Blog

Hi. First of all, thanks to my friend Eric Schneider for his kind words. And thanks to the Dal Segno Club for holding this wonderful gathering and for coming up with the wacky notion to include me as one this year’s honorees. It’s a fairly surreal experience standing here before you, but I gratefully accept […]

If you’ll indulge me in a brief follow-up about Rob Amster: I played a gig last night with a great band called the Fat Babies. It’s a 7-piece group that plays jazz from the Twenties and Thirties, and we were playing at the Green Mill. That’s the club where Rob played hundreds of times, with […]

Here are some random thoughts on bassist Rob Amster, who passed away last week. It was far too soon. I’m not an expert on addiction, alcoholism or mental illness, nor did I have a lot of dealings with Rob in those areas, so I’m going to try and reflect on the guy that I want […]

Several years ago, I found myself on a Holiday Pops concert with the wonderful Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, under the mighty baton of the late Marvin Hamlisch. Luckily, for all parties concerned, this concert took place quite a while before Marvin passed away. And, because Marvin played a few numbers, the piano was situated front and center, right […]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighthawk It’s funny how you can sometimes mature backwards. Let me explain: Back when I just starting to really get into music, my taste buds told me that the History of Jazz started somewhere in the mid-1950’s , with the Miles/Coltrane band, the Jazz Messengers, etc. And that the History of Great Jazz Piano started […]

Theater music has greatly enriched the history of jazz. Composers like Gershwin, Berlin, Porter, Kern and Rodgers filled the “Great American Songbook” with music originally written for the theater. For a variety of reasons, these songs have always had great appeal for jazz players: their melodies are widely recognized, their chord patterns provide a stimulating […]

How’s this for a compliment? A little while after having the pleasure of recording with Mark Colby (“Yesterday’s Gardenias”), I was contacted by a Philadelphia-based pianist named Jason Long. He told me how much he enjoyed the intro that I played on “Close Enough For Love”, and that he had transcribed and performed it, sending […]

One of my favorite stories is one that my Dad told me, and he swore that it was true. It recounted a conversation between my Dad’s friend and the friend’s somewhat senile mother: Friend: “Today is December 7th, Ma. Do you know what’s special about this date?” Mother: “I have no idea.” Friend: “Well, December […]

Thanks for getting past the cellophane. Playing in a trio is one of the most fulfilling things a jazz pianist can do: you get to be the main solo voice, and you also get the satisfaction of collaborating with your peers. It’s doubly satisfying when that collaboration can involve old friends. Thus, it was one […]

More Pepper Please My first recording as part of this Pepper Adams project was a trio date in June of 2006. It must have gone well enough, because producer Gary Carner enlisted me for a second go-round with the trio, this time adding baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan. It took place in June, 2007, in the […]