Greetings Fellow Citizens of Sound! We transform from a week of Bop Moderno to a week of working on the Road Work Ahead. It’s the ultimate opportunity in a life filled with revolving creative moments, each asking different questions, each responding to fresh answers. And all along with these cosmic observations emerges the sobering truth that the gas tank still demands continual petrol updates. Get all new age on me but you still have to factor in the power of the Benjamins.Last week’s Bop Moderno hit at the Museum of Making Music came off beautifully. Big time audience turn out and the band, coming off three prior concerts, sounded the best it’s ever sounded. The tricky obstacle course tunes started to become user friendly and we even strayed from the paper and forged some new sonic frontiers. We plan to play some more shows with the group in June. Here’s a great review of the concert from writer Robert Bush from the SD Reader.
 Bopping at MOMM with Peter, Gilbert Castellanos, and Duncan Moore. Yesterday at SpragueLand we rallied the musos of Road Work Ahead to dig into the song list and ready the sails to prepare for this week’s concerts in Southern California. The group is NYC pianist Bill Mays along with Bob Magnusson on bass, Jim Plank on drums and me on guitar. Our SBE Records CD Intersection is out in the world making its way into the ears of jazz lovers. We got our band name as both a reminder of where we want to be (playing jazz on the road), and also with the hope of lassoing an endorsement deal with the California Department of Transportation. We’d like to be their poster people of what jazz and freeway repairs sound like. We’d like to see bebop and jackhammers coexist peacefully on the 805 / 5 merge. Someday it’ll happen! And that someday might be tomorrow when our band brings the unique sound of gridlock to The Merc in Temecula. The concert in La Jolla on Thursday is sold out so if you want to hear us on this run, your 2 choices are the Merc on Wednesday night or Saturday night in L.A. at Vitello’s. Look to the gig details and we hope to see you out there!  Rehearsing at SpragueLand with Road Work Ahead. Left to right: Jim Plank, Peter, Bob Magnusson, and Bill Mays. On this Friday night I’m doing a special concert at Mira Costa College teaming up with Matt Falker and his vocal ensemble. Matt’s a fantastic vocalist and leads both a small 5 piece vocal group along with a larger 20 person group. Our theme is the music of Pat Metheny and we’ve taken some of his classic songs and arranged them for rhythm section and vocals. Leonard, Gunnar and Duncan are rounding out the group and it looks to be an exciting night of music. Think “First Circle” with Pedro Aznar’s incredible vocal line expanded to 20 singers all belting it out in harmony. Big fun!  Pat Metheny There it is good people and see you out there in realtime! best, Peter |
“Travels” While I’m thinking about Pat Metheny this week I’m drawn to one of my favorite songs of his called “Travels.” On this tune Pat transports us directly to Lee’s Summit, Missouri for an aural ride where country music and jazz come together harmoniously. The tune’s simple pentatonic melody takes us to the wide open space of endless horizons, to a life being lived at a slower tempo and to a calm that we city folks seem to skip over. I love this tune! Pat recorded it on his album called Travels and I recorded my version on Taking it All In. Check it out here and see where it takes you.…