Resolutions!

Now that winter break’s on its last legs, it’s time to look forward to a fresh new semester and a fresh new year. Here are some of my resolutions for 2010:

1. Read.

After setting down The Great Gatsby today, I realized that I haven’t picked up many jazz biographies since I started getting involved with jazz in my freshman year. Luckily, the same neighbor who’s been feeding me jazz albums every time I visit also let me borrow his copy of Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings — a biography written by Peter Pettinger chronicling the ups and downs of Bill Evans’ life and career.

I have to admit that I’m a tad bit reluctant to read it. Granted, learning more about Bill Evans won’t change how fantastic his music is — but I remember when I first watched Ray, a film detailing the life of jazz musician Ray Charles, I couldn’t listen to anything by Ray Charles for weeks. Yes, it’s a commonly accepted fact that movies like these often stretch the truth, but it didn’t really matter — my romanticized Ray Charles was gone forever. On the other hand, I don’t really have a romanticized Bill Evans — every time my neighbor hands me anything by Bill Evans it’s always accompanied by a somber expression and a “Man, this guy had a tough life.”

And of course, the book I’ve been itching to read: Cicily Janus’ The New Face of Jazz. I don’t know whether this excitement stems from the fact that Gordon Goodwin’s going to appear in it or the fact that I’ve been following Cicily Janus on Twitter since I first started The Jazz Post (there’s something strange about Twitter that makes jazz folks seem more accessible/three-dimensional, haha). It’s not going to be available until July 13th, but it’s available for pre-ordering here.

2. Listen.

I constantly tell myself that I don’t take advantage of the opportunities I have to listen to great jazz around here in Los Angeles — I do live right next to CalArts, which always hosts free/almost-free concerts. The only one of these I attended involved electric instruments and speakers pointed at each other to produce a painfully awesome “feedback” sound — needless to say, I was left deprived of my sense of hearing for several days. (Maybe this is why I haven’t gone back for a while.)

Anyhow, I did get a chance to listen to some life jazz a week or so ago while I was up in San Francisco at the Les Joulins Jazz Bistro. It was one of those great moments where I was looking around for a place to eat and I heard the lovely sounds of a jazz quartet emanating from this restaurant — it’s one of the nicest things to stumble upon.

That night we listened to the Charles Unger Quartet — their Latvian pianist (Eugene Pliner) even gave me some tips during their break.

3. Get Involved/Branch Out…Play!

Outside from the CAP program and my high school jazz band, I haven’t reached out to many other jazz programs. But I’ve already started to look for more — this coming January 17th I’ll be auditioning for the All-Southern California Jazz Band. Wish me luck!

Also, the composition class I took through the CAP program helped me out with the music theory aspect of jazz improvisation — although I can’t say for sure that improvisation makes complete sense to me yet, it’s definitely a lot less confusing. And I even got a bit of a piece done in the class. Here’s that piece — along with the CAP jazz class performance. As I’m sure you can tell, they’re both fantastic classes.

I’m also looking forward to telling you about our combo program at West Ranch High School very soon. :)

Have a fabulous new year!

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Galang (Trio Riot Version)/Vijay Iyer Trio/Historicity