I’ve had the good fortune to get to know a good many wonderful artists all over the planet and this Tues, Sept. 7th, I’ll be celebrating with five people I’m lucky enough to count as friends.

The”Secret Society of Internet Jazzers” (#SSIJ) is a collaborative gig with musos from up and down the Pacific Northwest at the Beta Lounge in Dowtown Berkeley, CA.

This show features myself and my first-call drummer Joe Shotwell from the Atmos Trio, dual trumpet duties from Seattle’s Jason Parker and Seaside CA’s Dave Hoffman, Santa Cruz bassist Steve Uccello and Oakland’s Darin Wilson on piano.

This particular group has never played together before so this provides a unique opportunity to witness/ participate in a Realtime Jazz experience. Dig it!

Not in the area? You can still join us! This concert will be LIVE VIDEO STREAMED.

Here’s a fairly up-tempo tune that the band stretches out on a little. Good times!

This was filmed on a Creative Vado HD cam. Audio was EQ’d/ compressed using Ableton Live and video edited in Final Cut Express.

My biggest surprise came from Mike Conaty who, upon hearing the track, was inspired to film, edit and post this gorgeous video. It really captures the vibe of the tune. Thanks Mike!!

I always love it when these spontaneous collaborations occur. I hope to see much more of this in the future.

Around that time, in order to move music around the web, I used to have to store MP3s on my web server and link back to the files. A  music streaming company has been leeching from my web server for years serving up the DEMO version of this tune to their listeners. It has received thousands of hits over the years. I saw no harm in this and took no action to stop it.

But it made me wonder if the demo was better than the “Real” version.

Here is the demo circa 2004.

Her Eyes by AtmosTrio

Here is the officially released version.

Which one do you like better?

I play once a month with this group a the Olive and Vine in Glen Ellen, CA. If you’re fortunate enough to find yourself in the Sonoma Valley on a Friday night, come on by!

Think Well of Me Preview by AtmosTrio

Album artwork by Linda Palmer (www.ponor.info)

Steve and I met on twitter last spring. We organized and performed together at the Atmos Trio “Twitter House Concert.” Once he expressed interest in playing on my Ustream show, I didn’t waste any time arranging to make it happen.

The Ustream gigs have been the surprise of the year for me. From my home studio, I performed several solo guitar shows, and played host to special guests Damian Erskine, Todd Johnson and even broadcast some gigs from my group, The Atmos Trio.

Due to the regularity of the show, an audience from all over the world routinely returned, show-after-show. Among them is artist extraordinaire Linda Palmer. I had seen here wonderful artwork and I was thrilled when she agreed to contribute the album cover. She actually contributed many pieces, all of which are great. Please take in some of her fine work while you listen.

Here is a brief song-by-song reflection for those who were not present during the broadcast.

Song for Stasia: Originally recorded by Anna Maria Jopek and Pat Metheny, this Marcin Kydryński composition served as a beautiful vehicle for our musical simpatico. I put this chart in front of Steve and he’s sight-reading here.

Minor Matter: A completely improvised tune based on a minor blues form.

Alright Right Now: One of Steve Uccello’s composition. This is what I sounded like sight-reading Steve’s tune on this day.

Travels: A classic country jazz ballad by Pat Metheny. We tried to make this sound like we’ve been playing together for a long time–even though this session marked only the second time Steve and I had played together.

Autumn Leaves: A “Jazz 101″ type tune. All jazzers know this song. We called a tune and counted it off…

Tenor Madness: Contemplating Sonny Rollins on his blues classic.

As always, the show was super fun. Steve and I met when we organized and performed together last spring at the Atmos Trio “Twitter House Concert.”

We got together in my studio to play some tunes. I employed my Ustream rig which consists of the iSight cam on my MacBook which receives a nice audio mix from studio’s mixing board. I had also just received  another HD camera as a gift so I had a 2nd video feed destined for YouTube. I also made a multi track recording of the show.

Upon reviewing what we had captured to disk, the music was deemed worthy to share. Just goes to show that a good sounding record doesn’t need to take a pile of cash and months to make. Just a couple of musos and healthy does of simpatico.

Please be sure to share this music with a friend.

If you would like to hear the rest of the album sooner rather than later, simply fill-out the mailing list form in the sidebar and you’ll be linked to an Exclusive Advanced Access Listener’s page.

Enjoy!

Album artwork by Linda Palmer.

Here is a brief peak into what we played. There will be higher quality video on my YouTube channel in the next day or two.

This is 1980’s-era Pat Metheny tune that touches on the more country/ folk side of things. Hope you like it. You can get the audio download at and “Pay What You Want (even nothing)” here.

Posted via email from AtmosMusic