New Year's Update: Gigs + Workshops: Berkeley, SF, Vallejo, Healdsburg

Hello folks! It's been a stressful couple of months, but I've been trying to Be Like Bob (above) and channel it all into the music. The end of 2016 brought some gratifying mentions of my album Interview Music in year-end top ten lists, including The Mercury News ("an exquisite balance between [Carey's] ambitious compositional vision and his design to showcase his superlative cast of improvisers") and Bird is the Worm. And I feel fortunate to have some exciting events coming up, including...

Bryan Bowman Quintet in Berkeley & Vallejo

This introspective group plays the swinging, forward-thinking music of drummer and composer Bryan Bowman (you can listen to a track from our 2015 album Like Minds here), and features some of my favorite players: Bob Kenmotsu on tenor sax, Matt Clark on piano (and Luke Westbrook on guitar), and John Wiitala (and Dan Feiszli) on bass. We're going to be playing twice this month: on Saturday, January 14 at 8pm we'll be at the great new Berkeley venue The Back Room ($15); and on Sunday January 15 at 5pm we're at the historic Empress Theater in Vallejo ($20), sponsored by the Vallejo Jazz Society.Other local shows this month: Don Alberts' Renaissance Band at 7 Mile House in Brisbane on Tuesday January 24, and Tony Corman's Morchestra with Nic Bearde at Bach Dancing & Dynamite in Half Moon Bay on Sunday January 29th at 4:30p.

Jazzschool Workshops: Giant Steps & More

For those of you who are students of the music (of any age): I'm offering two workshops at California Jazz Conservatory's Jazzschool Community Music Program's spring session:Stepping Into Giant Steps (January 21): A two-hour deep dive into one of John Coltrane's most famous and challenging compositions, geared towards taking the fear out of those gnarly chord changes.Modern Improvisation: Triad Pair Scales (February 18): Want to learn to navigate familiar chord changes in an interesting new way? This workshop takes a deep dive into the technique of creating and using versatile six-note scales by combining pairs of triads.And just a reminder: I'm also available for private lessons!

Coming in February: IC Quintet+1 in Berkeley & Healdsburg, Takoyaki 4 in SF

I'm thrilled to have two opportunities to play with my Quintet+1 (Adam Shulman, Sheldon Brown, Kasey Knudsen, Fred Randolph, plus special guests Hamir Atwal and Steven Lugerner) next month:

• On February 17, we'll be at The Back Room in Berkeley for an event sponsored by the great local organization Jazz in the Neighborhood.
• On February 23, we'll be playing at the after-party for "Jazz on the Menu" at Costeaux in Healdsburg, presented by the Healdsburg Jazz Festival.

I'm also looking forward to playing with my organ-based group Takoyaki 4 (Adam Shulman on organ, Hamir Atwal on drums, and special guest James Mahone on tenor) at local institution Bird & Beckett Books in San Francisco on February 25.Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you soon!