Author: Roberta

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Nov. 14

Monday I gave a lecture/demonstration at California Institute for the Arts. The jazz program there is run by pianist David Roitstein. The faculty includes Darek Oles on bass and Joe Labarbera on drums, and I was fortunate that they were both available to play with me.

Joe Labarbara, Darek Oles with Roberta at Cal Arts

Talk about intimidating: some of the best musicians in LA, including Cal Arts faculty member/guitarist Larry Koonse, pianist Mike Garson and my own trio drummer Billy Mintz decided to show up for the class. (Mike and Billy are pictured below) As they sat right in the the front row with arms folded (they claimed the room was cold) I felt as if I were taking a jury! Of course they were very nice. Pianist Steve Lockwood also stopped by. Thanks for your support, guys!

Mike Garson and Billy Mintz came to see Roberta play and talk at Cal Arts

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Monday Nov. 14

Today I am doing a clinic at Cal Arts. Joe LaBarbara is playing drums and Darek Oles is playing bass. (They are on faculty there.) I am greatly looking forward to that. Joe is on one of my favorite Bill Evans CDs, The Paris Concert. I’ll try to take some photos of the tour and post them here.

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Sunday Nov. 13

I’ve decided to try to keep a blog of this tour, to give you a sense of what it’s like to be on tour, and to relay to you some of our experiences. I’m hoping that some of the other artists will chime in as well with their experiences and points of view.

I arrived yesterday morning at Burbank airport, where Billy picked me up. (Billy told me that when he departed New York the day before, two Bay Ridge teenage girls were yelling, “We love you Jet Blue!” to the curbside baggage checkers. And we do.)

I didn’t play today, but Billy had a concert at the home of a wealthy arts patron in Encino. Dottie Grossman also performed. She is a poet who will be on this tour with us. She performed with trombonist Michael Vlatkovich (who will also be on tour with us), up and coming guitarist Tom McNally and trumpeter Jeff Kaiser.

At the beginning of the program, the host, Mimi, introduced Billy as a “colorist” on the drums. She looked at Billy for confirmation, and Billy replied in a toneless voice, “I don’t know”. For those of us who know him this was classic Mintz. Billy once said in a press interview,”I’m just a guy who likes to play the drums.”

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Mark Reboul, Billy Mintz, Roberta Piket

Some of you may have heard rumors about a new free music recording with Mark Reboul and Billy Mintz, recorded at Systems Two by Jon Rosenberg. The three of us are very proud of this recording (and the sound quality is amazing – Jon did a great job as usual), and I am happy to announce that a download of the entire recording is now available for purchase on my web site. Click here for a sample and purchasing info. (After all, free music ain’t free.)

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Radio interview scheduled

I’ll be intervewed by Vince Outlaw at KSDS, the jazz station in San Diego to promote our Dizzy’s date on Nov 15. (Dizzy’s is a great performance space in San Diego). Vince is I may leave the cell phone as the second set starts on so radio listeners can catch a bit of what we’ll be bringing with us to the West coast.

KSDS has been very generous in the past. A few years ago they recorded and broadcast a live date I did at Dizzy’s with bass great Bob Magnusson and LA drummer Dave Hocker. I am looking forward to speaking with Vince between sets at the trio’s gig at the Kitano where we’ll be playing that evening from 8pm to 11pmEST. You can listen online if you’re not in San Diego.

The interview will also be saved at this page in case you can’t catch it that night:

By the way, Vince, is that your real name??

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On Roe v. Wade and lazy Democrats

There was an interesting op-e in yesterday’s times by NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF His basic premise is that the main mode for seeking a more liberal agenda should be the democratic process, not the undemocratic courts.

I agree. The Left’s dependence on preserving Roe v. Wade, and the windy speeches on the subject given by Democrats every time a new Supreme Court nominee comes before the Senate, have distracted the Democrats from the real work of channeling mainstream America’s pro-choice support into legislative action. Democrats in state legislatures and Congress should immediately introduce laws directed at preserving legal abortion. While the Republicans in Congress would certainly vote down such measures, it would force them to reveal their hand to the vast of Americans who support safe and legal abortions. Eventually we might elect legislators who will do what most Americans want and legislate this right.

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Bush: “I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.”

I received the following email from Bill Kirchner, the jazz saxophonist and historian.

In his always interesting weblog
(http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/), journalist and jazz critic Doug Ramsey (who was a TV newscaster in New Orleans in the late
1960s) pointed out an eerily prophetic article that ran in National Geographic magazine almost a year ago:

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/

Read the article. It is heart-breaking.

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Leader of Federal Effort Feels the Heat (from the Times)

Leader of Federal Effort Feels the Heat (from the Times)

This article lays out the history of FEMA, started by Jimmy Carter in 1979, elevated to a cabinet position under Clinton in 1993, and dismantled by Bush starting in 2001.

Like Condoleeza Rice, who had zero National Security experience when appointed as NSA chief in the first Bush term (resulting in a complete lack of preparedness for 9/11), Michael D. Brown, the head of FEMA, is yet another Bush appointee with no experience in the area he is appointed to, resulting in the death and suffering now occurring in New Orleans. To Bush and his cronies, the federal government exists purely to increase their own wealth and power by granting political favors, not to serve the citizenry.

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I’m sick of wimps speaking for the left

As I type this I am listening to the late night re-broadcast of the Brian Lehrer show of Friday Sept. 2. The two guests were Katrina Vanden Heuvel of the Nation and James Carafano of the Heritage foundation. The false sanctimony of Carafano, who twisted the meaning of everything Katrina Vanden Heuvel said, was sickening.

What was even more disgusting was the mealy-mouthed, hesitant, barely articulate commentary by Vanden Heuvel. Who chose this woman to discuss Bush’s responsibility for this disaster? Carafano, a right wing Bush apologist with no shame, ran rough-shod over her. If people are going to wake up from their TV-induced brain-washed stupor and realize what a disaster the Bush presidency has been for this country we need to do better than this. I am so angry. Was this woman paid off by the right to blow it? Brian, I am a huge fan of your show. In the interest of fairness and balance, PLEASE don’t let Katrina Vanden Heuvel on again. She is an incompetent debater, and certainly no match for the Goering-esque PR skills of Carafano.