Mahaev @ The Joint with Mr DanZ

Everyone needs something fun to do on a Friday night, so I've got you covered this week. This Friday, September 30th, I'm performing at a relatively new venue called The Joint with Mahadev, the wonderful world-groove-jam quartet/quintet led by guitarist Dave Cipriani. We are followed by the talented fusion slam-dance that is Mr. DanZ, led by my good buddy and trio bassist Ben Shepherd and another fellow Orkestar MEZE member, Milen Kirov.

Here's the best part...tickets are FREE if you contact me before the show and say "ooh ooh me me I want to go!" Please leave a comment here, look me up through my website, facebook, or any other means and I'll get you a ticket. You can hear some Mahadev on the facebook page...see the event here! Here are the nitty gritty details:

Mahadev @ The Joint with Mr. DanZ
Friday, September 30th
Mahadev starts at 8pm, Mr. DanZ follows
FREE tickets by contacting me (leave a comment!) OR $5 at the door

The Joint
8771 West Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA

Mahadev with special guests

Mixing and Orkestar MÉZÉ

Hello everyone! Keeping cool? .....me neither.

I've begun mixing for my debut trio album (to feature Ben Shepherd and Cameron Hicks) with engineer John Aspinall, and I'm pleased with the results so far. I've picked takes, and we've got a great rough mix on "Dirty Sugar". Tonight we will apply that general mix to some other tracks and start picking through the details and nuances of each song. This is my first top-to-bottom, self-produced, full-length (and other hyphenated phrases) project, and I am already having a blast putting it together. Make sure to check back here for updates on the album.

For about six months, I have been a part of an incredibly fun band, Orkestar MÉZÉ. Headed by pianist/keyboardist/composer Milen Kirov, Orkestar MÉZÉ is LA's only Balkan Brass Gypsy Funk Band, delivering infectiously groovy tunes from Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia and Romania with a healthy dose of funk. We had a great gig a few weeks ago at the Bootleg Theater, the crowd was digging it, and some video was captured...check these out!

Orkestar MÉZÉ at the Bootleg Theater 1

Orkestar MÉZÉ at the Bootleg Theater 2

Orkestar MÉZÉ at the Bootleg Theater 3 (yes, that's Ben Shepherd on the electric bass)

One more video of the band at CalArts this Spring:

Orkestar MÉZÉ playing "Sandokan" at the Wild Beast

There is a recording being planned for Orkestar MÉZÉ; more details as I get them. Until then, I'll post any gigs we have here. Bring out your inner peasant!

A few gigs and a project

Happy 4th of July weekend to you all. I'm playing a quartet gig at a party tonight with Milen Kirov, a great composer/keyboardist. We're playing some killer Bulgarian and Macedonian funk jams, ornaments and odd time signatures, but always funky. If any of you are going to be in the South Bay tomorrow morning (Saturday), come check out the Alex Smith Trio featuring Alex Smith on drums, Emilio Terranova on bass, and myself on saxophones. Yes, this is JAZZ THUNDER under the leadership of Alex!

Close friends of mine know that I have been a long-time fan of Meshuggah, a metal band whose music centers around intricate, "over-the-barline" rhythms set over a deep groove. Meshuggah holds various points of interest for me, but I am finally getting to a little project of transcribing some of the incredible guitar solos by lead guitarist Fredrik Thordendal. I've only got one down so far, but several more planned for the coming weeks. His solos are both frantic and skillfully constructed, and each solo yeilds a different, highly creative approach, something not often found in the rock/metal world. I will post some pdf files here for reference and (hopefully) discussion once I've compiled a few solos. In the meantime, if you haven't checked out Meshuggah yet, DO IT!