Friday in Santa Fe

02009-11-01 | Uncategorized

And the whites and grays give way to the blue, as sunshine returns to Santa Fe.

In case you want to know what our names look like in Japanese:


Here is a video from the Blue Note Tokyo website – they put the whole thing together and selected and edited the music. It’s interesting that they cut off the end – one feels suspended and the suggestion seems to be to come hear the rest at the Blue Note. Nice.

David Hockney paints on the iPhone. Also, nice article on Hockney in the Guardian this weekend.

BBC has another commentary on the present and future of music.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | The golden age of infinite music
Not long ago, if you wanted music, you had to save up your pocket money, take a trip to the local record shop and lovingly leaf through its racks.

Now, it’s almost all free, instant and infinite. And our relationship with music has changed forever.

Like any revolution (((like anything that happens, really))) the Digital Revolution will only be understood in hindsight. Say, ten years from now, or fifty.

In the meantime we’ll just have to move forward somehow, as if in a dark hallway, slowly feeling our way to the exit, or entrance as it may be. Many will trip, many will fall, and eventually we will be out the door, wondering about what happened, and what took so long (((and why nobody left a light on))). Maybe the solution will be terribly obvious – in hindsight. It usually is.

Milan on Sunday

02008-05-25 | Performance, Poetry, Touring

(…and then there is Milan in September, a piece we recorded in 1993 for the album “The Hours between Night + Day”, but not included on the CD)

Last night’s performance at the Blue Note was ideal. A quiet and attentive audience that applauded enthusiastically and thereby encouraged further explorations, which I was happy to embark on. I am grateful to all of you.

This ad drew in tourists from Houston, who were in Milan for one day only. A German listener also saw the ad and came to the club. As in the days before, some people had traveled from Rome and other cities in Italy to hear me play – ah, when do I get to perform in Rome!! And on Friday I met three fans who came all the way from Romania for the show. My sincere thanks to all that came to hear me play at the Blue Note.

Y. sent me this part of a poem by Hafiz:

…When Hafiz plays his lute,
My notes ascend into the air and form
Infinite blue crystals
That will move on the wind’s breath for hundreds of years
As my sacred debris, as the divine dust
Rising as a gift from my
Singing bones.

-Hafiz

Music rising as a gift from my singing bones! That’s what it feels like. I don’t use a set list for my solo performances and improvise a lot. I make up new melodies, discover new sections, play new medleys and try to simply follow the whims of inspiration. Every performance is quite different and is as much a discovery for me as it, hopefully, is for the audience.

I’ll be back at the Blue Note in Milan and there is also talk of bringing the band to Italy for a tour next year.