The 20th Annual Jazz in the Pines - part 3

So check THIS out.

This rather COOL pic 

is a natural choice for me to 

start off my 3rd and final installment on the 

2013 Jazz in the Pines in Idyllwild. The art is by Marcia Gawecki, and there's a cool tie-in interwoven in several ways with this... and her. 

SOOOoooooo.... 

many GREAT acts to catch over 

this 2-day affair! Some are national headliners. 

Some are local favorites. ALL are WELL worth seeing! 

And SOOOOOOooo..... many people came 

TO see... and hear.... and taste... 

and more!

This year I was asked to

introduce Casey Abrams to the stage.

If you DON'T know this guy's name, well,

a quick google search will land you with Gawd

knows HOW many hits. Take a look at that picture above.

The lower-right corner EASILY represents folks there

JUST for him. Anyway - check out his website

for a bio, schedule and more,

but in a nutshell: 

Casey's family moved to
the Idyllwild area when he was quite young,
and he attended his first Summer Arts' Camp
somewhere around the age of 10. He studied under
Marshall Hawkins, and graduated from the
Idyllwild Arts' Academy in 2009, and then
attended college at CU Boulder.

(((Ah! THAT'S it! THAT'S why I like him!)))

Now this is the part
that Casey asked me NOT to
talk about when introducing him on
stage - his involvement with American Idol.
He placed well on the show, and has been on the
program numerous times since. But here's why I 
mention it now. I have to recognize that MANY people 
reading this may only know him FROM American Idol 
(unless you were lucky enough to catch him on 
campus, or maybe on Pearl Street. 

I don't KNOW this mind you - just guessing). 

I don't really blame him for not wanting 
the Idol thing to be some kind of focal point. 
So many past winners were SO pop-oriented...
and didn't really go horribly far. Don't get me
wrong. Some winners (or others who placed at
some level) DO have decent gigs now.

Others have a disc with their name on it
sitting on their shelf.

Casey's line is ANYTHING but bubble gum 
pop.It's SO much more heartfelt.There's a smokey rasp, 
a full voice belt...

...and a continuous drive
on a variety of instruments.
Most of the time accompanied by a friendly
smile - engaging with the audience..

Oh! And speaking of which,
Casey was joined on stage by another
Idyllwild Arts graduate, Jacob Scesney.
I caught Jacob LAST year performing as part
of a small ensemble made up
of Idyllwild grads.

Jacob brought in some wonderful sax work...

...and brought in the clarinet as well.
Not just doubling, mind you, but at one point
playing both instruments simultaneously. Something
you would see from the likes of Rahsaan Roland Kirk.
NICE! And he IS a nice guy too. Jacob soloed
incredibly well, but he didn't JUST solo.
Casey and he played TOGETHER...
SO well.

At one point,
Casey was told of a young girl
who loved loved LOVED one of his songs in
particular, and was asked if he might dedicate it
to her. Instead, he brought her up on stage to SING it.
And sing it she did!

So... 
Maybe you know
Casey's name from Idol...
Maybe not. But DON'T think of him
as some sort of pop performer. He's above that
sort of limitation, really. Think of him as a cool,
laid back Boulder, CO kinda guy who can drive
through a COOL funk and groove - be it on bass
(electric OR stand-up acoustic), cello, recorder.
I know there's more, but this is all I saw
hauled up on stage.

Now...
Back to that cool art we saw at the top of the page.
Casey performed on Sunday. On Saturday I had gone
to see Tim Weisberg, and ended up sitting in the middle
of a very packed house. A woman on the center aisle saw
me and the camera, and offered her seat to me,
explaining she'd only be snapping a shot or
two before leaving.

This allowed me to get some REALLY nice shots. Some nice, CLOSE shots.

And several shots
which showed off the painting in
the background. The woman who had given
up her seat to me was the person who painted
the art hanging behind Tim as he played, and she had a REALLY nice booth at the festival...

...Set up on THIS day

to showcase the Casey Abrams art.

Meet Marci Gawecki. I just KNEW her

artwork looked familiar. I mean, not just

stylistically, but there was something in recent memory.

Turns out it had been hanging when I went recently to

San Jacinto for a Klezmer/Hobo Jazz performance.

I made sure to say hi to Marcia, and promised to

send her copies of the photos which showed

Tim and her work.

She promptly signed and gave me one

of the Casey posters...

...Which I promptly showed

to Casey after his performance. He thanked

me for a cool introduction and signed the poster as

well. I was then QUITE proud to have a COOL lookin'

poster signed by the artist who created it

AND the artist for WHOM

it was created.

Nice!

Not TOO long after,

I really had to make some decisions

regarding a few things I had left in the cabin

after we had checked out. The following

picture sums up my indecision.

I ended up NOT seeing Rob Thorsen,

another person I had interviewed in the

time leading up to the festival. BUT, Rob's a

San Diego player, and I have plenty

of opportunities ahead.

Also ahead,

I just HAVE to re-visit Marcia

and her artwork. I mean... I MEAN.... she's

gonna have her work up and down the streets of

Palm Springs soon - and doesn't even have a website up!

She need to have something!

But for now...

...the evening,

AND this 3rd and final installment...

...Come to a close.

It was another good'n,

shared by my wife, a few friends,

a few thousand other folk,

and myself.

The 20th Annual Jazz in the Pines - part 2

Tim Weisberg. 
You can link to (a SEVERLEY
shortened version of) my conversation with
Tim at www.kvcr.org. Select through tabs near
the upper left - RADIO, then PODCASTS,
then KVC-Arts. 

Took many shots of him,

but compositionally - this has to be my favorite.

We'll come back to this... AND the art

hanging behind it.

Meantime... 
The Ray Goren band.

 

I didn't get to see him last year, and

commented that if I didn't get to see him

for another decade or so, he'd STILL only be 22

at that point. Well, we caught his act this year, and

he IS indeed someone worth seeing. Many of the tunes

were "standards" for a blues performance, but they

were well picked as crowd pleasers,

and he played them with

genuine feeling.
 

 

His is a nice story.

You ask him about how

long he's been playing blues guitar,

and he may very well tell you, "Well, I used

to be a jazz pianist..." USED to be? He made this

statement when he was 10 or 11! Used to be?!?!

He picked up piano EARLY,

but then accidentally stumbled upon a recording

of  BB King, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy and

Albert Collins. Something like this might make ANYONE

want to pick up a guitar. Ray did, and took it on with the ferocity he did with piano. He continues to play at some

of the biggest festivals in the country. Get more of the

story with a click HERE - raygorn.com. And look

at these photos, wouldja? He looks to me a little

like my nephew and a LOT like

a young John Pizzarelli.

What do YOU think?

John...

Ray...

John...

Ray.

And come to think of it...
Ya ever seen 'em in the same room? 
Didn't think so.

But I digress.

With all due respect

to the SO many great performers here,

I must say that one of the acts I was looking

MOST forward to was Tim Weisberg. I got there early, 
but the place was nearly packed. 

Robin Adler
(catch her in the San Diego area)
was there to both make some announcements, 
entertain with a song or two (she'd be performing 
the next day with her own line up)...

...and generally just share in a fun time. 

As Tim was getting ready to start, 
thankfully, a woman told me she was gonna 
just snap a quick shot, then leave, and I was welcome to 
her seat. Center Aisle. Thank you! We struck up a conversation, and it turns out she was the artist 
who provided the banner hanging 
behind Tim during the gig. 

Lots more on her later, especially 
when we start talking about Casey Abrams. 
Okay. Back to Tim. TWO links for him HERE at timweisberg.com or at the Tim Weisberg "Official Site" on Facebook. Link to that HERE. Tim was deep in
the world of Jazz Fusion before the term was even coined. 
His career has 20 plus albums under his belt, and has
played with SO many greats in the jazz world...
and beyond. Dan Fogelberg, anyone?
 

 

Due to their similarity

in appearance (longer hair and beards),

the first album (as a colaboration) was called

Twin Sons of Different Mothers.
 

Their next album together

happened after they had both cut their hair

and beards, and ended up being called

No Reseblance Whatsoever.

Early on, Tim earned the respect,

and encouragement, from none other than

Duke Ellington, who gave Tim a copy of the review

(to give to his parents) from the 1970 Monterey Jazz Festival  (Tim opened - Duke Closed). Tim is SO SO wonderful to see

in person - especially in an intimate setting where he can interact. I know. I said this about Janis Mann as well,

but I think that's usually the case. Stadium venues

kinda suck - if you're wanting ANY kind of

interplay between artist and audience.

These two SHOULD feed off

of each other, and can't so

much in a larger

arena.

At this show, Tim
did some wonderful funk and fusion, a

 couple of ballads, as well as some stuff where he

was purely playing with the acoustics of the room

while accompanying himself through delay effects.

He gave several encores, took time to joke around

with the audience, as well as the folks playing with

him at Idyllwild. And the ENTIRE band is SO

worth a shout out and WELL worth looking

up individually.

David Hughes can be found HERE, 

at swedebass.com (born in Sweden), and

has several albums under his belt. I hope to have an

interview with him soon as well. He plays an

incredible SIX string bass, with all the extra

harmonics, chording, and runs up the the

scale not found (generally) on yer

standard 4-string variety.

On guitar,  Chuck Alvarez.
Chuck is an LA performer who gigs all
over the place with his own band, OR backing
other greats. Get a schedule for HIS dates at http://www.chuckalvarez.com/

The drummer?
One of a couple of subs for that day. Maria Martinez.
I appreciated her sound as WELL as her

CLEAR enjoyment of what she was

doing - AS she was doing it.

Barnaby Finch was going to be on keys that day,
but we got another sub here. Paul? Not sure. A person
worth seeing though. He doubled (atypically) on keyboards
and the occasional trumpet (most doublers tend to be
say - flute/sax, sax/clarinet etc... instruments that
are a BIT more closely related), and was really
COOL with both. Ya watch him while he's
playing though. It's clear he's exploring, 
and having quiet fun WITH it.

One of the other folks

I was able to interview was Rob Thorsen. It was a WONDERFUL conversation, and you can link to it at www.kvcr.org. Select radio, then podcasts, then KVC-Arts. Scroll down JUST a bit for Rob's interview. Due to some
rather pressing business elsewhere, I couldn't stay
through the end of Sunday - when Rob was playing.
Thankfully THANKFULLY... Rob's a San Diego
player - so many opportunities ahead. Go to
 robthorsen.com for a schedule (and more).

You can catch him at LEAST a few nights

a week at some regular locations. DO so!

Now...

back to the Tim Weisberg performance

for a moment. The REALLY cool painting

hanging behind Tim is the work of Marcia Gwecki.

She, and her work hanging there, turned into 
SEVERAL nice happenstances. 

So it looks like this

review (of sorts) of the 20th Jazz in the Pines

that I was going to split into two... is gonna have a

3rd and final installment. Everyone deserves their due,

but I don't want to make this (even more) tedious

for the reader.

So please check back.
Casey Abrams, Some Really cool art
by Marcia Gwecki, and a tie-in back TO the
Tim Weisberg performance and back to Casey. 
That's all on the next installment.

The 20th Annual Jazz in the Pines - part one

Idyllwild - 2013.

I've lived in the area now for

JUST over 8 years, and this only my

third time going to this WONDERFUL

opportunity for those who love music and art.

My first time going was a few years ago.

Mainly to see saxophonist

Tom Scott...

...Though my friend

Sean Longstreet, a wonderful

musician (and teacher!) himself,

was a part of a big band performing

that year also. 

My next

Jazz in the Pines

was only last year - 2012.

One of the headliners was Kenny Burrell. 

I had interviewed

Kenny not long before the festival about his

FIRST SOLO RECORDING IN A FIFTY-PLUS

YEAR CAREER! I aired the interview at KVCR

shortly before the festival and was given the honor

(I feel) of introducing Kenny on stage AT the festival.

I thank Bubba Jackson for

that opportunity, and a MAJOR thank you to

Regina Davis for arranging the interview,

and SO much more.

She gets a big

thank you this year as well.

With her help, I could've had access

to pretty much any and ALL of the artists

for an interview in advance of the 2013 festival.

Unfortunately, at this point my A&E show is only

monthly (soon to change), so only a few

interviews filled my slate.

The interviews I got though?

My GOD they were fun! Ya shoulda

been there. Though you CAN access them

with a click HERE. This'll take you to the website for

KVCR, in the podcast section. You may still have to

select "KVC-Arts" then scroll down to whichever

show you want - the newest on top.

Janis Mann is one of the
interviews you can access via podcast. 
SO glad she opted to come to the studio for this.
We got better audio AND (more importantly) got
to hang out and cut up before recording. Of course the
cutting up continued INTO the interview. 

I mean, I started
by asking her - as a person 
hailing from Long Island - how long 
it took before she stopped using the hard "g" in those
very words... long Gisland. She replied "What makes
you think I've stopped?" It went from there.

One of a few cut-ups 
I did NOT include on the air
was when she starting referring to herself
as "a New York Jew." She said this repeatedly
and eventually asked if I noticed. I told her I did,
"...but as a Presbyterian from Kentucky, I felt funny
pointing it out." She loved this, and had a great time
telling of her times performing with Diane Schuur - occasionally scatting in Yiddish?!?!

OH! Speaking of which,
Diane was ALSO one of the
performers at Jazz in the Pines this year,
and I knew ahead of time that Janis would be
joining her on stage.

Janis ended up spilling the
beans though, so a BUNCH of people went sailing
from Janis' performance, to catch Dianne at another
stage about 25 minutes later. I made SURE to see
Janis perform. And it's a treat to do so. She's
a wit, and MAYyyyyy start to cut up in the
middle of a gig. Actually - you can pretty
much count on it. You can
see it in her eyes.

Go to janismann.com (click HERE) for more.
You HAVE to see Janis live when you can. And
if you can, go to a more intimate venue. One where
the performers and the audience can see each other.
She WILL interact! At this performance, loved 
having Joe Bagg on piano, and it was 
a real treat to see Henry Franklin 
on Bass. Skipper. 

Skipper's an area player who
you can often see performing as part of the Pierce Street
Jazz series at La Sierra University. When you see him,
and please do, take note of his bass. Particularly - that
carved lion's head at the top. Nice! 

The next man I HAVE to mention is Clayton Cameron. 

Clayton was there last year 
leading his own group (The Jass Explosion) 
and I don't know HOW many years beyond. 
This year he led his own group and played with at 
LEAST Janis also. There could've easily been more. 
Clayton's credits include lesser knowns like 
Sammy Davis Jr and Tony Bennett. 

And it goes up from there. 
He always brings great players to the table, 
whether or not it's his name out front. I hope that 
I'll have an interview with him soon. 
We talked about it.

And back for a moment to 
the Diane Schuur performance. 
I noticed her drummer was Tony Moore.
Didn't get to say hello to him, but I had met him
last year, a very humble drummer whose camera was
about to crap out when he wanted a picture
standing next to Billy Childs (one OF those 
players Clayton might bring in).

Okay. More soon.
There was a lot to say,
and this installment has already gone long.
Simple enough to divide it into two. Check back
for word on The Ray Goren Band, Tim Weisberg,
Rob Thorsen, Casey Abrams, some REALLY 
cool art, and more!