I'm very excited to be playing 7 concerts with my quartet in the next 10 days. On Friday we will give a concert at the beautiful Tjodmenningarhus in Reykjavik and on Tuesday we fly to Frankfurt and play that night at Europe's oldest jazz club Jazzkeller. After that we will make stops in Passau, Vorchdorf (Austria), Backnang, Mainz and Pfaffenhofen Ilm. (read more…)
Concert in Reykjavík then Germany and Austria
September 14, 2011 12:49 pm | Filed under: Music | Comments (0)
Tags: Austria, Germany, Reykjavik, Touring
A Few Trees Growing
July 26, 2011 11:47 pm | Filed under: Music | Comments (0)
Tags: performance, promotion, The Dream
A few months ago I wrote a blogpost about Planting a Thousand Seeds to grow ten trees, well I am excited to tell you that the trees are growing. I've managed to fill in my mini tour of Europe in September so my quartet now has 5 consecutive concerts. My trio, which just finished recording new material for a CD due out in the fall, will be performing the opening night of the Reykjavik Jazz Festival on August 20th. (read more…)
Videos of NY 4tet from 2004 and 2009
June 21, 2011 2:24 pm | Filed under: Music | Comments (0)
The last incarnation of my American quartet was actually half Scandinavian. The bassist Eivind Opsvik is from Norway but like myself at that time had been living in New York for a number of years. (read more…)
Planting A Thousand Seeds
February 24, 2011 11:47 pm | Filed under: Music | Comments (3)
Tags: booking, feedback, promotion
I read somewhere that you need to plant a 1,000 seeds to grow 10 trees. I feel that it describes exactly what I am doing these days and it's a lot of work, hence the lack of blogposts lately.
What kind of trees am I hoping to grow? (read more…)
Review in Concerto
February 3, 2011 10:42 am | Filed under: Music | Comments (3)
Tags: Concerto, The Dream
Life is full of surprises isn't it? We jazz musicians try to get our albums reviewed and most reviewers receive more albums than they can cover so I feel very fortunate when someone picks mine to review. You can imagine how I felt double fortunate when two Austrian critics emailed me to inform me that they had reviewed "The Dream". The only problem was that both of them had written the review for the February issue of Concerto. (read more…)
New Year's Greetings
January 4, 2011 5:55 am | Filed under: Music | Comments (4)
I had a great holiday in VA with a snowstorm and all to make me feel at home. Now I am packing my bags and cramming copies of The Dream wherever they'll fit. I wish I could have been at your local CD store, signing copies of The Dream but let's just blame it on the snowstorm. I'm here in the US for another day ready to autograph and wrap copies for their new loving owners. The title track is the featured free download on All About Jazz today. Tell your friends and if they like it they can download the album here or order an autographed copy here.
I am looking forward to beginning the new year by finishing my first trio recording in 13 years. There is as of yet no ETA on that project but I'll keep you posted. As an inspiration I am currently enjoying a Marcin Wasilewsky Trio CD that I received for Christmas and I look forward to listening to Paul Motian trio with Jason Moran and Chris Potter. Did anyone else receive any interesting recordings, piano trios or otherwise?
Happy New Year!
Holiday Special – Pay What You Want!
December 23, 2010 3:49 pm | Filed under: Music | Comments (0)
'Tis the season for giving, and so I'm putting my albums on sale for 3 days!* If you'd like you can go to my Bandcamp page and "pay-what-you-like" for any and all downloads. That means you can name your price: $5, $10, $20 or what ever you are capable of or feel they are worth. Even if it's $0.00, I'd rather you have it than not. You can also download unreleased material for free there while you're at it. (read more…)
Inspiration, Call and Response.
November 18, 2010 10:27 am | Filed under: Music | Comments (1)
Tags: Inspiration, Nutmeg Design, The Dream
Inspiration is an interesting thing. You could say it is a kind of a call and response… like jazz. Or maybe jazz is inspiration. At least the best performances are when the performer is the most inspired. So what inspires us? What causes that chemical reaction in our brain that opens up the channel for endless ideas? (read more…)
Doesn't everybody?
November 10, 2010 12:22 am | Filed under: other | Comments (1)
Tags: corfu
A co-worker of mine was telling me how her family had had a really big kitchen so they had put a grand piano in there and the kids would practice while her mom was cooking dinner. One day a friend of her brothers was peeking in thru a window and saw the grand piano and shouted out "Wow! You have a grand piano in the kitchen?" and her brother replied "Doesn't everybody?" (read more…)
Who Needs a Label? I've Got You Babe!
November 3, 2010 11:44 am | Filed under: Music | Comments (0)
Tags: bandcamp, facebook, The Dream
So here I am sitting at my computer in Iceland (instead of the piano) in an effort to reach jazz listeners worldwide. I do enjoy it… that is, the feedback I get from people all over the world. It is thrilling to think that people of so many different cultures enjoy my music.
But how did that happen? Historically, an artist would hope to get signed by a reputable label who would then buy ads, wine and dine distributors and generally grease the wheels to get their artist known. (read more…)
