October is upon us. Not much to share other than this run on sentence. Playing music is a fascinating and bizarre career path with many ups and downs that don’t always align with the norms of normalcy within the social construct of 9-5 concepts that dominate our societal systems based on one’s expected alignment within…

Hey everyone! It’s been a whirlwind here in Batesland with summer in full effect and I’m already thru Jazz Camp teaching season as well as the Twin Cities Jazz Fest! Highlights from the last month include teaching the Minneapolis Public Schools JAM (Jazz Around Minneapolis) Camp and my annual week of combo and improv at…

Hey everyone what’s happening?! I can only hope you are getting outside and enjoying this fantastic spring weather. It’s been a tremendous turnaround since we were deluged with that snowstorm a couple of weeks ago.  This month I’m keeping it simple and focusing on making and presenting music. The work of play and the benefits…

Well all the snow melted. Then it came back. And Old Man Winter laughs as our feeble minds attempt to reconcile. Indeed discontentedness is prevalent in all aspects of our lives. American politics is a shit show and the polarization of the American populace continues unabated as our so call leaders play teenage games with…

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all of you! I can’t thank you enough for being here and supporting my efforts to bring you quality, homegrown original music with the various ensembles I’m involved in. It is truly humbling. I will do my best to keep the quality up so you can trust the…

Well it’s finally arriving tonight – winter. We’ll see how long it lasts this year. Hopefully I’ll get some deep stuff out of my head and onto a hard drive or a piece of manuscript paper. After that then it has a chance to get to you so you can hear it too! Trust me…

Winter is coming and so are some exciting changes in Batesland. Greetings magnificent humans! It’s been a long while since I updated the old blog-a-roonie and I apologize for that. I sometimes get lost in living life and not caring to much about promoting myself or my music. I am planning on a full redesign…

It’s happening so fast! Mid summer is here and cruising by toot suite. I hope you’ve all been enjoying this spectacular season! I have been quite busy gigging, teaching and hanging with many friends, and family too. TONIGHT!!! Atlantis Quartet plays at Icehouse starting about 9:30pm. $10 cover gets you two big sets of award-winning original music from Zacc,…