Tea Lounge Wrap-up

The JFJO concert at the Tea Lounge was a blast on Monday night.  The band sounded outstanding, even with limited rehearsal time, some different personnel for this gig, and a couple folks basically sight-reading this difficult music.  Brooklyn saxophonist (and freelance photographer, it turns out) Bob Curtis came out and took a bunch of photos of us in action, which I’ll post when I get them.  Incidentally, he also won the free CD pre-order when his name was drawn from among the email list signees — congrats, Bob!

We also got 16 new email addresses to add to our growing mailing list.  Thanks to Ryan Pate for collecting them.  Nice to also see quite a few returning fans.

9/19 gig canceled

BTW, although it was announced in the last newsletter, I didn’t get a chance to blog about the fact that our 9/19 performance has been canceled.  Actually the entire event, the Gospel Jazz Festival at NY Presbyterian Church, was canceled (or hopefully postponed for a later date).

JF

The time for our 11/12/10 concert at LPAC has been set at 8pm.

Also, you may reserve tickets ($15) by calling the LPAC box office at 718-482-5151. Tickets will be available to purchase online at http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/lpac/contact_us.aspx, though it doesn’t look like that option is available yet.  Be on the look-out for that…

LaGuardia Performing Arts Center “Main Stage Theater”

31-10 Thomson Avenue
Long Island City, NY 1110

JF

I have just confirmed that the JFJO will perform at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens, on the evening of Friday, November 12, 2010 (time TBD).  This 742 seat theater will be the band’s largest venue to date, so I am thrilled at the chance to perform my music in such a setting.  Although LPAC has programmed the concert and will make their own effort to promote it, I also have an interest in helping to promote it myself.  Trying to fill a space that large is a little daunting, so I’m going to need to pull all the stops out to do it.  If you’d like to be involved, join the ‘street team’ on my ReverbNation page (click the blue ‘Fan Settings’ button next to my pic).  Show info below:

Show details

JF

My debut album is now finished!  It was mastered July 8th, last Thursday.  I’ve been so busy I wasn’t able to blog about it until now (more on that later).  Technically there is a minute amount of mastering left, like encoding tracks and comparing the volume of each track, but Paul said it will take less than an hour.  –In short, the music is done.  For now the thing to do is live with the album for awhile and form an opinion over time before coming back to him about volume, etc.

I am just getting to this blog now b/c, after several days of working on it,  I just sent in my application for the American Music Center’s new recording grant.  I just discovered it about a week ago and am so glad I did, since today is the deadline!  If awarded, it could cover a huge part of the cost of producing the album.  It’s extremely competitive (only 10 grants will be given globally) but I more than meet their criteria, and think I will stand out as a candidate.  So far I have a good track record for getting grants from the AMC (2 for 2), but they were relatively small ; with the album done and <gulp> paid for, this larger one would really count.  I find out in a couple months so stay tuned…

JF

The album mixes have been rolling into my inbox and it’s been a blast listening to them.  I now have eight of the tunes and engineer Paul is working on the ninth (and final) one possibly as I write.  We’re not quite at the finish line yet, as I’m scrutinizing these for any tweaks to be made at the final mixing session in early July.  To assist in this, I also assembled a handful of the best and most knowledgeable ‘ears’ I could find, and they’ll offer their own input.  This is a crucial but fun part of the process.

JF