SECRETS FROM THE JAZZ GHETTO

The Jazz Shmammys - who cares?

2012-02-06T07:47:00.000-08:00

OK, pardon me if I vent a little. With the new awards structure created by the Grammy Organization, they have cut back the Jazz category from 6 to 4 awards.

One of them, “Best Improvised Jazz Solo”, has always been a bit of a joke. How can one solo a year by a jazz artist top all others? And how many of the Grammy members seek out the recordings and then seek out the solos in question to actually judge which is best? Luckily, Herbie Hancock did not release an album this year, so someone else has a shot at this category.

The one good thing they did was remove the “Best Contemporary Jazz Album” category, merging it with the “Best Jazz Instrumental Album” category. Now that “Smooth Jazz” is officially dead, who can draw the line between “jazz” and “contemporary jazz”? Of course now The Yellowjackets compete against Sonny Rollins, but hey, why not? At least they have moved Dave Koz to the "Best Pop Instrumental Album" category.

More Good news: of the 21 albums nominated, 16 are from independent labels (unless we consider Concord Records a major label – they have 5 nominations). And now, with the help of Spotify (and little or no help from the Grammy Organization) we can actually listen to all the artists before we vote for a $5.00 monthly fee. I guess we will see on Feb. 12 if any new names surface amongst the winners, or if the Jazz Grammys continue to be a popularity contest amongst established artists.

Mahler-Palooza

2012-01-22T11:58:00.000-08:00

Some say Mahler is an acquired taste
but I took to his music immediately
when I was introduced to it.

Although he wrote in a Post-Romantic style, in many ways he was the first truly 20th Century composer.

A few words used to describe Mahler in Harold Schonberg's "The Lives of the Great Composers":
eternal questing
seeking and searching
inability to come to terms with society
guilt complex
doubt and anxieties
an "obsessive neurotic"
a psychic weakling
a sentimentalist
austere
despotic
querulous
arrogant
a "manic depressive"

In other words, the first 20th Century Schizoid Man.

"Only when I experience do I compose -
only when I compose do I experience."
- Gustav Mahler
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, under the direction of their 30-year old conductor Gustavo Dudamel, is performing "The Mahler Project", all 9 symphonies (plus the Adagio from the 10th) in a three-week time span.

I, of course, have to go.
I will bask in 7 symphonies in the course of the next 14 days, including the rarely performed Symphony #8 which asks for an orchestra and chorus of 1000 performers.

Over the years this overwhelming amount of music
has spoken to my heart
led me into marriage
and charted points in my mental joy and anguish.

Mahler died at the age of 51 in 1911.
His last completed score (Symphony #10: Adagio) was completed in 1910.
His music, and his life, bridges the Millennium.
Two years later, Schoenberg performed "Pierrot Lunaire".
Three years later, Stravinsky performed "The Rite of Spring".
Mahler's symphonies certainly led the way, consciously or unconsciously, for these composers.

Mahler was a crazy diamond.
I look forward to spending time studying the facets,
watching them shine.

Just a reminder - The Jazz&Blues Revue at Vitello's Jan 25

2012-01-17T06:53:00.000-08:00

Kick off the New Year right with great live jazz. Jazz Pianist, George Kahn returns to VITELLO’S JAZZ CLUB with The Jazz & Blues Revue on Wednesday evening, January 25.
The Jazz & Blues Revue will feature George Kahn as musical director with an all-star band of LA studio musicians. Special guests include: vocalists Courtney Lemmon, Gina Saputo and Dianne Wright, with Larry Klimas on sax, John Fumo on trumpet, Lyman Medeiros on bass, and M. B. Gordy on drums.
The Jazz & Blues Revue has been described as “a journey through blues and jazz, from New York to Los Angeles, from the Andrew Sisters to the Pointer Sisters; Music at the intersection of Jump Street and Boogaloo Avenue”.

Tickets for the show are $15, plus minimum
Seating is limited, so please call for reservations

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 25
SHOWS AT 8:00 AND 9:30 PM
DOORS OPEN AT 7:00 pm FOR DINNER
Vitello’s Restaurant (818) 769-0905
http://www.vitellosrestaurant.com/

4349 Tujunga Ave., Studio City, CA 91604

http://jazzandbluesrevue.com
--

Happy Holidays From George Kahn

2011-12-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays! Please enjoy this video of my conducting debut with the Santa Monica High School Symphony, playing "Sleigh Ride" by Leroy Anderson

Two days to go until the Holiday Jazz PArty 12/14

2011-12-12T07:31:00.000-08:00

I hope you can join me - there are still some tickets left if you call the club
Click here for more info

Join me at the Holiday Party of the Season December 14

2011-11-21T07:30:00.000-08:00

Once a year I put on this special Jazz Holiday Party to raise money for the homeless in Los Angeles. We have so much compared to others, and it is time to share a little with those less fortunate.
PATH Ventures is building housing for the previously homeless in Los Angeles. We get together and play great jazz and blues. No long speeches. Just a night of great music at the Premiere Jazz Club in Hollywood, CA, The Catalina Jazz Club (see below for more details!)
This year I could really use your help.
- come out for the show! Tickets start at $25. (see details below)
- spread the word by forwarding this announcement to others that might enjoy the evening!
- think about having your corporation sponsor a table at the event by calling Elisabeth Walker at 323-644-2209
- post a flyer at your office (I have real pretty ones I can mail to you, if you want – just let me know)
- if you can’t make the show, please consider making a donation to PATH Ventures by calling Elisabeth Walker at 323-644-2209

SIXTH ANNUAL HOLIDAY JAZZ AND BLUES REVUE - DECEMBER 14

2011-11-12T09:49:00.000-08:00

Let the holiday season begin…with an evening of great Jazz that’s also a benefit for the Los Angeles homeless community. For the 6th consecutive year, Jazz Pianist George Kahn returns to the CATALINA JAZZ CLUB with The PATH Ventures Holiday Jazz Revue on Wednesday evening, December 14th .

The PATH Ventures Holiday Jazz Revue will feature George Kahn on piano with an all-star band of LA studio musicians. Special guests include: vocalists Courtney Lemmon, Gina Saputo and Dianne Wright, with Larry Klimas on sax, Mik Fortunato on trumpet, Ira Ingber on guitar, Lyman Madieros on bass, and Evan Stone on drums, plus special guests.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 14TH, 2011

DINNER @ 7:00 PM + SHOW STARTS AT 8:30 PM

Catalina Bar and Grill

6725 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA (one block east of Highland; park on N. McCadden Place)

George Kahn’s “Jazz and Blues Revue” has been described as “a journey through blues and jazz, from New York to Los Angeles, from the Andrew Sisters to the Pointer Sisters; Music at the intersection of Jump Street and Boogaloo Avenue”.

Path Ventures, a community development corporation created by PATH in 2005, focuses on the construction of quality affordable housing for individuals and families in the Los Angeles area.

Dinner/show tickets are $75 per person in advance.

To RSVP, Call: Elisabeth Walker at 323-644-2209

Tickets for the show only are $25 each at the door.
contact the Catalina Bar and Grill to RSVP for the show only
CATALINA JAZZ CLUB

George Kahn To Be Featured Guest Artist At The Catalina Jazz Club 25th Anniversary Concert Monday Evening, October 17

2011-09-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

On Monday evening, October 17, the Catalina Jazz Club will host their 25th Anniversary Bash, benefiting the California Jazz Foundation. The evening will be under the musical direction of Grammy-nominated jazz artist John Beasley, and will feature Jazz pianist, George Kahn and his group.

The event will be an all-star evening of Jazz,
featuring a long list of renowned players
that have performed at the
Catalina Jazz Club over the years.
Doors open at 7 PM and music begins at 8 PM.

George Kahn has a long history of performing at Catalina, beginning in 1998. Catalina Bar & Grill has certainly lived up to its slogan "Nothing But The Best In Jazz" by presenting a veritable ‘Who's Who’ of Jazz legends. The tentative list of performers for the 25th Anniversary bash include (in alphabetical order) John Beasley, David Benoit, Brian Bromberg, Stanley Clarke, Ndugo Chancler, Peter Erskine, George Kahn, Lainie Kazan, Mike Lange, Hubert Laws, Barbara Morrison, Lee Ritenour, Tierney Sutton, and members of The Yellow Jackets.

The California Jazz Foundation will be the beneficiary of all proceeds from the door at this event as well as a silent auction filled with wonderful items. The Foundation is a charitable, nonprofit organization created to aid and assist California Jazz musicians with financial or medical crisis. Established in 2006, The Foundation was formed to fulfill an unmet critical need to help these talented artists who have given us so much pleasure over the years –
Suggested minimum donation for this event is $25, and the proceeds go to The California Jazz Foundation .

Catalina Jazz Club is located at 6725 West Sunset Blvd.
Hollywood California 90028
Phone: (323) 466-2210 for reservations
(One block EAST of Highland Ave.)

info@californiajazzfoundation.org

Japan Relief Concert - Walt Disney Concert Hall Father’s Day, June 19th, 2011 at 7:00pm

2011-06-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

There is a wonderful concert taking place this Sunday (Father’s Day) June 19th:
Guido Lamell, a member of the LA Phil, has organized a benefit concert for Japan Relief at Disney Hall with a performance of Beethoven’s 9th. The orchestra and choir will consist of many of the best musicians in Los Angeles. As a special treat, my wife Diana Zaslove Kahn will be in the choir, and my son, Evan Kahn will be playing cello in the orchestra!
When you are done with your Father’s Day BBQ, please come join us downtown at Disney Hall. Tickets are available from TicketMaster, or at the Disney Hall Box Office (and yes, you will be able to buy tickets the night of the performance at the door)

Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall Father’s Day, June 19th, 2011 at 7:00pm
Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Chorale Finale Sing-Along
Performed by the
L.A. Musicians Symphony and Chorus
Music Director and Conductor
Guido Lamell

featuring musicians from Los Angeles’ finest orchestras and choirs including: L.A. Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, LA Master Chorale, Los Robles Master Chorale, Pasadena Symphony, New West Symphony, USC, UCLA, Colburn School, Santa Monica High School and more.
Event and ticket information
www.Beethoven9forJapan.org

Ticket proceeds are tax deductible in part and will be distributed for the benefit of Japan Earthquake Relief and Rebuilding efforts through the
U.S. Japan Council Earthquake Relief Fund
Tickets: $30 - $140 available through Disney Hall Box Office (in person) and Ticketmaster (online and phone)

Many Musical Events

2011-05-10T06:27:00.000-07:00

Please join me for some or all of these wonderful musical events:

1. The George Kahn Quintet, featuring George Kahn on piano, returns to the Culver Club in Culver City for an exciting night of West Coast Jazz on Friday, May 20th, 2011. The evening will feature music from George’s most recent highly regarded album, Secrets From The Jazz Ghetto, as well as a very special tribute to the great Horace Silver. Accompanying George Kahn will be: Larry Klimas on sax, John Fumo on trumpet, Karl Vincent on bass and M. B. Gordy on drums. The Culver Club is located in the Doubletree Hotel (FKA the Radisson Hotel)
Friday, May 20, 2011
1st show @ 7:30 PM / 2nd show @ 9:30 PM
6161 West Centinela Ave., Culver City, CA 90239
Reservation a must! call: 310-649-1776
For more info: http://www.in-housemusic.com/radisson_calendar.htm
$10 Cover Charge for the show
(The Culver Club charges a $15.00 min per person for drink or food)
(A 15% food and beverage discount is offered to Members of the LA Jazz Society and CA Jazz Foundation.)
Free validated parking with the show and all ages are welcome!

2. A special afternoon “Jazz Brunch” for lovers of both Big Band and Small Group Jazz will be presented at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood on Sunday, June 12 from Noon – 3:00 PM. George Kahn and his trio open the show, followed by the award-winning SaMoHi Jazz Band under the direction of Tom Whaley. Earlier this year, the Santa Monica High School Jazz big band and combo competed in the 43rd Annual Berklee College of Music High School Jazz Festival, the largest high school jazz festival in the world, at Hynes Auditorium in Boston. With 300 band competing, Samohi ended the 13-hour day triumphantly, sweeping the top awards at the festival: first place in the highest division: Division 1- Big Band and Division 1- Jazz Combo. Here are the details:
Sunday, June 12th 2011
Doors open at 11:30 AM – Music starts at 12:00 Noon
At the Catalina Jazz Club
6725 W. Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, CA
(one block East of Highland, park on No. McCadden Place)
Reservations a MUST! Call: (323) 466-2210
For more info: http://www.catalinajazzclub.com/
$15 COVER ($10 FOR STUDENTS), plus minimum food/drink - ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE SANTA MONICA HIGH JAZZ PROGRAM

3. Courtney Lemmon, George Kahn and Eric Sittner continue to “work it out” at WEST Restaurant at the Hotel Angeleno. This residency, which started in February, has now moved to Fridays, as well as a special Mother’s Day Brunch on May 8. The upcoming dates are: Friday May 13 and 27 from 8 – 11 PM. No cover, no minimum except for Mother’s Day Brunch, where you should call the hotel for details.
Hotel Angeleno is that “round hotel” at the corner of Sunset Blvd and the 405 freeway. Yes, it used to be a Holiday Inn. Now it is a very hip space with a great view of the city. No cover, no minimum-
Take a break from the traffic and stop in for a drink or a bite to eat.
West at the Hotel Angeleno

170 N. Church Lane, Penthouse Level, 17th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90049
P: 310.598.7859
http://urlwww--westatangeleno--com.rtrk.com

The Jazz Shmammys: The Results Are In (Part 1)

2011-02-17T22:54:00.001-08:00

The Jazz Shmammys: the results are in.

Jazz and the Grammy Awards: It is a strange love-hate relationship. As jazz music represents a mere 2.5% of all record sales, it is kind of irrelevant what album wins “Best Jazz Album” in any given year. That is, unless it is a wacky year like 2007 when Herbie Hancock won the Best Album of the Year (not best Jazz Album – best Album, period, for his ‘River: The Joni Letters”), or this year, where in a strange alignment of the heavens (and the Grammy voters) Esperanza Spaulding, a jazz bassist and singer that has been releasing albums since Justin Bieber was 12 years old, won the Best New Artist category. Best artist? Most definitely. But New Artist? Ms. Spaulding’s first album came out 5 years ago. Does this mean that Heads Up, the label that released the last two albums by Ms. Spaulding, thought the first one was a throw-away and not worthy of consideration? Whatever, it was a welcome surprise that someone of such talent, and not high record sales, would win this award.

So for those interested, let’s take a musical journey down the jazz road and see what albums and songs won Grammys for 2010.

BEST CONTEMPORARY JAZZ ALBUM

We have to start our journey with a little analysis of this category. In this case, contemporary does not mean “living”, though it helps to be alive to get into this category. This used to be the “Smooth Jazz” category, consisting of easy listening, semi-improvisational instrumental music. Since the term “Smooth Jazz” has now been buried with the term “Disco”, the last few remaining “Smooth Jazz” albums now fall into the “Best Pop Instrumental Album” category.

Now the defining element of “Contemporary” jazz seems to be the use of electric instruments instead of acoustic ones. I guess Trombone Shorty and his album “Backatown” didn’t get the memo on that. But then he did not get the memo that he was doing a jazz album at all – this is a funky, rockin’ album that owes more to Kool and the Gang and The Meters then it does to Wayne Henderson and the Jazz Crusaders. If he had won, it would have kicked this category into the 21st century.

The other kinky album in this category is Joey DeFrancesco and his tribute to Michael Jackson, “Never Can Say Goodbye”. I love Joey, and have always been blown away by his incredible ability to swing at any speed, and kick the bass at the same time he is wailing on the B-3. But I was disappointed by this project. It is a lovely idea to take the Michael Jackson catalog and jazz it up, but in this case the arrangements just stay too close to the originals. You just don’t want to compete with Quincy Jones on these tunes – if you are going to do “Thriller” you really got to do a whole 180 degree turn on it and take it somewhere else, or it just comes off like a bad lounge band.

DeFrancesco is too talented to sound bad for long, and on the tunes that he moves away from the originals (like on “The Way You Make Me Feel” and “Billie Jean”) he creates some great music with his band. But as a whole, the album does not hold up.

The other three nominees in this category fit squarely into the “Jazz Fusion” camp (another discredited area of jazz). Sirius/XM had a jazz station called “Beyond Jazz” for quite a few years, which featured this kind of music, but they dropped it from their playlist a while ago, so honestly I don’t know quite where this music gets played anymore, outside of college dorm rooms. I am not saying its bad: I really enjoy John McLaughlin’s fusion-take on John Coltrane’s music from his “To The One” album, and wish it could have won. But the prize went instead to Stanley Clarke Band. It’s a good record, with another great star turn by the talented pianist, Hiromi. Personally, I get tired of guitar solos played on the bass, but that’s just me. Stanley, don’t lose Hiromi, she is the best thing to happen to you since George Duke…

A Shmammy-kind of Day, Part 1

2011-02-15T06:45:00.001-08:00

As a recording artist
I get to be a member of NARAS
and have the option of buying over-priced tickets
to the strange musical conflagration called
"The Grammys".
As the musical business continues to splinter
a few desires hold steady:
a desire for recognition
a desire for fame
a desire to share one's music with the largest population possible
(not specifically for financial gain,
but that would be nice if it happens...)
a desire to look different enough that when people see you they know you are "somebody", even if they don't know who you are.

The attractiveness of the Grammy telecast
and its worldwide audience
brings out a few unusual stars each year
Even Neil Young showed up looking like a grandfatherly curmudgeon
(he won an award in the pre-telecast).
Bob Dylan actually "sang" on key, a little.
Barbara Streisand sang without asking for all cameras to be confiscated
and Mick Jagger made a great pitch for health food and exercise.

The dress code for the women in the audience was
short, SHORT party dresses and
funny high-heeled shoes.
It was fun watching the women
try to walk in their booty-hugging outfits
on and off the escalators
up and down the steep stadium seating of the Staples Center
It made me want to buy stock in J-Lo's clothing company
and train to be a physical therapist
because all these women will need help if they keep walking around in shoes like that.

One of the TOP 10 DOWNLOADS of 2010!

2011-01-03T06:35:00.000-08:00

Most every day of the year, AllAboutJazz.com offers a song as a free jazz download. I am thrilled to announce that my song, “Sombras De Noite (Night Shadows” is one of the Top 10 downloads for 2010. If you don’t have the song yet, please give a listen:

SOMBRAS DE NOITE (NIGHT SHADOWS) FREE DOWNLOAD

Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

My New Jazz Bio

2010-12-31T06:47:00.000-08:00

Check it out at
Wordle

Los Angeles Jazz "Positootly" Grows at the Grammys

2010-12-10T23:16:00.001-08:00

Of the 109 Grammy awards given, 6 of them go to jazz albums. In the universe of music, with jazz accounting for less than 3% of all albums sales, you might say the Grammys are very generous giving the jazz area 6 trophies. But if you like this music, and you dig into the five people nominated in each of these 6 categories, you will find some astonishingly good music.

A refreshing turn of events here is that the vast majority of the nominees come from small independent labels. (Perhaps this is not a surprise as the major labels have pretty much abandoned new jazz and spend most of their time mining their catalogs over and over again). And another wonderful discovery this year is the large number of Los Angeles-based musicians showing up on the short list.

A perfect example of this is found in the “Best Jazz Instrumental Album” category: three of the 5 nominees are either LA-based, or self-professed “bi-coastal” musicians. The Clayton Brothers turn in a grand project, “The New Song and Dance” on ArtistShare. The sentimental favorite and front-runner will be James Moody’s album “Moody 4B” from IPO records. (Moody was one of my early heroes, and he will be sorely missed with his passing this week). But for the moment let me dwell on the outstanding project that John Beasley turns in, “Positootly!” on Resonance Records.

The follow-up to Beasley’s “Letter To Herbie”, this album continues to show the pianist’s many talents. His improvising is exceptional; the compositions are interesting, harmonically challenging but still musical and constantly swinging. John reunites with Jeff ‘Tain” Watts on drums, and adds bassist James Genus to the mix this time. Their playing together is intuitive and always joyful. “Tain” is a master of the toms, and he plays inside and outside the beat with equal skill.

The album takes the listener on a wonderful journey through many styles and aspects of jazz, from jazz trio to New Orleans funk to a little electric jazz, to tango and songs that could easily have been written and performed by Miles Davis’ classic quintet. The whole project totally holds together with John’s distinct piano style and writing.

It is a pleasure to hear Bennie Maupin stretch out on this record and do some straight-ahead blowing. Brian Lynch on trumpet keeps pace with Bennie, and the whole band swings especially hard on the opening cut “Caddo Bayou”, as well as “Black Thunder”

The few compositions that are not originals are well chosen. Beasley’s take on Jobim’s “Dindi” is unique – if I did not know the tune I might not even recognize it in this swinging version. His tribute to Bobbie Timmons is wonderful. Bobbie was one of the most overlooked pianists and composers in jazz, and it is great to hear one of his songs again.

If you think you know this album after the first 5 cuts, think again. Beasley’s take on Piazzola’s “Tanguedia III” kicks off the second half of this album and is probably the most inventive cut on the album. Each of the following songs is different and wonderful in their own ways. And whenever Bennie Maupin appears on a cut, with his soprano or tenor sax, it kicks the band up another notch.

Whether Beasley wins the Grammy or not, the nomination is well deserved, and this project deserves to be heard, and not just in jazz clubs. It swings and rocks, and is “Positootly” worth buying.

Still some seats left for the Holiday Jazz Party December 16

2010-12-07T07:28:00.001-08:00

Reservations are filling up, but there are still some seats left. If you want to attend the Holiday Jazz Party for the Homeless, please call the Catalina Jazz Club today - tickets start at $25 ($15 for students) call (323) 466-2210

JAZZ PIANIST, GEORGE KAHN HOLDS 5th ANNUAL FUNDRAISER ASSISTING THE HOMELESS  at CATALINA BAR & GRILL
Thursday EVENING, DECEMBER 16TH, 2010

Let the holiday season begin…with an evening of great Jazz that’s also a benefit for the Los Angeles homeless community. For the 5th consecutive year, Jazz Pianist, George Kahn, returns to the CATALINA JAZZ CLUB with a performance benefiting PATH (People Assisting The Homeless) VENTURES on Thursday evening, December 16th. Path Ventures, a community development corporation created by PATH in 2005, focuses on the construction of affordable housing for individuals and families in the Los Angeles area.

The George Kahn “Jazz And Blues Revue” will feature George on piano with an all-star band of LA studio musicians. Special guests include: John Fumo on trumpet, Chuck Manning on sax, Karl Vincent on bass, and M. B. Gordy on drums. Adding to the night’s entertainment will be vocalists Courtney Lemmon, Kelsea Cire and Dianne Wright.

The George Kahn “West Coast Jazz” Quintet is currently touring to support the new album, Secrets From The Jazz Ghetto. The 2-CD collection was released in June 2010 to outstanding reviews and national radio airplay.

The doors open at 7 PM for dinner and the show will begin at 8:30 PM. There is a $25.00 cover plus Minimum. (Students with ID, $15.00).
Special Dinner/show tickets are available in advance for a $100 donation to PATH VENTURES. Please contact Emily at 310-996-1171 or emilyr@pathventures.org for this special package.
All profits from the evening will go directly to PATH VENTURES
The Catalina Jazz Club is located at 6725 Sunset Blvd. (just east of Highland Avenue - parking on N. McCadden Place). Dinner reservations suggested. (323) 466-2210.

This concert is generously sponsored by Mortgage Capital Partners.

Come see for yourself why Alfredo Cruz calls George Kahn “…creative, entertaining, intelligent, sophisticated and stimulating.”
www.GeorgeKahn.com

JAZZ PIANIST, GEORGE KAHN HOLDS 5th ANNUAL FUNDRAISER ASSISTING THE HOMELESS  at CATALINA BAR & GRILL

2010-11-15T21:46:00.000-08:00

Mark Your Calendars for Sunday December 16!

I have now been in the mortgage business for 22 years, and have had quite a ride with the ups and downs of our business. But as anyone who has been in the business can tell you, real estate has been very good to many, many people in Los Angeles. That is why, once a year I like to give back and help some of the people that are not fortunate enough to have a home to lay their head at night.

Once a year I host a Jazz Party and Fundraiser at my favorite jazz club, The Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. I put together a killer band and a great show including various guest vocalists, and we play our hearts out for PATH (People Assisting The Homeless) Ventures, a non-profit that builds permanent housing for people that have been homeless in Los Angeles.
This year the event is on Thursday, December 16. The doors open at 7:00 PM for dinner, and the music starts at 8:30. There are no long boring speeches. There is plenty of good food, drink and amazing music. My company, Mortgage Capital Partners, sponsors the music, so all the money we raise goes directly to PATH Ventures.
I could use your help, if you have a minute, especially if you live in the Los Angeles area:
1) Please consider buying a table at the show. A table for six costs $500, and includes a three course meal and the show (alcohol is extra). If you don’t have 6 people, you can buy a dinner/show ticket in advance for $100, and we will seat you with others. Please contact Emily at 310-996-1171 or emilyr@pathventures.org for this special package.
2) If you don’t want to come for dinner, you can still make show reservations for $25 per person ($15 for students). You can buy drinks or food when you get there, and while you are there you can make an additional donation to PATH ventures. For reservations, call Catalina Jazz Club (323) 466-2210.
3) If you can’t make the show at all, please consider sending a donation for any amount to PATH Ventures. If you send it before December 16, I can deliver it to the concert. Mail checks for PATH Ventures to attn: George Kahn, c/o 12400 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 900, Los Angeles, CA 90025
4) I can also send you a copy of the press release and a flyer, so you can spread the word.
Please see below for details. I hope to see you at the show – it will be the best holiday party of the season!
All love,

George

JAZZ PIANIST, GEORGE KAHN HOLDS 5th ANNUAL FUNDRAISER ASSISTING THE HOMELESS  at CATALINA BAR & GRILL
THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 16TH, 2010

Let the holiday season begin…with an evening of great Jazz that’s also a benefit for the Los Angeles homeless community. For the 5th consecutive year, Jazz Pianist, George Kahn, returns to the CATALINA JAZZ CLUB with a performance benefiting PATH (People Assisting The Homeless) VENTURES on Thursday evening, December 16th. Path Ventures, a community development corporation created by PATH in 2005, focuses on the construction of affordable housing for individuals and families in the Los Angeles area.

The George Kahn “Jazz And Blues Revue” will feature George on piano with an all-star band of LA studio musicians. Special guests include: John Fumo on trumpet, Larry Klimas on sax, Karl Vincent on bass, and M. B. Gordy on drums. Adding to the night’s entertainment will be vocalists Courtney Lemmon, Kelsea Cire and Dianne Wright.

The George Kahn “West Coast Jazz” Quintet is currently touring to support the new album, Secrets From The Jazz Ghetto. The 2-CD collection was released in June 2010 to outstanding reviews and national radio airplay.

The doors open at 7 PM for dinner and the show will begin at 8:30 PM. There is a $25.00 cover plus Minimum. (Students with ID, $15.00).

Special Dinner/show tickets are available in advance for a $100 donation to PATH VENTURES. Please contact Emily at 310-996-1171 or emilyr@pathventures.org for this special package.

All profits from the evening will go directly to PATH VENTURES

The Catalina Jazz Club is located at 6725 Sunset Blvd. (just east of Highland Avenue - parking on N. McCadden Place). Dinner reservations suggested. (323) 466-2210.
This concert is generously sponsored by Mortgage Capital Partners.
Come see for yourself why Alfredo Cruz calls George Kahn “…creative, entertaining, intelligent, sophisticated and stimulating.”
www.GeorgeKahn.com

For Your Consideration - send George to the Grammys!

2010-10-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

Just got the GRAMMY List - how cool, I have songs from the new album, SECRETS FROM THE JAZZ GHETTO for consideration in many categorys (this DOES NOT mean I am a finalist, just in the initial nominating ballot):
- Record of the Year, SOMBRAS DE NOITE (NIGHT SHADOWS)
- Song of the Year, SOMBRAS DE NOITE (NIGHT SHADOWS)
- Pop Instrumental, EVAN’S ELEVEN
- Improvised Jazz Solo, ANDY SUZUKI: EVAN’S ELEVEN
- Improvised Jazz Solo, GEORGE KAHN: MY FUNNY VALENTINE
- Instrumental composition, EVAN’S ELEVEN
- Instrumental composition, WALTZ FOR DIANA
- Best arrangement, instrumental OVER THE RAINBOW
- Best arrangement, vocals SOMBRAS DE NOITE (NIGHT SHADOWS)
IF YOU ARE A GRAMMY MEMBER, you can hear these songs at grammy365.com
http://www.grammy365.com/users/geokahn
and please vote by November 3 for your favorite songs!

The Passion Principle

2010-10-05T06:26:00.000-07:00

I clearly remember the day about 20 years ago when I was visiting a Real Estate office in Marina Del Rey, looking for business. I was 1 year into being a mortgage broker, and had just landed a job with Jon Douglas Financial – the Marina office was one of my “accounts”. The manager of the office called me in to his office. He had heard that I used to play music, and that I still played in a band, now and then. He told me, in no uncertain terms, that I had better NEVER mention music in his office – I was there to do loans, and he did not want to hear anything except that I would be available to his Realtors, 24/7, to help them get their clients financing.
This was just one of many times in my business life where I ran into “my way or the highway”-type managers. These leaders programmed me to believe that if people knew I did anything else besides loans, they would not work with me and somehow they would think less of me.

But over the years something amazing happened. I realized that people are MORE interested in me when I shared who I really am. Authenticity is attractive. Countless people in California can do a home loan. Not everyone can do a home loan and play a burning solo on Miles Davis’ “All Blues”.

There has been much written about the work-life balance today: how to balance the demands of a workplace that has fewer people doing twice the work, while still having a family life, a creative life, and a spiritual life. Now I know, there are a handful of people that say, “I love my job! My job is my life!” More power to them, but really, I don’t know anyone that, on their deathbed, said “I regret that I did not spend more time at the office.”

So, how do you integrate your passion with your business? Well, the question behind the question is: What are you passionate about?

I am lucky. My parent’s blessed me with a creative streak a mile wide. I love to play and compose music. I love photography. I love to write, to journal, to blog. I love to paint. I let me passion for jazz constantly spill over into my daily business. I share my performances with people at netowrking meetings. When I start a new loan, my clients get a gift of a “new Age” CD that I produced, to help them stay calm. Then, at the end of the transaction, I usually send people a gift basket with one of my jazz CDs and a couple of bottles of nice wine. And of course I invite all my clients to the jazz gigs and events that I play at. In sharing my love of jazz I have done loans for owners of music studios, many people in the entertainment business, as well as lawyers and CPAs that work with entertainment clients.

Once you have found it, how do your share your Passion with your friends and business associates? It’s easy – just open your mouth, and say it. Your passion is contagious and attractive.

Another Nail In The Coffin

2010-08-29T22:26:00.000-07:00

I love jazz. I love listening to jazz. I love playing jazz. Jazz does not frighten me - it excites me and invigorates me. And I am willing to support the music I love by purchasing the music and going to clubs to hear the music live.

But I fear, more and more, that I am a dying breed.

I read an interview last week with Vijay Iyer. If you have not heard of Vijay, he is an amazing pianist, and has been getting rave reviews for the last couple of years in many influential magazines. His album Historicity was voted BEST ALBUM of the year in Downbeat magazine this year (2010).
This acclaimed album has sold about 7000 copies so far, after 12 months. That is pretty sad - the BEST album of the year can't even sell 10,000 copies.

The spread of digital music is so complete and prevalent - and basically free - it is harder and harder to get people to part with their money to buy music.

So this week a friend of mine introduced me to the latest nail in the musical coffin: DIRPY.com

This amazing site allows you to search Youtube.com, and when you find a video you like it lets you separate the soundtrack of that video and instantly create an mp3 file for yourself.

AS I am writing this blog, I have been able to download a song from the Historicity album that was uploaded with an image to Youtube. I could also download and save his interviews, and some live performances that people have posted about Vijay.

Want some Charlie Parker? I am now downloading Bird and Diz playing "Hot House" in 1951 at the Downbeat Awards, when they received the best Alto Sax and Trumpet of the year awards.

Not much need to go to the local record store anymore...

A Great Article about George Kahn and Courtney Lemmon

2010-08-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

Kirk Silsbee just did a great write up about George and Courtney, performing tonight at First and Hope in Downtown LA.

A Blond Ingenue and a Middle-Aged Keyboard Sage Come Together at First & Hope
by Kirk Silsbee
Published: Friday, August 20, 2010 4:30 PM PDT
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Strong musical marriages happen when one talent and artistic vision is complemented, encouraged and inspired by another. They flourish through creative stimulation and mutual respect. To musicians, these conjunctions are just as important as the matrimonial kind.

Jazz pianist, composer and arranger George Kahn shares one such union with singer Courtney Lemmon. The blond ingénue and the middle-aged keyboard sage make a striking pair and an example of inter-generational synchronicity. When she fronts his band, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Their special blend will be on display Thursday, Aug. 26, at Fedora, a small club inside the restaurant First & Hope.

Read the whole article here:
http://www.ladowntownnews.com/articles/2010/08/24/entertainment/doc4c6f02be5c7d4690657357.txt

George Kahn And The Four Freshman In Concert August 8th

2010-07-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

Jazz | AllAboutJazz.com

Looking Back at New Years Predictions

2010-07-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

The internet is an amazing place. You post stuff, and it just never goes away. Pretty soon Google will need to add a category to remove all web pages over a few months's old - there is just too much "stuff" out there.

In poking around tonight I found an article I wrote on my blog back in January 2008 - 2 1/2 years ago, simply ancient news. I made some predictions: how did I do?
Pretty good! - except for the last one, where I predicted that jazz album sales would increase percentage-wise compared to the industry as a whole. Instead, the sales are dropping faster. Oh wel - the rest are pretty right on:
From January, 2008:
- The few remaining stand-alone music stores (Virgin, FYE, etc.) will close in the next 24 months. The few left standing will mainly sell fashion and "lifestyle" products, or become like Amoeba Records, catering to used CDs and collectors.
(This has pretty much happened)

- As attention spans grow shorter over the next 5 years, the concept of an "album" will gradually vanish, except for compilations, greatest hits packages and TV or movie soundtracks. These will succeed by pricing themselves low enough for people to see the value of the purchase, vs. 99 cent single-downloads.
(Certainly album sales have dropped dramatically, compared to downloaded singles...)

- By 2010 all the major labels will throw in the towel re: DRM (digital rights management). Ease of purchasing music online and competitve pricing (i.e., cheaper, but not totally "free") will offset the losing battle to stop people from copying digital music.
(Well, Apple started DRM-free downloads in 2009, as did Amazon and most other internet sites)

- By 2010 the major entertainment companies will view music as an "ancillary product" that is there to promote a movie or a line of clothing. Even major artists will start to view albums as little more than advertisements for more-lucrative goods like concert tickets and T-shirts.
(Miley Cyrus jeans, anyone?)

- Barring a couple of breakout artists, Jazz music will continue to be a niche market, but album sales will increase, as it becomes one of the few music forms that still holds up in an album format.
(Oops, wishful thinking...)

Generation Free, and the Sad State of Music Sales, as seen through a Jazz lens

2010-06-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

Here are some statistics:
According to the NARM (National Association of Record Merchants):
In 2005 there were 21,000 albums released. The top selling album, from Mariah Carey, sold just under 5 million copies. All of the Top 5 albums sold in excess of 3 million copies. The next 5 all sold in excess of 2 million copies.
In 2009 there were 98,000 albums released. The top selling album, from L’il Wayne, sold 2.87 million copies. Only the top four albums of the year sold more than 2 million copies. An additional sobering fact is that only slightly more than 2000 of the albums released in 2009 (2.1%) sold more than 5000 copies.

According to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America):
Between 2005 and 2008, Total US dollar sales volume dropped over 30%. In 2009 this number dropped an additional 12.3% (this annual decrease is accelerating each year since 2005). CD sales actually dropped 20.5% in 2009, but the numbers were buoyed by an increase in digital sales by 9.6%
In 1999 Jazz music sales were 3% of total music sales.
In 2005 Jazz music sales were 1.8% of total music sales.
In 2009 Jazz music sales were 1.1% of total music sales.
Jazz has always been a niche market, but now that niche seems to be getting smaller. On top of that, if you look at the Billboard Magazine top 25 jazz albums from 2009, 18 of them were by jazz vocalists (or vocalists that released albums backed by jazz musicians).
OK, so now let’s do some assumptions, based on these numbers and jazz albums. (I know, these are projections and are based on manipulating these statistics, so don’t hold me to this).
Let’s say the jazz market recovers, to be 2% of the total music market (this could happen – sales have been averaging around 1.8% for the last 4 years). And let’s say that this represents the same percentage of total albums released. That would mean that around 1,960 jazz albums were released last year (who knows what % of this number is actually re-releases, or new releases of old material?). This means that there are about 38 new jazz releases coming out every week of the year.
If only 2% of these albums become “hits” (sell over 5000 copies), this means that only about 39 jazz albums a year have a shot at really being “noticed”. And if we use last years Billboard chart as an example, only 11 of these albums will be instrumental jazz. Wow.
Now add to this mix that the jazz audience continues to get older as the years pass, and that the younger generation, even if they are interested in jazz, are not “collectors” but are “samplers” – people that are happy to stream the music off the internet or download it for free from illegal music sharing sites, but not about to spend their cash on actually BUYING the music.
So why do I still make the music, and put out albums? The odds are stacked against it ever having any financial value. Why do I continue to promote the music that I love? I guess for me it is my preferred means of expression. It fills my soul. It helps fill the souls of those that come to see the live shows, and those that listen to the music. More and more it has to be about LOVE, not COMMERCE. And maybe, that is a good thing.

A Magical Night at Catalina Bar and Grill

2010-06-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

The CD release party for SECRETS FROM THE JAZZ GHETTO was an amazing success. A solid group of George Kahn fans - new and old - turned out in Hollywood last night to celebrate the album and party with me and the band. Catalina's is such a great club - wonderful piano, great sound system, lighting, ambiance... it is just a wonderful place to play and hear music.

The night started with the trio (myself, Karl Vincent and M. B. Gordy) playing "Eleanor Rigby", off the Cover Up! CD. Then Larry Klimas came on stage and joined us to play am arrangement of "Over The Rainbow". Larry was channeling Stan Getz, I think, and did a beautiful job. Then John Fumo joined us onstage to complete the Quintet, and we ran through a selection of originals from the new album. Some old songs ("Millennium Schmellenium", and "Freedom Vessel") and some new ("Waltz For Diana") were played. Roberta Donnay, my friend from San Francisco, joined us for the ballad "Out Of Time", and then came back to sing the new Bossa Nova, "Sombras De Noite" with Justo Almario joining us on a rare flute performance. It was great to hear Justo play the flute again, he plays all the wind instruments, including an amazing clarinet, and this was an especially beautiful solo.

Once Justo was onstage with us, all bets were off. Justo switched to Tenor sax, and joined in on burning versions of "Wes' Coast", and "Soul Sauce". Then Larry came back on stage and all three horns played on the new song, "Wayne's World", dedicated to Wayne Shorter. Larry and M.B. both played their asses off on solos.
Finally, Roberta joined us again onstage and sang "Compared To What?" with the whole band joining in.

BY 10:00 PM we had to wrap it up. I had revealed some (but not all) of the Secrets, and even spoke a little bit about the Jazz Ghetto (this is a work in progress). And before everyone left, they all got "party favors" - either a poster, a Midnight Brew coffee mug, or a Cover Up "floaty" pen. It was a great night, filled with old and new friends, (Bob Claster, my friend from Junior High School took the award for the oldest friend), and wonderful music.

The New Album is HERE!

2010-06-16T06:46:00.000-07:00

The first review of George Kahn's new jazz album, Secrets From The Jazz Ghetto, has been posted on AllAboutJazz.com. Tell me what you think.

All About Jazz Review

The album is available here on CDBABY.com

Sharing The Music

2010-06-15T06:26:00.001-07:00

The journey that began summer of 2008
when I played the Temecula Valley Jazz Festival
and won a day at Park Hill Studio in Hemet
comes to fruition this week
with the release of the album that contains that session:
"Secrets From The Jazz Ghetto"

The journey included the recording date in January 2009,
shortly before my sax player Andy Suzuki moved to Berlin,
continued through having the tracks mixed in Los Angeles by Carl Sealove,
adding an extra song (the bossa nova "Sombras de Noite"),
and then the decision to use this album as a chance
to feature my original compositions, rather than arrangements of other people's songs.

Then mastering the recording at Future Disc,
the photo shoot with Mara Zaslove,
and having the design team at DiscMakers help put the package together.

And now, this week,
distribution starts through BDC,
and 400 terrestrial and internet radio stations
have a chance to play the music.
This is the week
sharing the music with friends
and with the world.

Only one week away! Catalina Jazz Club, Wednesday Julne 16

2010-06-09T06:29:00.001-07:00

Event:	CD Release Party
	www.socializr.com/event/377175035
Hosted by:	George Kahn
When:	Jun 16, 2010, 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Location:	Catalina Bar & Grill
	6725 W Sunset Blvd Ste 100, Los Angeles, CA

Don Quixote

2010-06-08T06:31:00.000-07:00

My quixotic search to be a Jazz Artist takes a new turn now
as I release my 6th jazz album.

Today I feel a lot like Don Quixote
tilting at windmills
pursuing a dream that has little connection with most people's reality.
Am I delusional
or do I just see real things that others don't perceive?

It is hard right now to separate the ego (is this just inflated self-worth?) from talent and ability.

It all started from my Mission
to share my music with the world.
I have a gift, and I need to share it.
I have always held that if I write music close to my heart,
it will have an impact on others
and the money will follow.

When it comes to music,
money is just one way that I get paid.
But I sold the first copies of the new 2-CD set yesterday
and that sure felt nice.

And it is a wonderful week, filled with music
August 10 - at Vitello's, with Roberta Donnay
August 11 - at The Hip Kitty, with Roberta Donnay
August 16th - at Catalina Bar and Grill for my CD Release Party!

So Now That Smooth Jazz Is Dead...

2010-05-17T06:40:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't notice, Smooth Jazz is dead.
It actually started dying two years ago, in 2008. In March of 2008 many of the radio stations that played "smooth jazz" changed their format. Here is a wonderful description of smooth jazz, by Marc Fisher, a writer for the Washington Post:
"Actually, it was a listener who uttered the phrase that a consultant used to sum up this fusion of instrumental music styles. At a focus group held in Chicago by Broadcast Architecture, the firm that first sold radio stations on the new format in the early 1990s, a woman who was asked to describe the songs being tested blurted out "smooth jazz."

What she was describing was a jazz-like sound without the jazz essential of improvisation, a melody-driven, generally instrumental set of songs played primarily on instruments used in jazz."

So what started in a marketing focus group has just died in a marketing focus group.
KTWV, "The Wave" in Los Angeles, has just officially dropped the word "Jazz" from their name and marketing material. KTWV, if you do not recall, was the first station in the US, way back in 1987, to take on this new format of "Smooth Jazz". The station has been gradually moving away from instrumentals to feature more "soft R+B" and other songs that copy the easy-listening radio style of KOST ("The Coast"). But now the move is complete. And what caused them to switch?

A recent "focus group" put together by The Wave found that just the word "jazz" scared people away. Here is how it was put by KTWV program director Jhani Kaye in the Los Angeles Times last week:
"The research pointed out that we needed to adjust the mix of music, to make it more welcoming to people who tuned in on occasion," Kaye said. "We discovered instrumentals had a highly polarizing effect on the audience."

Kaye said their research also found that the word "jazz" itself was polarizing — radio listeners "either love it or they hate it," he said.

"We don't need to give the listener a reason to tune away, especially since it's only a word," he said. " 'The Wave,' under its 'smooth jazz' moniker, was more of a niche station, and now it's more mass appeal."

He said the station had maximized its primary listeners, and if it wanted to grow, it had to attract new fans.

The changes seem to have paid immediate dividends. In January, the station placed 16th in Los Angeles/Orange County ratings, averaging 2.9% of the audience age 6 and older. In February, KTWV shot up to a fifth-place tie, at 3.5%. The station remained at 3.5% and placed sixth in March, the most recent figures available from the Arbitron ratings service.

"The music is much more recognizable than in the past," Kaye said. "An amazing thing happens when you play hits: The audience grows."

CD Release Party coming up on June 16

2010-05-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

JAZZ PIANIST GEORGE KAHN
CD RELEASE PARTY
CATALINA BAR & GRILL ON WED. JUNE 16TH
SECRETS FROM THE JAZZ GHETTO REVEALED

Hot on the heels of his sold out shows at The Culver Club,
Jazz Pianist George Kahn sets the summer on fire with his 7th album, SECRETS FROM THE JAZZ GHETTO. To celebrate the CD’s release, George will be appearing at Catalina Bar & Grill at 8 PM on Wed. June 16th, accompanied by All Star players Karl Vincent (Bass), Larry Klimas (Sax), John Fumo (Trumpet) and M.B. Gordy(drums), plus surprise guests.

Carrying on the tradition of jazz greats like Dave Brubeck, Vince Guaraldi and Horace Silver, Georges’ SECRETS FROM THE JAZZ GHETTO is a 2-CD set, filled with 26 tracks that feature some of the best jazz musicians on the west coast playing his original music. Included is a retrospective of songs from Kahn’s previous recordings, plus 6 new compositions that were recorded live in the studio in 2009.

The music covers a range of styles, from Bebop to Cool Jazz to Latin, Bossa Nova and contemporary jazz.
Tierney Sutton, Eric Marienthal, Justo Almario, Andy Suzuki, Brian Bromberg, and Alex Acuna are just a few of the artists that join George on this compilation. The album also features new renditions of two of the greatest jazz standards, “Over The Rainbow” and “My Funny
Valentine”.

Everyone that buys the new CD at the show will receive a special gift.
Please call the club to reserve best seating – this show will probably sell out!

The Catalina Bar and Grill - 6725 W. Sunset Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90028
(near the corner or Sunset and Highland)
$15.00 cover charge
8:00 PM - ONE SET ONLY.
Call for Reservations: 323.466.2210

Or reserve online here

CD Release Party coming up

2010-05-02T23:00:00.001-07:00

Last Friday’s show at the Radisson Culver City was a sell out, but there will be more great music at the CD RELEASE PARTY on Wednesday, June 16. George’s band will be there, along with many special guests to celebrate the new 2-CD set, Secrets From The Jazz Ghetto. Please RSVP – this show will also be a sell-out!
The Catalina Bar and Grill is located at 6725 W. Sunset Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90028 (near the corner or Sunset and Highland)
$15.00 cover charge, ONE SET ONLY – Music starts at 8:00 PM. Call for Reservations: 323.466.2210
Catalina Bar and Grill Tickets

The George Kahn Quintet Returns to West Los Angeles for a FREE show on April 30

2010-04-28T20:44:00.001-07:00

Event:	George Kahn West Coast Jazz Quintet This Friday
	www.socializr.com/event/987754120
Hosted by:	George Kahn
When:	Apr 30, 2010, 7:30 PM to 11:00 PM
Location:	Radisson Hotel Culver City
	6161 West Centinela Ave., Culver City, CA

GEORGE KAHN JAZZ CONCERT APRIL 30

2010-04-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Los Angeles Jazz favorite, The George Kahn Quintet, will perform at The Radisson, Culver City, with two shows on Friday April 30th. The first set begins at 7:30 and the second set will start at 9:30.
Featuring George Kahn on piano, he will be accompanied by all star players
including, John Fumo on Trumpet, Larry Klimas on Sax,
Karl Vincent on Bass and M.B. Gordy on the drums.

George will be performing selections from his soon to be
released 7th album, “ Secrets From The Jazz Ghetto”.

Why should you come out for this show?
- There is No Cover charge for the show (The Culver Club charges a $15.00 min per person for drink or food)
- This is George’s first performance “west of the 405” since his Jazz Bakery performance in May 2009
- The Radisson Hotel offers FREE validated parking with the show
- It’s on a Friday Night! No school or work the next day!
- It is an “all ages” show – students are welcome to attend
(A 15% food and beverage discount is offered to Members of the LA Jazz Society and CA Jazz Foundation.)

Reservations are a MUST for this show - this show will sell out!

The Radisson is located at 6161 West Centinela Ave.
Culver City, CA 90239-3200
310-649-1776 for reservations. For more info:
http://www.in-housemusic.com/radisson_calendar.htm

NEW ALBUM UPDATE
The new album, Secrets From The Jazz Ghetto, is off to the manufacturer now. As a warm up, there is a new free download at georgekahn.com – one of the new songs from the album. JUST CLICK ON THE LINK AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE THAT SAYS "DOWNLOAD OF THE MONTH". Please enjoy “Evan’s Eleven”, and watch for the CD release in June!

George Kahn Trio to perform at San Diego IndieFest VI

2010-03-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

Well, it finally happened - I have a gig in San Diego!

George Kahn Trio to perform at San Diego IndieFest VI
When: Sat, March 27, 5:00 – 6:00 PM
Where: 2906 University Ave, San Diego, 92104
Description: The George Kahn Trio gets out of the Jazz Ghetto and performs at IndieFest VI at 5:00 PM Saturday evening, on the Craig Yerkes Acoustic Stage -- on Kansas & University (outside Claire de Lune and Sunset Temple, 2906 University Ave., SD 92104) - tickets are $25 per person for the two day event – It is an all-day outdoor event starting at Noon and going until about 10:00 PM, with over 75 bands performing on 5 stages. Headliners include Metric, Nappy Roots and Far. Come join George for his premiere performance in San Diego!
For more information:
http://www.sayitrecords.com/sdimf/sdimf.html

George Kahn Music Featured on "Men Of A Certain Age"

2010-02-23T06:35:00.000-08:00

Hi!
I had one of my songs featured on cable TV (TNT network) the other week – you can view it here:

SELECT TELEVISION AND FILM

TNT-MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE | GEORGE KAHN SONG FEATURED

TNT | MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE . This wry drama stars Emmy® winner Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond), Golden Globe® winner Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap, Star Trek: Enterprise) and Emmy winner Andre Braugher (Homicide: Life on the Street, TNT’s Salem’s Lot). It marks a return to series television for Romano, who created MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE with Everybody Loves Raymond Emmy winner Mike Royce. The two serve as executive producers, along with Rory Rosegarten and Cary Hoffman. George Kahn ’s composition, “Wes’ Coast” from his Cover Up! recording is featured in this episode during the house-warming party, about 3:30 into this part of the episode. Check it out…

Link: http://www.tnt.tv/dramavision/?oid=55615
—

Here is the full press release:
Subject: RE: Weekly ARC News Items

New Album News - Off To The Mastering Lab

2010-02-01T06:50:00.000-08:00

The New Album Project 2010 is in the works!
The music is off to the mastering lab, and the album title and artwork are in the preparation phase. There are 6 new songs featured on the NEW 2-CD set from George, to be released in June 2010. Four are new originals, plus a new rendition of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, and a haunting version of “My Funny Valentine” performed as a duet with George on piano and Andy Suzuki on sax. Some of the new tracks were performed “live in the studio” with a power quartet of Andy Suzuki, George Kahn, Karl Vincent and M. B. Gordy. One song features the wonderful Luba Mason singing an Original Bossa Nova, “Sombras de Noite (Night Shadows)”. The album also features a previously unreleased song with Tierney Sutton on vocals.

The balance of the new album consists of 20 George Kahn originals, culled from the last 10 years of recordings. It will be a feast for the ears, 26 songs, over two and a half hours of music! More news next month...

ALSO: I am please to announce that the song "Wes' Coast" will appear in this week's episode of the new Ray Romano show "Men Of A Certain Age" on TNT - I hope you can check it out!

Favorite Websites for February
ART: My son Benji turned me on to this amazing artist that works only with Lego blocks:
http://www.seankenney.com/
MUSIC: Here is a blast from the past, and a proof of the danger of the Internet – I played in a punk/new wave band with Richard Haxton in the 70’s called “FUN WITH ANIMALS”. Weird Al Yanovic just chose their song “The Test of Love and Sex” as “The #1 Most Underrated Funny Song Ever!” about 200,000 people have checked it out now – join the FUN:
http://www.cracked.com/article/203_the-9-most-underrated-funny-songs-according-to-weird-al/
HUMOR: My other son, Evan, inherited my love of the absurd and he turned me on to a bizarre youtube video where an artist named Day Job Orchestra has dubbed strange words into the mouth of Star Trek characters – you have to see this to believe it, and be sitting down or you will fall over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=414TmP12WAU

More Grim News From the People that Brought You Pop Music

2010-01-15T21:20:00.000-08:00

Here are some figures from Mina Kines at Fortune Magazine, in an article titled "The Plan To Save The Music Biz"

There were 106,000 new releases in 2008, compared with 44,000 in 2003, according to Nielsen SoundScan. (That is 290 releases a DAY, including Sunday!)

Of the 63 new releases that sold more than 250,000 copies last year, 61 were issued by major music companies.

In 2008, just 35% of album sales came from new releases, the lowest percentage since Nielsen began tracking the data in 1991. Instead of breaking new acts, major labels are increasingly relying on legacy artists and their catalogues.

Case in point: EMI with the Beatles. "EMI is run on catalogues," says Steve Knopper, author of Appetite for Self-Destruction, an account of the record industry's demise. "It prevents them from ever being completely destitute."

The record companies have become hung up on getting the "one hit", as opposed to developing the artist.
Jools Holland, a legendary British musician and television host, recently told British music magazine Uncut that classic albums from artists like Stevie Wonder would probably not exist today. "If downloading had been around in the mid-'70s, I'm sure there [would have] been no Songs in the Key of Life -- just 'Song in the Key of Life.'"

As my friend John Clayton says, "In the old days, 10 people a year would sell a million records. Now, a million people sell 10 records!"

No firm statistics have been released for 2009 yet, but expect there to once again be double-digit decreases in CD sales and revenue.

REFLECTIONS ON A DECADE

2010-01-04T06:35:00.001-08:00

We got faster
Things got cheaper
Living became more expensive
We got connected (internet access more than doubled in the US)
We became less personal (electronic "friends" become normal)
We stopped writing
We started emailing (daily emails worldwide increased from 6 billion a day to 40 billion a day)
We stopped watching network TV
We started making our own videos (one third of all homes in the US now have digital video recorders)
We used to watch "ER" (the top TV show in 1999)
Now we watch "American Idol" (the top TWO TV shows in 2009)
TV became "Reality"
Music became "Free"
Movies became three-dimensional
Life became two-dimensional
The idea of "unplugging" became old-fashioned
Cellphone reception became a God-given right
Britney Spears did NOT go away.
We stopped following trends
We became our own trend
We became more "secure"
We became more nervous
Capitalism won the war
Capitalism lost its way
We made more children
We made less jobs
We became more unified
We became more divided
We elected a man who gave us Hope
We continue to Hope
I continue to Hope

(statistics c/o "The Decade" - Wall Street Journal 12/21/2009)

Join the California Jazz Foundation

2010-01-02T07:35:00.000-08:00

'I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.'
- Groucho Marx

This may be true for Groucho, but I have finally found a home on the Board of the Califonia Jazz Foundation.

The California Jazz Foundation is a nonprofit charitable organization formed to provide services and support to jazz musicians and others who have made substantial contributions to the art form.

To start the New Year right, the CJF is having a Membership Party at Vitello's in Studio City on December 10, 1 - 5 PM.

Your ticket to the show includes a one year membership to the CJF, and is fully tax deductible! Tickets are $50 - $100 per person, or just $25 for students and musicians. (You don't need to bring your axe to prove you are a musician, just show up and pay the $25.)

Besides becoming a member, you get 4 jazz bands, and lunch, to boot! WOW, WHAT A DEAL!

You can click here for more information

I hope to see you there - I will be at the table in front, welcoming people.

Do You LALA?

2009-12-29T07:15:00.000-08:00

The availability of free music and video on the internet continues to spread. It is clear now that there is no stopping it. And as bandwidth and memory gets cheaper, the Global Free Jukebox comes closer and closer to being the way people want to hear their music. The newest trend to watch is free music streams – like Pandora and the recent addition: LALA.com. This site, recently purchased by Apple, allows you to stream and listen to whole albums for free, download and purchase the music or – and here is where it gets a bit weird: you can listen to each song or album once for free, and if you like what you hear, rather than buy and download the song, you can pay just 10 cents per song and listen to it as much as you want from their website. Confusing? It is simple to use. Go to
lala.com
type in an artist name (like George Kahn, for example), and start listening!

Jazz Leaves the Museum and enters the Old Age Home

2009-08-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

Sad news continues to pour in for the music business in general, and jazz music in particular. I may be overly pessimistic, with the (temporary?) end of the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles, but a recent article in the Wall Street Journal made me sad. It does seem like the glorious "Long Tail" of the internet may actually become, as the brilliant Hugh MacLeod said, a Short Tail with a large Pile of Dead Bodies next to it.

In an article on August 9, Terry Teachout quoted statistics from an NEA Survey of Public Participation completed in 2008. Here is a sampling:
- In 2002 (the last survey date) 10.8% of adult Americans attended at least one jazz performance. In 2008, that number fell to 7.8%, a 28% drop in attendance.
- The median age of adults that admitted to seeing jazz was 46. In 1982 (the first year the NEA did this study) the median age was 29.
- Even amongst college-educated adults, which would seem to be the main jazz audience, the attendance has shrunk from 19.4% in 1982 to 14.9% today, a 23% loss in attendance.

These numbers show that the jazz audience is both aging and shrinking, regardless of any attempts to blend hip hop or rap or trance music into "jazz". Or perhaps people are just afraid to admit that they went to a "jazz" concert when they went to see Chris Botti or (dare I call him jazz?) Kenny G.

And as the jazz audience ages, it puts us in the exact same demographics as the other "high art" forms of classical music, ballet, opera and theater: the average age of people attending these events in 2008 was from 46-49 years old. So in a way there is more competition for a shrinking and graying audience.

So what can we do today to change this? My experience over and over again is that we need to get people exposed to the music so that they can enjoy the groove, the excitement and the personality of great live jazz music (as was proven again the other week when I played for between 500 -700 enthusiastic people at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Allowing a jazz group open for Phish or Dave Matthews might help. We need to get out of the Jazz Ghetto before it turns into an Old Age Home, and then a graveyard.

August Update

2009-08-15T21:04:00.001-07:00

1. The next two stops for the West Coast Jazz World Tour are at the Hip Kitty in Claremont, Ca. Two very different shows:
COURTNEY LEMMON with THE GEORGE KAHN TRIO will be performing at our new favorite jazz club, The Hip Kitty in Claremont, CA on Friday August 21, from 8:00 – Midnight. No cover charge, a great bar and fondue if you are hungry. It’s a very cool scene in the Inland Empire
http://www.hipkittyjazz.com/
Then, on September 12 The George Kahn Quartet featuring Pat Kelley will be at The Hip Kitty for a Swinging Saturday Night to kick off the new school year. Prepare for an audience filled with hip kats and kittens from the Claremont colleges. For more updated info, go to the calendar at
http://georgekahn.com

2. Somewhere between 500-700 people showed up at LACMA on July 24 to see the George Kahn West Coast Jazz Quintet. It was an amazing show, with Larry Klimas on sax, Gabe Johnson on trumpet, Eric Sittner on bass, Clayton Cameron on drums, and George on piano. Here are some photos to give you a sense of the excitement. Looking forward to being back at LACMA again in 2011!
http://hemetlive.shutterfly.com/

3. I am a member of ARC (Artists Recording Collective), and this group, led by my long time friend and sax player Chris Burnett, is launching the next level of their campaign to spread the word about independent jazz artists.

If you want to see what ARC is up to, or if you are interested in becoming a member, come check it out at
http://artistsrecordingcollective.info/

4. So many cool links to check out on the internet right now
1) Someone did me one better, and put together a Google calendar of all the FREE music events in Los Angeles for the month of August: 2009 SUMMER CONCERT CALENDAR

2) If you have not heard of Hugh MacLeod yet, you owe it to yourself to visit the cartoonist and bargain philosopher at
http://gapingvoid.com
3) Here are Regina Brett’s Life Lessons (by the way, she is NOT 90 years old...)

4) And of couse there is always the end of the internet
I just bumped into this again
Thought it was funny

Jazzy Things To Do This Summer in Los Angeles

2009-07-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

The summer schedule has been set, and there are some great FREE shows this summer:
The GEORGE KAHN WEST COAST JAZZ QUINTET will be performing at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) on Friday, July 24. We’ll be performing songs from various albums, and introducing some new material from the new album, “2010”. The music starts at 6:00 PM. But make sure you get there early, the last time we played there it was PACKED!

COURTNEY LEMMON with THE GEORGE KAHN TRIO will be performing at our new favorite jazz club, The Hip Kitty in Claremont, CA on Friday August 21, from 8:00 – Midnight. No cover charge, a great bar and fondue if you are hungry. It’s a very cool scene in the Inland Empire

In keeping with my desire to keep “with it” on the internet, I have finally uploaded some photos from the LACMA concert in 2006, as well as photos from the “LIVE IN HEMET” recording session from January. (This session will be part of the upcoming album, “2010”) You will see great photos of Courtney, MB, Karl Vincent, Justo almario, Gabe Johnson, Andy Suzuki (who sends greetings from Berlin) and others.
Enjoy!

I LOVE SUMMER, and all the music that it brings to Los Angeles. Here are a few of the events I am planning to see over the next two months:
Luba Mason at Catalina Bar And Grill on July 8
Justo Almario at Grand Performances on 7/17
Ernie Watts at Hollywood and Highland on July 21 http://www.hollywoodandhighland.com/play_events.php
The Bad Plus at Grand performances on 7/24
Four Way Free at the House of Blues on 7/29
Pancho Sanchez at Hollywood and Highland August 25

Next Up: Los Angeles County Museum of Art

2009-06-13T08:05:00.000-07:00

I have put together another all-star band to play at LACMA on July 24. I hope you can join me from 6:00 - 8:00 PM. The place always fills up, so plan to come early.
The band will have myself on piano, my main man Karl Vincent on bass, and the amazing Clayton Cameron on drums (Clayton played with Tony Bennett for about 15 years...). On horns will be John Fumo and Larry Klimas, both amazing players that happen to be in between gigs so they can join me. Larry and John work together in Neil Diamond's horn section, and John has been playing recently in the pit band for Dirty Dancing at The Pantages Theater. Larry also travels as a member of Chicago (remember the original rock big band?) This is going to be FUN - and its FREE - please mark your calendars and I will see you there.
LACMA
5905 WILSHIRE BLVD., LOS ANGELES 90036
BP Grand Entrance | Free, no reservations
FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009
6:00 – 8:00 PM

Grand Finale at the Jazz Bakery

2009-06-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

The final performance at The Jazz Bakery was a smash. The concert, which was held as a benefit to raise money for the Santa Monica High School Jazz Band, was so well attended that additional seats had to be added. More jazz fans came during intermission and filled the balcony as well, organizers said.

Attendance for the concert not only raised $1,700 for the Jazz Band — helping them to buy new charts, keep their instruments in top shape and assist in covering costs for the band to attend competitions and festivals — it also was a great send off for The Jazz Bakery. The Jazz Bakery is continuing its search for a new location, after closing its doors with a 16-year-run in the Helms Bakery locale. Ruth Price has done an incredible job over the years, and she and the JB board are dedicated to making it continue in temporary locations at first, and in a new home in the future.

George's band consisted of George on Piano, Pat Kelley on guitar, Doug Webb on sax, Karl Vincent on bass and M. B. Gordy on drums. The SAMOHI Jazz Band is under the direction of Tom Whaley, Arts Coordinator for the Santa Monica School District.
See the article published in the Santa Monica Daily Press

Farewell To The Jazz Bakery

2009-05-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

The Jazz Bakery, situated for 16 glorious years in the Historic Helms Bakery Complex, will be presenting its last performances in that location on Sunday, May 31, 2009.

Jazz Pianist, George Kahn, will be hosting a special Farewell Performance starting at
3:30 – 6:00 PM that afternoon. In addition to George’s West Coast Jazz Quartet,
this FINAL SHOW at The Jazz Bakery will feature the 18-piece
Santa Monica High School Jazz Band, under the direction of Tom Whaley.

Along with George on piano, the West Coast Jazz Quartet will feature Pat Kelley on guitar, Karl Vincent on bass, M. B. Gordy on drums, and some very special guests. George will be playing selections from his newest album “Cover Up!”, as well as song tributes to Shorty Rogers, Wayne Shorter and other jazz greats.

George Kahn, winner of last summer’s Temecula Valley International Jazz Festival, has released 6 CD’s. His “Cover Up!” has received glowing reviews and major radio play across the country. Selections on the CD include John Mayer’s “Waiting For The World To Change”; The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” and Roger and Hammerstein’s
“My Favorite Things” along with original jazz compositions.

Tickets are $25.00 each, or $15.00 for students with ID. All proceeds from the concert will be donated to the SAMOHI Jazz Band to help with the purchase of new instruments and music.
Tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance by credit card by calling the Jazz Bakery.
The JAZZ BAKERY is located at 3233 HELMS AVE LA, CA 90034.
Phone: 310-271-9039.

Technology Is A Pain in the Butt!

2009-03-01T20:50:00.000-08:00

I had the great pleasure of recording in the studio for a day with Andy Suzuki, Karl Vincent and M. B. Gordy in January of this year. It was a wonderful studio called Park Hill Studios in Hemet, CA. We had a wonderful time, laid down 6 new tracks. And at the end of the day, I got to take the master tapes home - on DA-88s, which was the format this studio uses.

You would think it would be easy to find a place to get someone to run me a CD off the DA-88s, so I could listen to the tracks - but no. Seems that this format fell out of favor about 8 years ago, when hard-drives became the basic place to "record" onto, bypassing tape altogether.

So what I really needed is to find someone with a couple of DA-88 machines, so they could transfer the traks onto my hard drive using Protools for the basic program, and then get a rough mix burned onto a CD to reference.

Well, almost 2 months later, the project is almost done. The two people I found that had the machines both discovered that they had not used them for so long, they were not functioning, and they needed to be cleaned before the transfer could be done. Finally, the wonderful Craig Pettigrew was able to help me get the transfer done, but did not have the equipment to get into the editing/transfer part of the project. So this will go to my good friend Carl Sealove this week, and then, by sometime next week I should actually be able to LISTEN to what the hell we did back in January.

This got me thinking - what about my other albums? Are they also on formats that are basically not being used any more? IS it worth updating them as well?

I found that the albums since Midnight Brew have all been recorded onto hard drives, and I have them all stored away - of course I should try starting them up, to see if they even function any more.

The first 2 albums it looks like I do not have the 16 track masters, I just have the master CD and some digital tape back-ups. No going back there to remaster, I don't think. I found something that looked like a HUGE floppy disc, about the size of an old 45 RPM single. Don't think too many people have a machine that will read that stuff anymore.

Life gets more and more confusing. At least I don't have to find a place to bake my 2 inch master tapes anymore.
Have a great night - signing off now

CD BABY Rules the Indie Roost at the Grammys

2009-02-20T07:25:00.000-08:00

The music world has changed forever. How do we know?

Although I did not make the cut for a Grammy nomination in 2008, Grammy madness is alive for CD Baby artists!

When CD Baby first started, it was nearly unheard of for a truly independent artist to earn a Grammy nomination (much less win one). Now, a little more than 10 years later, at least 15 (yes, 15!) of our artists were recognized for their outstanding achievements with a Grammy nomination in 2008 alone! The list, with links to the artists, is included at the end of this email, and we are thrilled to report that veteran independents (and CD Baby artists) Burning Spear and Pete Seeger both got to take home one of those little golden gramophones! Congratulations to you and all of our nominated artists.

CD Baby artist payments in 2008 up 28% to a record $34 million!
As the major label machine loses its stranglehold grip in the awards arena, it is taking some heavy hits in the sales department, too. While CD sales from major labels and large indies were down 14% in 2008, CD Baby's CDs grew (2%) thanks to hard-working music makers like you. And digital revenues were up a whopping 45%. In total, CD Baby's artist payments were up 28% in 2008. Since our inception, CD Baby has paid out $98 million to independent artists. How's that for an accomplishment?

And if you don't know this, if you release an independent album that sells, YOU TOO can be a voting member of the Grammys. Let's get in there and turn the tide against the dinosaur record conglomerates. Radiohead did it, you can too! Just go to grammy.com for more info.

If you would like to see a list of CDBABY Artists that were nominated, go here.

If We All Give a Little...

2009-01-24T12:11:00.000-08:00

I have been moved by the change taking place in Washington, and the shift in the people of our country from working from FEAR to working from HOPE. I am basically a very cynical person when it comes to human nature. Once again referring to Steven Levitt's book "Freakonomics": "Morality, it could be argued, represents that way that people would like the world to work - whereas economics represents how it actually does work."
But the big shift that Obama is presenting is not just adding more big government, but asking each person in the US to take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY to make things better.
In this vein, I have, for the last four years, held an annual fundraiser called "Jazz For The Holidays". I put together a kick-ass band, we hold the event at the Catalina Bar and Grill, the Premiere Jazz Club in Hollywood, CA, and we raise money for the homeless of Los Angeles.
We specifically raise money for PATH Ventures, an organization that is building "temporary transitional housing" for people in need. PATH (People Assisting The Homeless) provides services for the homeless - giving them a place to eat, get clean, use the phone for job placement and creating resumes, etc. But as well all know, once you fall it is hard to get back up - so PATH Ventures gives these folks a first place to live again as they start their first job, or continue in vocational school to work towards getting that job. It is a wonderful organization, headed by Shane Goldsmith, who herself was a homeless person as part of her resume.
This years show in December was the best ever - I was joined by MB Gordy, Karl Vincent, Pat Kelley, Gabe Johnson, Robert Kyle, and guest vocalists Dianne Wright, Crystal Knighton and the amazing Dwight Trible. And when the night was over not only did the sell-out crowd have a great night of music, we raised over $10,000 for PATH Ventures.
What can YOU do this year to Give a Little?...

The Big Musical Picture: Where is Digital Music Going?

2009-01-17T16:05:00.000-08:00

With 2008 finally biting the dust, it is time for a little review.
CD sales plummeted over the past three years, from 553.4 million in 2006 to 360.6 million in 2008. MP3 (digital)sales grew from 32.6 million to 65.8 million during the same time period, according to SoundScan. (Remember one "digital" album is equal to 10 individual downloads).
Although legal downloads have more than doubled over the last 3 years, they are still a small fraction of the illegal download and music sharing that takes place on the internet.
THE BASIC ECONOMICS OF DIGITAL MUSIC POINT TOWARDS MUSIC BECOMING "FREE".
The cost of production is dropping every year. Anyone with a computer today can now create their own music (there are plenty of scary examples of this on Youtube and other places). A whole generation of music listeners now expect the music to be free, or almost-free.
As Stephen Levitt said in FREAKONOMICS, "regulation of a legal market is bound to fail when a healthy black market exists for the same product". This is why the RIAA law enforcement has not worked. It is the same reason why gun control does not work. You can pass all the laws you want, but a person that wants a gun can always get one on the black market. Even if the US passed a law to make no new guns as of tomorrow, there is an OCEAN of available guns right now that people can get if they want one. It is the same with free music on the internet.
SO then the BIG question is, How do I make money in a FREE MUSIC market? The answer is found in many places: viral marketing, cross promotion, doing it yourself so you have little or no overhead (like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead), or be the person that runs the "tollgate", like Myspace Music. The concept there is that while people stream the music for free, Myspace makes it up in advertising on their website.
We are in a brave new musical world, and I can only hope that those of us that believe in quality will keep up the fight to bring great music into the world, where basic economics does not seem to value our art.

Music Gets Free-er. A good thing?

2008-11-28T10:31:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting discussion with Lee Gomes a while ago, about the concept of the "Long Tail". Lee was taking the position that the Long Tail works as a concept, but as a business model it is no way to actually make money. He felt that by having an infinite amount of choices in music, it would cheapen all the music, and lead towards everyone making less money. I argued against that idea, and felt that there was room for everyone, and the "cream will rise to the top" in every area of the Long Tail.

Well, I am not sure who is right, but it is pretty clear that for 2009 the vote is coming in loud and clear that people want their music for free and unfettered.

Even Apple iTunes is gradually moving towards getting rid of the DRM (digital rights management) on songs you download from them. Amazon, CDBABY and other major sites are already offering downloads of songs now that, once you buy them, you can copy them to your hearts content.

But why bother buying the music, when you can listen by "streaming" it for free on your computer? MYSPACE now has a jukebox feature where you can create playlists of songs from thousands of artists ranging from little old me to people like Eric Clapton, Guns n Roses, you name it. last.fm, jango.com, pandora.com, imeem.com- all these sites give you unlimited access to music free. They are all working on the business model that they can pay a fraction of a penny per streamed song since they run ads on their websites, and they use the ad revenue to pay for the incredibly cheap music.

All well and good. but I wonder, where will it end? If everyone can create the music, and the basic business model is to give it away, what will happen to the quality of music? Perhaps there is less cream to rise than I thought...

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JAZZ PIANIST GEORGE KAHNS’ “CALL TO ACTION” TO JAZZ THE VOTE!

2008-09-06T16:54:00.000-07:00

As a Call To Action in the hopes of encouraging jazz lovers and perhaps future Jazz lovers (and future voters, too!) to come out in force for this November’s Presidential election, Jazz Pianist George Kahn is doing his part by getting music lovers to “Jazz The Vote”.

George has a cover of John Mayer’s “Waiting On The World To Change” on his latest CD release “Cover Up!” and is asking fans to please go to Itunes and download his instrumental version of the song.

“ We are at a unique point in history “ George says. “I have been pretty jaded about politics in general, but for the first time in recent memory, it feels like we have real choices coming up in November’s election. Whether you vote Democratic, Republican or otherwise, it is more important than ever to exercise your right to vote.”

In support of this concept, for each download of “Waiting On The World To Change” (George’s Jazz version only), from now until election day, November 4, 2008, George will donate $1.00 to the political party of the downloader’s choice. All a listener needs to
do is to send George an email to his label, Playing Records: playingrecords@playingrecords.com ,after they have downloaded the song, and tell him who should receive the $1.00 donation…Democrat, Republican or Independent parties only (no individuals).

More Unfettered Music, and Defense of "The Long Tail"

2008-07-03T15:16:00.000-07:00

This has been a big week for news, if you can get past the depressing stuff they are printing on the front page.
First of all, Rhapsody announced its entrance into the downloadable music market with songs that have no copyright protection - once you buy them, you own them, and you can copy them to your other machines or players to your heart's content. This is good news, and follows my prediction that within the next 18 months the RIAA and the major labels will throw in the towel on the "DRM" stratgey of penalizing people that pay for a download vs. paying to buy a physical CD.
If interested, Rhapsody is giving away a free album to the first 100,000 people to sign up, but that offer ends on July 4, so better hurry up.
It also supports my belief that in the end people prefer OWNING the music they like, Vs. having to pay a monthly fee forever for the pleasure of listening to the music of their choice. But that is just my opinion.

Secondly, yesterday one of my favorite columnists, Lee Gomes, wrote an article about a new study from Harvard saying that the "Long Tail" concept first put forward by Chris Anderson in 2006 is not true. "The Long Tail" argued that the Internet, with its expansive shelf space, would mean a smaller role for mega-git products and a bigger one for the "long tail" of smaller niche products. The new article by Anita Elberse suggests that the Web is only cementing the prominence of a small number of cultural favorites.

I read the book, and came away with a very different impression. It may be true that Chris Anderson's idea that society is "shifting away" from the "hits" mentality that has driven our consumer society is not true on a macroscopic level.

If one throws enough money at marketing a "Hancock", it will have a huge opening, no matter how bad the product may be.

What struck me, and I believe to be true, is that within the "long tail" there are many many "niches", and if you look at each niche individually, they will each have their own "head", followed by a long tail.

What the internet has allowed to happen, due to the rapid inexpensive transmission of information and the low or no cost of "stocking" an item that is really just ones and zeros, is it has allowed these numerous niches to grow and even thrive as more people are able to find them.

The jazz music industry amounts to under 3% of all music sales in any given year. As the "major" labels have given up on this niche market as one that is unprofitable on their scale, it has opened up the playing field to niche marketers like myself that can target market this "micro economy", and be effective.

If you look at the JazzWeek Jazz Radio Album Chart for this week, you will see that over 50% of the artists are on small or self-released labels. My new album, COVER UP! is my 6th self-produced album over the last 10 years, and has just entered the charts at #43.

Believe me, this would not have happened 10 years ago.

So the "winner-take-all" dynamic has shifted. There is room enough now for everyone's creativity, and the cream will rise. I look forward to being in the "head" of my niche, and having a successful carreer, accordingly.

Wal-Mart Sings, Music Industry Dances

2008-06-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

The tail continues to wag the dog in the music industry. This week Wal-Mart announced an exclusive deal to sell the new AC/DC album. But more importantly, the company also announced a plan that could be the next step in the demise of the Physical CD. CD sales have fallen 16.5% this year according to Neilsen Soundscan. This follows a consistent pattern of double-digit losses for the last five years. WAL-MART ACCOUNTS FOR ABOUT 30% OF ALL CDS SOLD IN THE US(!) That alone is a scary statistic.
Now Wal-Mart says that they are considering extensive cuts to the catalog of music they carry in their stores. All these old CDs are taking up valuable floor space that could be used to sell toilet paper.
Maybe I have to be like Tim McGraw, and set up a partnership with Frito-Lay to get my CD sold at Wal-Mart. His last CD was packaged with a custom flavored snack called "Tim McGraw's Spicy Jalapeño Fritos" in a combo pack that sold for $12.00. Hmm... maybe I can hook up with Pepsi Cherry Jazz soda - a free CD with every 12 pack! I dunno.
Meanwhile Handleman Co., one of the largest rack jobbers in the business (they service the catalog at Wal-Mart stores) is selling the business - the CEO Al Koch says, "In the short term, it's not possible to downsize as fast as revenue is declining."
I hear the sound of the physical CD going the way of the long playing record...

Out Of Time 10th year anniversary

2008-05-31T08:33:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe that it was 10 years ago, in 1998, that I recorded OUT OF TIME – my first jazz release.

To see the rest of this post, and to read about Billy Higgins, the drummer on the session, please go to the OUT OF TIME web page
Sadly, Billy passed away in 2001, 3 years after this recording was made.

THROWING OFF THE DRM SHACKLES at LAST.FM

2008-05-10T13:19:00.000-07:00

(The new album cover - I hope you like it!)
One of the biggest stories of 2008 in the music business has been carefully buried or under-reported by the media: DRM, or digital rights management is gradually going the way of the compact disc.

It is clear that the people have spoken, and they like getting their music downloaded directly to their computer. They spoke REALLY LOUD in April when APPLE became the #1 music retailer in the US, beating out Best Buy for the first time (Apple was #2 in December 2007, and had been behind Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Amazon.com as recently as last June.) Paid downloads accounted for almost 30% of all music sold in January (for my catalog it accounts for at least 75% of sales every month).

Many people think that the main thing stopping digital sales from REALLY taking off is DRM - the various systems that have been set up to stop people from copying and/or sharing music they buy on the internet. This is the big draw-back with iTunes - you buy the download, but they limit how many copies you can make, and how many computers you can put the song on. Personally, I have no problem with this - the limits are plenty for my personal use, and as an artist I like the idea that one person is not allowed to buy my album and then just electronically give it to millions of folks. But the reality is, if someone wants to do that, they can - just by buying my CD, ripping it and away it goes, onto Limewire, or wherever. So why penalizes the people that prefer to pay and download the songs in the first place?

The walls have started falling fast this year: In January AMAZON announced that songs from all four major labels could be downloaded through Amazon MP3, their digital download store. They are the first retailer to reach agreements with all four of the major labels, so now you can download Justin, Beyonce, Mariah, Madonna and mental patient Britney if you choose to.

Now CBS, one of the last old-guard companies, had entered the fray with an update to a company started back in 2003: Last.FM
This year CBS announced that Last.fm will offer on-demand streaming of millions of tracks from all four major labels and a HUGE host of indies. There is no fee for the service - it is an "ad-supported" business model, with subscription upgrades if you desire. This service competes directly with Rhapsody and other streaming music services. The celestial jukebox has arrived, and it is sitting in your computer right now.
How huge is the "host of indies"? Well, as a test, I went on Last.fm today, typed in "George Kahn" in the search engine, pressed enter, and within 15 seconds I was listening to "Midnight Brew". No password to enter, no registration, no software to download to my computer.

I did not tell Last.fm to list my music in their service - obviously someone else did (CDBABY perhaps). And I certainly hope that people will click through to buy a song or a CD after listening. In the meanwhile, you will have to excuse me - I am going to type "Grateful Dead" into Last.fm and enjoy my afternoon.

IAJE Declares Bankruptcy

2008-04-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

A sad day for jazz, indeed. Here is a copy of the official press release that came out on April 14th.
Too bad someone like Herb Alpert gave all his money to UCLA, and didn't save some to keep the IAJE aloat. We will miss their annual Jazzfest - it was the best in the world!

Dear IAJE Family,

It is with a great sense of loss that I inform you that despite drastic efforts to cut expenses and raise emergency funds, the IAJE Board has voted to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the Federal Bankruptcy Law. I want to thank profusely those who responded with their generous donations and offers of assistance following my last communication. While over 250 individuals contributed just over $12,000, this, along with the many other efforts and contributions of IAJE staff, Board members, and association partners, was simply not enough to address the accumulated debt of the organization or its urgent need for cash relief.

In the next few days, a Kansas bankruptcy court will appoint a trustee to oversee all ongoing aspects of the association. This includes the ability to examine IAJE's financial records and mount an independent inquiry into the causes of it's financial downfall as well as disposing of the remaining assets of the association with proceeds distributed to creditors in accordance with Kansas and Federal law. The board will no longer be involved in operation of the organization and will at some point resign. IAJE as it presently stands will no longer exist...

Since the first communication to the membership outlining this crisis, there has been considerable public speculation as to its causes. As noted in that communication, years of dependence upon the conference as a primary (but unreliable) revenue stream and the launch of a well-intentioned capital campaign (the Campaign for Jazz), which generated a meager response but required considerable expenditures in advance of contributions, drove the association into insolvency. Sadly, the attendance at the conference in Toronto (the lowest in 10 years) exacerbated an already critical situation, depriving the association of the cash-flow needed to continue daily operations as well as the time needed to seek alternative resources.

While ultimately not able to skirt the financial land mines placed in its path, I want to assure you the IAJE Board has acted responsibly, ethically, and with a sense of urgency ever since it was blindsided last fall with the discovery of the extent of the accumulated association debt. Since that time, the board slashed spending, set specific performance targets for the Executive Director, sought outside consultations, and enlisted the services of several past-presidents and strategic association partners in attempts to raise funds - sadly, with minimal success.

It goes without saying, the board you elected is comprised of very accomplished, intelligent, and dedicated educators and professionals who have given generously of their time in service to this association and care about it passionately. Likewise, our entire professional staff, led by Associate Executive Director, Vivian Orndorff, and Executive Producer, Steve Baker, has worked heroically in the face of declining resources to meet the needs of the association and its members. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank both the board and staff for their service. I have been privileged and honored to serve with them. While there may be those who question specific decisions or strategies in efforts to meet this crisis, the dedication and integrity of these individuals should never be in doubt.

As we move forward, one of the most pressing questions is how the operations of individual chapters and affiliated associations will be affected by this filing. Since our chapters are either separate corporate entitles or voluntary associations with their own boards, constitutions and bylaws; IAJE views them as completely independent entities. Ultimately, however, the trustee and the court will make this determination and it is anticipated that the trustee may request certain information from the chapters in this regard.

Sadly, the 2009 IAJE International Conference in Seattle has been cancelled. However, there has been some discussion of mounting a regional conference in its place. At the moment, Lou Fischer, U.S. Board Representative is fielding inquiries: ljazzmanf@yahoo.com.

For the time being, the IAJE website will remain up. However, the international offices of IAJE will close their doors at the end of the day on Friday, April 18th. Should there be additional questions you may submit them to info@iaje.org and every attempt will be made to respond to these as staffing allows.

Today, we, the members of IAJE and the global jazz community, face an extremely important task. For, as we all recognize, the opportunities, impact, and work of this association are too vital to simply disappear. Whether you were first drawn to IAJE for its conference, its magazine or research publications, its student scholarship programs such as Sisters in Jazz or the Clifford Brown/Stan Getz All-Stars, its Teacher Training Institutes, the resources provided through its website or Resource Team, or any one of a number of other offerings; it is clear the mission of IAJE still resonates and its advocacy is needed today more than ever. We must, therefore, look at this as an opportunity to refocus the mission, scope, programs, and vision of IAJE (or whatever succeeds it) to better meet the needs of our members and the jazz community not only today but looking toward the future.

I am, in no way, suggesting the membership turn a blind eye towards the need for an independent inquiry into causes and ultimately assigning responsibility for this situation. I ask you recognize the court appointed trustee, who will have access to all necessary documents and facts, is charged with that task. Our efforts and our passion, should be to collectively rally the community to recognize the importance IAJE has had and continues to have in the life and development of jazz and jazz education - seeking new strategic partnerships, new government structures, and a revitalized mission that embraces current needs.

Already there are efforts to do just that. I know that Mary Jo Papich, who would have begun serving her term as President of IAJE beginning this July, is dedicated to recreating such an association. As many know, Mary Jo has been a tireless advocate for IAJE, serving it long and well. You will, undoubtedly, be hearing from her in the near future. When she does contact you, I urge you to join me in offering her every support and assistance. Of course, others may also seek to fill this void by promoting alternative visions for empowering, serving, and gathering the jazz community. While I generally believe such diversity is quite healthy, I would strongly encourage all such efforts and leaders to attempt to collaborate and seek ways to unite us in spirit and strength.

Finally, I would encourage you to recognize and remember IAJE for all the tremendous good it has done in the past 40 years. Many individuals have contributed along the way, often at considerable personal sacrifice of their time and resources, to establish and advance the work of this association. Much has been achieved that can never be taken away! Therefore, the vision, effort, and shared passion that have fueled the growth of IAJE and its programs should not be forgotten or considered in vain. Rather, the spirit that is IAJE must be rekindled into a new vision for the future.

Sincerely,

The IAJE Board - Chuck Owen, President

WHAT IS WEST COAST JAZZ?

2008-03-01T17:39:00.000-08:00

There is a fair amount of confusion about the term "West Coast Jazz". Some people would argue that West Coast Jazz is jazz recorded on the West Coast of California, from Los Angeles up to the San Francisco area. After all, some of Charlie Parker's most important recordings for Dial Records were made in LA, before and after he spent time "Relaxing at Camarillo". Wardell Grey, Teddy Edwards and Dexter Gordon all burned up the Central Avenue scene, playing bebop as bad as anyone on 52nd Street.

Some would say the West Coast Jazz is not based on location, but more a certain sound. Many people go so far to call it a creation of the West Coast record companies in an attempt to "brand" and cash in on a style that, for a moment, caught the ear of the nation via Dave Brubeck's quartet with Paul Desmond, and the creative "little big band" sound of Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All Stars.

I would posit that "West Coast Jazz" was (and is) really an attitude, a feeling, a "vibe" that could only originate in a place filed with palm trees, big, open horizons, ocean breezes and urbanity. It was an answer to the left turn that took place when the Big Bands died out and jazz starting chasing the Bird down the bebop trail. And it took the mix of the City and the Wild West to make it come together.

It is entwined with Cool Jazz - Gil Evans should be considered an honorary member of the West Coast Jazz contingent - after all, he lived in California from the age of 10, saw his first jazz concert in San Francisco when he was 15 (the Duke Ellington Orchestra), and Gil didn't really move to New York until he was almost 30 years old!

Fostered by the likes of Vince Guaraldi, Cal Tjader, Shorty Rogers, Andre Previn, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelly_Manne, Curtis Counce and others, the core of West Coast Jazz consists of:
- a less frenetic, calmer style (some might say more "soulful")
- interesting and more intricate arrangements, sometimes with a "classical" bent to the compositions
- a sophistication that is more "martini" than "whiskey"
- a willingness to try new sound combinations and orchestrations

Not that the west coast players couldn't BURN on any bebop tune (look at Art Pepper). Many of the live recordings from the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach gave light to the lie that West Coast Jazz players were all "laid back". In LA, where many of the jazz cats found their true financial calling by doing recordings for the movie and TV industry (such as Bud Shank, Jack Sheldon, and Shelly Manne) it kind of makes sense that West Coast Jazz would become more eclectic in form and instrumentation.

But the BEST of West Coast Jazz - the part that lifts my sails and makes me glad to carry on its tradition - is that part that speaks to the creative and adventurous in each of our souls. My goal is to create music that is classic, contemporary, hip and cool, all at once.

I think this new album will fill the bill. I hope you do, too, when you hear it.

2008: The Death of Digital Rights Management

2008-01-06T13:36:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2008! I thought I would celebrate my birthday (Jan. 7th) with a BLOG for the new year, a couple or resolutions and predictions.

Here are some statistics from the NY Times.
The bad news is that music sales of albums fell 15% from 2006, continuing the pattern of double-digit decreases from the last few years.
The good news is that RAP music sales fell 30%! Amazing - people will soon once again have to SING for it to be called music!

The good news is that DIGITAL sales increased by 45%!
The bad news is that this increase only brought the TOTAL decrease in sales down to 9.5% (The decline in album sales drops to 9.5 percent when sales of digital singles are counted as 10-track equivalent albums, per the NY Times article).

In the niche market of jazz, album sales were off 10.6%. That drop pretty much parallels the industry, so Jazz still only reflects about 3% of the total sales in the USA. The Ghetto has not gotten any bigger, it just continues to shrink with the industry as a whole.

Three of the top 6 albums for 2007 were Josh Groban, High School Musical 2 and Hannah Montana - showing that the music industry has already given up on what was it's core age group (16 - 30 year olds). Instead the focus is on music for 'tweeners too young to know how to download, or on parents too lazy to learn how. The #3 album in sales for the year was The Eagles, who totally bypassed the record industry, releasing the album themselves with an exclusive agreement to Wal-Mart. That turned into 2.6 million album sales, so I guess the $10,000,000 advance the Eagles got was a good bet by Wal-Mart, and a brilliant marketing move by the Eagles.

So, a couple of predictions for 2008 - 2010:
- The few remaining stand-alone music stores (Virgin, FYE, etc.) will close in the next 24 months. The few left standing will mainly sell fashion and "lifestyle" products, or become like Amoeba records, catering to used CDs and collectors.
- As attention spans grow shorter over the next 5 years, the concept of an "album" will gradually vanish, except for compilations, greatest hits packages and TV or movie soundtracks. These will succeed by pricing themselves low enough for people to see the value of the purchase, vs. 99 cent single-downloads.
- By 2010 all the major labels will throw in the towel re: DRM (digital rights management). Ease of purchasing music online and competitve pricing (i.e., cheaper, but not totally "free") will offset the losing battle to stop people from copying digital music.
- By 2010 the major entertainment companies will view music as an "ancillary product" that is there to promote a movie or a line of clothing. Even major artists will start to view albums as little more than advertisements for more-lucrative goods like concert tickets and T-shirts.
- Barring a couple of break-out artists, Jazz music will continue to be a niche market, but album sales will increase, as it becomes one of the few music forms that still holds up in an album format.

AS for New Year's resolutions, I resolve to continue to share my music with the world, as that really is my primary purpose.
I resolve to release my Best Jazz Album Ever in 2008.
I resolve to continue to use the internet - "the great leveler" - in creative ways to bring more attention to jazz and improvisational music.

How the Grinch Stole the Record Business

2007-12-20T19:27:00.000-08:00

As 2008 approaches, I find myself thinking more and more about the fate of the music business, the fate of the physical Compact Disc, and the fate of Jazz as a viable national product.
These observations are personal, and just support and confirm the double-digit losses that record sales are once again showing compared to 2006:
-I went to Harvard Square in November while visiting family back east. Upon asking to see their music department, I was informed that they closed the whole CD and DVD department down 2 years ago - students were no longer buying music and movies. (It is too easy for them to download or "share" the music with their classmates.) In reality there is NO record store in Harvard Square. The only place carrying music is Newbury Comics, and that store has a very small supply.
-If you go into a "big box" store, like Best Buy, Circuit City or Target I think you will notice that the CD department is one of the loneliest places around. No shortage of elbow room
-The top selling albums of the year are... Josh Groban singing Christmas Carols, and "High School Musical". More proof that the music business is giving up on what was once the core demographic (teen - 30 year olds) and focusing on selling product to kids too young to know how to download, or parents too lazy to learn.
-Starbucks bought "Hear Music" a couple of years ago with the idea of integrating a record company that could allow people to burn their own CDs while they sipped lattes. Last week I visited the one free-standing "Hear Music" store in LA, located on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. The front third of the store had been converted into a Starbucks. The back 2/3 was still filled with listening stations and a very eclectic selection of music CDs - and virtually no people.
-In place of record stores in the Malls this year, you find coffee places, booksellers and Nordstrom (to name a few) selling the TOP 10 CDs as impulse buys right next to the cash register. Only big names (Dylan, Springsteen, Alicia Keyes) need apply.

About 5 years ago I predicted the death of record stores as we knew them. Little did I know I would have the timing down so closely.

So where does this leave people like you and me - people who like diversity in music, adventure, experimentation and great music of all kinds? There is always the internet - which can be a very big, lonely place at times.
More shall be revealed - I look forward to your comments

Album Update #4 - Day 3-4

2007-11-28T09:42:00.000-08:00

The basic tracks are in the "can" (though it is not a can anymore, it is just a dedicated hard drive). Now the producing and editing fun begins.
All the tracks on the album were played "live", and were done in just a couple of takes in most cases (some, like "Wes' Coast" were done in one take!) At the same time, the recording studio at Brian's allows us to record each instrument in isolation - we were each in our own room, with visual view of each other and headphones for the sound. This allows each of us to go in and "fix" things, if we choose to, after the basic tracks are done.
Day 3 of the session was set aside for piano fixes. I am very picky about the quality of material that I release, and I want it to sound the very best. This style of recording allows me to go in and redo my solos, if I choose to, to really play the best that I am able. Of course, the "feel" comes first. I am not looking for the "perfect" solo, as much as the best "feel", and so very often the original take is what we ended up staying with. Sometimes, with the pressure of the initial tracks out of the way, I found that my mind and fingers found wonderful new places to go that really added to the songs.
On Day 4 I had Courtney Lemmon come back in to redo her vocals for "Use Me", and I also asked Justo if he would like to come back and play some more. This allowed Justo to play in the "big" room, where he was able to stretch out more, as opposed to the little iso room he was in when we did the initial recording. Justo really had a chance to open up with his tenor - it was great!
We were now nicely along in the project, and it was really starting to sound good! Little did I realize that, after Brian came back from a 3 week road trip in Europe, there would be so much more!

Album Update #3: Recording Day Two - Sept. 5, 2007

2007-10-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

Today started with the quintet, which has been my preferred instrumentation for live performances - sax, trumpet, piano, bass and drums, like The Jazz Messengers, the Adderley Brothers, Horace Silver, or the Miles Davis Quintet. This has always been my favorite jazz sound - a swinging rhythm section and two horns in front. For the morning session, during which the plan was again to knock out three tunes, I called two guys that I have played with often over the last few years: Justo Almario and John Fumo. They are both brilliant players, and way too underused on jazz recordings.

The first song was "Mitchell's Blues", a song dedicated to Blue Mitchell, a great trumpet player that worked with the Horace Silver Quintet. He and Junior Cook left Horace and started their own hard-bop quintet back in the mid-60's (you may want to check out their recordings with a very young Chick Corea on piano). The title does not refer to the song form - this is far from a blues. It is more a reflection on the reality that many of these bands faced in the 60's, playing 6 nights a week, three sets a night in clubs across America while the jazz audience dwindled away into the Rock n Roll scene. Of course, now we look back and say, "Well, at least they had clubs to play in!"

Our second track of the day was my arrangement of "My Favorite Things", from "The Sound Of Music". This is a song that we have been performing live for quite a while. John Coltrane had the "hit" - (check out the video) with this, and made numerous recordings, taking the two chord E-minor vamp in 3/4 to the moon and back. For my take on the song I wanted to focus on the Afro-Cuban feel of the 6/8 rhythm. We gave Alex a chance to start the song off with a conga and percussion solo to set the mood. Then the band kicks in with a 2/4 over 6/8 polyrhythmic feel. I asked Justo to play the melody a little straighter than he might usually, and we end up with what might happen if Julie Andrews performed with Babatunde Olatunji! The solos start open, and then follow the form of the song. On the way out John gets to play the Fluegel Horn (an instrument that was first extensively used in jazz by Shorty Rogers).

"Use Me" features Courtney Lemmon on vocals - Courtney also helped out on the "...Compared To What?" CD. When I went searching for songs to do as cover tunes on this album I immediately thought of Bill Withers. The song "Use Me" got me through the summer of 1972 when I was working at my father's factory in Queens, NY for a summer job during college. I would listen to the soul station on the radio, and Bill's song of love and lust was all over it that summer. He is such a pure spirit and true original - and his music reflects that. My version starts with an intro that may sound like the band is searching for the right key for the song. We finally settle into a C-minor groove, and then Courtney takes over. Stick around for the ending of this one - it is so hot, it makes me want to start the song over again every time I hear it!

After lunch, Pat Kelley joined the session and we started switching up the instrumentation a little. "Wes' Coast" is dedicated to Wes Montgomery. Wes was another total natural, like Bill Withers. His Riverside recordings set the bar for all jazz guitar records to follow. The song is in the style of the old Miles Davis Quintet, and is how I imagine a record would have sounded if Miles and Wes every worked together (to the best of my knowledge they never did). This song was so much fun to play, we could have gone on for 20 minutes. But that version will have to wait for another day. Pat plays a wonderful solo in the "Wes" style, and Fumo channels Miles for a bit. This song really shows how talented Alex Acuna is - here he holds an incredibly swinging beat throughout the tune, and still brings a sense of dance and percussiveness to the proceedings - it is so exciting to play with him - there is so much "life" going on.

"Cover Up!", the title song of the album, is the most contemporary sounding track of the collection, and it features Justo on tenor and Pat on electric guitar. Sexy and funky, it carries the listener on a little 24-bar journey as it moves through a few different tonal centers. This one is also inspired by Miles Davis, but a later incarnation, after he started experimenting with electric instruments. I take a small leap forward by letting Pat use a WAH WAH pedal on his guitar. What does the title mean? Is it a cover-up? Does it mean put some clothes on? Is it cold outside? You tell me.

We did record one more rhythm track that day as a quartet, an arrangement of "Love For Sale". This one I decided to shelve for the time being - the 11 tracks make a really great album - and so we call it a day.

What is "West Coast Jazz"?

2007-10-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

Some people would argue that West Coast Jazz is jazz recorded on the West Coast of California, from Los Angeles up to the San Francisco area. After all, some of Charlie Parker's most important recordings for Dial Records were made in LA, before and after he spent time "Relaxing at Camarillo". Wardell Grey, Teddy Edwards and Dexter Gordon all burned up the Central Avenue scene, playing bebop as bad as anyone on 52nd Street.

Some would say the West Coast Jazz is not based on location, but more a certain sound. Many people go so far to call it a creation of the West Coast record companies in an attempt to "brand" and cash in on a style that, for a moment, caught the ear of the nation via Dave Brubeck's quartet with Paul Desmond, and the creative "little big band" sound of Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All Stars.

I would posit that "West Coast Jazz" was (and is) really an attitude, a feeling, a "vibe" that could only originate in a place filed with palm trees, big, open horizons, ocean breezes and urbanity. It was an answer to the left turn that took place when the Big Bands died out and jazz starting chasing the Bird down the bebop trail. And it took the mix of the City and the Wild West to make it come together.

It is entwined with Cool Jazz - Gil Evans should be considered an honorary member of the West Coast Jazz contingent - after all, he lived in California from the age of 10, saw his first jazz concert in San Francisco when he was 15 (the Duke Ellington Orchestra), and Gil didn't really move to New York until he was almost 30 years old!

Fostered by the likes of Vince Guaraldi, Cal Tjader, Shorty Rogers, Andre Previn, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelly_Manne, Curtis Counce and others, the core of West Coast Jazz consists of:
- a less frenetic, calmer style (some might say more "soulful")
- interesting and more intricate arrangements, sometimes with a "classical" bent to the compositions
- a sophistication that is more "martini" than "whiskey"
- a willingness to try new sound combinations and orchestrations

Not that the west coast players couldn't BURN on any bebop tune (look at Art Pepper). Many of the live recordings from the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach gave light to the lie that West Coast Jazz players were all "laid back". In LA, where many of the jazz cats found their true financial calling by doing recordings for the movie and TV industry (such as Bud Shank, Jack Sheldon, and Shelly Manne) it kind of makes sense that West Coast Jazz would become more eclectic in form and instrumentation.

But the BEST of West Coast Jazz - the part that lifts my sails and makes me glad to carry on its tradition - is that part that speaks to the creative and adventurous in each of our souls. My goal is to create music that is classic, contemporary, hip and cool, all at once.

I think this new album will fill the bill. I hope you do, too, when you hear it.

Album Update #2: Recording Day One - Sept. 4, 2007

2007-10-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

We started recording around 10:00 AM at Brian Bromberg's studio, called B2 (as in "B Squared") Studios. Brian has a lovely German grand piano there, and a great engineer named Tom McCauley that also signed on for the project.
The goal for the first day was to knock out 6 tunes in about 6 hours - not impossible, but certainly a good days work. Day one was all trio stuff, so that made things a lot simpler than dealing with different set-ups and instrumentation.
Alex's drums were all set up when I arrived, and by 11:00 or so we had good drum and piano sounds happening. The studio is set up where each of us were in an isolation room, with headphones - both Brian and Alex could see me, so I was in charge of signalling any tempo changes, stops or starts.
We started out with Eleanor Rigby, the well-known Beatles tune. This song has a feel like the old Ramsey Lewis Trio recordings - as a matter of fact, most of Ramsey's hit albums in the mid- 60s consisted of cover tunes of pop music. He even did a whole album of Beatles tunes in 1968! To keep in the "West Coast Jazz" style I composed an intro to the song that switches back and forth between 4/4 and 6/8 time signatures, using the string part from the original Beatles arrangement as a jumping off point. We had no trouble falling into the groove on this one!
Next up was "Sunshime Of Your Love" the classic rock tune by CREAM. This was a challenge to arrange - I wanted to make it swing, but not sound like a SNL-lounge version of the tune that Bill Murray might try to sing at a karaoke bar. Of course, working with Brian and Alex brings you to a place far from Karaoke! The drums have a bit of hip-hop feel to them, and we de-contructed the melody a bit. Add Brian's double stops, and - voila! - an arrangement that even Clapton would be proud of. Alex gets to take a solo, and, luckily, he had no idea who Ginger Baker is!
The third tune was our only original of the day, "Mr. K. V.". This song is dedicated to my favorite LA acoustic bass player, Karl Vincent. After a jagged unison melody line, it settles into a swinging feel over blues changes. This song was inspired by John Coltrane's tribute to his long-time bass player, Paul Chambers (Mr. P.C.).
After a lunch break, we came back and played Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. Having spent many drug-induced evenings listening to this band, as well as seeing them live, I always have wanted to delve into their music. This song for me has always had one of their strongest lyrics, and so I felt it would be a great taking-off spot for a piano trio. You'll have to listen and judge for yourself if we did it justice.
For the 5th song of the day we attacked a medley of two songs, the Lennon/McCartney classic Yesterday, and the jazz chestnut Yesterdays by Jerome Kern. Initially I had heard this as just the two songs played pretty much one after the other. After all, "Yesterdays" is written in the relative minor of "Yesterday", and it would be pretty easy to do a double time swing on the second tune to set it apart. Brian looked at the chart the weekend before the session and suggested trying to do more of a "mash-up" of the two songs, swinging from the chorus of one to the bridge of the other - and by the time we got to the session I had found a way to do just that. The song starts with a baroque piano solo on the Beatles tune, and moves into a "Dave Brubeck - meets - Floyd Cramer" swing section before Brian takes over with a searing bass solo. This was fun!
We ended the day with an evocative song from John Mayer, "Waiting On the World To Change". Once again, I was inspired by the lyrics, and felt that although John did a great rock version of this song it really called out for a more gospel rendition. (You can see John Mayer's video for this song on his website.) Having lived through the Vietnam War (from a distance - I lucked out with a high draft number), I have spent the last few years horrified by the sad events that have taken place to our troops and to the people in Iraq. "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose." I, and most of my generation, started out with such high ideals and now I have found that I continue to wait on the world to change.
Well, that wrapped up day one - a good day's work (and play!)

Album Update #1 - background

2007-10-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

Making a jazz album is like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. You need to prepare, have all your tools and charts together, bring all the right people into the same place at the same time, and then... you gotta let go. And if everything goes right, lightning strikes, the magic happens, and the sum ends up way greater than the parts.
After months of preparation, testing out songs, writing and re-writing charts, checking out studios and calling players, all the pieces came together on September 4th and 5th, 2007. These were the two days set up to record my 5th jazz album.
I see each album as a progression, as a movement forward in time. And each album gets better! There were a few pieces of feedback that I got after "Compared To What?" was released in 2005: people wanted to hear more songs that they recognized; they wanted to hear more piano; and there were many requests to hear me, Brian Bromberg and Alex Acuna work more as a piano trio.
So the new album aims to fill those requests: There are 7 cover tunes, and 4 originals. Brian, Alex and I perform 6 of the 11 songs as a piano trio. And I guess you will all have to deal with more piano solos.
Brian Bromberg agreed to not only play his "downright upright" bass on the album, he also agreed to produce the album with me! This is huge, and I am so glad he offered to do this. (Brian, by the way has one of the Top 10 smooth jazz albums in the nation currently, called Downright Upright.)
Alex Acuna also came along. Again to my good fortune, Brian and Alex have been working together often (actually they just got back from touring with Lee Ritenour), so they were TIGHT!
For the horns on this album I also called on the two guys that helped out on the last couple of CDs: Justo Almario and John Fumo. Justo and Alex go way back, and they know how to get inside the rhythm. And I just love the way John plays - sometimes he gets so close to channeling Miles that I think he might be a gypsy medium or something.
I wrote one track, called "Wes' Coast", which is a tribute to the old Riverside recordings that Wes Montgomery did. I needed the best guitarist in LA to nail that style, and I got him: Pat Kelley came in and played on that tune, as well as one other. And then I invited Courtney Lemmon to return for another funky vocal track to round out the album.
So now it is time to dive into the actual day...

MAX ROACH, 1924-2007

2007-09-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it is over a month since the day that Max Roach died. And over two weeks since Joe Zawinul died. This blog was never meant as an obit file, but these are some important dudes - Joe affected virtually EVERY pianist that lived through the '60s, and Max Roach was the last living member of The Founding Fathers of Bebop. For a brief introduction to this sound, pelase check out a Fantasy recording, released on DEBUT, and available in other releases, called THE QUINTET - Jazz at Massey Hall with Diz on trumpet, Bird on sax. Bud Powell on piano, Mingus on bass and Max Roach on drums, recorded May 15, 1953.
or type Jazz at Massey Hall Quintet into iTunes, and you can hear 30 second samples.
Rather than blab on, Ethan Iverson from THE BAD PLUS wrote a GREAT article on his blog - check it out,it is worth a read, and a listen

http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2007/08/max-roach-1924-.html

all love - George

George Kahn Quintet, Live at LACMA (at Last!!)

2007-09-30T11:39:00.002-07:00

What a wonderful evening this summer! After years of knocking on the door, George finally got the WEST COAT JAZZ Quintet into a Friday Night Jazz slot at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
More info to follow...

George Kahn Quintet live at LACMA

2007-09-09T21:19:00.001-07:00

A Night of Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl

2007-08-23T22:20:00.000-07:00

Last night was a most enjoyable and interesting experience - I joined THOUSANDS of other people that went to see Dave Brubeck at the Hollywood Bowl. Along with Dave there was Madeleine Peyroux and Bruce Hornsby
Bruce was trying out his new album in front of a big audience, and he was joined by album mates Christian McBride and Jack Dejohnette.
Well, let's just say that Brubeck showed the youngsters how it is done - his quartet was awesome - great dynamics, incredible interplay, wonderful choice of material. It was wonderful to see a master still in the game at 87 years old!
I enjoy M. Peyroux's song(s), and her phrasing is fun, but her voice got a bit annoying by the end of the set - and she never bothered to introduce her band. It was that Norah-Jones kind of music where you know the musicians must be having a good time, but damn if they are ever going to show it - it looked like the bass player and drummer were on quaaludes, or some type of drug that sapped all creativity out of their playing.
Mr. Hornsby, on the other end, was full of creativity, but was sorely lacking in dynamics and chord progressions. It is always a blast to hear Jack Dejohnette, and Christan McBride and they did a great job lending some jazz authenticity to Hornsby's stab at being a jazz pianist. The best tune of the night for him was a Keith Jarrett song. This was most appropriate, as Jarrett seems to be his main influence.
For some reason they had Bruce Hornsby close out the evening, and I would not want to have to follow Dave Brubeck, especially with a band that was performing on stage only for the fourth time in their existence. Talk about starting at the top - way to go, Bruce! Now, if only he had reworked a cool jazz version of "The Way It Is", and sung it with the guys, maybe they all would have loosened up some and had more fun. As it was, it just seemed like Hornsby had something to prove, and was working really hard to live up to some Jazz-Worthiness level to play with those two giants.
Dave Brubeck, on the other hand, had nothing to prove. He was clearly having the time of his life on the stage with band mates that he has played with for decades. They were a well oiled machine. And the best thing was - thousands and thousands of people showed up to hear a jazz quartet play, with no flash or trash, just great music in an wonderful setting. Go Dave! Long may you wave!

LALA Land Redux

2007-06-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

The big news this last week in the digital music arena was the announcement by LALA.com that they intended to make money by - giving music away! This is news?
LALA.com started as a CD-swapping site, where you can list CDs you want, and CDs you own, and they would connect you to others that HAD the CD you want, or wanted the CDs you own, and for a buck you would get to "swap" the CDs, thereby avoiding purchase or resale through used CD stores or sites. Did this idea work? I dunno, sounded kind of kooky to me.

On Monday 6/4, newly revamped Lala launched a free service (in Beta, at this point) that scans your digital tracks—everything you own from ripped CDs, iTunes downloads or any other means—and then lets you log into the website anywhere to access that music. You can even sideload tracks to your iPod when you're far away from home. Sounds kind of like a big digital juke box in the sky - access to all your music anywhere, plus access to streaming of "shared" music by anyone who is on the LALA network. What does Lala get out of this? They hope that, once you sample the music, you will buy the album through their sales site. Does this idea work? I dunno, sounds kind of kooky to me, very Internet1.0, don't you think?

Actually, excuse me for showing my age, but it sounds almost identical to what MP3.com tried to do and then got sued into oblivion for attempting. It all comes back to the old argument that once someone buys a CD of music, they can do what they want with it. Michael Robertson of MP3.com argued this fact when he created mymp3.com. Here is the info from wikipedia:

"On January 12, 2000, MP3.com launched the "My.MP3.com" service which enabled users to securely register their personal CDs and then stream digital copies online from the My.MP3.com service. Since consumers could only listen online to music they already proved they owned the company saw this as a great opportunity for revenue by allowing fans to access their own music online. The record industry did not see it that way and sued MP3.com claiming that the service constituted unauthorized duplication and promoted copyright infringement.

Judge Jed S. Rakoff, in the case UMG v. MP3.com, ruled in favor of the record labels against MP3.com and the service on the copyright law provision of "making mechanical copies for commercial use without permission from the copyright owner." Rather than fight on appeal, MP3.com settled with the major labels for more than $200 million and the service was discontinued. This decision turned out to be the beginning of the end of the original MP3.com as the firm, unaware of the impending dot-com bust, no longer had sufficient funds to weather the technology downturn. To add to their woes music publishers, spurred by the success of the record label suits, also sued MP3.com with their own claims of payment due."

The only big difference here is that lala is also trying to sidestep Apple's iTunes player, so there may be a lawsuit lurking there, also. Meanwhile, in the spirit of research and curiosity I tried adding the program to my Mac this week, and found it to not work at all, and just slowed down everything else on my computer. So I removed it again.

Is the problem with the music industry the lack of access to music? I don't think so. If Bill Nguyen, founder of lala.com, took his millions and helped support the creation of new music rather than creating a new way for people to avoid buying music (and thereby avoid paying the musician's royalties), perhaps the music business would have more of a chance to flourish.

Can Jazz Survive Inside the Big Box?

2007-05-04T21:09:00.000-07:00

More statistics regarding the music business, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal: Ten years ago, back in the long dark history of 1997, big-box chains (like Target, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart) sold about 20% of all music. Now, these stores account for at least 65% of music sales. This is due to the aggressive pricing and advertising that these type of stores use to lure customers in. These stores will use the newest American Idol release as a loss leader, in the hopes that you will buy a plasma TV on the way out.

Along the way, old fashioned "record stores" (like Tower or Sam Goody) were squeezed out of the market. Tower needed a profit margin of 30% to make it fly, while a place like Target can get by just making 14% on a sale of a CD. They can do this by only stocking the albums that sell: a typical Best Buy store will carry as few as 8,000 different titles, while Tower's average location carried more than 100,000 music CDs.

So where does this leave the Jazz music buyer? Really, how many copies of "Kind Of Blue" does one person need to own? If a jazz fan is looking to explore choices in music, the obvious location now is on the Internet, where the "LONG TAIL" of Jazz music is flourishing.

The "Long Tail" discussion is for another day. Today the question is, can even a Norah Jones or a Diana Krall exist in the Big Boxes? And who's to blame here? Is it that people's taste in music has gone to hell in a hand basket? Is it that the stores aren't stocking music, so people aren't buying? Or is it that the record companies are turning out crap, and so everyone has moved on to DVDs and video poker games?

One convincing argument is that the record companies have priced themselves out of business. Gary Arnold, Senior Vice-President for Entertainment at Best Buy, was quoted in the WSJ Journal article: "Music has become a commoditized product. The CD is perceived by consumers to be a $10 item, and the manufacturers continue to release new titles at ...$18.98." I can't agree more - How can I justify spending $19.99 on the soundtrack for "Dreamgirls" when I can buy the DVD of the movie for $15.99? It just doesn't make sense.

At my gig last night at the Jazz Bakery in LA, I decided that, instead of selling my CDs at the gig for $15 or $20 bucks like more indie artists do, I would price them at $10 bucks each. Unlike other recent gigs where I might sell one or two CDs if I am lucky, this time a full 10% of the people there bought CDs on the break or before they went home. Let's get real - everyone knows that the cost of manufacturing the CD runs at MOST $1.80 a unit, so why get greedy? Let's spread the music, and spread a little love at the same time.

Even in jazz, there are people that are willing to spend the extra money to get the original artwork and packaging of a CD, but how many more people would test out new types of music, including jazz, if they could by a stripped-down, no frills package of music priced cheaply enough to let people test the waters? How about a paperback version of Miles Davis' Greatest Hits? We may need to think outside the "Big Box" to finally get inside the "Big Box".

The Sad State of Jazz Album Sales

2007-04-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

An article in the Wall Street Journal today speaks about the slump in Jazz sales in 2006. While classical and country music have increased, Jazz sales are slipping away, down from the paltry 3% of all album sales that it used to achieve. Once again, as they say every 5-10 years, "there are signs of rebirth" in the jazz music arena.
But let's take a look at the three albums that the WSJ says are notable new albums:
WYNTON MARSALIS: From the Plantation to the Penitentiary
Well, after a month of release, the newest album from the "King" of retro jazz cannot even muster 10,000 units sold. It used to be a jazz album that sold 50,000 was considered a "hit". Of course, the low sales might stem from the fact that Mr. Marsalis decided to "rap" on one of the cuts, or it could be that people are just tired of his pontificating.
MATHENY/MELDAU: Quartet
A jazz marketing dream, combining the new-aged ramblings of Pat Metheny with the just plain ramblings of Brad Meldau is bound to trigger album sales, enough that the record company has released this, their second collection. Don Heckman in his recent review of the concert here in LA by the quartet said: "it was easier to admire the virtuosity and inventiveness of both players than it was to feel any sense of involvement. Despite the firepower, the talent and the marquee names on the bill, this was a program in which — unlike Simon's "The Odd Couple" — the two disparate elements never found a fully engaging (and engaged) way to interact with each other."
See the complete review

KIM WATERS: You are My lady
Well, I dunno this guy, but he has put out 9 albums over the last 9 years, FOUR of which include the word "love" in the title (this falls into the "know your market" category of successful marketing). Sad to say, even here in the "smooth jazz" world the heat is off- after three weeks on the market Kim has sold 6,100 copies.

Now, I am not casting aspersions on anyone that can sell over 5000 albums in less than a month. But I do think that the sales of jazz music will continue to slip, as long as people continue to turn out formula-based albums. It is time to break out of the mold. Play the Coachella Music Festival, anyone?

The Genie is still out of the bottle, and EMI rubs the lamp

2007-04-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

Today EMI Music announced that they would allow people to buy digital downloads with no copying restrictions. All I can say is, it's about time, don't you think?
Here is the Wall Street Journal article from today.
Having been around since mp3.com (and an original shareholder - that was a good ride for a while), I always really agreed with Michael Robertson - the record companies let the Genie out of the bottle when they created CDs. Once they released the music in digital form, the bits and bytes get hard to hang on to. And, if the record company was very happy to take our money when we converted the music (vinyl albums) we owned to digital form by purchasing the CDs, shouldn't we have the right to move it from there onto our computer, iPod, Walkman or wherever? Do they have the right to charge us again every time we move it to a different machine or format?
YES, I know the argument that this doesn't solve the problem of people illegally sharing song files or downloading the music without buying it. But suing college kids probably isn't the solution either. If the music has value, people will pay for it - once. If they like it, they will come back for more. And if you give them unfettered access, they are more likely to pay the $1.00 entrance fee, knowing they get to keep the music with them, wherever (and however) they go.

April 1, '07 - The downfall of record companies, the rebirth of music

2007-04-01T23:07:00.000-07:00

April 1st – we have just entered the second quarter of 2007. Amazing.
The newspapers report that CD sales are off 20% from last year. Digital sales are up, but not nearly enough to offset this loss.

The record companies, in the meanwhile, are all setting up Digital record Labels, focused on putting out individual downloads by composers, or from TV shows or movies.

But the bigger question is: who needs the record labels anymore? Actually, while we are at it – who needs radio anymore? We seem to have reached a TIPPING POINT in the music industry, where the idea of buying a $12.00 (or $18.00!) album to get the one song you heard on the radio just makes no sense. Buy the songs you like, pop ‘em into your ipod, and plug it into your car and go cruising – no more ads, no more Cd jewel cases to crack. Makes sense to me!

But what happened to that time of discovery – when you would sit down for 30-40 minutes and get into someone’s audio vision of the world. When not just a song, but a SET of music put together by an artist could carry you to a whole ‘nother world? The ideal is still there – I still want to share that kind of experience with my listeners, and not just a three minute snippet of what I do and who I am. That is why I love jazz – we are in another time zone with it (maybe another place and time). I hope you will still come along with me when the moment appears.

March 1, '07 - Satellite Radio Monopoly?

2007-04-01T23:04:00.000-07:00

I was a very early subscriber to XM Radio, and they always have had really great jazz programming (and have the good taste to program my CDs as well!) But then I leased a new Volvo, and the car came with a free 6 month subscription to Sirius Satellite radio, so I switched. It also came with an auxiliary input for my IPod, so the choices instead of ad-based radio are multiplying.
Meanwhile, I have a bunch of gripes with Sirius. I find the programming much less interesting than what I had on XM, and it all feels a lot more “robotic”. I know, with 100 stations I didn’t think they really had 100 DJs sitting in booths all day long spinning discs, but at least on XM they found a way to make it at least SOUND like there is a real person there and they care if you are listening. Plus the digital sound files that Sirius uses sound like they are of less quality than what I got on XM, plus there are numerous digital “glitches” in some of the recordings (most people probably don’t notice, but it drives me bonkers). And the signal is less steady than XM, with lots of drop-outs.
So I was all ready to switch back to XM when the free trial ends, but THEN they announce that XM and Sirius want to merge. What is that about? Why would XM radio want to saddle itself with all that debt that Sirius took on by giving Howard Stern $500 million dollars? (Come to think of it, that could pay for a whole lot of DJs on the other stations...). What happened to the good old days when a company is consistently losing money like Sirius is, and they GO OUT OF BUSINESS, instead of being merged with the competition? Oh well, I guess it is the American way, merge and shuffle the numbers to protect the guilty...
Meanwhile, has anyone bought a CD lately? Can you find a store that still sells more than the TOP 30 of what you don’t really want to listen to anyway? Since December after Tower closed, I have purchased all my albums on Itunes, burned them and printed out the cover art – it is simple, fast, and cheaper. The times have changed, and will continue to do so.