Jams and Gigs, Sept - Oct 2007

Hey folks,

I have some jams and gigs as sideman and in small combos of some of the Yoginis family of musicians (there's about 20 all told, both here and in Asia).

I am no longer a musical orphan, now having been adopted into the Ugly Mug Family of Musicians. The Ugly Mug is this really great little coffee joint where a bunch of jazzers meet every Sunday. This Sunday I'm hosting the jam with bassist Burt Boice.

Yogi, Burt and Friends Jam
Sunday Sept 30^th and Oct 14^th 6:30 – 9:30pm
The Ugly Mug Café
11425 Rainier Ave S Seattle, WA 98178
(206) 772-3751 - no cover

Also I have my first show with singer Lita Page at Serafina's this Fri Oct 5th - pulling from songbooks of bossas, boleros, and more. She sings beautifully in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Mixed up with a few Yogi instrumentals, of course.

Yogi With Lita Page
Friday, Fri Oct 5^th -9pm-12am
Serafina’s Italian Restaurant
2043 Eastlake Ave E Seattle, WA 98102
(206) 323-0807 - no cover
http://www.serafinaseattle.com/

I will be playing originals at Crowne Plaza Hotel in their Regatta Bar and Grille Oct 12th and 13th. This will be a Yoginis Quartet configuration of Yogi, Burt Boice, and Bob Antolin, with percussionists Ricardo Guity on Friday and Johnny Conga on Saturday.

Yoginis Quartet
Fri – Sat Oct 12^th -13th 9:30pm
Crowne Plaza Regatta Grille
1113 6th Ave, Seattle, Washington 98101 - no cover

My birthday party will be held at Jai Thai Restaurant on Friday 26th Oct (courtesy Paula Maya!). Everyone come and play music, or party - whatever! No cover, just do us all a favor and buy some drinks and some of their great Thai Food.

Yogi’s Birthday Party
Friday, Oct 26^th 7:30 – 10:30
Jai Thai Capitol Hill
235 Broadway Ave. East Seattle WA 98103 – no cover
http://www.jaithai.com/broadway.htm

See ya!

Jazz Fusion TV - the Muthaload of prog-jazz vids!

Hello Everyone,

OK, here's the muthaload of prog-jazz videos. I was going to upload a series of them, but as things are going these days, someone else has already thought the whole thing through and designed a cool site that covers the turf even better. Check it out:

Jazz Fusion TV

And they have an audio page if you like listening with no video too (the way we used to do when we were teenagers - remember those days?)

Have hours of fun. You can download the videos too, they are in FLV files (Flash video). If you don't have a player for them already (hint: the default windows media player in xp doesn't read flv files), here's a free one:

http://applian.com/flvplayer/

and here's the always handy You Tube Downloader:

http://www.youtube-d.com/

All free, all legal, no adware, spyware, or viruses.

Have fun!

Ultra-cool music vids

Hi everyone,

I want to depart from my usual plugging of gigs to bring you some of what I think are the coolest prog-jazz vids on YouTube and MySpaceTV. These vids will also give you a good idea of what I was digging during those transformative early teenager years we all experience where we wake up to the wide world around us.

Well, I was living in Berlin, Germany in 1971, age 12, as my dad was stationed there with the US Army. Here's a video of what SOME people were doing in Berlin at the time (namely Joe Zawinul - may he rest in peace! - and Wayne Shorter). After just having left Miles Davis legendary "Bitches Brew" cadre of musicians, they were forming a nascient band that people had not heard of before with a weird name - Weather Report.

This is some very rare, very early stuff from a composition that would be on the very first Weather Report release, self-titled in Europe and titled "Milky Way" in the US. I am surprised to find that even a number of Weather Report Fans don't even know this was their first album.

Anyway, there's a small subset of us that was digging Weather Report long before "Birdland", and we LOVE this early far-out stuff. Zawinul's appoach to the keys and composition are strikingly non-traditional, and a very young Miroslav Vitous and John Surman are also in these sessions. You've gotta stretch to appreciate this stuff, but if you're willing to drop your old ideas about "songs" and other traditional ideas, you will be rewarded with a glimpse into the genius of every one of these players. Sure, Zawinul is the group leader here, but each of these musicians is amazing in their own right. Check it out:

If the video doesn't load, use this link:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6ucVEWbwsWk

Yogi's gigs at Crowne Plaza and Jubilante and a new picture

Hi Everyone,

I have a couple of more gigs coming up in the Yoginis Trio Configuration. These are on the Yoginis Myspace Site, and will shortly be posted on the Yogi's Music World weblog

Sat Sept 15th, 9:30pm
Regatta Bar and Grill
Crowne Plaza Hotel
1113 6th Ave
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 340-1617
no cover

Yoginis Trio: Samba, Bossa, Jazz and exotic grooves for your dining and listening pleasure in the Crowne Plaza’s plush Regatta Bar and Grille. Expect a cool and refreshing lounge experience. Yogi will be with first-call bassist Burt Boice and World Percussionist maestro George Sadak

Jubilante Dinner Club

Tuesdays, 4 and 11 Sept 7pm
305 Burnett Ave S
Renton, WA 98057
(425) 226-1544
no cover

Weekly Dinner set and jam at Jubilante, Renton's hidden gem.
We play the first set, and have guests on the second set. Often trumpeter Harv Leonard joins us and recent guests include David Keys, editor of NW Jazz Profiles magazine, singer Hilary Harris, and others.

Here's a recent promo shot of the full six-piece Yoginis band (photo by Michelle Smith-Lewis):

L to R: Bob Antolin (Flute, Saxes), Yogi (Keys, Composing), Burt Boice (Bass, Composing)

Samia Panni (Vocals, percussion), Ed Mays (drumsets) Johnny Conga (Latin Percussion)

--Yogi's Sites:

The Yoginis band is www.theyoginis.com
MySpace site is www.myspace.com/yoginis
Music newsletter is www.yogismusic.blogspot.com