (or pulled up your app if you mentioned it on your card). Alright, now they, at the very least, know your image and they have an idea of your “brand.” This probably happens a lot more than you think.

The fact of the matter is, people are moving away from lugging a laptop around. The people who don’t use their phone for internet use their iPod Touch or other WIFI enabled media player.  3G and 4G networking allows quick surfing and the growing number of free WIFI hot spots serve as wonderful spontaneous search enablers. There is a great article on this here.

The reality is simple.  If you market in the physical realm, you HAVE to have a way to present your work on a mobile device. If someone sees a flyer for an upcoming show but has never heard of your band, they probably won’t remember your URL or band name when they get to a computer.

This really isn’t as hard as it seems. It can be as easy as watching what you put on your website. Phones don’t support flash yet so stay away from such intros and players.  Here are some rules according to a 2009 blog by Geno Prussakov, founder of AM Navigator.

Mobile is different in (a) bot algorithms, (b) simplified presentation, (c) sophisticated users, and (d) search being the primary way of browsing

You must aware of such difficulties as (i) plethora of browsers, (ii) different size screens, (iii) varying download speeds

Avoid embedding images, Flash, scripts, frames, mouse-over functions, objects, pop-ups/unders

Code your mobile websites in XHTML

Forget about .mobi domains

**If you aren’t familiar with some of the terms above, you need to get that way. Particularly if you have to handle any form of a website-  Even if you use a drag-and-drop style site builder. If you don’t do your own site, then show this to your designer.**

If you don’t want to “dumb down” your full site, there are a couple of options. One is a great tool called widgetbox. You can make tons of great widgets for your site and they now have a mobile site generator. Once you build the app-like UI (User Interface), they create a URL and a JavaScript code to embed on your site to redirect mobile users. You can start an ad-supported version for free but knock them off for a membership.

Another way to do it is to build an iPhone and/or Droid app. Droid is coming on strong (Droid users see a couple of my app suggestions here) but Safari (iPhone) is still the main mobile browser to access websites. This can get a little pricey but, if you have (or plan to build) a decent following, then it’s probably worth it. Not to mention you can sell them, too. One service that facilitates app development is iLike. One great aspect of an app is the fact that they synchronize with many of your accounts (Twitter, Youtube, Flikr, etc.) and will allow you fans to access it as soon as it is posted.

Musicians have to stay on top of tech trends just like every other business person. There is no choice if we want to stay relative to our audience.