matthew wengerd|bassist

I just finished escorting some of our under-age campers to a Taco Bell/Pizza Hut for lunch. Starting Sunday evening, meals will be at Masterson’s (on campus dining) and we will not need to escort anyone off campus. We have been really productive and expect another huge push through tomorrow before settling into some semblance of a routine. It’s invigorating to see such excitement on some of the attendees’ faces.

It was nice to meet Talkbass moderator Chris Fitzgerald, who is on faculty at the University of Louisville. Chris is the second TB moderator I’ve met in person (Jairaj Swann being the other) and has proved consistently that bass playing is a brotherhood. I’m looking forward to lessons with the faculty here. Our very own Jack Wilkins just arrived and I expect Steve Davis to come in shortly, rounding out the USF contingent.

Students are waiting in the hall to attend their second rhythm section session.

I’s seven thirty in the morning, much later than I normally get out of the apartment, but I am not dealing with it well today. We’re getting ready to check people in for the two-day seminars, getting instructions from Ben Gritton. I’ll be checking in people’s gear, but they get to schlep it. Perfect!

We’ll see when things change for the day, but I’ll be off for my a.m. assignment in just a minute.

Very late last night, I arrived in Louisville, KY for the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops. I am in the middle of helping set up for two weeks (and weekends) of camp. Look for updates as I get a bit of downtime.

Win Hinkle veered from his usual topic of discourse to talk about amplification in jazz; recounting his experience at a Ravi Coltrane soundcheck. Win is a tells-it-like-it-is kind of guy and I don’t always agree with him, but his post makes a pretty strong point.

As a bassist, I find I usually need to amplify when playing anything larger than a duo/trio in a small room. Now, there are plenty of purists who go all-acoustic, but I think it’s realistic to use an amp. What I think is absolutely uncalled for is miking drums and horns in small rooms. It’s dismaying to see big-name pros bringing entourages of soundmen to club dates. As a musician, I spend so much time working on playing with sensitivity that I cannot imagine ruining that with trillion-watt sound systems.

Add Win’s blog to your reader; you may not always agree, but it’s bound to be a good read.

DJA was last seen liveblogging the Bang on a Can festival in NYC. Art music with a punk rock ethos (whatever that means).

It’ amusing to read through Darcy’s posts and see the effects of time, caffeine, and sleep deprivation on his posts. It’s commendable to stay the course (oh, brother) for twenty-six hours of challenging music, but DJA stepped it up a notch by liveblogging it. Now, if he had upped his pictures live, too, now that would be the end of it…

Apparently, I have had this link saved on my delicious since Halloween. It was just brought back to my attention by this thread at Talkbass. The generous webmaster of this site has compiled links to listening and purchasing sites (iTunes and amazon.com, chiefly) for every tune in the Real Book 5th edition. I am a firm believer (as it’s been taught to me) to listen to as many examples of tunes you’re learning and I have 3-10 versions of most tunes in the book, but this is a great place for a jazz musician with a small library to find recordings of tunes they want to learn.

It would be nice if the site had multiple (read: dozens, when available) versions of each tune and noted which were the generally agreed upon “definitive” versions. It could be detrimental to a player to only listen to highly-arranged/-stylized versions as their source material.

Bookmark this one in case anyone ever asks, “Where can I go to hear the tunes in the Real Book?”

My friend, Rich Van Voorst, and I have started a listing of straight-ahead jazz gigs in the West Central Florida area called tampajazzscene. It is a blogspot with a companion Google Calendar. If you or anyone you know has a jazz hit anywhere in the Central Florida area, let us know and we’ll list it!

We’re looking forward to an opportunity to build the jazz scene in Tampa. I’ve gotten sick of waiting by the phone, so now I’m hitting the proverbial streets.

matthewwengerdtrio and Bendelow Road will be playing at Lakeland’s Mayfaire by the Lake this weekend. Mayfaire is an excellent outdoor arts festival on Lake Morton in Lakeland, FL. mwt and Bendelow Road are the only jazz groups performing, but there will be other excellent performers and dozens of artists’ booths. Stop by and say hello if you can make it!

If you are unfamiliar with Tom Harrell’s playing, do yourself a favor and get familiar. Tom is an extraordinary jazz trumpet player who suffers from Paranoid Schizophrenia. I saw this interview when it occurred, well before I had any clue what it actually takes to be a jazz musician.

This is not the full interview; there is a longer version on Youtube, but it has japanese overdubs.

My friends have been ribbing me for quite a while now about the fact that I will be attending Jamey Aebersold’s Summer Jazz Workshops this year. Yes, I’m going to summer camp at 25.

Thousands of people have played jazz tunes counted off by that inimitable heartland accent of Jamey’s (”One, Two, One, Two, Three, Four…”) via his jazz play-along books. Every summer, the Aebersold staff and an A-list jazz faculty descend on the University of Louisville for week-long intensive training in jazz improvisation. The two one-week courses are supplemented by rhythm section primers (g,b,d) on the weekends.

Of interest to me (and hopefully some of my readers) is the bass faculty:

J.B.Dyas
Glenn Fisher
Chris Fitzgerald
David Friesen
John Goldsby
Bill Moring
Lynn Seaton
Bob Sinicrope
Frank Smith
Sonny Stevens
Tyrone Wheeler

This Who’s who of the bass community is at students’ service throughout the camps. Additionally, USF Jazz Faculty members Jack Wilkins (sax - jazz department chair) and Steve Davis (drums) are on faculty.

I will be attending both weekends and both weeks, working one week and being a student the other. If you already plan on attending, let me know and we’ll be sure to get together while in Louisville. If you are just now hearing about the Workshops, please consider them. Jamey encourages players of all levels to attend to maximize their playing potential.

By the way - that’s Chris Fitzgerald and Steve Davis in the picture.

Unless you get your butts out to Starbucks on the North side of Lakeland, this will be matthewwengerdtrio’s last night. School obligations prevent me from playing tonight, but I have a faithful and diligent sub.

Please make your way out and let management know that you appreciate what they’ve been doing. Oh, and buy lost of coffee.

Trumpeter Randy Brecker got on a plane for Reno this morning after having spent the weekend in Central Florida, performing with Chuck Owen and the Jazz Surge. He flew in from Zurich Saturday morning for the culminate of the USF Center for Jazz Composition’s Jazz Masterworks Series. This program, a tribute to Michael Brecker, had been planned with the hope that Michael would attend and perhaps participate in the music. Little did we know at that hopeful time, when Michael’s health seemed to be improving, that he would not be with us.

In conjunction with this concert was the 1st International Jazz Arranging Competition (IJAC), where competitors in the open and Young Artist categories were asked to arrange Michael Brecker original compositions for Big Band. After Michael’s passing, the Center went to the only person it could really imagine filling the guest artist spot on this tribute, Michael’s brother Randy. Randy very graciously squeezed us into his schedule for performances in St. Petersburg, Winter Park, and Tampa as well as a Masterclass on the campus of USF.

The performances were extremely poingant, highlighting all original arrangements, save the Gil Goldstein arrangement of “Strap Hangin’” from Some Skunk Funk. Other arrangements were provided by CJC directors Chuck Owen and Dave Stamps as well as IJAC winners Fred Stride and David Peoples in addition to Vince Mendoza. The charts were amazing and Randy was in top form. Guest violinist Rob Thomas also contributed excellent solos.

We are very grateful for Randy’s visit and relish the opportunity to work with him.

matthewwengerdtrio played its first gig this evening: a 2 hour hit at the Lakeland North Starbucks. I just posted a gigspam on this one. I have to say that I haven’t been this nervous for a gig in a long time. This was the first time I’ve led a band and my compatriots had never met one another before tonight. Things weren’t as loose as they’ve been with either player in the past (under other circumstances), but the people who came really enjoyed it and we had a good time. There was a biker meet right next door that caused quite a ruckus for the first half. I even called a break after only a half hour because I was so nervous (and slightly frazzled)!

I am very disappointed that only one of the jazz students at the University showed up, and he will be playing the gig next week! This was a perfect opportunity for young jazz students to hear free live jazz (only 10-15 minutes from campus!) and they didn’t take advantage. I really hope the student turn-out is better next week.

I’m pretty excited about the idea of matthewwengerdtrio and eager to find more places to play. I learned a lot about doing this kind of thing tonight and am looking forward to next week.

I even made a poster for mwt outings.

If you are in or near the Lakeland, Florida area, come see matthewwengerdtrio play its first outing at the Lakeland North Starbucks. We hit at 7:30 (but come early to get your daily dose) and will play two sets. I’ve been telling my faithful readers about the subbing I’ve been doing in Tampa with the Mars’ trio. Tampa has a stronger market for this sort of thing, so I am very grateful to Stephanie, the manager at the 98 N store, for having the foresight to book live jazz in Lakeland.

Bendelow Road had our monthly hit at Lakeland Steak and Ale tonight. This was our first outing with new drummer, Ryan Marsh. It was with Ryan that I played the Red Rose Room last Wednesday.

This was a quite successful hit. Our second set was definitely shaky, but we haven’t sounded as tight as we did on several tunes tonight. Victoria deLissovoy sat in on an absolutely wailing rendition of Blue Bossa. Several friends came, including Woody and Tina Detwiler (Woody, of Carousol fame) and Paige Pilkington, a co-worker when I was teaching. Thanks to all of them.


Afterward, Meghan and I met up with Paige and her friends at the Blue Nile, a restaurant in Lakeland. It was nice to see Everton and Keenan with Taabu, an R&B band in town, with whom I am well acquainted.

A fun night, about to be followed by a viewing of Pursuit of Happyness.

Got a call last night to be a last-minute sub for Alejandro Arenas for the Mars’ Trio’s steady at the Westchase Starbucks. I found out today that USF drum instructor, Steve Davis, would be playing drums on this gig. This was quite a big deal for me, as Steve has played with some of the great modern jazz musicians. He’s a member of the Lynne Arriale Trio and, as I’ve been told, is the most represented drummer on the Jamey Aebersold play-alongs.

There were definitely some distractions at this gig, including a very loud near-car-wreck, that rattled me a bit. I felt I represented myself as well as I can at this point. I finally see improvement in my playing, but I also see more to work on than I ever have before. I appreciate Steve’s helpful yet challenging playing. When things weren’t always clear for me, Steve helped clear things up with his playing. The trio is rounded out be sax player Rich Van Voorst (who runs the show). Definitely a musician and friend I’m glad to have met.

Look for more photos and stories from recent gigs shortly.

Last night was a hit at the Westchase Starbucks with Rich Van Voorst and Mark Feinman. I have played with them at the Waters and Anderson Starbucks as a sub on several occasions and enjoyed this change of scenery.

Westchase is one of those upscale suburban developments that thinks it is a posh European town, with a marketplace area and cafes.

Truth be told, the houses are cookie-cutter and you don’t always experience the sense of community planners had intended. Nonetheless, the Starbucks here had quite a bit of charm, with the London phonebooth out front, the ample cafe-style seating (I guess they all have that), a the carved, wooden Starbucks sign. We played outdoors from 7:30-9:30.

Rich, a candidate for MM in Jazz Comp at USF, works at this particular store and has worked to get weekly live jazz in four West Tampa/Pinellas County Starbucks locations! I really appreciate Rich’s efforts to make live jazz happen wherever it can and am in awe of management who is willing to see the value of having such music, even if the numbers don’t always come out favorably. Everytime I’ve played a Starbucks gig with these guys, the turnout has been great and the response extremely positive.

I have been in contact with management at several Polk County Starbucks about creating weekly live jazz in Lakeland and am excited to see what may come out of this. If you’re a jazz musician looking for a gig, consider contacting your local Starbucks manager about setting up a weekly. Just make sure you promote like there’s no tomorrow!

Today was (reportedly) the last Taste of the Arts event hosted by the College of Visual and Performing Arts at USF. Taste of the Arts is an afternoon of free food and entertainment from the CVPA designed to bring students and staff from across the campus into the CVPA.

Local Restaurants offered free food from 12:00-1:00 while the Herd of Thunder Marching Band and members of the USF Jazz department played. Students from Theater, Visual Arts, and Dance provided entertainment as well.

Wish you were there…