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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.

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?

- Charles Dickens

To quote a more modern hero, “I pity the fool,” who can honestly say that.  Recently the idea of love has taken on an entirerly new concept.  A month ago Kristen was stricken with the most peculiar of illnesses.  She was in hospital for 20 days beginning June 18th.  I went to see her every single day, save one due to forces beyond my control.

I also found time to focus the pain into an evolution of sorts. 

Thank you to Jason Fifield who provided me with the use of his mini-disc recorder.  I couldn’t sleep so I focused on playing, creating, drinking and living to excess.  I kept flipping pages of the “Real Book” just playing songs I have known for God knows how long.  Then, it happened.  The song was “When I Fall In Love” and as I finished it I realized I was no longer in control.  I was in the passenger seat letting some force propel my fingers to dance in ways they never had.  A reharmonization spontaneously occured.

I then went and listened back on the 10-plus hours I had recorded.  I found a handful of great performances.  Oddly enough these great performances happened with songs that I, personally, did not care for.  But there was something there.  An evolution of my own personal sound.  I have stood by my playing on albums and recordings in the past.  Truby Trio was great.  I sound great.  I know hear that there is a maturity lacking every single performance.  I feel I have evolved and moved up a level in playing.  I hear things that I wouldn’t have done in the past that reflect the pain and dispair and lost feeling I was beginning to know (all too well).

I am proud of all this.  The recording is available for sale.  Let me know if you’d like one.  It’s only $8.  It’s only a half hour of music.  But it is potent for what it’s worth.  It’s something that brings me to another level of musicianship.  And again I am put at a crossroads.  I still cannot comfortably meld jazz and the roots rock/funk i love so much.  Again the balance of my desires is put on the scales.  THis happens every few years.  It’s annoying. 

Bill Evans v. Art Neville.

It is a hard rock to be pressed up against.

Friday night’s gig in Baltimore was a great success.  Maybe 200-250 people came out to SWING DANCE with Melissa Martin and the Mighty Rhythm Kings.  One of the nicer VFW halls I’ve been to.  The only thing they were missing was a bar.  The variety of the people that turned out was the most impressive.  All ages…  From college aged kids (complete with ZOOT SUITS or FLAPPER DRESSES) to the Veterans and their wives the assortment of dancers kicked serious ass.  Every Friday night they have a different band for dancing.

www.fridaynightswing.com is their website.  If you are from Baltimore or will be there over a weekend you should really try to check this “club” out.  They start giving beginner lessons at 7:30pm (so if you have to left feet come early to trade one in) and the band plays from 9pm-midnight.

The past few weeks/months/years have brought such unrest and unease.  Let’s face it: we lost all we knew.  I lost a career that was actually something. She lost posesstions relating to her father, who passed away a decade ago.  We all lost a home.

Relocating to Chestnut Hill was hard.  It was hard having to regress back to working a 9-5pm job.  There is an episode of The Office when Michael Scott has to take a second job as a telemarketer.  He is trying to explain to a telemarketing co-worker that he is the boss the rest of the time.  The co-worker, obviously had moved to the USA from India, pointed out that back home he was a neuro-surgeon.  Michael Scott then concludes that “back home” he would have been the boss of the hospital or something of the like. 

Today brought something different.  Something that lights that small fire within your heart.  The kind of thing that make’s Groucho raise his eyebrows. 

I was at Drake’s.  Carl and I were closing together.  I was emailing a catering client and got side-tracked by a customer.  Carl was finishing the e-mail I had started as I, metaphorically, fed the till.  A gentleman came into the shop.  He was wearing a beaten up (not “tattered” but definately “worn”) baseball cap that said “GOOFY” across the front and “Walt Disney” across the back.  He asked a few questions, I thought nothing of him, as he puttered around.  He inquired about the salmon that was uncooked in the kitchen.  After, incorrectly, saying it was “Pineapple Teriyaki” he rejoiced after my correction that it would eventually be “Maple Pecan” salmon.  He would be back in the half hour it would take for the salmon to be ready.

Upon returning our friend put together a few meals.  One for him and his son, one for his wife and mother-in-law.  Complete gourmet dinners from Drake’s Gourmet Foods: entrees, veggies, starch and a dessert (have you tried the Lemon Bars????). 

I went to ring him up.   He pulls out a credit card (thank God he pulls a credit card… otherwise this story would not exist).

I notice the A Broadbent on the credit card receipt.  The name jingled bells.  My brain pulled up the Bill Evans bio “How My Heart Sings” ( a great book).  I also thought of liner notes of a million albums I love..   Dianne Shuur, Charlie Haden et al…. 

“Excuse me, are you related to the pianist Alan Broadbent?”

“I am the jazz pianist Alan Broadbent.”

“NO WAY!” I exclaim.

After working a few things out I discover that Mr. Broadbent is in town for his mother-in-law and a concert.  Meeting him today has relit a light inside of me.  It can be related to my pre-teen discovery of Elton John and my late-teen discovery of Keith Jarrett.  All three events have reinvigorated my desire to play. 

Alan Broadbent is one of the most easily approachable humans I have ever met.  He is humble while still comanding his own genious.  I gave him one of my cards and maybe he will decide to email me. 

Wow.