2011 treated me pretty well — I finished off my first semester at Columbia, explored the city’s jazz sphere (extensively!), ate too much NYC grub, and miraculously stumbled upon a way to spend my nights at the Village Vanguard. I even got a chance to enjoy a bit of the same party back here in Los Angeles — as I mentioned before, I spent New Year’s Eve at the Blue Whale with Alex Rodriguez (check out his blog, Lubricity), Becca Pulliam, and some other new friends at WBGO for the annual NPR/WBGO Toast of the Nation.

But of course, New York City’s a pretty big place — I’m far from close to seeing everything I’ve been wanting to see since I first found out I’d be taking off to the city. I’ve only been gone for winter break since the 21st of December and I’m already kicking myself for the things that I’m missing — the Brad Mehldau Trio (with Jeff Ballard and Larry Grenadier) at the Vanguard and the NYC Winter JazzFest, among other things. And while I was talking to Tim Lefebvre between sets at the Blue Whale on New Year’s Eve (playing bass for the Billy Childs Quartet during the Toast of the Nation broadcast), I was reminded that while I’ve (still) been getting over my euphoria in the Vanguard coatroom, I’ve overlooked a few key jazz venues — 55 Bar, for one (which Lefebvre mentioned), The Stone, Dizzy’s, and a handful of others. I’m also still yet to venture out into Brooklyn (outside of a few trips to Williamsburg), which is home to the Tea Lounge, the Knitting Factory, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s (BAM) concert venue, and some others as well.

So while I’m packing up my suitcase to head back to my little dorm room in the city, here are some things that I’m looking forward to once I get back, featuring artists/venues that I haven’t yet visited (or haven’t visited enough). Here’s to a 2012 of new adventures.

1. Geri Allen, Esperanza Spalding, and Terri Lyne Carrington at the Village Vanguard. January 10-15th. (Purchase your tickets here.)

2. Aaron Parks Quintet (with Dayna Stephens, Pete Rende, Thomas Morgan, and Nate Smith) at The Jazz Gallery. January 21-22nd. (Check it out here.)

3. Le Boeuf Brothers at the Tea Lounge. January 26th. (Check it out here.)

4. Ryuichi Sakamoto with various artists, including John Zorn, Mayo Yamaguchi, Aya Nishina, and Taylor Deupree at The Stone. April 24-29th. (Check it out here.)

See you back in New York!

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Think of One/Pilc Moutin Hoenig/Threedom

Tonight I’ll be ringing in the new year at the Blue Whale with Alex Rodriguez and some new friends at WBGO for the annual Toast of the Nation. Starting at 8pm E.S.T, you’ll be able to check out some pretty incredible jazz nationwide — starting in Boston with the Julian Lage trio at Berklee and making its way back here to my home in Los Angeles with the Billy Childs Quartet at the Blue Whale. For the full lineup, which includes Wynton Marsalis and Diane Reeves among many others, head on over here: wbgo.org/toast. We’ll have a live chat running there as well, so come stop by and say hello!

As I might have mentioned before, the Blue Whale’s remained my favorite place to go check out jazz in Los Angeles – although it’s relatively hidden away in Little Tokyo, its entire structure is devoted to and directed towards the music that’s happening on stage. (If you can even call it a stage, really — owner Joon Lee has box-shaped ottoman chairs set up in place of a more typical alternative to lessen the divide between the audience and the performers.) For the last year or two, the Blue Whale’s hosted everyone/everything from the Billy Childs Quartet that you’ll hear tonight to the late-night jam sessions that have many a night been populated by younger jazz students from nearby arts schools, high schools, CalArts, UCLA, and otherwise. So kudos to the Blue Whale for keeping an interest in modern jazz alive that’s otherwise pretty much missing from the Los Angeles jazz scene.

That aside, be sure to tune in to the Toast of the Nation tonight at 8 pm E.S.T. If you’d like to catch the Billy Childs Quartet at the Blue Whale, our segment will be starting at 11 pm P.S.T.

Thanks for all of your support this year — see you in 2012!

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Arrows & Loops/Ari Hoenig/Lines of Oppression

There’s a few revelations I’ve had working behind the coat check desk at the Village Vanguard during the Christian McBride & The Inside Straight series this past week.

First off, for lack of better vocabulary, I’ve got the coolest job in the world. In exchange for the simple task of taking the coats and bags of the incoming patrons at the Vanguard and encountering an unusual character or two (case in point), I get to spend the rest of the night watching today’s jazz figureheads play shows that only a few months ago I dreamed over on my computer. I get to see how the dynamics of the band and their show evolve over the course of a few days — how do they treat the music? How do they treat each other? How do they treat the audience? And how do they treat me, a random college kid hanging out with a bunch of coats?

I also get an interesting perspective on who comes to visit. The Vanguard — or any other jazz club, for that matter — is not a place I’d be on weekdays unless I had a particularly pressing reason. (For instance, ?uestlove played the Blue Note last week – somewhere between writing this and several other term papers, I wish I could have been there.) But now that I’ve got this justification, I get to hang out with the audience that makes the effort to go out and see jazz on early weekdays — so far, it’s been a pretty interesting group of people.

So here we go. I never imagined myself to be in this kind of position so soon, seeing musicians like Christian McBride three days in a row as a part of my job description. This post will be the first of a series detailing my experiences behind the coat checking counter — the atmosphere, the personalities, the audience, and the musicians that make up the nights of this legendary jazz club. Note that these won’t necessarily be reviews — they’re simply my thoughts from the coatroom.

McBride’s the musician that I wish I was introduced to at my first jazz show. (On a side note, this role was unfortunately filled by Boney James.) He epitomizes the ideal modern jazz performer — which, of course, doesn’t mean I think he’s the only musician fit to fill this role. But with the recent debate and dialogue over Nicholas Payton’s frustration with calling this music “jazz” in mind (he proposes “Black American Music” as an alternative; you can read his thoughts at his blog here and his Twitter feed here), McBride gave me some much-needed peace of mind.

The group, Inside Straight, consisted of drummer Carl Allen, saxophonist Steve Wilson, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, and young pianist, Christian Sands. Playing tunes from Kind of Brown and elsewhere, the band maintained a warm, familial vibe on and off stage. McBride managed to pass this feeling on to the audience every night I was there — unshaken by the mass of listeners before him (and clearly seasoned by hundreds of concerts before this), McBride kept the Vanguard in laughter, poking fun at his bandmates and comically playing lines like these:

But perhaps the greatest thing to watch was McBride’s constant praise around Sands, 22, bright-eyed, youthful, and ridiculously talented, a clear indication — to me, at least — of McBride’s investment in a part of jazz’s future.

For next time I’ll be skipping ahead to the Cedar Walton trio that’s opening tonight at the Vanguard — he’ll be joined by David Williams on the bass and Willie Jones III on drums through the 18th and then additionally joined by saxophonist Vincent Herring until the 25th. Hope to see you there!

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Beginners Falafel/Flying Lotus/Los Angeles

In between finals, essays, and working coat check at the Village Vanguard, I got this in my email the other night. I guess I’m doing something right.

Stay tuned for some reflections on the Christian McBride & Inside Straight show from last week, and the Jenny Scheinman/Bill Frisell/Brian Blade show going on until Sunday. And as always, stop by the Village Vanguard and say hello.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Midbar/Masada/Sanhedrin

It’s been quite a while since I last posted, and it’s been quite the adventure since then. I’m now writing from my temporary (and perhaps, future) home in New York City at Columbia University — a city that constantly reminds me how drastically far away I am from my home in Los Angeles. But this, of course, isn’t bad news at all — in fact, in the brief and tumultuous three months that I’ve been here, I’ve been to over a dozen jazz shows, interned at the jazz station of Columbia’s WKCR, met WBGO’s Josh Jackson, among many other experiences. I’ve also started a coat checking job at the Village Vanguard, the legendary jazz club in Greenwich Village, which I like to imagine parallels Charlie Parker’s dishwashing job at Jimmie’s Chicken Shack in the 1940s — in exchange for taking your coats at the Vanguard I get an even greater exposure to the ongoings and inner workings of the jazz scene in New York City, the experienced musicians and the emerging ones, the eclectic personalities that make up this small yet thriving world.

Perhaps the greatest and most exciting shift in my life since I’ve moved to the city is this readily available jazz scene, which has resulted in a spike of jazz shows I’ve attended in a short and concentrated amount of time (as well as a lighter wallet, but oh well). What took me often weeks of preparation and evaluation back in Los Angeles (where on earth would I have to go? how far would I have to drive? who would come with me? was it all-ages? was it even worth it?) takes me less than an hour here. Despite the fact that I’ve been here for a substantial amount of time, I’m still fascinated with my ability to purchase tickets and arrive at a venue in a time span that rarely exceeds thirty minutes — providing the once impossible opportunity to attend a concert out of spontaneity.

I also got a clear answer to the question I often pestered artists with back in LA — how much of a contrast was it to the jazz scene in New York? It’s a topic that I’ll have to explain in greater detail in a later post, but for starters, here’s a bit of what I’ve been exposed to so far in the city:

September 10: Robert Glasper (with Alan Hampton, Mark Colenburg) at the Jazz Standard

September 24: Greg Hutchinson (with Joe Sanders, Ron Blake) at Smalls

October 6: Fabian Almazan (with Linda Oh, Henry Cole, Meg Okura, Megan Gould, Karen Waltuch, Noah Hoffeld) at The Village Vanguard

October 7: Taylor Eigsti (with Dayna Stephens, Zach Ostroff) and Tigran Hamasyan (with Nate Wood, Sam Minaie) at Le Poisson Rouge

October 28: Lionel Loueke & Mark Giuliana (with Gretchen Parlato) at The Jazz Gallery

November 2: Lionel Loueke (with Ferenc Nemeth, Massimo Biolcati) at The Miller Theatre

November 19: Renee Rosnes (with Steve Nelson, Peter Washington, Lewis Nash) at The Miller Theatre

November 30-Dec 2: Christian McBride and Inside Straight (with Christian Sands, Carl Allen, Steven Wilson, Warren Wolf) at The Village Vanguard

Major differences? It lies mostly in what makes up the atmosphere of these shows — a fairly younger generation of artists combined with some established jazz greats that draw in more young audience members than usual, the small and intimate jazz clubs and their proximity of these clubs to some major jazz schools (The New School, Manhattan School of Music, etc.). The presence of this modern jazz vibe is so prominent to the point that I was greatly surprised at the massively octogenarian audience at the last two concerts I’ve been to at a much larger venue — something I must have gotten accustomed to at home.

On the other hand, it’s easy to get sucked into an imaginary world where everyone loves and appreciates today’s jazz — where Tigran Hamasyan and Gerald Clayton are names that are thrown around in casual discussion and a 4 am subway ride back from the Lennox Lounge lugging a friend’s drumset is an ordinary Saturday night. My assessment of the jazz world depends on who and what I’m surrounded by — in a dorm at The New School, it’s thriving like nothing else; to the woman next to me in TJ Maxx humming along to Kenny G’s Miracles over discounted pillowcases, it doesn’t exist.

But imaginary or legitimate, thriving or diminishing, ideal or not, one thing’s for sure — New York houses an incredible jazz scene.

I’m more than thrilled to be here.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Brother Mister/Christian McBride/Kind of Brown

After four very busy weeks at the California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA) music program, I’m now at home on my laptop trying to catch up with all of the music that was shared with me over the course of this past month. Though I was exposed to a wide variety of music from every teacher I worked with, perhaps the most eclectic variety of music came from Oberlin student (Or graduate? Not completely sure.) and New York City-based composer/producer Alex Overington. While we sat on comfy bean bag chairs in the dimly-lit Sound Lab, Alex clicked through Powerpoint slides and Youtube videos, sharing with us everything from Luigi Russolo to Jaga Jazzist. Here’s just a bit of it:

1. Miguel Atwood Ferguson feat. Flying Lotus/“Drips/Take Notice”

2. Fieldwork (Vijay Iyer, Steve Lehman, Eliot Humberto Kavee)/“Headlong”

3. Colin Stetson

4. Dirty Projectors feat. Bjork/“When The World Comes to an End”

5. Battles/“Atlas”

6. Little Dragon/“Constant Surprises”

Thanks to Alex Overington and the rest of the CSSSA music staff for a wonderful summer!

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Town Business/Das Racist/Sit Down, Man

Before I head to bed here at CSSSA @ CalArts, here’s something that you should check out tomorrow night (Wednesday, July 20th) if you have the chance- the John Daversa Big Band’s CD release party at Catalina’s Jazz Bar & Grill celebrating the band’s first studio album. The party starts at 8 pm and it’s a great chance to pick up the new CD and check out some great music. You can buy tickets by clicking here. (Tickets are $20, and $10 for students with a valid ID.)

If you can’t head out tomorrow, be sure to check out the new album on iTunes and elsewhere. You’ll be hearing more about it and John Daversa tomorrow — it’s an eclectic mix, featuring everything from Daversa’s soulful trumpet melodies to badass spoken word artist-slash-saxophonist Katisse Buckingham.

I’m also into my second week here on the CalArts campus for the California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA) — and I already have much to share with you! But until then, good night.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: 1983/Flying Lotus/1983

Last weekend I had the pleasure of checking out a preview show of Twist: An American Musical thanks to the folks spreading the word about this fantastic new production at the Pasadena Playhouse. The show begins on the 26th of this month (which is tomorrow!), and I’ll save my words about the production until after it starts. However, I will tell you that the play was an incredible experience — a very clever take on Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist in the context of New Orleans (Mardi Gras? Jazz? It’s all there.), and I encourage you to check it out.

In fact, The Jazz Post is teaming up with Twist to offer you the opportunity to score two free tickets to the production! There’s several ways you can enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post (and/or on any other post that talks about Twist) below.

2. Follow me & send me a shoutout on Twitter @thejazzpost.

3. Shoot me an email via the contact form or directly at rachelc @ thejazzpost.com.

Keep in mind that a combination of two (or three!) of these count as bonus entries — the more times you enter, the better chance to have to see this incredible show. So type away, and good luck! The contest will be running for approximately a week.

For more information on Twist at the Pasadena Playhouse, visit www.twistanamericanmusical.com.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Moose the Mooche/Joe Lovano Us Five/Bird Songs

Over the course of Memorial Day Weekend — which, if you’re keeping track, was the next three days of my five-day jazz extravaganza — I spent my nights at my favorite little jazz venue in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles for the LA Jazz Collective’s Memorial Day Weekend Festival. The first night opened with an exciting set of three very different bands — (1) the Brian Carmody quartet, featuring Nick Mancini on the vibes plus guitarist Ben Cassorla and bassist Ryan McGillicuddy, (2) the Daniel Rosenboom Septet, including pianist Rory Cowal, bassist Hamilton Price, drummer Matt Mayhall, alto player Gavin Templeton, tenor/flute/etc. player Jon Armstrong, and bass clarinet/bari/etc. player Brian Walsh, and (3) Brian Swartz and the Swartzestra big band. Thursday’s set list was perhaps the most diverse of the three nights, combining the out-of-the-box Daniel Rosenboom Septet — heavily populated by CalArts alum —  with the more traditional-west-coast Swartzestra in the same night.

In the next few days you’ll be learning more about the LA Jazz Collective and the great efforts they’ve made for Los Angeles jazz musicians and Los Angeles jazz enthusiasts alike — and you’ll be hearing some words from co-founders Gary Fukushima and Matt Otto as well.

But first, I’d like to introduce you to the leader of that out-of-the-box group that I just mentioned earlier — Daniel Rosenboom, a trumpeter whose unique voice on the trumpet and in his music is just as clear as his ability to effortlessly and intelligently communicate his passion for all the forms of music that he’s combined in his own.

Tell us about your beginnings with jazz.

I come from a pretty musically involved family – my dad has been a major figure on the avant garde circuit for a long time. When I was a little kid, we used to go over to Anthony Braxton’s house and I would play with his kids while my dad and him jammed – so one of my first musical memories was watching the two of them play. I’ve always been exposed to that kind of stuff.

My first trumpet teacher was Wadada Leo Smith, and that was pretty amazing and different. I eventually got into more classical studies – I went to school at Eastman for classical trumpet. By the time I was a senior, however, I was kind of bored – but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. So I began working on being a soloist of contemporary music. In the process of doing that, I started to write music. I was interested in writing music that was more like what I wanted to listen to – and I realized that most of what I listened to included rock, metal, jazz, and hip hop – but not very much classical music.

I started writing stuff that combined my classical influences with what I liked to listen to – and I ended up writing a piece for a trumpet, electric guitar, electric bass, and drums – a sort of Bartok meets Meshuggah. When I got to CalArts, I started looking for a band to play in. I got introduced to this guitar player named Jake Vossler, but we had a hard time finding a bassist and a drummer because it was difficult stuff to play.

He eventually invited me to play in a trio that he had that does Eastern-European gypsy music mixed with metal and jazz. We’re now a band called Plotz and we’ve been around for six years. It’s super high-energy high-intensity stuff, but that’s how I started improvising – I found myself in this band playing super burning music in strange modes and in odd meters all the time. So that’s how I started to improvise, which is a total trip in itself.

Through my own writing, playing with guys like Vinny Golia, playing with this band Plotz, and finding myself being asked to play in other projects – I started getting called to play in salsa gigs, big bands. It happened very naturally – it wasn’t even something that I really specifically sought out. It just developed. My interest has always been in the fringe – in pushing the boundaries of what a “style” is. The whole thing for me is that I didn’t grow up allied to one style – I was into everything, which is a pretty common thing now. To be rigid about what a “style” should be is an antiquated view. To me, the spirit of jazz has always been about exploration and finding an individual voice. I don’t think that needs to be limited stylistically anymore – that’s what my interest is in, to explore different territories. There are and there always will be guys who can play bebop, guys that can play Latin better than me – there are guys that can do that. But my thing is finding my own voice, finding what I have to say that’s independent of any sort of stylistic allegiance.

Tell us about your experiences as a musician with the Los Angeles jazz scene.

The interesting thing to me is that for a very long time I didn’t get called by more established guys in the jazz scene because I didn’t play like a jazz trumpet player. And now I get called because I don’t play like a jazz trumpet player.

I’ve been around long enough doing my own thing aggressively enough and consistently enough that people know me as having a different take on things – a different voice. If they want me in their projects, it’s because they want that – not because they want a stock trumpet situation.

As far as the jazz scene in LA goes, there’s a really interesting dichotomy between what people think of the jazz scene from other places in the country and the world versus what is actually going on here. You’ll talk to guys from places like New York and they’ll use this term: “LA Happy Jazz.” That’s the sort of view that they’ll have, as if all the jazz that’s going on here is this functional, commercial kind of jazz — restaurant jazz. There is a lot of that. But there’s just as viable of a creative and artistic scene. Especially with my generation, there’s a whole circuit of people that want to bring this kind of edge and grittiness and exploratory mindset to jazz in LA.

The thing that a lot of people outside of LA don’t really understand – and even a lot of people in LA don’t understand – is that there’s this really gritty, cool underground jazz scene of these guys who are doing it themselves, doing it in a really different way with a lot of edge and a lot of commitment to being unique and different.

What kind of advice do you have for the young and aspiring jazz musician?

Don’t limit yourself to one thing. Obviously if you’re an instrumentalist you have to spend a lot of time honing your skills on your instrument, and there is a specific way to do that. But musically and artistically you need to maintain as open a mindset as possible so that when you listen to music, you don’t listen to it with a set of preconceptions. Even if you’re going to go see a Beethoven symphony – go see it with this mindset of freshness and try to experience it as if you’re experiencing it for the first time. That’s true for every kind of music – because then what you find is that you get in a situation that challenges you. It may freak you out at first. It may be scary or threatening in some way. But if you can maintain an open mindset about it, you might be moved to the core by it – and it might change your entire life.

The reality is, our culture is changing rapidly in terms of how we relate to art and music – especially regarding to things like commercial liability, or even working as a musician in the scene. I still make the majority of my money playing classical gigs. But I still play some form of improvised music five or six nights a week.

You have to be ready, willing, and excited to play every kind of style you can imagine – and you have to keep an openness about all of it. That’s what makes for a real adventure.

Thank you to Daniel Rosenboom for the music and the words. You can learn more about Daniel at his website, www.danielrosenboom.com.

Also, a great big thank you to  Gary Fukushima and the LA Jazz Collective for supporting The Jazz Post at this event. Be sure to check out some footage of the festival at the LA Jazz Collective’s USTREAM channel HERE.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Espionage/The Daniel Rosenboom Septet/Fallen Angeles

…I’ve been having a pretty sweet weekend. And I want to share as much of it with you as I can. That being said, I’ve also jumped straight out of my graduation ceremony into some past-midnight jazz clubs — and I’ll be doing this every day until Sunday night with the Daversa band. So until I sit down, collect my thoughts, and let you guys know how incredible this weekend truly has been once this lovely five-day jazz adventure reaches its end, here’s a glimpse of what I’ve been doing for the last two days.

If you can’t make it out to the Blue Whale this weekend, be sure to check out the festival’s live webcast at www.ustream.tv/channel/los-angeles-jazz-collective.

Also, a happy belated birthday to Miles Davis.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Milestones/Miles Davis/Milestones