Beginning February 27, the Tocando trio will be performing every Monday evening at Osetra (469 5th Ave, Naples). Osetra is a very unique champagne and caviar bar. And they serve lots of other exotic concoctions as well. This is a really beautiful room – here’s what it looks like when the band is setting up before the crowd arrives:
For more information about the Tocando trio, click on the link to the right ->
Please come and join us! The music starts at 6 PM.
Happy Winter!
So, here’s the new performance schedule for this winter in Naples: Every Tuesday night I play solo guitar at the Naples Yacht Club and every Saturday night I perform with Mason Lane at Patric’s. Patric’s, which features “tapas and music”, has great food and it’s a very comfortable room for listening to music. And there are plenty of other gigs at various other restaurants around Naples this winter. See the “Calendar” tab for details. The photo below shows Mason and me hard at work at Patric’s:
Charlie Parker, who died in 1955 at the age of 35, is the last great musician to have made a major leap in the evolution of Western music theory (do, re, mi, fa, so….) with his use notes that don’t fit logically in a major scale (do, re, mi, fa, so…) He used diminished scales and the melodic minor scale a half step above the V chord, and then blurred everything together in blindingly fast bebop rhythms. Donna Lee
In my first recording of the new year, here’s my study of Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee”. Even without an accompaniment, you can hear the implied chords. But if you slowed it down, you’d notice that an awful lot of notes don’t make sense at all to conventional chord theory.
Here’s a new arrangement of Let’s Fall in Love. You can’t go wrong learning songs from the Great American Songbook by studying Frank. That’s a tip I picked up from Naples’ trumpet master, Bob Zottola – “Study the singers and imitate the human voice with your instrument.” Let’s Fall in Love
Last Friday we saw a terrific Vienna Teng concert. She is one of Ann Arbor’s favorite songwriter/performers who has returned often since her debut at the Folk Festival at Hill Auditorium several years ago. And now she’s enrolled here in the Ross Business School (?!), my alma mater. The nearly sold-out Power Center concert the other day should help with tuition! Here are some photos from the concert by Ann Arbor’s fabled rock chronicler, Julian Konwinski.
Vienna, I want to be in your band. Call me!
Here’s a guitar arrangement of “Forget You” (or something like that) by Cee Lo Green which is arguably the biggest hit of the decade so far. Unless you’re over 30. Then you probably never heard of it. This was recorded ‘live’ as I laid down rhythm parts on my loop pedal and then played on top of that. Forget You
Here’s a new arrangement of the first song on Miles Davis’ album, “Kind of Blue”, the best-selling jazz record of all time. I’ve been studying this album carefully since I first started listening to it in my college dorm room. Miles’ playing on this recording is inspirational. He plays very few notes. This is the first time I’ve worked out Bill Evan’s fascinating piano intro. The head to the song, including the signature bass line and all of the horn parts, lays out very nicely on a guitar fretboard. I’m surprised more guitarists don’t play this song. So What
I won the opportunity to participate in the Petoskey olympic triathlon last weekend with my older daughter, Alison. I finished it,… thoroughly whupped! During the last six miles of running I heard voices singing strange new melodies in my hot, delirious head. Look for some new compositions coming your way soon! 
Here’s a wonderful Chick Corea composition I recently arranged for guitar. I love the way the melody has so many different rhythms, yet the whole song flows together so naturally. Spain
We’re ending the spring season with a gig tonight at the Brighton Martini Bar and Thursday at The Quarter Bistro. Next week we’re heading up north for the summer where I will be performing solo guitar every Tuesday evening at the Weathervane. C’mon down! It’s a beautiful setting right on the water downtown Charlevoix, MI. (See the gig calendar for other performances here and there around the state this summer.)
