This past wednesday New Tricks performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of their Millenium Stage series. This series produces free to the public concerts that the Kennedy Center puts on 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The performance is also live web-streamed and archived on their website. It is quite impressive that they put together such a high quality performance every day of the year that is free to everyone! We were thrilled to be included in their programming and had a fantastic time! Here is a link to the web archive for all of you who missed the live-stream. New Tricks at the Kennedy Center!
We had a great weekend in Kalamazoo. It started with a clinic at Western Michigan University Friday afternoon where we heard two outstanding young groups play for us in the afternoon. Then we performed Friday and Saturday at the Union Cabaret. Here’s the first video of the tour. This is Ted’s brand new tune – Cloud 9.
On tuesday we had a chance to sleep in and have a slow morning in Ann Arbor. We headed out to the van and begun to load up when Kellen realized that he had lost his ipod. This seems as a mundane occurence but not to a musician. If he had lost his girlfriend or been mugged for his wallet we would have told him to forget about it and move on. But no this was his ipod full of all his music! So we took the good part of an hour to search through the van and the parking lot, but found no ipod. We headed back to the UM music building and searched around the parking lot and in the building. We checked the lost and found. No ipod. We head back over to where we had parked the evening before and Kellen gets out of the van looks down on the ground and finds his ipod waiting for him on . . . → Read More: Ann Arbor to Iowa City and back to Chicago.
The last two days have seen us in Chicago – where we had a very welcome day off, and Ann Arbor, where we gave a clinic to two of the student combos.
Pharez Whitted visits with Ted and New Tricks
The day in Chicago was a good day where Jazz Record Mart and the Green Mill were in our agenda. I visited with my childhood buddy, Jimmy Stella and Ted visited with Paul Levy, his friend for many years. In the evening we met Ted’s teacher from his days in Columbus, the renowned trumpeter, Pharez Whitted.
New Tricks with Geri Allen
Today, we drove to Ann Arbor where we gave a clinic to two student combos at the University of Michigan. I was surprised and honored to be introduced . . . → Read More: Tour Takes us to Chicago, Ann Arbor
So we set off from Mike’s house on Monday at the surprisingly prompt time of 8am on our 15 hour drive to Madison Wi. The drive was surprisingly easy as this band is so tour ready and has such a good time clowning together in the van that it actually made the travel day enjoyable.
Our host for the show on friday was the fantastic tenor player Pat Breiner and friend of Mike’s and mine from NY. He has relocated to Madison for a bit and began creating a vibrant music series at a great recording studio called Audio for the Arts. Pat and his girlfriend Emily were fantastic hosts and we had a great time sampling the different local beer and food of Madison. The gig that evening went great. Audio for the arts is a beautiful recording studio owned by Steve Gotcher with a great sound. . . . → Read More: New Tricks is back on tour and all is right in the world.
As of April 1st, we’re back on the road again to promote our new CD which is set to drop on April 5th. We’ll be playing in the Midwest including dates at Nighttown in Cleveland, the Blue Wisp in Cincinnati, the Bistro in St. Louis and many colleges, universities and high schools along our way.
New Tricks At the Jazz School in Berkeley This tune is from the same concert as the last post. People in San Francisco seemed to understand what alternate side parking is.
Obviously to any one who has checked in on our site to see the progress of the California tour has seen that we have not been as motivated to update our tour blog. I guess we have been so into experiencing California that we have let it slide. So as I fly back to Jersey here is my attempt at recapping the last several fantastic weeks. Please excuse the quality of some of the pics, most were taken with Shawn’s phone.
I flew into Los Angeles picked up a rental van and drove up to the Bay area where I met Shawn and Mike in Concord at Shawn’s mothers. We spent several hours having dinner with Shawn’s mother Juaneta than headed out for the evening. We went to Berkeley to check out some music at Jupiter. Afterwards we went in to S.F. for a jam session in the mission district at a club called Amnesia.
The more this band grows the more I realize how special of a musical and personal situation New Tricks is. The more we play the more our friendships deepen and the musical depths we are able to explore open up wider and wider. The experience of touring for 5 weeks with a group of friends that happen to play music together has been one of the greatest of my life. The level of communication and trust in this band is something that I think few musicians have the chance to experience.
As we have toured we have had the opportunity to meet and get to know each other’s families. This has been particularly rewarding. Being able to share music we are all so proud of with the people we care about the most has been very satisfying. It is not only important for me to share this with my own family as I was able to do on our . . . → Read More: California Tour Thank you- It’s not about the music its about the people!
Here are three videos that obviously someone else took of our gig at Roadhouse 61 in St. Louis MO. We had a great gig here! To who ever took these, thanks! In order this is Alternate Side Parking by Ted, Vicenza Days by Mike, and Short Stops by Mike.
After playing all of our new material every day for the last 3 weeks it opened up a whole other thing on our older tunes. Check out this new “Old Dog” video recorded at Bears Pub in Bloomington Indiana. Here is also a video of one of our new favorites “Back to Work”
Students from St. Charles East and St. Charles West High School
Day 18
We woke up in St. Charles on Tuesday and headed out to Oaklawn High School where Ted’s friend Paul Levy is band director. We gave a nice clinic for the students and Paul sat in with us and sounded beautiful. It was the first time I had heard him. Then we packed up and headed out to St. Charles East High School where we were hosted by my old friends, Jim Kull and Gil Wukitsch. We gave the clinic for a combined class of St. Charles East and St. Charles North Students. Jim Stombres brought students from North and helped host the event. We had a quick dinner and then played our concert at the Norris Arts Center which is on the St. Charles East High School campus. It was a very good concert. We met some new . . . → Read More: Days 18 -22
Stage series. This series produces free to the public concerts that the Kennedy 
Center puts on 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The performance is also live web-streamed and archived on their website. It is quite impressive that they put together such a high quality performance every day of the year that is free to everyone! We were thrilled to be included in their programming and had a fantastic time! Here is a link to the web archive for all of you who missed the live-stream. New Tricks at the Kennedy Center!
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