She's amazing

Spent a couple mornings passing out music to middle school band member's at Festival. Mindy is so amazing. She organizes all these people to come and help out. Gives them jobs and snacks, drinks etc. Makes them feel welcome and appreciated. She's such a pro-active, amazing and beautiful person and an inspiration to all who know her.

The Arts Council

Great concert tonight for The Art's Council in Gainsville Ga. It was Del's show with Mike Hinton filling in for Joel and me playing a beautiful Bosendorfer grand. We love the audience out there, so warm and attentive. Saw some familiar faces from past season and we were treated to a surpise guest when Jim Gibson agreed to come up and play a couple tunes on the piano. I loved his rendition of Beseme Mucho. Some of the highlights tonight were Seven Steps, a impromtu version of Sing Sing Sing with a crazy Mike H. drum solo and of course nothing beats Del's rendition of Some Other time which closed a wonderful evening.

The Blue Room

Great new club in Buckhead at Peachtree Battle. Stopped by the monday jam. It was great. Ike Stubblefield is a wonderful B-3 player. I jumped on the piano for a tune with Ike, Steve Cunningham, Luis Stefenal(great percussionist, Philip Harper, and Troy Royster Jr.
I'll be playing at The Blue Room March 31st with PapaMichael. Bernard Purdie and group will be playing the grand opening bash on March 21.

Wolfganfs Vault and Mark's new disc.

The sun is out and I should be going for a walk or climbing Stone Mountain, but as i sit over coffee checking email, I am enjoying the selections on Vault radio. What a great site. I was just digging a medley by the Byrds, It says it was from a 1969 show that was headlined by Michael Bloomfield.

Another great Bay Area guitarist is Mark Holzinger, His new solo acoustic guitar disc makes me feel a strong Bay Area vibe. During cuts 6, 7, and 8 I can practically feel the breeze in the air of Fishermans Wharf and I am transported to the windy streets of North Beach.
The cover of In My Life is beautiful and respectful of the original Beatles version, yet it has some extra breathing room after the solo. The whole disc is refreshing, sparse and soulful.

Wow, now Wolgangs Vault is playing The Don Ellis Band doing a song called The Magic Bus Ate My Doughnut. This is too much
check my links page at www.jezgraham.com to go to The Vault and to find more info on Mark Holzinger.

Janna's got the groove

Premiered the new Kalinich/Graham song This Is The Goodness at Unity Rockdale yesterday.
Me on Piano and Janna on Drums. She has got such a good groove. I've always said a keyboardist and a drummer can make it happen and we sure did yesterday. She is always listening to my left hand and catches all the nuances and subtleties, not only that but her time is great which is the first thing we want in a drummer. I know she has a great teacher(Terry Vinyard) and has been influenced by some of my drummers like Mike Hinton and She gets a lot out of the school band program including jazz band. This week I'm having her cut the drum part to Start Your Day With Gratitude which will be the first cut on the Jez/Stevie CD.

Goodness and mp3 shuffle

Thank Goodness for Goodness which is the name of a brand new Kalinich/Graham gospel song.
Great gig at Atlantic Seafood tonight. I love playing there and our duo was really on tonight. Del played his electric bass and we had many highlights and a very attentive and fun audience.
On the way home the shuffle highlights were Hampton Hawes Trio playing When I Grow Too Old To Dream, Sly and The Family Stone doing Que Sera Sera and If You Want Me To Stay which I used to play with Ball Of Confusion, and Bill Evans trio playing Herbie Hancock's Dolphin Dance.
Hampton Hawes is always great to listen too. Much respect to Carol Kaye for keeping his flame alive . He really is one of the greats. Check out his autobiography if you can find it and listen to his 50's trio records as well as his later albums like Hampton Hawes At The Piano and Northern Windows which features some very funky bass by Carol Kaye. As she has pointed out , he influenced so many and should be mentioned in the same breath with the other jazz piano masters who are household names. Not only was he a master and innovator of Be-Bop piano, but he developed the funky soul gospel piano sound that was carried on by Les McCann, George Duke, Joe Sample and others.

Standards

Last night I was feeling good and warmed up so when I got home from the gig I recorded a few solo piano standards. They will be up on the music page soon. I cut these tunes-
I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
Gershwin medley
Rodgers/Hammerstein medley
Seven Steps to Seven
Guys And Dolls.

Music

Lot's of new music has been spinning on our cd player. Billy Gewin's new one is very cool Pop with some pedal steel and even me on wurlitzer for one song. I like his song Open letter to Andy Partridge the best.
Ray Davies new solo album Other Peoples lives is one i'm really enjoying. They say it's his first solo album but what about Return To Waterloo from the 80's? Anyway it's all there, the wry and insightful lyrics and the english images with rocking and strumming frameworks. Of course I miss Dave Davies contribution but otherwise it's as good and as close to a new Kinks album as we're gonna get.

Loving the new Chick Corea which is being hailed as a return to the early RTF sound. It's sort of like that but with a flamenco vibe that really was spellbinding at the concert we saw him do last week.

I've rediscovered Belonging by Keith Jarretts European Quartet. The windup is one of the most fun songs I've ever heard. Try and figure out the time and groove. It's a country dance like no other.

I'm still on a Laura Nyro kick(especially her later concert recordings like Live at The looms Lair) and Bill has been playing Paprika Plains from Joni Mitchell's Don Juans Reckless Daughter a lot. What a great rythmn section entrence with Jaco, John Guerin, Wayne Shorter and Joni on Piano.

Bill Peterson is a fine pianist who teaches at FSU. His cd and another that he did with an amazing vocalist named Inga Swearington are full of inventive playing, fine compositions and some choice covers such as Joni Mitchells Black Crow and Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most.

On the mp3 shuffle I have been rediscovering some Of F.Z' s most beautiful pieces like Lather which is one of his finest waltzes. I love the rythmn section feel by Terry Bozzio and Patrick O' Hearn and the Mini Moog solo by Eddie Jobson. Also Flambe which on the surface sounds like a mock cocktail song but George Duke's amazing piano part brings it into another dimension. Sharleena is always a good one and the version from Them Or Us with the great vocals of Ike Willis, Ray White, Bobby Martin, and Frank are terrific. Some of the earlier Mother's stuff from We're Only In It For The Money has also been keeping a smile on my face during long drives to gigs. The Black Page from Zappa in New York(1977) is such a beautiful melody played by a great band that features The Brecker Brothers in a great horn section, the amazing drumming of Terry Bozzio, and the mind boggling percussion of Ruth Underwood, Dave Samuels, and in his first Zappa recording Ed Mann.
My brother who knows about these things turned me on to the Sandisc plays for sure MP3 player. I am using it to download songs from Rhapsody and I am really enjoying it.