Valentine's Week Special - Free MP3 Download of "With All My Love"

This week only, as part of a Valentine's Week special promotion, I've decided to make the original ballad, "With All My Love", available as a free download on my music site. Originally recorded and released on the album "The High Country" with John Hansen, Geoff Harper, and Jon Wikan, I have since repackaged all of my original compositions from 1995-2000 in a new collection, "Early Originals". Follow the links above, or just click the download link below -- enjoy!

Mulgrew Miller's Advice for Young Jazz Musicians (Video)

Writer and video journalist Bret Primack posts original video related to jazz with an insane amount of regularity -- four new videos posted just in the last 24 hours! One of this latest batch is from a group of videos featuring veteran pianist Mulgrew Miller, and this most recent entry where Miller gives some advice to budding young jazz musicians is not to be missed:

New Food for the CD Player - Steve Grossman "Perspective"

I try to stop into Silver Platters on Queen Anne whenever I'm in the neighborhood, so I pulled in after a nice dinner at my folks for a quick browse -- just taking a look, I told myself. These are always famous last words, as I somehow ended up at the cash register with this Steve Grossman reissue -- one I have never seen on CD, I might add. Steve Grossman's "Perspective" was released by Atlantic Records in 1979 and presents Grossman in a big budget production for the first time as a leader. He revisits some of the material from the Stone Alliance library, but each is given a fresh sound in the expanded group. Onaje Allan Gumbs also contributes arrangements on what would basically be Grossman's "final" record as a leader for a while, and certainly from this period. My brother found this on vinyl a few years ago -- just when I thought I had already found all the old Steve Grossman -- and when I saw it on CD, I had to snag the only copy on the outside chance that it was the last copy in print. Thanks to Wounded Bird Records for reissuing this monster!

Thankfully, you can pick it up on Amazon, but it doesn't appear to be available digitally -- you're out of luck if you can't play a CD for this one!

Ten Years After It's Original Release, "Septology: In The Beginning" is Now Available on iTunes

My recording titled "Septology: In The Beginning" is now available online via iTunes and a wide variety of other sources! It's taken a long time, but it's finally here, ten years after it's initial release in 1999. This recording, along with the two recordings I did with my brother Thomas, helped to start my career, and gained me a great deal of recognition as a composer. Commissioned by Earshot Jazz through a grant they received -- thank you again! -- and debuted at Jazz Alley, the work and the recording are still, ten years later, one of my proudest moments. My friends all sound so great, and it reminds me of a productive and care-free time in my life. Obviously influenced by the works of Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and the Wynton Marsalis Septet, it was my first extended work, and truly helped me find my compositional voice. I've since written two more extended works for the group -- performed, but unrecorded -- and am working on a new work that will be recorded, and very soon. Your support can only make it happen sooner! If you've never checked it out, now's your chance. Try the widget below, or find us in the iTunes and Amazon stores, as well as a variety of others (via Tunecore) -- get it cheap at Amie Street, for example. Thanks again, and spread the word!

Group Photo from Recent Phil Kelly Recording Session

A couple of weeks ago, I spent the weekend out at Bear Creek Studios recording Phil Kelly's new big band record. Award-winning photographer Daniel Sheehan was on hand to take a group photo, and he's been kind enough to share the image on his blog, Eyeshot Jazz. Enjoy!