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.

Proto-Kaw

Well, MP3.com closed its doors yesterday, so you can't find my tunes or Paul's there anymore. They have promised to open a new music hosting service early next year, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Proto-Kaw (nee Kansas) is releasing their new CD Before Became After on Jan. 9th in Kansas City. Read all about it and hear some samples of the amazing music this band has made at www.protokaw.com.

Remember, Remember...

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot.
We see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!

Those lines are a mystery to most Americans, but very familiar to most Brits. They refer to Guy Fawkes Day, November 5th. Read up on it, then go light up a bonfire!

In my last entry, I was complaining about the heat. Now it's pleasantly cold and wintry here in the Cascade foothills. We had a very rapid season change this year. We went from record high temperatures (mid-70s in late October) to frost, snow, and record low temperatures within about a week. Essentially, we skipped Fall this year.

I've been having a great time playing with the jazz fellows -- Bob, Steve, and Neil -- on a semi-regular basis. We've made some rough demo recordings and I can see a lot of potential. These guys are all very talented and easygoing. The hardest thing is coming up with a name for the band, oddly enough.

Hot!

It is too bloody hot! Oregon is NOT supposed to be like this! Actually this is probably the worst it will get, with temperatures in the 90s. We are generally blessed with mild weather year-round, with just a few really nasty cold days in the winter and a few nasty hot days in the summer.

I recently heard from my old friend Dawayne that there was a possibility of a second Proto-Kaw album coming out later this year. That would be very welcome news. If you haven't done so yet, check out the first Proto-Kaw album, and read the whole history of the band(s) we know as Kansas.

Summer Solstice

It occurred to me that I don't update this thing often enough to really call it a 'blog,' so maybe I'll stop calling it that, and I'll just put in stuff when I feel like it, which seems to be about every 2-6 weeks these days.

Summer solstice is just a few days away, and the weather here in Oregon has indeed been summer-like. The grass is not growing as fast, which is good news. Some folks complain about mowing their back yards, but our back yard is about 5-7 acres. I enjoy mowing it -- it's somewhat meditative to go around and around with the sound of the motor droning like a mechanical monk. That having been said, I am also appreciative when the intervals between mowings start to increase.

Musically, things are still moving along. I'm still writing new tunes occasionally, recording demos, and jamming with some good guys out in the valley from time to time. I have not been getting together with other musicians quite as often as I'd like to, but I think that will work itself out. I recently repaired my old Kramer bass, and I think I'll use that on the next jazz jam I go to. It's interesting how using a different axe takes you in different directions musically. The Kramer is a bit longer scale than my Les Paul bass so I have to work just a bit harder, but it has a nice funky sound that I like on some tunes.

Bachelor life sucks

Well, it has been an interesting 5 days. June went to California to visit her mom for Mother's Day, and I've been looking after the 3 dogs and 5 cats while she's away. They are all very sweet animals, and except for one "jailbreak" from the kennel this morning all has gone relatively well. These little absences always help me to realize how much I depend on June and how hard she works keeping our little piece of Oregon running smoothly.

Several entries back, I mentioned the Big Fake CD, which compiles a dozen well-known fake books on one CD. For my own convenience, I built a master index for the CD in PDF format. It occurred to me that anyone else who has this CD might like to print this out. Please contact me if you'd like a copy.