The broken down van day.

Yesterday started in Ashtabula with a trip down to Ted’s Aunt’s local mechanic to check on our car trouble. The guy pointed out that the van was losing power which was only really noticeable on an incline. He thought we’d be ok for the next couple of days. But as soon as we loaded the van and headed to Cleveland the problem got much worse. Now I knew we were in trouble. After calling a mechanic that I knew from 25 years ago, we were referred to a place walking distance from Cleveland Hts High School (the site of our first clinic of the day).

Sure enough the van needed to stay in Cleveland and we needed to rent a van to complete the tour. Ouch! But the band cooperated, Brett Baker, the director at CHHS helped by supplying students to unload the van and load the new one, and my old friend Tom Ianni from Academy Music gave me a ride to the car rental joint. So we’re in our new ride now and getting ready to head west.

after a great gig at Cleveland State University!

The two clinics went extremely well. Lot’s of interesting questions from the students and great response to our music. The concert at Cleveland State was in stunning Waetjen Auditorium although sound tended to get washy so the band responded by accentuating dynamics and finding different ways of creating energy besides volume. It was great (and a little nerve racking!) to see saxophone masters Howie Smith and John Klayman in the audience. Great to be back in my hometown for a day!

Kellen waiting to pack up the van.

Kellen High Kicking at the Sound Check

Here we go.

Ok, we’re a little out of sequence here, but thought I’d recount our first couple of gigs now that I have second to blog.

Saturday March 20th was day one:

Road shenanigans, and this is on day 1!

We got together at my house to do one last rehearsal at around noon, then loaded the van and headed out around 3:30. I-78 to I-76 to I-70 through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and into Ohio where we arrived at Ted’s sister’s house in Columbus. A brief few hours of sleep and off to Cincinnati.

Shawn snuggling with my sister's dog Rasta after crashing at her house.

Sunday March 21st – day two:
We arrived at the Northside Tavern in Cincinnati around 1:00. There we did an extremely professional sound check and worked on sight lines. Yes, sight lines. Ted’s college roommate, Vince Scaccetti hosted us at a program called “Classical Revolution.” The gig was recorded for a DVD. We were on a chamber music program with 4 other ensembles. Various classical trios, duos and quartets and Vince’s rock band. The place was packed and it turned into a big party at the end with Vince’s band calling us up to the band stand to play with them. It was all we could do to pull ourselves out of the club, pack the van and head back up the highway to Columbus. Two hours of late night driving in a veritable monsoon and we were back at Ted’s Sister’s around 3:30 am.

with "Vinnie the Squid" great friend and Classical Revolution promoter.

Monday March 22nd – day three:

Another early morning, we drove up to Youngstown arriving around 12:30 for our 2:00 clinic. Kent Engelhardt and Dave Morgan were our hosts. We did a clinic for the students. Played a couple of tunes and talked about our band concept and compositional strategies. We played a couple tunes for them. Then we hung out for the afternoon. The evening concert went very well as we premiered several of our new tunes to a very wonderful audience. (I’ve posted a couple of tunes from this concert below). Then back in the van and up to Ashtabula to Casa Chubb where Ted’s dad has hosted us for a couple of nights.

Tuesday March 23rd – day four:

Early morning again. Loaded the van and headed into Cleveland for an interview with Dan Poletta. Dan was the jazz jack at WCPN for many years when I lived in Cleveland. He’s a great interviewer and still gets to do a little jazz. It was great to spend time with him again after all these years.

Then off to Oberlin (which I’ve described below.)

Today we’re off to Cleveland Hts High School, then Cleveland State University for a clinic and evening concert.

Ok, now we’re caught up. I’ll catch up again after our next few very busy days.

New Tricks did a clinic/concert at Oberlin College today. We were honored to have so many of the great faculty members at Oberlin in attendance. It was great to see so many old friends. Paul Samuels has been such a major influence on my whole musical concept that I can’t imagine having become the musician I am without him. Bob Ferrazza was my running buddy in the old days, when we would sneak in to bars and challenge each other to call out the changes the band was playing. Wendell Logan is the man that has made Oberlin jazz tick since I was young enough to be a “ringer” with the student band. Of course Billy Hart’s presence today gave us all a lift by just being there. But he added more than that by asking more questions than anybody. Billy is the worlds greatest student!

We enjoyed making a lot of new friends with the fantastic students there. It was a rush to work with Paul Samuels’ student ensembles and hear the great talent that is being groomed by this great faculty.