Last month's IAJE convention was one of the best I’ve attended in a long time. There were many great bands playing, and the hang was as good as ever. Highlights were: the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, Walt Weiskoff Nonet, David Sanchez Quintet, Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, and the Vanguard Orchestra. This is definitely the place to go if you want to see what’s happening with the music.

I’ve been working on a new big band piece that utilizes a multi-layered rhythmical approach. The tune is in three. But rather than write it out in 3/4 I chose to use three bars of 4/4 to equal the slower 3/4 feel. Firstly, it reads better and is much less cluttered (versus writing a bunch of 16th notes in 3/4 bars). Secondly I was able to envision three different pulses simultaneously: a slow 3, a triplet half note pulse, and a sixteenth note pulse. This is something I frequently do. That is, determine a series of strong beats in a given meter, then devise a series of tempos suggested by various subdivisions of the strong beats. It’s a nice way to come up with different grooves. I’m anxious to see how this will play down.

Along these same lines, I’ve been checking out the new cd by Miguel Zenon on Marsellus Music. He has written some adventurous music that stretches the time concept in interesting ways. I highly recommend this CD. Miguel’s playing and the band’s playing are superb. This cat is definitely someone to watch. Check him out with David Sanche’s band also.

While at the IAJE conference I ran into my friend Bret Primack. Bret has been a journalist for all the magazines and more recently has been helping musicians with web sites and such. He worked for N2K for a while too. Bret knows the internet scene. He has written an interesting book called How to Make It in the New Music Biz. This book is a must for anyone who has a web site, is thinking of starting one, and anyone who wants to do business over the internet. I really got a lot out of it. Bret is a smart cat, and a true fan of jazz music to boot!

This month my big band is embarking on an extended 2 day world tour. We are actually playing two nice concerts. One at Princeton University and one at New Trier High School outside of Chicago. Everyone is excited about playing, and it should be a gas!

On a somber note, we lost a good friend and musician Frank Mantooth this month. Frank was a very nice cat and very accomplished musician. I always admired his writing and enjoyed playing with him a lot. His piano voicing book is one of the best for aspiring jazz musicians. Frank didn’t have a mean bone in his body And we will miss him.

Remember to hug your loved ones a lot, and tell your friends how much they mean to you. You never know when you are going to hop on that big band bus in the sky.