This is day three for my residency at Array Music with pianist Jacob Sacks. Jacob just completed two nights of solo piano performing all Thelonious Monk tunes. We complete Monk’s repertoire tonight. The audiences have been wonderful and Toronto has been great. Anyone in Toronto, come on down to Array!
Details:
Wednesday, October 21
8:00pm
The Music of Monk
Jacob Sacks – piano
Yoon Sun Choi – voice
at
Array Music
60 Atlantic Ave
Toronto, ON
$15 adults, $10 students/seniors/artists
So I am finally in Toronto and totally psyched to be here. My friend and duo partner, Jacob Sacks and I are doing a residency at Array Music from Monday, October 19th to Friday, October 23rd.
Tonight Jacob Sacks will perform works by Thelonious Monk. Should be pretty awesome. He starts at 8:00pm. So anyone in the Toronto area, I hope to see you there.
Details:
Monday, October 19th, 2009
8:00pm
Array Music
60 Atlantic Ave
Toronto, ON
Jacob Sacks solo piano
The works of Thelonious Monk
$15 adults, $10 students, seniors, artists
My friends, drummer Dan Weiss, pianist Jacob Sacks and bassist Thomas Morgan are in Toronto today doing an open master class at the University of Toronto today. If any of you have heard this trio and their compositions you should definitely take the opportunity to hear and see them. They are some of the best young musicians in New York. So you Torontonians get out there and check them out!
Details
What: music clinic
Where: Edward Johnson Building, University of Toronto
When: 3:00pm
How much: free
Tonight I will be playing with my quartet at Local 269 in the east village/lower east side as part of the Evolving Voices Series. I’m really excited about this gig since it’s the first show since I got my green card (hurray!) I hope to see some friendly faces over there.
Here’s the skinny:
Tuesday, September 29th (tonight!)
8:00pm
YSC Quartet
Jacob Sacks – keyboard
Thomas Morgan – bass
Vinnie Sperrazza – drums
at
Local 269
269 East Houston
at the corner of Suffolk Street
F train to Second Avenue
cover $10
Why do my feet hurt? Over the past eight months I have been suffering from what I think is plantar fascitis. Whenever I walk, jog or run any kind of distance my left heel is killing me and I can barely walk on my foot. A friend of mine advised me to stretch a lot and wear comfortable shoes. I have tried to do as much as I can (without seeing a doctor) to cure this injury but I am at a loss. Not only that, I’m very flat-footed, which probably doesn’t help.
All that said, I just recently finished a book by Christopher McDougall called Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. It begins with McDougall complaining about his foot pain while he’s running. He sees the top sports medicine doctor in the country and is told to stop running. Instead of taking his advice, McDougall went looking for another solution to his problem.
His search takes him to Mexico in the Copper Canyons where the greatest long distance runners live: the Tarahumara Indians. With the help from a mysterious loner named Caballo Blanco, McDougall uncovers the secrets of the Tarahumara and is inspired to discover the ultra-athlete within himself. McDougall speaks to sports coaches, athletes, doctors, scientists and biologists to find out more about human beings and their relationship to running.
This book is captivating and inspiring. Even before I got to the last half of the book I felt like going for a 10k run. The story is exciting, and the people that he writes about are fascinating, a little mysterious and very entertaining. The high point of the narrative is the 50 mile marathon in the Copper Canyons against the Tarahumara and some of North America’s best ultra athletes. There is no advertising, no sponsorships, no publicity or attention from the outside world—nothing except a group of individuals who love to run.
I found the discussions of running barefoot especially interesting. According to some evolutionary biologists, we started off as barefoot hunters running down our prey, a form of hunting still practiced today by some peoples, such as the Kalahari Bushmen. How did we come to believe that we needed $200 Nike shoes to go for a jog? Months ago I read an article about running barefoot that raised some of the same questions, and I was so intrigued by the concept of walking around barefoot that I still plan to experiment and hope that maybe I can get rid of this nasty pain in my heel. Whatever the case, I highly recommend this page turner. If it doesn’t get you off your ass to go for a little spin around the neighbourhood then I don’t know what will.
Last week was my eighth wedding anniversary. As I write that down I can’t believe that I have been married for so long. I honestly have to say that it has been pretty awesome and I married the most amazing man (except when he leaves the cupboard doors open and I smash my head on them as I walk into the kitchen!)
Last week we had a wonderful dinner at one of my favourite seafood restaurants called Pearl Oyster Bar and I ordered the steamed lobster which was delicious.
Before we went Pearl we went to a movie at the AMC 25 theater in Time Square. This theater is absolutely massive and, as the title of the theater suggests, yes, there are 25 movies playing there (geesh!) We saw the new Pixar animated film “Up” in 3D and it was wonderful. I know this movie has been showing since June but I wanted to recommend it to anyone who wants to see a great little movie and to try and catch in the theaters while you still can.
This comedy-adventure is about 78 year old retired balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen, who fulfills his lifelong dream to travel to South America in an unusual way. His plans are perfect until he discovers an accidental stow away, an 8 year old Wilderness Explorer named Russell. The movie is quite touching and the opening scene is a heart-breaker especially if you are a married couple celebrating an anniversary. Overall it is cute and funny and it makes you feel good. I especially liked the fact the Russell is Asian. It’s nice to see ethnic diversity in movies whether they are animated or not. There just isn’t enough of it in the industry. Go see the movie and you’ll have a good time.
My apologies to anyone who has been reading my posts. I have not been around and I haven’t been the most loyal updater. I hope to change that over the next little while.
Tomorrow night is the first night of my residency at I-Beam in Brooklyn. I’m really excited to finally get a bunch of shows in this month and work on some new music. And the end of the residency I will be doing a concert recording over Memorial weekend. I just got together with the guys in the band and they sound awesome as usual.
If you are in Brooklyn tomorrow night stop by I-Beam and share in the experience. Also, my friend Justin Kellar will be performing before and he writes some sweet songs. Check it out!
Saturday, May 9th
8:30pm
Justin Kellar
9:30pm
E-String Band with yours truly on toy piano and voice, Jacob Sacks (melodica), Thomas Morgan (guitar), Khabu Doug Young (ukuleles) and Vinnie Sperrazza (percussion)
at I-Beam
168 7th Street
Gowanus, Brooklyn
I’m looking forward to tonight’s performance at I-Beam. There will be solo ukulele, a piano, trumpet duo and a woodwind, bass and drums trio. All really different and fantastic. I hope to see some folks there.
Friday, April 17th
8:00pm Khabu Doug Young (ukuleles)
9:00pm Jesse Stacken/Kirk Knuffke (piano/trumpet)
10:00pm Andrew Bishop/Chris Lightcap/Matt Wilson (woodwinds/bass/drums)
at
I-Beam
168 7th St (between 2nd and 3rd Ave)
Gowanus, Brooklyn
So I dropped the ball on my own gig last week and forgot to post that I was performing. Geesh!!
Tonight will be a great show with Dan Weiss performing solo drum set. If you haven’t seen this show you must! After, Jacob Sacks’ Quintet will be playing and closing the night will be the trio OK/OK. Last week was a wonderful success with lots of people and incredible music. I hope you can come by and support our little event.
Yean Yeah Records and Friends Festival at I-Beam Music
8:00pm Dan Weiss (solo drum set)
9:00pm Jacob Sacks Quintet with Jacob Garchik (trombone), Ben Gerstein (trombone), Dave Ambrosio (bass) and Dan Weiss (drums)
10:00pm OK/OK with Kyoko Kitamura (voice and laptop), Khabu Doug Young (ukuleles) and Mike McGinnis (woodwinds)
at I-Beam Music in Gowanus, Brooklyn, 168 7th Street
This Wednesday I will be trekking over to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to perform D.D. Jackson’s jazz opera, Quebecite at Moravian College. It has been about four or five years since I performed this music and this time I will have some friends performing in the band. Thomas Morgan (bass) and Shane Endsley (trumpet) will be performing with us which will be really fun. Also, there will be two new vocalists (Martin Sola and Meetu Chilana) joining myself and Dean Bowman so it should be fun and different.
It will be a bit of a long day since we will be driving at 11:30am, dress rehearsal at 2:30pm and the performance is at 7:30pm and then we drive back to NYC at 9:30pm (ugh!)
I’m glad that it will be nice driving weather because nothing sucks more when you’re on the road than crappy weather. Looking forward to it.
Happy New Year!
I know it’s already four days into 2009 but I’m already a little behind.
I was very happy to see that in All About Jazz- New York my newest release “Imagination” with pianist Jacob Sacks was chosen as one of the best vocals releases and best tribute releases for 2008. Jacob and I were quite pleased when we received the news. Jacob and I are doing a residency at I-Beam Music in Gowanus, Brooklyn for the month of January and we are very excited to start venturing into new material as well as continuing to find new Joe Raposo tunes.
A happy new year to everyone!
Yesterday was a gross, rainy and windy day—the best kind of day to sit on a comfy couch (mine is not so comfy but whatever) and read a book. At 4:00pm yesterday I finished the final book of the Inkheart Trilogy called Inkdeath. I am a sucker for a good story and this trilogy did not disappoint me. The trilogy begins with a young girl named Meggie and her father Mortimer, or as Meggie calls him, “Mo”. Meggie discovers that she and her father have a magical gift that brings the characters in books to life when they read the books aloud. Unfortunately that gift has some disruptive consequences. Mo discovers his magical abilities when he unknowingly reads out—that is, brings into this world—some of the characters from his favourite book, “Inkheart,” but in the process loses his wife, who falls in the other direction into the book.
Already I feel like I’ve said too much. I just don’t know how much to say when writing a book review. I guess when I look back at the other reviews I see that I barely say anything except that I like it or didn’t like it. How do you explain a book without spoiling it? What I’d like to do is raise your curiosity so that you just have to read it. I can say that in each of these books the main characters change and evolve in ways that I find very satisfying. Meggie starts to grow up and finds out that the world is not always a beautiful, safe place (something we all learn as we grow older). Also, we see characters who have good hearts show a dark side (we all have a dark side). In each book, Inkheart, Inkspell and Inkdeath, at least one character experiences loss and realizes things are not always what they seem. Even when there is a happy ending, hard lessons are learned and innocence is lost. If you like fantasy and magic, this is a book for you. It has darkness, hope, heroes, villains, love and hate—all the elements you need for a fun adventurous story.
Maybe I have to come to the acceptance that I can’t really write a good book review. I can only tell you to go out and read or don’t. Maybe I’ll get better at it and maybe I will just have to put in those spoilers. What can you do?
After coming down from the great high of Barack Obama being elected the 44th president of the United States of America, I finished the book from Pulitzer Prize writer of 2008, Junot Diaz, for his work The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
This book was not a typical read for me. I had no expectations nor did I know what the book was about before I started. I enjoyed the colloquial voice of the narrator and it made me feel more attached to the characters involved in the story. The story is about a Dominican boy named Oscar and his somewhat unusual life. It was sad and a bit uncomfortable to read at times but I felt very sympathetic towards the characters. I’m not even quite sure how to describe the book without giving it away. It talks about life in the U.S. and in the Dominican Republic. There are interesting footnotes throughout the book. Some of them I skipped (I must confess). Can’t say it was my favourite book but the writing was very good and effective. Still a recommended read. Judge for yourself.
The book previous to Oscar was a great little, quick read called Sway: The Irresistable Pull of Irrational Behavior, by Ori and Rom Brafman. A fascinating book about how irrational humans can be in different situations. There are lots of crazy examples of people doing irrational things and making silly irrational decisions and how we are affected by our culture and state of mind. I know that there are a lot of books similar to this out there. It seems to be the new trendy thing to read and write about. Still with that being said, I found it to be very enjoyable and it certainly has made me realize just how crazy the most rational people can become. A very fast read (finished in a couple of hours). Check it out.
So it’s almost 3:00am and I have just returned from opening night of the movie, Twilight. I am one of the million readers who fell in love with the Twilight Saga.
I didn’t have very high expectations with the movie but I was deeply disappointed with what was put out.
Overall I felt that the script was weak, the direction cheesy and Kristen Stewart’s acting pretty sucky. I might be able to find a better word but sucky feels appropriate. The movie was choppy and had no flow or any character development whatsoever. This is suppose to be an amazing romance and I couldn’t find any romance, anywhere. No real sense of relationship was built between the main characters. There was no chemistry and it was just uninteresting. Each scene was broken up into little undeveloped chapters and everything was laid out in a way that was boring, stupidly obvious and the whole Bella narration was quite irritating.
Getting into more trivial details, the make-up used for the vampire’s pale skin was very amateur. You could see the make-up lines on the faces of most of the characters. It was laughable and kind of embarrassing. Even Edward Cullen’s fashions were sad. Here you have this very attractive young man and all you can do is dress him up in some boring, dull, gray peacoat and jeans?! Where was the amazing leather jacket he was suppose to lend to Bella after bringing her home from the restaurant, not to mention the the turtleneck he was suppose to be wearing in the restaurant scene? Where was the dashing rain coat he wears when he first picks Bella up for school? Edward Cullen is constantly described as a beautiful model-like young man with impeccable fashion sense and there was nothing outstanding with his fashion. Considering all the bad things about the movie, I felt that Robert Pattinson did the best he could with what he was given. He fared best in regards to the acting (it was a tough job) and he was definitely stunning and that was entertaining but it couldn’t hold up the entire movie.
Only one moment in the movie I found satisfying and that was the first kiss scene. Pattinson did a good job with the struggle and feelings of desire and I was somewhat impressed with that. But unfortunately a two minute scene is not going to satisfy me or make me pleased with the $12.50 I just gave up for this movie.
If you haven’t read the books try them. They are really fun and I couldn’t put them down. I always knew the movie version could not live up to the book but the movie made the Twilight story sound BLAH and it isn’t.
I am in awe and so excited for the US right now. African-American, Illinois senator, Barack Obama is now the 44th president of the United States of America. I can’t believe that I witnessed this incredible event. Right now at 12:30am I hear fireworks, cheering, music and lots of celebrating going on outside my Brooklyn apartment and it’s wonderful.
I have been living in New York for over eight years and having Obama as president just gives me so much hope and brings back the faith that I lost when Bush was elected TWICE!!!
When I was in Canada almost a year ago, I was listening to the radio and the question was “Is America ready for a female or black president?” Most of the Canadian callers said “NO!” I confess that I agreed with them. I wanted to believe that it could really happen but I felt like the American people weren’t ready for it. But I am happily mistaken.
I am elated by this news and I hope that president Obama will bring hope and inspiration back into the American people.
Congratulations America on your new president!!!
This Wednesday, October 22 at 6:00pm, pianist Jacob Sacks and I will be on WKCR 89.9FM on the Jazz Alternatives: Musician’s Show. We will be playing some selections of our music and music that has influenced us over the years. You can listen to this broadcast on the web or on your radio. So all you Canadians can tune in via internet!
Tonight I will be at The Cornelia Street Cafe to help celebrate the Vinnie Sperrazza and Matt Blostein group’s debut CD “Ursa Minor” on Envoi Recordings. I have known Vinnie Sperrazza and have had the pleasure to play music with him for over six years and in that time I have witnessed an artist who is truly finding his own identity as well as being one of the best young drummers working today.
Ursa Minor is a recording that displays a lovely collaboration of two wonderfully talented artists. Each musician contributes their own compositions which are lyrical and memorable.
Tonight’s performance Vinnie and Matt will be joined by Jacob Sacks on piano, David Ambrosio on bass and Mike McGinnis on woodwinds.
This is a performance definitely worth checking out.
Who: Vinnie Sperrazza and Matt Blostein Group
When: Monday, October 20th at 8:30pm and 10:00pm
Where: Cornelia Street Cafe (29 Cornelia St., NYC)
Over the past two months I have finished reading an interesting range of books. The most recent book that I’ve read is The Gargoyle, by Andrew Davidson (a Canadian!) It’s about a man who suffers horrible burns from a car accident. While in the burn unit at the hospital he meets a woman who claims that they were lovers 700 years before. The book goes back and forth from present time to the 12th century and Davidson also writes great folklore-like love stories in between. I don’t know if these stories are actual folk stories or legends from other countries but Davidson creates something convincing enough for me to believe that these stories might be.
I enjoyed this book overall. The writing is good and I liked the story idea. It was romantic, sometimes funny (I liked the voice of the narrator), and at times horrific (reading about the recovery of a burn victim is unbelievable). I do recommend giving this book a try.
A non-stop plot driven book is The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas. This book hits the ground running and pretty much doesn’t stop till the end. I understand why it’s considered a classic reading assignment in school. It’s a fun book although rather long (the print was so small that it would take forever to read a chapter). There are great villains, the cardinal and the evil Milady and of course our wonderful heroes D’Artagnon, Aramis, Athos and Porthos. I am a person who loves plot and this book does not disappoint. The writing is great and its just pure entertainment. I recommend you take a crack at it.
The last book was Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived, by Ralph Helfer. If you’re an animal lover then you might enjoy this book. It’s hard for me to believe that this is a true depiction of Modoc but it was nice to read. It’s a bit romantic and sometimes unbelievable but it still affected me none the less. It’s a sweet book.
That’s it for now.
On Thursday, October 23rd, Jacob Sacks and I will be celebrating the release of our latest recording, Imagination, by performing music from the recording at the Ida K. Lang Recital Hall, 7:00pm at Hunter College, New York City.
I am really excited about this performance because it will be the first time performing this music since our release in July and it will also be our first performance as a duo in over nine months. The performance is free and I hope you can all come and celebrate our new CD with us.