Author: Roberta

What day is it?? What week is it? It feels like we’ve been out for three weeks, not one. We have a couple of days off, after doing six gigs in five days.(Not that I’m complaining. Actually after two days I’m ready to play again.) Tomorrow is a travel day to get us up to Ashland, OR. Thursday AM we do a clinic, then Friday a concert for the Siskiyou Institute, and Saturday AM another clinic before driving up to Portland to play at LV’s Uptown.

The concert Sunday at Chez Hanny went very well. We had a big crowd that was very receptive. Frank Hanny took some photos of us. (Thank you Frank – sorry I almost stole your toothpaste.)

This is Ratzo demonstrating his advanced technique in performance:

Here’s one of Billy:

The three of us relaxing after the Chez Hanny gig, just to prove that after a week in a minivan we can still stand each other:

Here is one from our gig the night before, at the Hillside Club in Berkeley. Here’s me doing a little schtick for the audience. Billy asked me to talk less. He feels it takes away from the performance. After thinking about it I decided he had a point: the schtick is more effective when it’s set off by more music in between.

By the way I wasn’t just using that mic for talking. I’ve been doing some singing on this tour. I keep working on it and it keeps getting better; like most things in life.

Yesterday morning I did a “Desert Island Jazz” interview on KCSM. To find out what CDs, what book, and what luxury item I picked to take with me as I theoretically cast off, you’ll have to listen to KCSM. At this point it’s scheduled to air on Dec. 1st at 9am local time. Here is a picture of me with host Alisa Clancy and producer Michael Burman. Alisa was very smart and engaging. It was very easy to be interviewed by her. Michael is English which means he can say the most obnoxious things and still sound charming. Seriously they were both delightful and it was great fun doing the show.

Last night Billy and I went out with our good friend Melissa to a Chinese restaurant on Geary Blvd. It was the first good Chinese food I’ve had in years. NYC used to be famous for great cheap restaurants but no more. Apparently the high rents mean there’s no money to spend on the food.

After dinner we went to a local venue to hear saxophonist Harvey Wainapel play with bassist Devin Hoff. I would have taken pictures but the battery died on the camera. I promise I will try to elevate the standards of this tour blog to last year’s blog. Oh yes, there is a picture of me on the back of a golf cart riding around the Soka University campus. Ratzo is supposed to email it to me.

Today we visited the Rainbow Food Cooperative. It was interesting to compare it to the Park Slope Food Coop, where I’ve been a member for many years. (The more astute among you (all two of you) will notice that in the KCSM pic above I am proudly sporting a PSFC T-shirt.) The Rainbow Coop is quite a bit bigger, and you can shop there even if you’re not a member. It’s a beautiful place.

Later we hung out in Oakland with Harvey Wainapel, visiting Amoeba Records and Moe’s Books. Here’s a picture Billy took of the three of us on Telegraph. Pretty good for a self-portrait:

Tomorrow morning we leave for Ashland, OR. We have a long drive ahead of us. Good thing we bought some healthy snacks at the Rainbow Coop!

For me there is always one gig on the road, hopefully early on, where the conditions enable you to completely loosen up and take the music to a level of complete intuition and impulse, where your conscious mind gets out of the way. You’re finally rested enough, and you have a great piano, and you have two sets, and the audience is accepting, and something just clicks. And then you know you’re going to be okay for the rest of the gigs. I try to get there from the first note of the first gig, but it isn’t always realistic. Finally last night I got there on the Soka Univerity gig. Jim Merod videotaped and recorded us so I’ll try to post something. As Jim pointed out, live music is always better than the studio (as proud as I am of the CD).

Gotta run. We are leaving LA for Berkeley this morning. Playing the beautiful Hillside Club tonight which has a 9-foot Steinway and where we will also be recorded.

We’ve been on the road for two days and it feels like a week. We’ve already done three gigs. For obvious reasons I haven’t had time to do any blogging.

Wednesday night we played at Dizzy’s in San Diego which is always a nice place to play. The vibe is great and we had a good turnout, thanks in part to the stunning voice of our guest vocalist, Coral Macfarland Thuet, who sat in on a few tunes, including Billy’s composition, Destiny.

One of the things that makes the tough aspects of the road bearable is the warm hospitality of people like Coral and Max. Coral made us an amazing, healthy and fresh Mexican meal when we arrived Wednesday afternoon, jetlagged and exhausted from the early morning flight. After a brief nap and shower we were ready to face our first audience.

Thursday we did a midday concert at Palomar College. They have a beautiful Falcone piano. Billy’s old friend Gunnar Biggs teaches there now. He brought a score of Billy’s from 20 years ago. There were no written notes, just instructions such as to play very intensely and, “don’t be afraid to die.”

Last night we played at Joseph’s, which is a venue that Jeff Gauthier booked for us last minute when the Club Tropical summarily cancelled his Cryptonight series. We had a great audience with a couple of noticeable exceptions. After the gig I announced that the price of the CD would vary depending on how well behaved that particular audience member had been during the performance. I gave several away to our good friends, and set the price at $25 for two rather loud and clueless blondes (nothing against blondes who are not loud and clueless).

The nice thing about the Joseph’s gig was that we had a decent crowd even though the venue was changed at the last minute. Jeff did a good job of getting the word out. It was almost a who’s who of LA jazz. Several writers were there: Kirk Silsbee, Greg Burk and Chris J. Williams; as well as the pianist Mike Melvoine and my old friend Zev Feldman who works for Concord Records now. It was also great to see Dottie Grossman whom faithful bloggers (all 2 of you again) may remember from last year’s tour.

Okay, now that I’m somewhat caught up, I’ve got to drive to Aliso Viejo now. We are getting a video of this performance and I will try to post it, as Richard Nixon would have said, “at some point in time.” Also time to think about getting the camera out.

Here’s the update on the LA gig (see previous post for explanation):

Please note that this concert will take place at 8PM at Joseph’s Cafe in Hollywood (click for directions).

Joseph’s Cafe 1775 N. Ivar
Hollywood, CA
(323)462-8697

Valet Parking $5 for the entire evening if you arrive before 9:30PM ($10 if you arrive after 9:30)

I know, faithful blog readers (all 2 of you). I swore after last year’s Club Tropical gig I wouldn’t play an electric keyboard with this trio again. Since last year Jeff Gautier had brought a grand piano in to the venue, so I thought I’d be in the clear. But due to these unforeseen circumstances, here I go again. It’s a different keyboard this time so wish me better luck with this one.

Apparently the new owner of the building that houses Club Tropical is not an ardent art lover. The restaurant’s been abruptly kicked out and with it the Cryptonight concert series that Jeff Gauthier ran for three and a half years. Jeff is working hard to come up with another venue and we should know what’s up by tonight. Right now it looks promising that we will have a place to play in LA on Oct 12 so watch this space or email me.

I’m greatly looking foward to this tour. The trio played in New York a few days ago at the Kitano and despite the fact that I was recovering (barely) from a bad cold, I thought the ESP between us was amazing. (Was it just the cold medication?) A lot of trust has developed between the three of us and I’m eager to see where we are after playing together every night for a few weeks.

I’ll try to blog the tour as best I can and put up a few fun photos. A lot of people enjoyed the photo of Billy dancing to James Browne that I posted on the 2005 West Coast tour blog.

I do promise to make a video download of a performance available to CD purchasers at some point.

I’ve been too busy to blog this residency, but here’s a quick summary. We are down here to arrange the music from a book of African-American spirituals compiled by Sam Rivers’ grandfather. It’s incredibly inspiring to work with Sam Rivers. His intellect and musical curiosity are daunting. At 82, he continues to write and play every day. He has been very accessible to us and it’s been a joy spending time with him and his daughter, Monique. Monique takes care of the business. She is amazing. Every artist should have a Monique!

Here’s a picture of Sam Rivers and me in the theatre at the ACA after Sam’s outreach lecture/demonstration for the local community in New Smyrna Beach where ACA is located. At the end of his talk, Sam and all seven of the associate artists read some pages of music he wrote years ago and apparently just found. We each picked a page from a stack of them. All the pages consisted of very angular, possibly serialist (I didn’t have time to examine it too closely before playing) lines. There was not a clef on any of the pages. Then he counted it off and we all played our pages simultaneously. It was an interesting experiment to say the least. Actually I thought it sounded pretty good!

I am working on an arrangement of a hymn called “Come Down Angels” for jazz orchestra which I will not get to hear while I’m down here. It’s going to be fairly large scale. I’m working on sketches now. I have the outline of the sections and how they’ll fit together. Now I’m filling in with motifs and harmonies. It’s going well.

We are also writing arrangements of various verses of the hymn, My Friends and Neighbors. This one is for our ensemble and we will perform it at the In and Out which is the performance at the end of the residency where the community is invited to see what we are doing.

One of the other things I’m working on for myself while I’m down here is memorizing some of my compositions. So if you’re planning to see the trio on tour on the West coast next month, I hope you’ll notice me working without a “net”.

I’m enjoying the space to create music and practice without the distractions of the city and everyday life. If only real life could be like this.

I was very pleased to learn yesterday that I was accepted into the September Atlantic Center for the Arts Residency with master artist Sam Rivers. Here are some details.

The ACA is a great place. I was there a couple of years ago for a residency with Steve Lacey. Unfortunately Mr. Lacey was too ill to attend and pased away shortly thereafter. However, I met Eric Clark and Scott Hil there and that is how our new music trio Fragments was eventually formed.

I encourage any serious artist or writer to check out the ACA’s residency opportunities. It’s a beautiful environment where you can focus on your work (the food’s really good too).

In October Billy Mintz, Ratzo Harris and I will take it on the road again. We’ll be touring the West Coast. More details as they come in.

I just finished a 6-horn arrangement for a pop tune with a Latin flavor written by my oldest brother, Joe Piket. This is our first collaboration (at least since I was ten year old singing Jim Croce’s “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” into his first multitrack recorder while he played guitar behind me).

The Tune is called One T, No C. Can you figure out what it’s about?

Audio from the Fragments recording is up. We are hoping to get some kind of distribution or record label behind this great project. Click here.

Just returned from a 2.5 week trip to Europe. I had a gig with Jamie Baum’s Septet, and decided to stay and see what’s happening in Europe. It was very interesting and inspiring. I visited three cities I had never seen before: Barelona, Berlin and Paris.

I played with some wonderful Europe-based musicians, including gigs with Masa Kamguchi and Joe Smith in Girona, Spain, and with Rick Margitza (with Gilles Naturel and Karl Jannuska) in Paris. Also played some really fun informal sessions; in Berlin, with JeanFrancois Prins, Kai Schoenburg, and Marc Muellbauer and a fantastic free session with my old friends bassist Chris Dahlgren and drummer Maurice DuMartin; in Paris with violinist Cecile Broche and a beautiful quartet session with harmonica player Olivier Kerouro, drummer Matthieu Chazarenc, and bassist Nicoles Moreaux.

I took a ton of pictures. You can view them by following these links:

Barcelona sightseeing

Barcelona Cathedral

La Padrera (Gaudi Museum)

Berlin sightseeing

Potsdamm

Paris sightseeing

Now that I’m back we’ll finally be doing the mixing for the new trio record.