Announcements: 2 April Shows + Video

Hi Listeners, and apologies for the long break in posting here. I'm currently in the middle of a 3-month sabbatical and have been hard at work in "the shed," practicing, listening, and working on new music for my group. (More about that in a moment.) But I'm breaking my radio silence to let you know about two shows coming up in April, both of which I'm pretty excited about.

The first is the release show for a new album by the great local pianist Ben Stolorow called I'll Be Over Here (click to sample or purchase). Ben was nice enough to ask me to do the design for the CD, and then even nicer enough to ask me to sit in with his trio during the second part of the release show. Here's the details:

WHAT: Ben Stolorow Trio CD Release Show
WHO: Ben Stolorow, piano; Greg Germain, drums; Ravi Abcarian, bass; + Ian Carey, trumpet & other special guests
WHEN: Friday, April 11, 8-11:30pm
WHERE: Anna's Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley (tel: 510-841-JAZZ)
HOW MUCH: $12 (there will also be a special one-night-only supercheap price of $5 for the CD!)

Next, I'm excited to announce the first Bay Area show for the Ian Carey Quintet in many moons. We're going to be playing Anna's in Berkeley (a few weeks after Ben's previously mentioned show). Although Fred, Adam, and Jon (of the original ICQ) are unable to make it, I've put together a heavy-hitting group of all-stars (each of whom has played my music before) to take up the torch--and of course the inimitable Evan Francis will be holding down his usual role as saxophonist/flautist and general inspiration machine. We'll be playing highlights from the Quintet book, as well as plenty of new compositions and arrangements (including tunes by Keith Jarrett, Andrew Hill, Adam Shulman, and Ornette Coleman), hot off the presses for the event. Here's the scoop:

WHAT: The Ian Carey Quintet
WHO: Ian Carey, trumpet & flugelhorn; Evan Francis, alto saxophone & flute; Matt Clark, piano; Kurt Kotheimer, bass; and special guest (direct from New York) Tim Bulkley, drums
WHEN: Wednesday, April 23, 8-11:30pm
WHERE: Anna's Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley (tel: 510-841-JAZZ)
HOW MUCH: $8 (Wednesday cheap!)

Finally, here's some video from an impromptu show last week at the Parc 55, where I filled in for Betty Fu while she recuperated from a little under-the-weatherness. It features me, Noah Shencker on bass, Adam Shulman on piano (unfortunately out of the frame) and the favorite improvising vocalist of everyone I know, Lorin Benedict on the microphone. The tune is "Just You..." Enjoy!