Greetings! Happy Spring! Rebirth and renewal abound! Everything is so exciting don’t you think?!??!

Well, it’s been a helluva month.

• Thanks to Jason Squinobal I had a great weekend at the U of Mn Morris Jazz Festival with Chicagoans Scott Hesse -gtr and Rob Haight -sax, and the great Phil Hey.
• I got to play the beautiful Terry Riley piece ‘In C’ with a chamber group of 4 bassists (Fletcher, McKinney, O’Brien, Roessler), 2 percussionists (Healey, Schutte) and Dosh – We will be doing that again soon, Promise. Summertime.
• The Good Vibes trio played a wonderful quartet set with saxophonist Adam Kolker at Jazz Central to a full house. So good to see so many new people at the show.
• The month culminated in the premier of ‘Morning Follows Night’; an original Jazz Noir radio drama produced by KBEM FM that featured a live music soundtrack composed & performed by myself, Steven Hobert and Solomon Parham. The challenge of assembling the music for a live radio broadcast was and made the experience with the actors and writers more were a joy to work with. It will be broadcast again soon and then it will be archived for streaming at KBEM.
• I went to my first Comic-Con.

May is (thankfully) looking a little slower but super solid creatively. I’m especially excited about one thing:

Red Planet! This super power trio of galactic energy transformers is playing it’s first full show of 2015 on Friday! Jazz Central Studios Bridge Series presents this intrepid trio of interstellar travelers for your dancing and listening pleasure. Dean Magraw, Jay Epstein and Chris Bates have been making music for over a decade together as Red Planet. With a song range spanning both globe and genre these characters will lift you and heal you up. Come, enjoy the Planet! (See below for details.)

PS (more excitement) – It is my great pleasure to announce that Atlantis Quartet has been granted one of four McKnight Performance fellowships for 2015-2016! This is a HUGE award for us and we are honored and humbled and stoked as the competition was very stiff and included some great friends. I love this band and my bro’s; Brandon, Pete and Zacc and we thank you for supporting our enthusiasms and proclivities!

Stay tuned for new music!

Here’s what’s on the docket for May:

Friday May 8th

7pm  $10  All Ages

Red Planet @ Jazz Central (see above)

Wednesday May 13th

9pm  $8  21+

Nick Videen Quartet @ Icehouse (Healey, Nichols, CB)

Nick is a bad dude. Saxophonist, composer, wearer of hats. Cory and Bryan and I like hats, but it might be to hot to wear them. Sorry Nick.

Saturday May 16th

3pm  FREE  All Ages

Fall of the House of Usher @ Art-A-Whirl (Central & Broadway)

7:30pm 

Nick Videen Quartet @ Cambridge High School

Saturday May 23rd

8:30pm  FREE  21+

Zacc Harris trio @ Merlin’s Rest

Friday May 29th

8:30pm  $10  All Ages

Usher Trio @ Black Dog (Chris Cunningham, Greg Schutte, CB)

Saturday May 30th

@ Black Dog Cafe  $10/set  All Ages

7pm  David Martin trio (Pete Hennig & CB)

8:30pm   Atlantis Quartet

Doubleheader triple setter! Dave is a ripping good guitarist who writes intelligently catchy jazz tunes.

Atlantis Quartet follows with ‘catchily’ intellectual tunes.

Thanks for all the support you have been giving to Atlantis and All the projects I’m involved in. I can truly say We appreciate it so much! I hope the music being made brings you inspired happiness. I certainly try and put that vibe into the music. Onward and upward! See you at a show!

-cb