A Great Weekend in Idyllwild

I had the pleasure of experiencing the Idyllwild Jazz In The Pines Festival in two ways this year - as a guest and as a performer.  If you have not experienced this great event during it's 19 year history, you owe it to yourself to check it out next year.

Three stages filled with an amazing variety of jazz and blues, Zydeco, Cajun and more.  It takes place in the most beautiful setting - the campus of the Idyllwild Arts Academy.  The place is so huge that you can have three bands playing outdoors simultaneously, and the sound at each stage does not interfere with the other performers!  A great "French Quarter" area for dancing to the rockin' blues bands.  Wonderful craft booths. The friendliest  staff, and a chance to meet and greet with some great jazz artists.

This year's line-up was an outstanding collection of Los Angele's finest musicians.  Besides my trio featuring Courtney Lemmon on vocals, I had a chance to see Janis Mann with an all-star band, Kenny Burrell Trio, Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, Mary Stallings with Eric Reed, Brian Bromberg, The Hot Club of Idyllwild, Mike Woffor and Holly Hofman, etc, etc.

The weekend capped off with two acts that really showed the variety of talent at this festival:  The main stage featured and amazing latin jazz ensemble, Johnny Polanco Y Su Conjunto Amistad.  At the same time at another stage was the cream of Los Angeles' Jazz Elite performing with Clayton Cameron on drums, Billy Childs on piano, Darek Oles on bass, Bob Sheppard on Tenor sax, Gilbert Castellanos on trumpet and Duane Benjamin on trombone.

If you missed our show in Idyllwild, Courtney and I are bringing it to the Hip Kitty on Saturday night, Sept. 8, and then to Vitello's in Studio City on Thursday September 29.  Hope to see yo uthere, andhope to see you next summer, at the Jazz In The Pines 2013 Festival, on August 17 and 18.

George Kahn and Courtney Lemmon play Idyllwild JazzFest August 26

THE GEORGE KAHN TRIO TO PERFORM

AT 19^th ANNUAL IDYLLWILD JAZZFEST

WITH SINGER COURTNEY LEMMON

SUNDAY AUGUST 26^TH

THE GEORGE KAHN TRIO, will take the stage at the 19th Annual IDYLLWILD JAZZFEST on Sunday afternoon, August 26.  Featuring singer COURTNEY LEMMON, George will be accompanied by Lyman Medeiros on bass and M. B. Gordy on drums.  The set will start at 1:30 PM and end at 2:30 PM.  George and Courtney will perform a variety of original compositions as well as recognizable hits from his various albums, for a thoroughly entertaining Jazz experience.

 

http://www.idyllwildjazz.com/

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From the Los Angeles area: Take Highway 10 east, past San Bernardino, through banning, to 8th Street exit. Turn Right and follow the signs to HWY 243 to Idyllwild. Turn right on Tollgate and follow to Festival parking.

The "Cover Up" Recording Session

Mark Berndt is an amazing photographer and graphic artist - he has designed and/or done the photos for many of my CDs (Out Of Time, Midnight Brew, ...Compared To What and Cover Up).  Here is a wonderful collection of rare photos from the Cover Up sessions, featuring Brian Bromberg, Alex Acuna, Justo Almario, John Fumo and Courtney Lemmon

Cover Up! session photos

The Jazz Shmammys Are Official!

1. And The Winner is....  A quick follow-up on my Grammy Awards comment last month.  The four Jazz Grammy’s were awarded. Two of the four prizes went to Chick Corea (FOREVER).  Interestingly enough, on Spotify the track that won best solo, (500 Miles High) is not available for streaming.  ALSO, on both iTunes and Amazon the song is not available for purchase or download unless you buy the whole album. I wonder how many Grammy voters actually heard the solo they voted for? Vocal Jazz Awards went to Terri Lynne Carrington (The MOSAIC PROJECT) for an adventurous album by a drummer who brings together many of the best female vocalists (and instrumentalists) in jazz today.  A worthy effort.  Big Band Award went to Christian McBride (THE GOOD FEELING) - this was a bit of an upset, with LA-Based jazz great Gerald Wilson up for a well-deserved and never received Grammy for LEGACY.  Oh well, it would have been a nice 94th birthday present.  A more interesting fact is that of the 4 awards, 3 of them went to Concord Records, which is distributed by Universal and is now the 5th largest record group in the world.  So it pays to be big in the world of the Grammys.  Which brings us to:
2. Scary Statistics: Some really interesting facts about the music industry:
   

• In 2008 105,000 albums were released (428.4 million units sold total) 
• In 2011 77,000 albums were released  (330.6 million units sold)  A 26% drop in releases, and a similar drop in sales. 
• In the last 10 years music sales are down 60% (that is worse than the Las Vegas Real Estate Market!)  
• In 2011 the top 10 albums made up 6% of all sales (Adele made up 3% of all sales for the year).  Of the 77,000 albums released, 2% (1,500) represented 90% of all sales.  The old 80/20 rules is now the 90/2 rule.   

• If you do the math, this means that 98% of albums released last year averaged sales of 438 units.
• The number 2 search engine behind Google today is: YouTube  (which is owned by: Google)
• 95% of music that is streamed on the internet is not paid for.  The VAST majority of this music is streamed on: YouTube
• Every minute of the day, 60 hours of new video and audio are uploaded to: YouTube
• Think about this the next time you download music without buying it.

The Jazz Shmammys - who cares?

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

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.