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I have been in talks regarding the upcoming all-Beatles gig I have on Sept 12 that there will a recording made that night of the performance.  It could really be something cool.  I have been spending 3 or more hours every other day working on arrangements of their material that can translate to piano, upright bass and percussion.  It has really been an eye-opening experience coming from a jazz background.  I know all these songs; I grew up on them, but dissecting them has jump-starting something really really neat.

On other topics.  I have been reading P.J. O’Rourke’s book “On Wealth of Nations” where he analizes “The Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith from 1776.  It is a great read.  Not as humorous as I thought but very very good.  My favorite passage, thus far, follows:

Okay, yes, I admit that total removal of every market restraint would be “good for the economy.”  But money isn’t everything.  Think of the danger and damage to society.  Without government regulation the big shots who run companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco could have cheated investors and embezzled millions.  Without restrictions on the sale of hazardous substances young people might smoke, drink, and even use drugs.  Without the licensing of medical practitioners the way would be clear for chiropractors, osteopaths, and purveyors of aromatherapy.  If we didn’t have labor unions, thirty thousand pepole would still be wage slaves at General Motors, their daily lives filled with mindless drudgeery.  And if there weren’t various forms of retail collusion in the pertroleum industry, filling stations could charge as little as they liked.  I’d have to drive all over town to find the best price.  That would waste gas.

There is also a great bit how the lower of society do have too much money just “look at Britaney Spears”.  And it all ties in with a text more than two hundred years old.

Growing up I was blessed with the gift of tapes of old radio shows.  This led me to enjoying old movies.  The advent of DVDs has allowed me to experience aspects of the bygone era like newsreels.  Ah, newsreels.  Amazing pieces of mass propaganda that is, usually, so blindly unbiased you have to smile.  “Four out of five Doctors smoke Camels!”

A problem I have had since Clinton’s first term, since before I could vote, was the mass announcement, “He’s not my President” by any who oppose those in power.  I heard it with Clinton (who I personally feel is the greatest political personalities since Bobby Kennedy), heard it with Bush and now hear it with Obama. 

Nothing is more sour than this statment.  Who are these people and how dare they?  This elected person is our country’s version of royalty.  They lead us, they represent us in the world.  I did not vote for Pres. Obama, but he is still my President.  I don’t have to agree with him or his decisions but I will still honor his office and title.  I don’t have to choose to re-elect him but until his time is up we are stuck with him.  The very idea of impeachment would take as long as he has left in his term and would cost too much of my tax dollars to even think about spending.

And so with all my disenchantment I have joined the Libertarian Party.  I have also declared to them my candidacy to run in any office available in my zip code.  Hey, if Joe Morello can do it why can’t this pianist?

1)  The Columbia Legacy Edition of Dave Brubeck’s Time Out album is worth every penny.  I picked it up at Hideaway Music about a week ago and it has provided much entertainment.  Two audio dics and a DVD.  The first, the complete original album that broke Billboard records back in 1959.  Disc two is nine or ten tracks of unreleased live recordings.  Favorites from Time Out plus other great songs like Pennies From Heaven et al.

2)  Sean “Diddy” Combs is on Letterman looking like a moron.  He spent the first half of his interview promoting an anti-malaria group that could be contacted at “double you, double you, double you, dot, malaria, no, more, dot, com, or dot, org, i, can’t, remember”.  He then starts talking about the sleep nets needed to prevent from getting bitten by malaria infected bugs.  Letterman asks three times (THREE TIMES MIND YOU), “Now once you’re infected is there a way to deal with the disease or is that it” (keep in mind this was rephrased twice after…  maybe to make sure he understood the question).  Diddy responds each time that we just need to purchase the nets…. WTF?

I actually had someone try to control a gig.

I was playing with my new trio.  It’s modern jazz at the “hardcore” level.  Much more intense than my last attempt at this genre, Bradford Truby Trio, back in New Orleans.  (No disrespect intended.  Truby Trio was the schizzette.  This is just different.  I’m older and darker in style than I once was.)

We played first set.  Then some people showed up who were linked to a record label (including talent scout).  I had planned it perfectly.  The scout was interested in original material.  We played a bit and then, as I began the introduction to the third song of the set, my arm was shaken.  I turn and am greeted with:

“What is wrong with you three?  Did you not think I was serious?  There is a dance floor for a reason.  I will pull the plug if I hear one more ‘art house jazz’ song.”

As I watch the talent scout observe this the drummer says to me, “Did  you just get reamed out?”

1) I counted 37 ment in the bar and 4 women.

2) 2 of those women came to see the drummer.

3) If you were 2 women would you want to “dance” with 37 men?

4) I got more email addresses than I have ever gotten in one night.  Also: [Jason] sold more CDs than normal.  If people didn’t enjoy us, or would’ve rather we were danceable, it would be made obvious to us.

BOTTOM LINE:  I have been doing the music thing much much longer than you have been doing the “club owner” thing (if you can call it that).  Where the hell do you get off?  Who the fuck are you to even try to control what I play?

Thirty one hours until I leave for North Carolina.  It’s been years since any sort of travel for a gig.  I did clock in almost 100 gigs more than 150 miles from home back in 2001 or 2002, but that was long before I even met my loverly wife.  She was commenting on how, when we met, I didn’t really present myself as a musician.  I told her I worked part time in a CD store, which I did - rather poorly.  I tried to explain that at that time, late 2003, I had left the whole “jam-band” thing.  Fun scene, but couldn’t see myself ten years later still wearing t-shirts and jeans “noodling” around the same two or three chord vamps watching college trustifarians pack another bowl with some strain of something laced with something exotic that I always thought was either an oven cleaner or made in a trailer equipped with three Bunsen burners too many.

Tomorrow night the Nuns will be at the Venetian Clubin Philadelphia.  We end at 12:30am.  By some miracle I will be in bed and fully rested when I hit the road 6:45am with Melissa.  The rest of the band is leaving tomorrow, lucky bastards.  Sleep is all but over-rated.

A good ol’ fashioned Buffett swap.  Imagine the fun then Warren and Jimmy trade places for 6 months.

Never thought I would say this:  give Philadelphia police Bibles.  A pastor in Illinois used one to protect himself from flying bullets, why shouldn’t the rest of us.

An end to censorship on all levels.

And maybe, just maybe for us all to dance a little more often.

Let’s start with a link…  http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/stabbing_death_of_homeless_new.html 

Then move on to the HEADLINE attached to this link:  “Stabbing death of homeless New Orleans man ruled a homicide”. Anyone else kind of live their life assuming that a “stabbing death”, by definition is a homicide? 

Moving on…  according to this article the aroma found in English “Chips” is a complex blend of “butterscotch, cocoa, onion, cheese and would you believe …ironing boards, all combine to help make chips one of Britain’s iconic dishes.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE5195I920090210?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

A monkey can successfully be taught how to ride a Segway in Japan, yet in wonderful America one out of five licensed drivers would not get a passing score if retested today, sixty percent change lanes on highways without using turn signals and, get this: one out of five did not know that highways become slippery after it begins to rain.  All this according a 2008 GMAC study.

It is worth it, I guess, when this is the result.  And it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.