Fun at the Fireside

I'm having a great time jamming with Darren Littlejohn and the other great musicians that come to the Fireside Coffee Lodge on Saturday nights. Last week we had FOUR terrific sax players and a fine young guitarist from California sitting in, as well as the luscious singing of Armonica.

Here's a snapshot of me and the aforementioned young guitarist (Eron) from June 4th:



Part of the fun for me is the variety, and the challenge of playing tunes that I have not played in years (or in some cases have NEVER played). Also, as a bass player, trying to establish a pocket with the variety of drummers that play at the jam really keeps me on my toes. They are all good players, but they are also very different from one another in their approach.

Happy birthday, June

Happy birthday to my beautiful, smart and creative wife, June!

L.A. Impressions

I think I've finally recovered from my trip to Los Angeles enough to write about it! I was down there May 7th through 14th. This was my first real trip back to Southern California since June and I left there in 1989.

Impressions:

Well, it seems to me that they have not repaired any of the freeways since I was last there. They have gotten very, very ratty.

Governor Ah-nold is on TV all the time. I don't know who's paying for it, but every single commercial break on every channel has at least one ad with him imploring the populace to "Help me to fix Calli-fawn-ya."

During the day, you can get a break from soap operas by watching one of the many car chases live on TV. This has become such a big draw that the TV stations compete with each other for who covers car chases the best. Some stations have equipped their choppers with HDTV cameras, so you can get a really good look at the perp when the cops shoot him. And yes, they will definitely shoot him. If there's anything they understand down there, it's the importance of the "money shot."

More than half the broadcast TV stations are non-English, particularly in the UHF band.

Not that I actually spent much time watching TV. I spent the majority of each day hanging out with my 87-year-old Mother-in-law, running errands with her, and swapping stories. She's a terrific person, and I'm glad I got to spend so much time with her at the retirement home she lives in. He home is in Alhambra, which is south of Pasadena. Alhambra has become a largely Asian community in recent years, and at one local market I was able score some rather rare Chinese spices for June to use in cooking (which, of course, benefits me directly!).

In the evenings, I got to visit with some old friends from my LA days. It was very interesting to me that -- almost without exception -- each of these folks seemed to be at or getting close to a turning point in their lives. These are all people who are very special to me, and it was a wonderful gift to be able to spend time with them, share a few laughs about the old days, and catch up on what's been going on in the last few decades.

Upcoming gigs

I'll be playing every Saturday in April with Darren Littlejohn and Black Samba at Fireside Coffee Lodge, 1223 SE Powell Blvd in Portland (near the Aladdin Theater). The same group will also be appearing April 22 at C-Bar, 2880 SE Gladstone in Portland.

Also, I'll be performing with the 7th Street Jazz Band in a public concert at Tigard Community Church on May 21st. See the 7th Street web page for more details.

Winter update

Lots of music happening these days! Of course, I'm still playing regularly with the 7th Street Jazz Band. I've also started playing occasionally with a fine local guitarist named Darren Littlejohn. He runs a regular Tuesday evening jazz jam at the Bethany Village Grill, and plays most Saturday nights at the Fireside Coffee Lodge in Portland. Lots of jazz standards, and there are always great local musicians sitting in.

Well, winter has turned out to be a non-event! We've had hardly any rain or snow. Los Angeles got all our weather this year! Frankly, it is a bit of a worry, because without our regular winter snowpack in the Cascades, there will most certainly be a shortage of drinking and power-generating water this summer. Blackouts and forest fires are the likely result.

Happy new year!

Happy new year, everyone. There are a number of things to talk about now.

First of all, it is clearly NOT a happy new year in southeast Asia. I hope a lot of people will donate to the groups that are helping out. Links to two worthy groups are on the right. Northwest Medical Teams is a particularly good group -- about 96% of your donation goes to direct relief.

Well, I've finally released The Ivory/Bobbidazzler Archive Project. This is a 3-CD set containing -- as far as I know -- all of the material released on vinyl by the 70's groups Ivory and Bobbidazzler, including singles and a strange hybrid project called "Departure." There's also some fun "bonus material" on the CDs. I've been collecting the vinyl records for several years, and finally had enough material to complete the project. I am more than happy to send copies of this to anyone who requests them.

Speaking of the old band(s), I've had terrific phone conversations with some of the guys from Ivory lately. That was a very special time in my life, and I'm really happy that I can still talk to these folks who meant so much to me, and still do. Brian Whitcomb, the pianist from Ivory and Bobbidazzler, just sent me a copy of his new CD, and it's terrific! He's taken a group of songs and re-worked them into very beautiful, simple arrangements that are both very accessible and musically very solid. Brian has a knack for finding the beauty in songs that others may have missed. I can also send copies of Brian's CD to anyone who requests it.

I'm still recovering from my back operation, and I think I've stabilized to the point that I can function pretty well, and know my limits. At least I can carry my own instruments into rehearsals now.

Fall update

If the weather of this past week is any indication, we will have a very cold winter. It has been in the 30s every night for the last week or so, and we've made our yearly shift to the flannel covers and down comforters. This is particularly good news to our cat Ollie, who likes to sleep on the pillow just above June's head, but ONLY if there's a flannel pillowcase on it.

Healthwise, the news is mixed. I had my back operation in September, and felt really good for a few weeks. Now, however, the same old symptoms are reappearing. I'm definitely in better shape than I was before the operation, but it seems that I'm regressing. I can still walk without a cane most of the time, but that may not last. I'm still having fun playing with the 7th Street Jazz Band. We could use a few more horn players, particularly trombone, but it's still a lot of fun to play those old tunes. It's good exercise for my sight-reading, too.

I've also started doing a few more casual jam sessions, which is great fun. I have a number of side projects in motion, some of which I can talk about and a few I can't. I just finished mastering 3-CD set of a live recording from Paul Bass' 50th birthday party. This has been a long-term project, and I'll manufacture and ship as many as are requested, in honor of my late music partner. I'm also about halfway through archiving all of my recorded song demos to CD. So far, this amounts to about 30 CDs. Some of the tunes are not too bad! I also want to transcribe as many of my tunes as possible to leadsheets. I'll probably get a high-end notation program like Finale or Sibelius next year to help with this. It'll be a rather large book, tentatively titled, "Steve Pinkston -- Less Than a Fake Book." Those familiar with Charles Mingus will get the joke.

Summer update

Hot weather comes to the Pacific Northwest! Today's high will crack 100 degrees. Fortunately, this kind of weather never lasts very long here. A few days, then it's gone.

The big-band work continues to be fun. The band is called the 7th Street Jazz Band. My buddy Ethan Richardson got the guitar chair in the band, and he's turning in some excellent Freddie Green comping and some tasty soloing when he gets the chance. We've played a few outdoor festival-type gigs and we've gotten good feedback from the audiences. Of course, my bald head takes a bit of a beating from the sun at these gigs, but I got permission to wear a hat, so that helps a bit.

Fortunately, I get to sit down to play with this band, since I cannot stand or walk for more than about 10 minutes at a time now. My doctors have made a diagnosis, and I will be having an operation to de-compress a pinched nerve bundle in my back in mid-September. I'll have to miss some gigs, though, so if anyone knows a bass player in the Portland area who can read and works cheap, please let me know!

Spring update

Lots going on this Spring! First of all, the new Proto-Kaw album is finally released. No, I did not have anything to do with it, other than attending the release party, but some of these guys are old friends of mine, and I think you'll enjoy the album. It comes in two flavors -- a standard edition and a "Special Edition." By all means, get the Special Edition! You can buy it from Amazon.com or several other sources. Go to the Proto-Kaw website for more details.

Also, I've started playing regularly with a jazz big-band out of Oregon City. It's pretty much just a bunch of folks getting together for the love of music once a week, and I'm having a ball. There's lots of chart-reading involved, and I'm pretty good at that.

Last week I purchased -- off of eBay -- an album put out in the 1970s by a group I didn't even know I was in! The group was called "Departure," and I'll post more details later.

CNET is launching a service similar to the erstwhile MP3.com. Today I uploaded 8 tunes of mine and 3 tunes of Paul Bass' which should be available soon  for download.

On the downside, I've been having a tough time getting around lately. I have to walk with a cane all the time now, and I think someday soon I will have to have a hip joint replaced or repaired. Aging totally sucks.

Back from Kansas

A belated Happy New Year to all! I'm finally catching my breath after last week's trip to Kansas. Why would anyone take a vacation in Kansas in January? The simple answer is, family, friends, and music.

First, and most important, I went to visit my sister. She's a very talented and creative person, and I spent a wonderful couple of days with her in her art-filled house in Leonardville, near Manhattan. Then I spent three days with my old buddy Dave Zerfas (aka Zerf) and his family (Kim and Karl) at their home -- "the K Z Ranche" -- near Manhattan. They are terrific folks and made me feel very welcome. Zerf and I ate at some of our old haunts like Taco Hut and Vista Burger, and took in a K-State women's basketball game.

On Friday, we drove to Kansas City for a CD release party and concert by the band "Proto-Kaw." This was a night to remember! Proto-Kaw is the band that was called Kansas in the '70s. Go to their website to read the whole story. A couple of old bandmates of mine are in that group, and the evening was a bit of a musician's class reunion. I saw folks there that I had not seen in more than 30 years. I'll get some pictures up as soon as I can scan them.

Oh, yeah...I even got a chance to crawl up on stage and do a set (on guitar!) with Zerf, Tom Bolton, and Derek, as a reconstituted version of Zerf's band Plastique. And as a bonus, Lynn Meredith from Proto-Kaw got up and did a couple of numbers with us! Lynn is still one of the most soulful singers I've ever heard.

It was an exciting week. Of course, the weather helped with the excitement. Blizzards in Oregon just as I was getting ready to leave threatened the trip, ice storms and extreme cold in Kansas made travel somewhat of an adventure, and more snow and ice back in Portland kept the airport closed until just before I returned. I was very fortunate through the whole trip that nothing bad happened.