What a mess this migration has been. Primarily with my new discovery: FeedBurner.
I had to close the feeds I just asked you to subscribe to. Could we go for one more?
Please point your readers to:
MatthewWengerd.net
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Please update your bookmarks:
You can now find me at MatthewWengerd.net. For those of you who might be confused (”but that’s where I though I was!”), MatthewWengerd.net previously redirected you to mwengerd.blog.usf.edu. That’s where you are right now.
If you don’t mind, just mosey on over and we’ll keep things moving along over there.
I have apparently just joined the 21st Century and discovered FeedBurner. My Google Analytics stats have not accurately reflected my readership to this point because GA cannot (to my knowledge) analyze feed traffic. Enter FeedBurner. If you like me enough to care about my self-esteem, please click here to re-subscribe to my feed. It’s now set up through FeedBurner and will give me access to RSS statistics. Just another way to make this website better.
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Also, you can subscribe to the comments on my posts via.
Seth Godin wrote a great post about not needing a resume.
A resume is an excuse to reject you. Once you send me your resume, I can say, “oh, they’re missing this or they’re missing that,” and boom, you’re out.
and
If you don’t have a resume, what do you have?
How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects?
Or a sophisticated project they can see or touch?
Or a reputation that precedes you?
Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up?Some say, “well, that’s fine, but I don’t have those.”
Yeah, that’s my point. If you don’t have those, why do you think you are remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular? It sounds to me like if you don’t have those, you’ve been brainwashed into acting like you’re sort of ordinary.
Great jobs, world class jobs, jobs people kill for… those jobs don’t get filled by people emailing in resumes. Ever.
Here’s what I want from you, dear reader:
What does Seth’s vision look like for professional musicians and music educators. As a soon-to-be graduate of a Masters program, how do I apply these principals (aside from playing like Christian McBride tomorrow)? I think this is a powerful notion and I’d like to unlock it for my own career. Thoughts?
Marc Geelhoed (Deceptively Simple) recently transitioned from Classical Music Journalist to “CSO Resound Coordinator.” Here, he writes a post I would consider a must-read for anyone who’s ever found themselves in a situation such as mine: about to graduate with some sort of music degree (mine happens to be an MM in Jazz Studies) with the financial obligations of the average adult but not the circumstance to meet those obligations playing full time.
When I was nearing the end of my undergraduate program (in Music Education), my teacher let me in on a little secret: in the competitive world of orchestra musicians, some musicians with a modicum of left-brain activity go into administration for their “target orchestra” in order to be in town with that section - those players - and learn what they want from a section mate. Taking lessons from the principal and any other section member who will spare the time gives you an edge when it’s time to fill a spot. So, off I went into my illustriousshort career as an orchestra management-er.
Because of budget issues (this was an early-post 9-11 world and hurricanes had just ripped through Florida, taking Foundation and Individuals’ money with them), I didn’t even last a whole season. They created the position for me and, as they say, “Last one hired, first one fired.” The position closed and I was jobless. I also spent a year teaching public school. I had spent a lot of time thinking I could straddle this Classical-Jazz bassplaying fence. It wasn’t working.
I came back to school and am here now, wondering what next. I’m still not prepared to make a living carting my bass around. I’m a good teacher and a functional bass player. I’ve spent my entire Graduate life to-date in “arts management” and, while it afforded me the finances to go to school, it stole (and continues to steal) my time and focus from playing. I’m starting to think I can’t have it both ways (go figure).
When you work around something you enjoy, it’s easy to become jaded, and that was something I initially feared going into this job. It’s something I feared as a journalist, too, and I got to the point where a concert was work. I have a lot of respect for my former colleagues who’ve gone to concerts week in, week out, for upwards of 20 years, in some cases, and can still write about it with passion and insight. It’s easy to lose sight that several hundred or thousand people have bought tickets to the event and are greatly anticipating it, while you sit there wishing you could be somewhere else. That boredom seeps into your work, if you’re not careful.
I work with one of the greatest Big Bands in the country. A great group of musicians and a brilliant writer/leader. I pay host to numerous musical luminaries. And I lose my appreciation for it all.
Because I can see that future on the horizon, I vowed to continue going to CSO concerts every week, but I also started going to rehearsals. The CSO doesn’t have open rehearsals, and has a rule about barring press from them, so I’ve never had the chance before. . .I get a fresh reminder in the middle of the day about what’s going on that justifies my getting up and going to work every day.
I used to do this at the Orchestra. I can’t afford that luxury here; I’m at rehearsals, working to make sure everyone’s happy and can hear and has all their music and their check. People tell me I’m good at this and it’s helped me along the way.
Food loses its charm when you can’t ever leave the kitchen.
My USF-sanctioned quintet, Ten Over Two, had our only USF-sanctioned concert last night at FAH 101, the recital hall. I have to say it was one of the most gratifying concerts I’ve ever done. It wasn’t without issues, but the turnout and results were quite gratifying.
Ten Over Two
John Rodriguez|tenor saxophone
Ed Reid|trumpet
Daniel Joiner|piano
Paul Keesling|drums
Matthew Wengerd|double bass
There is audio evidence.
Doctone|Branford Marsalis
Moon Palace|Dave Morgan, arr. Wengerd
Deluge|Wayne Shorter
Rockit|Herbie Hancock, arr. Van Voorst
Blues for Sarka|George Mraz, trans. Wengerd
Bags’ Groove|Milt Jackson
Forgive the intonation, please.
I present:
ROBOT BASS!
For those of you in the greater Tampa, Saint Petersburg, Sarasota area, wake up at the most unimaginable time possible Monday, 11 February 2008. To celebrate 26 years of living, I will host my first on-air shift of jazz programming at WUSF 89.7 from 1:00-5:00 am. It’s called Sunday Night Jazz, even though it’s Monday morning and, no, I will not be live in the studio. I’ve programmed the four hours and will be putting my breaks in the system tomorrow. It’s just a little exciting.
For those of you in other parts of the country, you can listen to live streaming of the broadcast as well. Bob Seymour, the Jazz Director at WUSF, and Gig Brown, Program Director for WUSF 89.7_2 (our HD channel) have been working with me on pacing, feel, and pronunciation (some of those names are hard) and have deemed me air-worthy. Check it out this Monday morning 1:00-5:00 am and let me know what you think.
I heard a story recently about Sonny Stitt that painted him in a nice-but-oh-so-serious-about-the-music light. I won’t share that here, but Cosby’s inimitable style makes this story keep you laughing all day long.
decided to go exploring the blogosphere after the PCB meetup last night and ran across one of the best public arts projects I’ve ever seen:
Doug Ramsey recently announced that Dennis Irwin, bassist for the Vanguard Orchestra and Matt Wilson’s Arts and Crafts, among others, has cancer and does not have the insurance to cover it. 
This is an issue facing many professional musicians (and many Americans in general), who work as independent contractors and cannot afford health insurance premiums. Do any readers know of organizations specializing in artist healthcare?
There are several benefits happening in Irwin’s behalf:
Friends and admirers are organizing a series of benefits for him, beginning next Sunday following the Super Bowl. It will begin at 10 pm at the Lower Manhattan jazz club called Smalls, 10th Street and Seventh Avenue, just down the street from the Village Vanguard. Musicians are encouraged to sit in. For information, go to this page at the Smalls web site and scroll down to February 3.
There will be an Irwin benefit with the Vanguard Orchestra on Monday, February 18 at the Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South.
Tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano is organizing still another benefit for Irwin at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room on Monday, March 10. Details are being formulated. Lovano reports that big names will be involved.
Thanks to this article from DRB, I was prompted to Google “Light Painting” and came up with this “behind the scenes” look at my favorite commercial of all times (hey, there’s even someone playing a double bass in it!). It never occurred to me that it might be stop-time with the characters who appear to be painting actually standing still while people “paint” around them.
Aha.
In typical blog-boy fashion, I’m standing at the internet kiosk in the midst of The Madness, immediately following a Neil Tesser-hosted panel entitled “the blog!”
Tesser has no experience with blogs and, at least concerning the blogger with which I am most familiar, seems not to have dug too far back into the archives. The panelists summarized DJA as blogging for primarily self-promotional purposes but, as my feeble memory sees it, Darcy has been my primary view of left-of-main jazz in NYC for a whole calendar year now (a purpose mentioned by Darcy during the panel).
Anyway.
To the far left was Carl Wilson, who apparently writes for The Globe and Mail and blogs about the Toronto music scene and has recently released a book on Celine Dion!
Next to him was David Adler, the most lukewarm blogger on the panel. He has written for several major jazz rags and seemed to be the only one on stage ready to throw in the towel.
Darcy was first on the left and next to him was composer David Ryshpan, from whom I purchased my SecretSociety tshirt after the SSN set. His blog centers around his “you should check this out, too” playlists.
Tesser divided not only the stage, but the perspectives of the panelists as well. Very evident here was the typical blogdom paradox of “everyone has a soapbox, but not everyone should use it.” I’ve struggled with this myself, as I feel my existence and experience afford me the right to an opinion and the right to share that opinion.
I can understand how someone who gets paid to do something at a high level can take offense to amateurs doing the same thing for free and often getting as many or more accolades. Heaven knows there are too many self-proclaimed experts out there poisoning minds in teh interwebs, but this wonderful rats’ nest has also given voice to some fine musicians and thinkers who haven’t had the formal training to qualify them for traditional outlets.
I’m rather ambivalant to the whole thing, I guess. The journalists’ point of view is quite valid, but that won’t stop me from speaking my mind.
Just as I was typing this, Gregory Dudzienski approached me for a pleasant little conversation. His motives for blogging (to expose a deserving scene) may be a little more altruistic than mine or maybe have a higher purpose (no “hey, check out this restaurant” posts on his site), but I’ll keep on truckin’.
I’ve been playing a little game here, at IAJE 2008 in Toronto:
Everytime I leave a computer at the Internet Kiosk, I set the homepage to matthewwengerd.net to broaden my audience. Well, someone caught on. Shannon Butcher commented the following to my pictures and reviews post (a misnomer if there ever was one):
Just opened the internet to your blog “homepage”. Genius my friend. So genius you just might have a homepage competition o your hands…
For that, she’s getting added to my reader. Hope to see her around later. And don’t think this is over.
After fulfilling my obligations at the Center for Jazz Composition booth, I was able to catch half of the DJA Secret Society North set. He turned this place upside down; drawing from influences to which many a jazz musician refuse to open. Raucous and irreverent, all the while self-assured and honest - the set was filled with political underpinnings to which much of the audience was sympathetic. I’ve been a fan of Darcy for a year now and am happy to say tonight’s concert did nothing to change that.
I’m apparently not the only one who thinks so.
…are coming. I think I found a way to upload to flickr while I’m here. Keep an eye peeled.
Here I am, liveblogging the 2008 IAJE annual conference in Toronto. I’ve settled in and am about to see Ingrid Jensen and Nordic Connect. Pictures are abundant, but absent from the page, as I am using the internet kiosks the IAJE generously provide and they hide the box, preventing access to the USB ports.
More to come when I’m free.
I only have internet in the dining hall and can’t post regularly. I do have a doozy of a story to tell when I get it up and running again.
I’ve been gone. I’m back. You’ll be hearing about why and seeing my new project soon!
The traffic on this site has nearly tripled in the last five days! I would love for this to keep up.
Look for musings on the recent work to my bass very soon!
