Hello folks, happy summer to you all! I hope you're all OD'ing on corn dogs and peaches and outdoor shows while the gettin' is good. I wanted to give an update on my upcoming, soon-to-be-but-not-yet titled new album.After an outstanding house concert in the spring, we learned the sad but exciting news that the great Evan Francis was heading for New York, and decided it would be a crime to put this new music on disc without him. We were lucky to find a single day prior to Evan's skipping town which worked for all six of us (plus our engineer Dan Feiszli), so we filed into Studio Trilogy in SF for an 11-hour, nine-tune marathon in early June. This challenged chops, fingers, tempers, and attention spans, but at the end of the day (literally), everyone was very happy with the result (or so they said!).Currently Dan and I are knee-deep in the mixing process, and it's looking like the album will be released in January (kind of a long wait but we have to avoid the jazz radio Christmas music crunch for obvious reasons). The disc will feature all new 6-piece compositions and arrangements, including six originals plus reworkings of music by Ives, Stravinsky, and Neil Young.Look for more details soon about the CD release and show dates. (And I'll be back soon with a fresh installment of "New to Me.")

Hi folks, hope everything's well and good, and the gigs are as plentiful as copies of "The Da Vinci Code" in a thrift store. Things have been light in that area for me since the unfortunate closing of Coda--though of course the hunt is on for greener pastures on which to do our jazz grazing--but I've been hard at work on writing new music for the group, hitting local jam sessions, plus some good old-fashioned woodshedding. I've also got an exciting recording session coming up with Rob Reich and his fabulous Circus Bella All-Star Band (which could use some support--please chip in a few bucks if you can).In the meantime, some good news--Cadence Magazine, a great in-depth independent quarterly which has been keeping the jazz journalism flame burning since 1976, reviewed my album Contextualizin' in its new issue, and had some really gratifying things to say. Here's the whole review--if you like it, I encourage you to support the magazine and subscribe.

Trumpeter Ian Carey interprets his own compositions (with one exception) on his second album, Contextualizin’, with straightforward melodic lyricism—deceptively straightforward, in fact. The modesty he presents in the liner notes he wrote coyly invites protest. Carey wonders in written form how he would ever be able to make his performances stand out among all of the Jazz trumpeters who exhibit blazing technique in an exclamatory voice. Well, Carey’s voice is declarative in a “discursive” (Steve Lacy’s word) way that draws in the listener with warmth and wordless narrative logic. Carey’s stories suggest one-on-one familiarity, as if he were imparting new information to a friend. As for influences, Carey makes plain that he has an affinity for the cooler trumpeters like Miles Davis or Tom Harrell, instead of those who fearsomely brandish technique for exhilarating effect. In fact, the first track on Contextualizin’ is named “Tom/Tom” after Harrell and trumpeter Tom Peron who likewise value linear improvisational movement throughout a performance while staying mostly in the middle range of the instrument. Carey’s composition is engaging, with prodding anticipations of the beat and vertiginous intervals involving harmonic interplay with saxophonist Francis. Carey realizes that listeners can be drawn into a performance, as well as being startled to pay attention to it. Without so much as merely raising his voice, so to speak, Carey continues through all eight of his compositions to establish moods, varied according to the thematic material at hand, and “discursively” explores them. “Questions,” which follows “Tom/Tom,” involves minor-key suggestions of mysterious forces as the quintet remains subdued and almost hushed until the soloists smolder without the occurrence of actual explosion despite Carey’s intensification of feeling and Francis’ darting and sweeping outlines over the modal basis. Keyboardist Shulman changes the background texture on some of the tracks by switching to Fender Rhodes, even as the horns remain at the forefront of improvisational activity. Although Carey has studied and performed in widely separated cities in the United States, including New York, Reno and Binghamton, his recording career commenced after he moved to San Francisco in 2001. Contextualizin’ is one more result—an opportunity to showcase “discursively” not only Carey’s distinctive style, but also his varied compositional talent. Like most other Jazz musicians, Carey plays standards too. On this album, that standard is “Just Friends,” which in beboppish fashion, Carey’s group transforms into another song based on the same chord structure. The quintet performs “Just Friends” contrapuntally somewhat like Gerry Mulligan and Paul Desmond’s work on Two of a Mind, except for Shulman’s pointillistic adherence to the melody. Carey’s burnished, technically precise cadenza at the beginning of “Disinvited” suggests infinite possibilities for continuation but few hints of the stop-and-start, teasing melody to follow, subject to the whimsical modification by each of the musicians. Carey intentionally apostrophized the title of his album to invite comfort with his music which attracts listeners to its content. Even so, Carey doesn’t sacrifice technique or depth of thought for his intimations of informality.   --Bill Donaldson

Hi listeners—I wanted to give you a heads-up about a show coming up in a few weeks which I'm excited about—the IC Quintet is returning to Coda (the site of our CD release party and one of our favorite new venues), right in San Francisco's Inner Mission/Duboce neighborhood. (The food and wine are excellent, the Hammond B3 is the real deal, the music is happening, and the stage banter is... well, it is what it is. I'm working on it!)We'll be playing music from our new CD, Contextualizin' ("a digital masters' seminar" —All About Jazz), and 2006's Sink/Swim ("Catchy and original" —Lewis Porter), plus several new original compositions and arrangements of tunes by American heavyweights like Charles Ives, Wayne Shorter, and Neil Young. (That'd be an interesting trio of dinner guests.)So come on by if you can, and please share this with people who like jazz (or could just stand to get out of the house and away from "Jersey Shore" for a few precious hours). Here are the details:WHAT: The Ian Carey QuintetWHO: Ian Carey, trumpet & flugelhorn; Evan Francis, alto saxophone & flute; Adam Shulman, piano and Hammond B3; Fred Randolph, bass; and Jon Arkin, drumsWHEN: Wednesday, October 13, 7-11pmWHERE: Coda Live Music Supper Club, 1710 Mission St., San Francisco; tel: (415) 551-2632HOW MUCH: Just $7Thanks!

Hi listeners--I'm really happy to announce a show for the Quintet coming up this Saturday at one of my favorite local venues, The Jazzschool, where Susan Muscarella and a small army of players and instructors have been teaching and presenting great music in the East Bay for over a decade. The performance space is a nice room in downtown Berkeley just steps (and stairs) from Shattuck Avenue, with a cafe for your coffee and vino needs (plus Charlie Parker's "Confirmation" helpfully spelled out in donor plaques on the wall--feel free to start singing it if you get bored).We'll be playing music from our new CD, Contextualizin' ("a digital masters' seminar" −All About Jazz), and 2006's Sink/Swim ("An exciting set of music with a heavy-hitting lineup of musicians" −Greg Bridges, KCSM), plus several brand-new original compositions (no quotes yet but you could be the first!) and new arrangements of music by American greats Charles Ives and Neil Young.Please come out if you can, and tell your friends, enemies, and enemies' friends. Here are the details:WHAT: The Ian Carey QuintetWHO: Ian Carey, trumpet & flugelhorn; Evan Francis, alto saxophone & flute; Adam Shulman, piano and Hammond B3; Fred Randolph, bass; and Jon Arkin, drumsWHEN: Saturday, September 4, 8pmWHERE: The Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St., Berkeley; t: (510) 845-5373HOW MUCH: $15 ($5 for Jazzschool students)UPDATE: We're a staff pick this weekend in the East Bay Express! "Album titles might not be a window to the soul, but they can certainly reveal something about intellect. In that sense, Ian Carey's 2010 album, Contextualizin', seems apropos. It's a well-crafted work by an incredibly thinking musician. Carey seems intent on using his trumpet to tell stories and create landscapes, but he's also good on building on other people's ideas. His version of "Just Friends" is about the most inventive you'll find on disc... Bolstered by a talented band -- drummer Jon Arkin, saxophonist Evan Frances, bassist Fred Randolph, and pianist Adam Shulman -- Carey performs Saturday, Sept. 4, at The Jazzschool."