The JFJO has been invited to return to Brooklyn’s Tea Lounge on Labor Day, Monday, September 6th. Sets at 9 and 10:30pm. This is part of the “Size Matters” big band series. We had a great time with a fun crowd in May and I expect this one to be even better. 837 Union St Brooklyn, NY 11217. $5 donation suggested. …Hope to see our new Brooklyn fans again, and to make some more, too!
JF
Save the dates! Here are two new concerts I’ll be involved in — the 1st is a small group I’ll assemble and the 2nd is a large brass and percussion ensemble premiering a new commissioned piece of mine.
Sunday September 19 @ 5pm: New York Presbyterian Church’s 3rd Annual Gospel Jazz Festival. I’ll lead a hand-picked Jazz small group for this, with flavors of Korean and Gospel music. Open to public, all ages. Tickets TBA (it might be free or or very cheap). Church: 43-23 37th Ave Long Island City, NY 11101. Off 7, R/V trains; large parking lot available on site. More info as it becomes available.
Monday November 15 @ 8pm: Dave Chamberlain leads Hora Decima brass ensemble at Christ and St Stephen’s Episcopal Church. Includes world premiere performance of a new piece Dave commissioned me to write for this. 120 West 69th Street – New York, NY 10023 (between Broadway & Columbus Avenue). Off 1/2/3 trains. Tickets: TBA. More info as it becomes available.
Hope to see you there,
JF
Yesterday I drove to Skyline Productions studio in Warren, NJ to complete the fifth post-production session for my album. A full six months after recording the big band, we have finally finished editing all the material, which means that —at last—we’re ready to mix! My incredible engineer Paul Wickliffe will create an initial mix on his own, which will be ready for me to review by June 19th. Since he’s Grammy-nominated and has recorded/mixed decades of big band records from Thad Jones/ Mel Lewis to Maria Schneider, he’ll make it easy for me. After reviewing this mix, we plan to finalize it by the end of June, and perhaps master the album by then.
Meanwhile I’ve been working with media/artist consultant Donna Walker-Kuhne, through a grant from the Queens Arts Council’s Individual Artist Initiative, on developing my plan for the album release campaign. This exciting work will be my main focus as soon as the album is mastered (i.e., when I have a finished product to market). More details on this to come…
JF
The Jeff Fairbanks Jazz Orchestra’s second Brooklyn appearance this past Monday was a hit. I estimated around 60 people in the crowd at the Tea Lounge. About a fourth of them joined our email list (thanks to Mike Edelman for collecting them), which is excellent for fan recruiting standards. I hope that included among these new fans are some folks who may not have even been Jazz listeners before they came to our show. I’m trying to reach out to new audiences.
Congrats to Tomoko Sotoyama, whose name was drawn from the list of new sign-ees, to win a free CD pre-order.
A novelty of this show was the debut my new 22″ Chinese wind gong for the first time in public — the same gong to be heard on much of the coming album. It was great for me to be allowed to play it loud, unlike back in my apartment. …The trick, though, was trying to conduct the band at the same time!
A big thanks also to my friend Robin Abecasis for taking the below photo of the band:
–JF
I just learned I was selected for a 2010 Composer Assistance Program grant from the AMC. This award is in support of the premiere of my original piece “Hoping for Hope“, which took place in December, 2009. I also received this award in 2008 for the premiere of my piece “Bi Bim Bop“. Thanks again, American Music Center!