2/4/08

hi all...is it really february 2008?!!? time has been jumping since the flecktones came off the road in october. we have been working on a new holiday recording for the end of this year...it's pretty twisted in a lot of wonderful ways. everyone has been really involved with the process of making it and we have been having a good time together...we'll have some special guests as well...check www.flecktones.com for updates.

my new mu'tet cd, MUTOPIA, will be dropiing this spring...these things always take longer than we want them too but i think you will be pleasantly surprised when it's out.

NYE with umphrey's mcgee was a blast and i had a great time playing with mad dog and the rest of the horn section (aka mad dog's filthy little secret). jam cruise was great as well. george porter kicked everybody's ass!!!!! i got to do a gig in january with the great saxophonist bert wilson (www.bertwilson.com) up in olympia, WA. he's the guy who taught lennie pickett, from saturday nite live & tower of power, when he was young. what a joy to be around Bert!

i have also been doing a lot of clinics lately and loving it...west coast, east coast, in between. it seems that this will be a travelling year. i hope everyone had a great beginning to the year and here's to a joyfilled 2008! see you soon. peace, jc

3/2/07

Well, its been a while....hahahaha...time is flying faster than ever. The Tones have been on the road and having a great time. We were fortunate enough to win another Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Recording for The Hidden Land...I have been in the studio recording my next project with Futureman on ACOUSTIC drums, Felix Pastorius on elec. bass and Kofi Burbridge on keys and flute..keep an ear out for this one! The Jeff Babko/Jeff Coffin/Vinnie Colaiuta Project "MONDO TRIO" will be released on AbstractLogix on May 22 so PLEASE check this out!  I'll keep you posted on whats happening on the new JC release as well....its  afew months from being complete. I'm havign a great time getting it all done....you can get a sneak peek of Vic Wooten and Felix Pastorius trading lines on a solo section of Al's Greens. See yas soooon. much peace, jc

10/11/06

    ahhhhhhh....fall is upon us in nashville. cool breezes and lovely nites. i just got home a couple days ago after doing some gigs with the Everyone Orchestra under the direction of Matt Butler. the cast of characters was John Fishman, Peter Apfelbaum, Scott Law, Jamie Masefield, Reed Mathis, Steve Kimock, Jamie Janover, Julee Avelone, Asher Fulero, Matt Butler and me...we had a ball!!!!! I hope we get to do it again sometime...

    I am getting ready for a string of clinics and a short Mu'tet tour in Nov. with Kofi Burbridge, Futureman and Felix Pastorius. The Flecktones are off until January 2007 so it's a good opportunity for us all to be working on our individual projects.

    We hope to see a bunch of folks out for the Nov. tour...please let us know if you would lilke to Street Team for us...

    Email if you would like more info on a JC clinic for your school...

    Looking forward to New Years Eve in Chicago with Umphrey's McGee!

9/14/06

We are out on the last Flecktones tour of 2006. We just played the world famous Massey Hall in Toronto last nite! Lots of great musical history has taken place there and it was an honor to play there again. 

I just played Yamaha's "Day of Jazz" in NYC on Sept. 9th at the new Yamaha digs there in the city...very cool....many thanks to all the kind folks there!

The master class/clinic at Brighton Music in Pittsburgh finally happened on Sept. 11th and my buddy Don Aliquo Sr. did me the honor of sitting in as did a bunch of young students...a GREAT time was had by all!!!!! THANKS TERRY!!!!!

The Flecktones site is newly renovated so check it out asap!!!!! www.flecktones.com

New JC dates are also up on the tour page for some things upcoming this fall...Lot's of cool things in the works.

Let me know if there are things you would like to see here that are not here...stay tuned! peace, jc

8/15/06

    Alrighty.....we made it back from Spain!!! If you're gonna be stuck somewhere for a couple days, Barcelona is not a bad place to be...

    We are in the midst of the Flecktones Acoustic Planet Tour right now...We did a couple days with Dave Matthews Band in NYC and we are playing with them again tonite in Atlanta on our day off here. They are really sounding great! We have had both Natalie McMaster's and Del McCoury's bands out with us on the APT and we are out with Marc Broussard and Umphree's McGee right now...for those of you who have checked out the shows you know how powerful it has been...We keep pinching ourselves to make sure we are awake! 
 

7/30/06
We're trying to get home but we happen to be stuck in Barcelona due to a baggage handler's strike at the airport! It's been resolved and they tell us we will be heading out tonite...we're keeping our fingers crossed...it's been great but it's time to come home...someone send a boat and a few paddles!!! 

7/24/06 FLECKTONES UPDATE: We're in spain right now touring around the country until the 29th of july...it's been a great trip so far...we have been in madrid, salmanaca, san sebastian and now we are in valencia. we head to barcelona and zaragosta to round out the trip...we have met some really great people over here and we have eater way too much great spanish food! lots of paella and seafood and great wines from spain. we played the san sebastian jazz festival and had a chance to see the great herbie hancock, richard bona, joacim kuhn, mccoy tyner.....lots of great music. futureman and i hung with the legendary flamenco percussionist rubem dantas in madrid and we heard some amazing flamenco music in the cellar of a famous flamenco club. kind of an "invite only" kind of thing. it was incredible...we have visited a 17th or 18th century castle that had an astronaut (no kidding!!!!) carved into the art work on it the side of the main entrance...complete with the bubble helmet, moon boots and air hose! from the 17th/18th century!!!!!!!!!! what's that about? well, i'm off with futureman for another adventure in valencia. we're heading out to the old city to find him some cool spainsh shoes! we'll see you in the states...we will be at randall's island/NY with DMB on aug. 5/6. thanks for visiting!
*I am still setting up clinics for the fall so if your school is interested, now is the time! I have a few small windows still open. Let me know...check my "education" page for more details...peace, jc

6/24/06 Flecktones update: We are in wine country! We left LA, CA after playing the Wiltern Theatre....a beautiful place to play music, and have headed up north to Saratoga, CA...another great place for music. Bonnaroo was a great time and we had a ball playing and hanging and seeing the good people who came out to brave the 80,000 strong that was Bonnaroo! The set with Mitch Rutman was great also...many thanks to those guys...thanks also to the Ice Cream Man (aka Matt) for handing out free ice cream to the musical masses backstage!  Telluride. CO was another treat of course and it was great to bike around for a bit and have a couple chill days there before we had to play. If you haven't been....do yourself a favor and go!

We are playing the High Sierra Festival on July 1 & 2 and then we are heading to Spain for 2 weeks in the middle of the month. Check www.flecktones.com for more info on where we will be performing...

5/21/06

The Mu'tet will be performing in Nashville at 3RD & LINDSLEY June 2nd and at SMILEFEST June 3rd. Featured are: Futureman ~ drum set, Kofi Burbridge ~ keys, Alana Rocklin ` bass and other special guests! i have the info on my tour page. It should be a great time!

The Tones are off the road for a couple weeks and I have been getting some very long overdue house stuff done and have been doing some gigs and studio sessions in Nashville. Also, I just got back from doing some teaching in Manitowoc, WI and I had a ball. A big HELLO to all the great students there and their director Micah Hoffman! I have been doing some writing lately as well and hope to have a couple new things to play for the Watertown Jazz Festival in July, which will be a reuinon show of sorts for me with Tom Giampietro, Pat Bergeson, Chris Enghauser and Chris Walters all on the same stage again!

The Tones head out again in June and we'll be looking forward to Telluride and Bonaroo for sure! See you out there sooooooooooooooo! I hope everyone is enjoying Springtime as much as I am!

4/24
We have just left NYC after playing there for a few days with the Flecktones. We had a great time playing the Jammy Awards with McCoy Tyner and Savion Glover! McCoy had some cool stories about John Coltrane and it was a highlight of my career to meet him and play with him.

At the gig at Irving Plaza, we had the pleasure of welcoming the great Senegalese vocalist Baaba Maal on stage with us. He sounded like a bird and it was an absolute JOY to hear and play with him and experience his music!

I recently met saxophonist extrordinaire Bert Wilson in Olympia, WA on a reccomendation from Skerik. Bert is one of the most unique sax players i have EVER heard play! You HAVE to check him out....all of you familiar with Lennie Pickett (Tower of Power/sax player on Sat. Night Live) will be interested to know that Bert was his teacher. Bert's the altissimo guru! Some of his stuff is on iTunes and you should check it out. If you're looking for some inspiration, look at his bio!


4/12/06
sorry its been a bit since i have blogged...i am out in washington state and have just finished doing a round of solo clinics/performances. i visited ft. myers florida, morrow bay, california and pullman, washington on this trip! talk about some travelling...it's been a  great trip and i have had the opportunity to work with some really great young musicians, college and high school, on this trip. it's always inspiring to share and exchange information with younger musicians. many thanks to all those who were involved!!!

the mu'tet will be playing at 3rd & lindsley in nashville, tn on june 2nd (non-smoking show) and also at smilefest on june 3rd with futureman, felix pastorius and kofi burbridge....this is gonna be a blast...come on out!!!

the flecktones are back on the road mid-april as well and we are looking forward to lots of fun stuff including the jammy awards and a couple more days in NYC in april...bonaroo and the telluride festival are both coming up quick as well.

i am planning on being in the studio again soon so i will keep info coming as i have it.

i have, of course, been taking lots of fotos and have been seeing some beautiful country out here. i highly recommend travelling around this beautiful land when and if you can. there is lots to see...peace, jc


(2/20/06) time is flying along....we just came back from Chico, CA  after doing a Flecktones PBS taping out there at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. It was a nice trip and we met some great people out there. The new CD is out and has been getting lots of favorable reviews from around the country. I'm glad people are enjoying it but I also keep in mind the quote from Ornette Coleman, "All listeners are equal in their opinions." We are all proud of the new recording and we're all glad to be out playing together again.
I have also been doing some teaching at Cumberland Univ. this year and have been on faculty since last September. Futureman, Rod McGaha, Chris Walters and a bunch of others are on faculty as well and we are all helping to build the program from the ground up.

It's an exciting prospect. For prospective music students, there is scholarship money available!!!
Check out Cumberland University


(1/18/06) Happy New Year! I can't believe it's already 2006! WOW!

We had a great time on Jam Cruise '06 and I will have a foto link up soon. I am in the process of moving my fotos to FLICKR so check back soon for LOTS of great shots...of ALL kinds. We (Flecktones) just had a couple wonderful nights with the Nashville Symphony to start off the year...many thanks to the Symphony and guest conductor Mat Catingub.

The new Jeff Babko/Vinnie Colaiuta/Jeff Coffin trio CD is being mixed at the beginning of Feb. by the great Niko Bolas. Niko also recorded the new JD Souther CD that I played on with some of the finest musicians on the planet. You GOTTA check it out when it hits. I'll post more info when I have it.

Help support a new artist! Check out the debut of the Mitch Rutman Group on CD. It sounds great and has lots of interesting music on it. I produced it and played all the woodwind parts on it.

(12/28) Happy Holidays and Happy '06 to all. We are getting ready to hit the road with the Flecktones soon and I am in the shed remembering the tunes!

I recently finished recording with the legendary J.D. Souther for a new CD he is putting out sometime in the spring or early summer. I will update as i get the info. It was a great week recording at Blackbird Studios in Nashville and it turned out great. J.D. is known for writing hits like "New Kid in Town", "Heartache Tonite" and other Eagles hits as well as songs recorded by James Taylor and many others. Truly one of the great American songwriters.

And when you can, check out Bettye LaVelle ("I've Got My Own Hell to Raise") and Laura Veirs ("Year of Meteors"), two great new CD's I think you would enjoy. And also check out the re-release of jazz pianist/composer Andrew Hill's "Andrew!!!" featuring John Gilmore, Bobby Hutcherson, Richard Davis and Joe Chambers!


(11/30)
Check out some new fotos on the gallery page...i have had a hard time uploading pics lately but i think i have figured out now! more to follow. i will be more on top of updating things as i learn how to do it better...

(11/19)
Well, my workshop/clinic tour is finished and I had an amazing time working with some really great students from Maine to Mass. Many thanks to all who participated. It was an inspiration for me to hear and experience so much music in the schools. From colleges to high schools, the spirit of music is alive and well! Many thanks to Thom & Laurie Keith, Newport HS (Stan Buchanan, Jack Clifford and Art Lagassee), UNH (Dave Seiler), Rochester, NH (Johanne Huston and Melissa Smith), Yamaha, Vandoren and French's Music (Eric French). The clinic I did at French's Music was with keyboardist Tyler Wood and the legendary Bob Moses on drums. It was a blast.

The recording with Jeff Babko & Vinnie Colaiuta out in LA was great and will have some fotos up as soon as I can. I will keep you posted on the status of the recording. Steve Perry (Journey) hung out on the second day in the studio and we all had a ball together. (Only in LA...) As you might imagine, it was a pretty fun session...these guys are KILLIN!

I had a great time playing in NYC w/Charlie Peacock, Matt Wilson, Felix Pastorius, Maurice Brown, and Marc Ribot at the Jazz Standard to a very nice house. I will have a link up soon for fotos from Charlie. Check out the Dec. issue of Jazz Times for a review of Charlie's new CD.

...thanks for visiting...peace, jc