JazzInside Interview!

I have a feature interview in the June issue JazzInside Magazine...

Please visit

http://jazzinsidemagazine.com/publications/guide/june-2010

to download it...

For those of you that would like to have a copy of the magazine, it's available in most jazz clubs in NYC!

Roy Haynes 85th Anniversary Tour!

For those of you that don't know, I just got back from a 5 week tour with the great Roy Haynes! It's been a while since I've been out for such a long tour, but I have to say I had a great time! In those 5 weeks we traveled to Finland, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, the UK, Sweden, Copenhagen, Norway, and Denmark.

I must say Mr. Haynes is Amazing! He had way more energy than I did the whole tour. There were a few one nighters in Spain that were basically late night gigs and early lobby calls. Roy would be perfectly fine every morning, literally whistling as he came down stairs! Meanwhile the rest of us would barely be able to move. He also has a great sense of humor, which really came out when we got to London. While at Ronnie Scott's, Roy tested out some of his jokes on the crowd during one of the sets and had the audience as well as the band rolling..

The downside of the tour was that both of my horns started acting up. This could have been due to the fact that I was playing hard almost every day, or the fact that I was flying almost everyday and the horns were moving around a lot. Initially it was just the soprano, which I thought was leaking, so I took it to a shop called "Sax Machine" in Paris. They fixed it up, but two days later, before a gig in Brighton, I drop it.. So I have to take it to a shop in London. And they fix it up again.. So I'm thinking everything's cool and while I'm playing my alto that night at Ronnie's, the High D spring breaks... So now I have to go get my alto fixed! LOL! It was a mess to say the least. I think I need to get my repair chops up and start bringing some emergency tools and supplies with me for the next trip!

Overall, we had a great tour. I met many new friends and got to see some old friends I hadn't seen in ages. I have to say I've grown accustomed to London, even though the Pound is killing the Dollar. London is a pretty cool place.. Copenhagen was pretty cool too. I didn't get to see too much of it, but one thing that caught my eye was the fact that so many people over there ride bikes. Sometimes it looked like more people rode bikes than drove cars. Unfortunately, most of those people didn't wear helmets... Last but not least is Paris! Unfortunately, after having been there maybe 7 or 8 times I think I've come to the conclusion that I may not like French food... But I really enjoy Paris and hope I get to find more places to hang outside of the jazz clubs I usually frequent out there... What's next? My trio will be performing tomorrow night at the Bar Next Door and then I'm off to Moscow with the Vitaly Golanev Group this weekend!

Happiness

I just ran into my friend and his kids, who he'd just bought new toys. They looked SUPER excited and happy and it made me remember the days when I used to get so excited when I got new toys or gifts. Then I started to think that that never really changes in life.. We all like having/getting/doing new things in life and It's important to keep trying to do/find things in life to keep you happy/excited EVERYDAY..

Sorry...

I guess I'm not too good at this... Posting... It's been almost a year already... Pretty crazy. First off, I can say I actually have a long post that I kind of abandoned that was based on a status that I put on my facebook page near the end of the year last year. I basically said "I don't care if it's old school or new school as long as it's honest and sounds good. And if it's Jazz, it should have elements of Blues and Swing". What a commotion I caused with that! I tried to write a blog on it, but realized that there's so much to say and I have so many different thoughts on the Jazz world today. And why the words BLUES and SWING may scare the crap out of people that play so called jazz music today. Anyway.. Maybe I'll post that soon...

Anyways, life has been pretty cool over here. Since my last post I've done a bunch of traveling with Roy Haynes to Japan, France, Germany, Israel... I'm trying to think of the other places we hit in Europe last summer, but I can't now. Israel was interesting. It wasn't easy for me to get in to the country based on the fact that I have an Arabic name. Although I was born and raised Christian, upon entering Israel I was asked by a customs agent who named me. When I told him it was by my Uncle who was studying Islam at the time, I was taken into a room and interrogated for a while. The thing that disturbed me was the other people in the room were all muslims... Talk about profiling.. I guess the situation over there is a lot deeper than I thought it was. All that said, I had a great time there.. Especially on the beach.


Other highlights of the Fall included two performances with the Dave Holland Big Band and Octet in Chicago and Tanglewood, a performance with Christian Mcbride in Philadelphia, and an end of the year performance with the Roy Haynes Quartet at Birdland celebrating the clubs 60th anniversary. The first day was an invitation only party the included MANY legends of so called Jazz... All I can say is I walked out on the stage to see Hank Jones, Grady Tate, Lou Donaldson, Jimmy Heath, and Frank Wess in the front row alone. Lee Konitz, Paquito D'rivera, and Louis Hayes were also in the audience.. So needless to say, I was a bit nervous. I tried my best to be cool and kept my eyes on the picture in the back of the room the whole night! It was a great experience all in all and I got to talk to Lou Donaldson, who was very cool and told me he really enjoyed the performance.... Having read his latest Jazztimes before and after, I was relieved!

Well, I'm just getting back from a gig with the Gregg August Sextet and have a long day a head of me tomorrow. So I'm gonna split for now... Hopefully I'll have a more up to date post soon. - LEEL

Being an Artist

Lately I've been reflecting on my life as a musician and the positive and negative experiences that have shaped it. And with that came thoughts on what I've learned as an individual and a musician. I'd like to share some things that I've think I've learned so far.

1.) Sense of Community: I think this is one of the first things I found myself learning/experiencing when I began playing music. By performing, I learned how to interact with not only other musicians, but also with an audience. I think it's an amazing way to for a group of people to get to know, understand, and trust one another. Also, the more people you play/perform with, the bigger your community becomes. I think community is important.. Especially when it comes to music. And this doesn't only go for musicians, but also for critics, journalists, club owners, booking agents, managers, and festival directors. I think if they all actually interacted with the musicians more (showing up to the performances, being approachable and social), I think the jazz world would be a much better place. I'm realizing more and more how few "critics" I have actually met in person. I rarely see critics/journalists at any performances. But if I do, I'm surprised if they don't leave before the set is over. If they don't leave, they usually don't bother to approach anyone in the band say hello or even introduce themselves. There needs to be more dialogue between musicians and critics. Critics should be open to discussions with musicians about past reviews, the history of the music, and the future of it. I think it would bring about a more healthy, stable jazz community.

2.) Respect.... Now I have to start by saying that I am in NO WAY speaking for every artist on this one. But from my experiences, I feel like I lose out if I don't first RESPECT what someone is doing or has done. Even if I may not be able to understand what that artist may be trying to say at first. I always remind myself that there's something that I can learn from that person. I can't begin to tell you how many musicians I couldn't get into years that are probably my favorite musicians now. So I think it's very important to keep an open mind.

3.) Discipline: I don't think I REALLY knew what discipline was until I got to Berklee and got my butt kicked by my first teacher at the school - Andy McGhee. After my first lesson, I went home and practiced HARD. EVERYDAY. Only to go back for my second lesson and have Andy tell me that I was wasting my time and if I really wanted to be a serious musician, I had to put in SERIOUS time. That was it for me. I went back to my dorm and started practicing like a mad man. I wrote routines for everyday of the week to make sure I go 6hrs of practice time in. My life was changed forever. I don't know where I would be if it were not for discipline..

Well.. there's a lot more that I've learned... but that's all I can think of and have time to write now.. I'll write more later if i think of anything...

February/March

I've been hounded a little for not updating this thing.... So I'm going to try to give you as much as an update as I can... But for those of you that have been hounding me, how come I don't see your names in my followers list??

Well... I'm guessing I should start from today and go backwards, since my most recent activities are a bit clearer to me now... First off, I guess I should say it's 3:32am now and I am basically wide awake.. Which is due to my most recent Oceania Tour with the Mingus Big Band. The tour was a zig zag tour that started in Sydney, Australia and then went to Macau, China; and then Wellington, New Zealand. Although I had a good time, I didn't really get to see much. We basically spent 2 days in each city, which didn't give me time.. And because there was so much traveling involved, I was often too tired to get my butt out of the bed to go see the sites... But I did get to see a little...

It was my second time being in Sydney and although my time was limited, I did manage to get out to a nearby beach as well as walk around the town a bit. Sydney reminds me of London. It's very clean and organized. The one thing that disappointed me is that hardly see any aborignie's when I'm there... I think I may have seen 2 this time. The last time I was there the only aborignal people I saw were homeless. I guess I don't think of it as much in America, but I really think about it when I go to a country and hardly see any natives... I think it's pretty insane when I think about how English and European colonization has destroyed so many cultures and civilizations...

On to Macau... We basically had to take a boat from Hong Kong Airport to this Island. The first thing I saw when we arrived at the dock was a huge casino sign for SANDS... It's a huge GAMBLING town! I didn't get to see much of the town until a few hours before we were about to head to our final destination - New Zealand. But I did get a good idea of the town... I ended up going in to the more residential areas of Macau with a couple members of the band. One of them - trombonist Andy Hunter, speaks FLUENT Mandarin (he also MC'd the show..) So we didn't have much trouble getting around and seeing what we needed to... I'll try to post some pics soon....

Last, we went to Wellington, New Zealand... Which basically has the same London/Australia vibe... It's a pretty town though...

Ok... I'm getting sleepy... But before that.... I had my 31st birthday (Feb. 11th)! Yikes! I'm officially in my 30's! And in the beginning of February, I went out to UMKC in Kansas City, Missouri as an artist in residence. It was very special for me not only because it was my first residency, but because I was going to the school where one of my biggest hero's - Bobby Watson teaches.. I basically gave a workshop, and did two performances. One was with a group called Diverse that consists of some bad young cats that are coming out.. Look out for them... Herman Mehari on Trumpet, Will Saudners on Tenor Saxophone, John Brewer on Piano, Ben Leifer on Bass, and Ryan Lee on Drums. The next day I performed with The UMKC Big Band, which was also fun... When Bobby asked me what tunes I wanted to play.. All I could think of were the charts he'd arranged for big band that I always wanted to play... So of course, we played a bunch of them... And had a great time.. I don't remember all of the names of soloist that night. But the pianist and alto saxophonist Michael Shults took some pretty hip solos. There were a bunch of other young cats I got to hear out there... I can't name them all now because I am finally falling asleep... But I definitely had a good time out there and I wanna thank them all for it.... later...

It's Been A While...

It's definitely been quite a while since my last post... over 4 years! Alot has happened since then, including having released two CD's. The first one on Fresh Sound Records called "Perspective", was released in 2005 and features guitarist Lage Lund, pianist Robert Glasper, bassist Vicente Archer, drummer Johnathan Blake, and guest tenor saxophonist Mark Turner. The second release is on my own label Changu Records and is called "Optimism". It was released in March of 2008 and features the same cast with Joe Martin replacing Vicente Archer on bass and Jeremy Pelt as a guest on trumpet.

I've also been fortunate to have been given the opportunity to play with the Roy Haynes Quartet since 2005. So far we've recorded one album "Whereas", released in 2006.... What else?? Life!!!! I guess I have lots to catch you up on.... But I'll have to get to that another time....

My First Blog

Happy New Year... It's my first Blog at 6:30am!! I couldn't sleep, so I decided to get online and surf the net. I ended up finding this Blog site and figured - why not? I'm glad I can start this New Year fresh and with a clear head. It's a great feeling. I learned and experienced many things last year that made me realize I still have some growing and maturing to do. I'm glad God showed me these things and put me through those things too.
Well, this year my album will HAVE TO COME OUT! I know some of yaw'll are like COME ON LEEL, but I really want to try to get the best deal I can get. And I've learned that record company rule # 4080 (record company people are shady!) is oh so true! I also plan on shedding on some of my doubles a little more than I have in the past. Especially my sop. sax, flute, and piano. I want to get stronger on those.... Well, that's all I have to say on for today... I'm going to try to get some shut eye again. I hope this blog finds and holds the interest of SOMEONE out there.... If not, they can check me @ http://www.jaleelshaw.com
Later... - LEEL