I'm trying to put my hand on the name of the famous physicist who supplied us with the quote, "time is God's way of preventing everything from happening at once." Was it Stephen Hawking? Albert Einstein? Lenny Bruce? Doesn't matter because it's at least partially hogwash. Right now a confluence of at least five events (the Profs of Pleasure CD, the fall term at Tulane, the upcoming midterms at Tulane, an additional TIDES (Tulane Interdisciplinary Educational Seminar) course I've taken on, and some deadlines on academic writing) is making it seem like everything is happening at once.
The "Profs vol 2." CD is in the mixing stage now, so the pressure is partially off there. But a new project looms large, and that's the recording I'm scheduled to do this month with bassist/composer Rob Kohler. Rob's will be a familiar name if you know the jazz program at Stanford University in California (he's on faculty at the jazz camp there) the Bozeman Bass Bash in Bozeman, Montana (where he also teaches) and especially to those familiar with the jazz scene in Vancouver, Canada, where he is a frequent collaborator in recordings and live performances by Vancouver guitarist and educator Jared Burrows (the Jared Burrows Trio) and British saxophonist and composer Len Aruhlia (the Len Aruhlia Quintet). Just to show you what a small world the jazz community is, when he first moved here to New Orleans two years ago we discovered we not only knew and had played with both Jared and Len, but also a half dozen or more musicians on two continents, including drummer Stan Taylor, who played in my Vancouver quintet for years and appears on my first solo CD "One Up, Two Back."
I'm afraid that those of you who think this is all part of some sort of 'master plan' to catapult my personal agenda forward are doomed to disappointment, as events in my life tend to resemble more a collection of random objects falling down a flight of stairs than any kind of coherent plan. At this point we're not even entirely sure who's going to be on the record besides us, although New Orleans drummer Geoff Clapp appears to be definitely on board. We have a couple of tantalizing prospects for piano and/or guitar (I'll say no more about this, lest I jinx it), but we still might do a few tracks as a bass-drums-tenor trio. Hell we might do a tune or two as a bass-sax duo, Rob and I have played entire gigs in that format, and he's just released a duo CD with Billings, Montana percussionist Clay Green, "Harmony and Bells." I'm not even sure what we're going to play, although I have some ideas and suggestions, as does Rob. All I know for sure is, by this time next month we'll have a CD in the can. |
