Gigs

I’m thrilled to be part of the debut of the Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble tomorrow night at Lucid Jazz Lounge in Seattle. My good friends Michael Owcharuk and Nate Omdal put this group together after the very successful Slava concert last February. They have brought together some of the finest musicians and composers in the […]

NOTE: This post started as a reply on a thread at Trumpet Herald.com. The thread was referencing Terry Teachout’s Wall Street Journal Article “Can Jazz Be Saved?”, which I wrote about here. After posting my reply to the rather long thread I thought it deserved a post of its own. I hope this is the […]

Playing for Free

by Jason on June 15, 2009

in Bands, Business, Gigs, Thoughts

I almost never play for free. I believe that as professional musicians we have to have enough self respect and self-worth to charge for our services. We put in countless hours of practice and preparation to get us to each gig and should not take that time lightly. If we don’t think of ourselves as […]

As a gigging musician, my hope is that there will be a huge crowd at every show clamoring for our music. And often this is the case. But there are also gigs where you can hear the crickets. Today was just such a gig. I played a Sunday Brunch with my partner-in-crime Josh Rawlings at […]

I’m Workin’ Here…

by Jason on June 7, 2009

in Bands, Gigs

I’m playing a wedding tonight at the Bellingham Ferry Terminal and had to take a minute to upload a couple pictures. It’s gorgeous here! Tonight’s band is lead by Katrina Wible and also features Josh Rawlings, Birch Pereira and a drummer named Larry I met for the first time on the bandstand. I love jazz […]

Yesterday was a funny day. It started wonderfully when my business partner Josh showed up for a meeting with homemade granola and fresh fruit. Now that’s a good partner! Josh’s mom runs Wow Catering and every once in a while I get to reap the benefits too. After our meeting I was off to teach […]